The Mysteries of History

All over the world--from 12,000 years ago in Gobekli Tepe (Modern Turkey) to the Aztec ruins in Central America--we find carvings of men holding curiously similar "handbags". What did they symbolize?

As I get older, my interest in the “mysteries of history” continues to grow. Who really built the pyramids? Why is there only one single “marking” on the Great Pyramid that suggests it was built by Khufu? How did ancient peoples precisely shape and form exquisite and precisely-carved works in stone (like the granite sarcophagi in the Serapeum in Saqqara in Egypt) from the hardest of materials like granite — using primitive soft copper tools?

Why does the Sphinx just happen to face the rising of the constellation “Leo” (the Lion) on the spring Equinox—at least, facing where it would have appeared on the horizon 12,000 years ago on that day?

Why does the Sphinx appear to have water erosion on its base, even though flood waters capable of creating that erosion pattern haven’t happened in Egypt since before the reign of the Egyptian Dynasties that supposedly built it? Is the Sphinx older than we thought, and if so—who really built it? Did it date back to the Younger Dryas Impact's great flood?

When I was young, we were taught that modern civilization began in Mesopotamia around 6,000 years ago. But in the decades since, we have found far older ancient ruins. Who built Gobekli Tepe 12,000 years ago in Turkey, and how did “modern man” go from being a hunter/gatherer or a member of a basic agrarian civilization—to suddenly having the means to develop, engineer, execute and plan the building of a massive city of the size of Gobekli Tepe? Especially one that appears to have been used for astronomical calendaring?

What were the 6,000-year-old temples in Malta (like the Hypogeum) actually used for? Why were there people with red hair and DNA that most closely matches people who lived in the Caucasus Region near the Black Sea—living on the west coast of Peru 3,000 of years ago—how did they get there—and why do their skulls appear elongated?

One of the particularly fascinating things that I was reminded of today in this video clip— Quetzelcoatl and the Man Bag — is the mystery of the “man bag”. I first came across it here, in this fascinating TED talk video.

Spanning more than 10,000 years of ancient history and appearing all over the world — from carvings discovered in Ancient Sumerian ruins believed to be about 6,000 years old in modern day Iraq, on carvings at Gobekli Tepe believed to be 12,000 years old uncovered in modern Turkey, in Assyrian ruins, in New Zealand Maori art, to Olmec and Toltec ruins in Central America, we find stone relief carvings showing men holding strikingly similar looking handbags.

Image of Quetzlcoatl found in modern Central American Olmec ruins

The photo below shows handbags found on a pillar at the mysterious ruins of Gobekli Tepe in modern day Turkey.

Stone carving at Gobekli Tepe, Turkey, believed to be 12,000 years old

This carving is from the Assyrian Empire which existed around 6,000 years ago in what is now modern-day Turkey:

Carving from the Assyrian Empire in Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq

The recurrence of these bags in ancient carvings all over the world cannot be “coincidence”. It is a profound and meaningful mystery.

What did these bags symbolize? What does that fact that they appear all over the world suggest to us about how much contact there was between what we thought were isolated civilizations living on separate continents oceans apart?

The older I get, the less it appears we understand about where modern man came from, and how modern civilization actually began. Sometimes that happens in science and history; you have to go backwards and unlearn things before you can discover fresh facts that open new doors to understanding.