Pond creatures (f79v)

[Linda]

I came across another geography related anecdote that might apply to this image



From wiki

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The 3rd century Roman writer You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. reports:
Anaximander of Miletus considered that from warmed up water and earth emerged either fish or entirely fishlike animals. Inside these animals, men took form and embryos were held prisoners until puberty; only then, after these animals burst open, could men and women come out, now able to feed themselves.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Anaximander put forward the idea that humans had to spend part of this transition inside the mouths of big fish to protect themselves from the Earth's climate until they could come out in open air and lose their scales.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. He thought that, considering humans' extended infancy, we could not have survived in the primeval world in the same manner we do presently.

Both You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (later Greek geographers) claim that, according to the geographer You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., Anaximander was the first to publish a map of the world. The map probably inspired the Greek historian You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. to draw a more accurate version. Strabo viewed both as the first geographers after You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..

 You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. also mentions Anaximander's theory that humans were born inside fish, feeding like sharks, and that when they could defend themselves, they were thrown ashore to live on dry land.

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This last part seems to correlate with the drawing.

Possibly related is the pose of the nymph with the hand in the water spray with sediment, this would be the Wadi Batin river system, now dry.



If she is being shown as one of Anaximander's early human beings thrown ashore from her fishy incubator, it is meaningful that she would be in contact with water on that land, and that this particular river is thought by some to have been Pishon, one of the four rivers of Paradise.

Here you can see the nymph in the landscape approximately where she is drawn on the vms waterbody, see the pink figure on the northeast side of the sea.



Here is the hand and water spray in the landscape analogous to that which is drawn. Note that this is not only the dry river bed but a lava field as well. This is the combination that is said to have created life.



So here we have two references to at least two creation myths of the past, telling a non mythological story about the world, and including yet another waterway, albeit mainly dry. 

Note also it is the shore of the lava that is drawn, not the current shore of the sea, which is at the level of the fish mouth. The fish itself can be looked upon as the rift in the sea bottom, which is also a tectonic feature. 

You can see how it joins the shore right there, likely caused by the river system emptying into the sea at that point, just above where the arrow points to the Red Sea.



In terms of human evolution, this is very analogous to current hypotheses of migration patterns, this can be seen to represent the first crossing from Africa to Asia.