Name Ethel Bristowe | ||
Ethel Susan Graham Bristowe, also known as E.S.G. Bristowe (1862–1952) was a British painter, and an early 20th-century author on alternative theories within assyriology.
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Cain-Sargon theory
Bristowe is most well known for her Cain-Sargon of Akkad equation theory in her book Sargon the Magnificent (1927). In this work Bristowe reconstructs the ancient chronology of Mesopotamia based on the Cylinder of Nabonidus. The cylinder dates Naram-Sin, son of Sargon of Accad, 3200 years before Nabonidus, and so Sargon to c. 3800 BC. This sharply contrasts with mainstream scholarship which dates Sargon to the 23rd century BC. Bristowe controversially defended the earlier dating from the clylinder, to then argue Sargon was the Biblical Cain.
The Cain-Sargon theory is not at all popular with contemporary assyriologists, but has received support from British Israelites and proponents of Christian Identity whose publishing houses reprinted Bristowe's work. A sequel was published by Bristowe in 1950 entitled Cain - An Argument.