Morgonzola..
A myth..or is it?
At any rate there's an interpretation of that tale that says the darker races are descended from Noah's son Ham.

I think it's time we moved this discussion on anyway, Ammonite isn't going to recant and apologise for his brand of Scientific Racism and I'm not going to budge, obscure interpretations of old holy books are also something I'm interested in, as is the intelligent design idea.

What I find amusing is that the "we're all descended from Black Africans" idea is still given voice, presumably still with a straight face, they might be descended from us but probably not the other way round.
The oldest known proto Negroid remains were found in Mali some 75 years ago, there's considerable debate about their age but the ballpark figure is between 8-12,000 years.
Bear in mind this skeleton only has SOME Negroid characteristics.
Given that the age age of advanced European civilisation keeps being bumped back further and further, now past the 13,000 year mark the above proposition is looking less and less likely.
For example,the standing stones at Gobekli Tepe in Anatolia seem to be inscribed with marks resembling a sort of proto Aramaic script, check it out, I think there's a feature on it in a recent National Geographic.
If you've got time you could listen to this excellent podcast by Olaf Hage and GeorgeAnn Hughes,they go into the idea of the Flood, pretty mindblowing stuff all this "ancient texts" business.

http://www.thebyteshow.com/Audio/OlafHage/OlafHage_GobekliTepe_11June2011_TBS.mp3

Dear Morganzola,

I like the myth about the aliens who came to earth, got drunk, had a party and slept with gorillas..

Lexi.
It might have begun when some ancient White people tried to colonise Africa in the distant past and interbred with whatever species of Human was getting about there, that theory would fit the world as we know it.
White people colonise, Black people freak out and assume they're gods or spirits at first, life goes on for a While, there's some intermarriage then the White people pack up and leave.
That podcast I linked to explores the idea that there was some environmental catastrophe which sent the advanced Europeans back to a hunter gatherer existence.
Twilight of the Gods, an occlusion of the sun which made farming difficult or impossible, stands to reason that they'd start roaming out of their territory.

JoM,

I believe it was Neanderthals who were snuggly settled on the European continent prior to the migration of homo sapien sapiens to that part of the world - from Africa.
I imagine it was the Neanderthals who were the paler of skin at the time, adapted as they were to the colder climate.

Freaky as it is, these two coexisted for quite some time and probably interbred.

@ Lexi:

Yes, it's all a bit reminiscent of "2001", isn't it? With these latest diversions we do seem to be moving from comedy to myth to sci-fi!

Keep it up please, tres entertaining! Can we bring Charlton Heston and the Planet of the Apes into it somehow?

Dear Morganzola,

I don't need to bring, "The Planet of the Apes," into it or Charlton Heston. Jane Goodall - is currently touring Australia - perhaps she sees a connection with the now substantially dark-haired, dark-eyed Australians everywhere.

What do you think?