Acknowledgment of the possibility of advanced-being (AB) influences on human affairs is growing. Evidence exists in sacred texts, folk traditions, anomalous artifacts, AB-contact/abduction reports, and interdimensional communications. The copious work of Zecharia Sitchin stands out among current researchers. His analyses of information from ancient Sumerian tablets build an almost unassailable case for seminal AB impact on human development. His description of human history involves African-based genetic intervention and the founding of Near East civilizations. If the Sumerians were accurate, AB contributions have influenced most of humanity through the post-Flood, Indo-European civilization.

The renowned Italian geneticist Luigi Cavalli-Sforza said that of the two basic tools of science, experimentation and observation, only the latter can be used to study history. We can only observe data about the past as it becomes available. With partial evidence, the best researchers can hope for are facts that do not disprove their hypotheses. According to Sitchin and others, Fertile Crescent AB's helped human survivors reestablish agriculture and sophisticated cities around 11,500 BP. The AB's allegedly controlled Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus River Valley. If this is true, then agricultural and urban sites would have sprouted there almost overnight. Culture would have blossomed and spread from this region. Its people would have been ahead of others in knowledge and technology.

Does recent scientific research disprove the Sumerian-AB historical hypothesis (S/AB-H)? Of several avenues being explored, DNA research has an edge over the fossil record; genes always have ancestors while fossils may not have descendants. Comparison of DNA patterns with language distributions, locations of specific fields of knowledge (as mathematics) or cultural institutions (as kingship), and religious practices could provide potential evidence that disproves the hypothesis. However, preliminary reviews reveal significant circumstantial support for S/AB-H. Archaeological evidence shows that a well-developed agricultural community (cereal crops and dairy animals) appeared without antecedents at Catal Huyuk (in modern Turkey) about 11,000 BP. The spread of agriculture across Europe flows from this area, from around 10,000 BP until it reaches the British Isles and Scandinavia about three thousand years later.

Interestingly, a Cavalli-Sforza map of the historical Europeans' genetic landscape (using frequencies of 95 genes) faithfully reflects this spread of agriculture. The progression of this genetic map also coincides with the flows of Indo-European languages, whose historic base is the Fertile Crescent. Distributions of DNA variations (called alleles by the specialist) generally show there are wider ranges within a given population than there are average variations between different populations. That means there is no discernible "purebred" population left on the planet. (What we conventionally consider racial distinctions do not stand under DNA scrutiny, but that's another story.) However, certain DNA gene affinity groups, like those corresponding to language groups, may help in further detective work.

How do the microevolutionary mtDNA (Allan Wilson, et al) and nuclear DNA tree studies (respectively, searches for "Eve" and "Adam") fit the S/AB-H? "Eve" (the female gene pool from which most modern human groups can be traced) appeared about 225,000 BP. "Adam" (the male gene pool from which the Y chromosome of most modern humans can be traced) appeared about 275,000 BP. These dates fall within Sitchin's estimate of when AB genetic manipulation of early humans started.

The Sumerian tablets indicate a hundred thousand or so years later AB's transferred some of their African mining slaves to Eden in Mesopotamia. They were upgraded to household and garden servants. DNA microevolutionary trees show out-of-Africa movement by modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) by at least 100,000 BP. Geneticists consider this date the point where Caucasians diverged from the original African family. It coincides with the period Sumerians say the AB's (lighter skinned beings) started interbreeding with humans. The dates in this and the above paragraph mark dramatic departures from the two to-four-percent-per-million-year mutation rate geneticists have calculated for microevolution. The changes are too significant and happened too quickly for sufficient random mutations in the nuclei of human cells to have occurred.

Such DNA studies neither prove nor disprove S/AB-H, but their general congruence, when combined with other observations, appears supportive. The frequency of lactose-positive genes (indicating easy digestion of dairy products) coincides roughly with the cultural diaspora of the alleged AB assisted dairy farmers. The geographical range of three of the earliest language groups (Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic, and Dravidian) parallel Sumerian and Hebrew descriptions of the spheres of influence of Noah's three sons. Remember, Noah was warned of the impending Flood by an AB (god) and then given AB assistance afterwards. (Mt. Ararat, where Noah's Ark is believed to have beached, is near Catal Huyuk.) According to the Sumerians, part of that knowledge transfer was mathematics, which in the 19th century could not be found in areas of Africa and elsewhere outside reputed AB spheres of influence.

The sons (Shem, Ham, and Jephath) of Noah respectively led to the Semites, non-Semites, and Aryans. Their areas of purported influence generally overlap the three language groups in the above paragraph. Mirroring the genetic linguistic-cultural overlapping patterns, three monotheistic AB-style religious traditions evolved from the same culture: Judeo-Christian, Muslim, and Zoroastrian. This three-headed religion from the cradle of Indo-European civilization influenced the flow of languages, foods, technology, and institutions to all continents. Its AB attributes described by Sumerian texts (patriarchal authority, exclusivity, domination through violent suppression, rule through division and fear) have infused its followers for two millennia or more.

It must be pointed out that some evidence suggests other places where agriculture resurfaced about the same time as Catal Huyuk. And there are exceptions to the general DNA patterns described here. They suggest that S/AB-H may not explain everything; other hypotheses can account for different advanced, and primitive, centers outside the Sumerian-AB regency. However, explanations that seek to encompass all known facts appear to reinforce the integrity of a limited Sumerian-AB hypothesis.

Paul Von Ward, MPA and MSc, is a cosmologist emphasizing the fields of prehistory, frontier science, and consciousness studies. Visit his web site www.vonward.com for samples from his work in progress: THE EXOGENOUS OPTION: An Emerging New Human Story. His book SOLARIAN LEGACY: Metascience and a New Renaissance, an Inner Eye book, is distributed by Medicine Bear Publishing and is available in bookstores, at www.Amazon.com, or by calling the publisher at 207/374-3831. Contact Paul by e-mail at paul@vonward.com.)