Ethel Bristowe
British painter and author of the Cain-Sargon theory.
Ethel Susan Graham Bristowe, often called E.S.G. Bristowe, lived from 1864 to 1952. She was a British painter and a writer who promoted unconventional ideas about ancient Mesopotamia. Her most famous claim was that the Biblical Cain and the ruler Sargon of Akkad were the same person. In 1907 she settled in Scotland at Craig, a country house near Castle Douglas in Kirkcudbrightshire. Because the town lacked a place to show art, she donated a gallery to Castle Douglas in 1938, which was added to the local library on Market Hill and included some of her own paintings.
Quick Facts
- Born
- 1864
- Died
- 1952
- Field
- Painting, Writing
- Spouse
- S. C. Bristowe
- Children
- Muriel Mary(wed to Sidney Streatfeild)
Facts from the source article.
Background
Bristowe is most well known for her Cain-Sargon of Akkad equation theory in her book Sargon the Magnificent (1927). In this work she 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 cylinder, 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.
More in Sargon of Akkad
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced