Video argues creation myths descend from a 70,000+ year old human ascent tradition

October 25, 2026Theory

Source: Finding Our Oldest Stories | Tracing Mythology to the Roots of Humanity | Jon F. White | Origins by MegalithomaniaUK

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A presenter separates 'human ascent' creation myths (people climb a tree up from the underworld) from 'earth diver' tales (a duck brings up mud that becomes land), dating them to 70,000–140,000 and about 45,000 years respectively, with flood motifs starting in Southeast Asia around 30,000 years ago 🌍

Key facts

He distinguishes a 'human ascent' creation myth, in which humans emerge from the underworld up a tree into an already existing world, from an 'earth diver' myth in which a duck dives to the bottom of the world ocean and brings up mud that becomes land.
The video estimates the human ascent myth at 70,000-140,000 years old, noting that anything above 70,000 years is speculative, and the earth diver motif at about 45,000 years old.
Distribution maps in the database show a north-south split: the ascent myth is rooted in South Africa, southern South America and Australia, while the earth diver motif is associated with Southeast Asia.
A third motif, the 'bird scout' (the dove in Noah's Ark), is found in both areas and is linked to the large body of flood myths in the database.
The presenter says a probabilistic analysis of roughly 800 motifs with about 40 million possible outcomes favoured the sequence human ascent, then earth diver, then bird scout, then fruits falling from a tree to create land.
The video states that flood myths began in Southeast Asia around 30,000 years ago, earlier than the Younger Dryas period often proposed as their cause, with later societies adapting the motif to their own landscapes.

Sources

Earth-diver mythbritannica.com

These myths typically involve a primordial body of water and an animal that dives into it to retrieve earth. Humans are placed on Earth by a ...

Earth-Diver: Creation of the Mythopoeic Maleescholarship.org

by A Dundes · 1962 · Cited by 158 — Earth might appear to be to actual human birth, it does not appear to help in determining the psychological prototype for the earth-diver myth.

Diver-Mythscs.williams.edu

Many myths, called diver-myths (Long 188), consisted of a being diving into the water that covers the earth to retrieve some earth.

Creation mythen.wikipedia.org

The earth-diver is a common character in various traditional creation myths. In these stories a supreme being usually sends an animal (most often a type of bird ...

earth diver myth Research Papersacademia.edu

The earth diver myth is a creation narrative found in various indigenous cultures, where a primordial being or animal dives into the primordial waters to ...

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