Gilgamesh was an Antarctic Explorer

I read further into my "Out of Antarctica" book -- I shouldn't have, but it's like watching a car crash. I can't help myself.

I learned that all the peoples of Japan, China, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Iceland (yes, Arctic Circle Iceland), etc. originated in Antarctica. One of the factors cited? So many cultures represent the "mountain" (Antarctica) in their buildings - Eqyptian pyramids, Mayan stepped-pyramids, ziggurats, etc.

The best part so far is the section on Mesopotamia. Near Eastern archaeologists, get ready. You're going to want to change your lectures after this!! Okay, first, the Sumerians are clearly an outside people that came from Antarctica. A few things prove this -- the depictions of large eyed individuals show a clear biological adaptation to life in a land that's dark 6 months of the year.

Also, the large feathered outfits found in some carvings? Waterproof vestments for traveling the frigid Southern Sea. The serpents described in the Enuma Elish who slid along the ground and could raise their heads but not turn them? Walruses.

And the kicker -- the Sumerian version of Gilgamesh contains all sorts of nautical references that in later Babylonian translations become terrestrial/desert translations. Gilgamesh & Enkidu don't visit Humbaba in Lebanon, it's Antarctica. And where does Utnapishtim live? You guessed it. The water that Gilgamesh can't touch is the Southern Sea because he'd freeze to death, and the statues he breaks apart are in fact icebergs.

The next section of the book is "The Bible" -- I couldn't stand it anymore last night so "saved it" for later.

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ANTARCTICA FUN FACT: Researchers drilling into Lake Vida, an Antarctic "ice-block" lake, found that it isn't an ice block at all. Lake Vida may represent a previously unknown ecosystem, a frigid, "ice-sealed," lake that contains the thickest non-glacial lake ice cover on Earth and water seven times saltier than seawater. Because of the arid, chilled environment in which it resides, scientists believe the lake may be an important template for the search for evidence of ancient microbial life on Mars and other icy worlds.