Reveals how humanity's first advanced culture originated in the Altai-Baikal region of southern SiberiaMyths of a Golden Age, a paradise at the beginning of human existence, are nearly universal in all cultures. But where was this "Eden" located? Refuting the traditional assumption that the cultures of the Middle East and Mycenae filtered northward into Europe and North Asia, noted historian Geoffrey Ashe instead identifies the northern Altai mountain range and Lake Baikal region of southern Siberia as the true cultural home of humanity and the source of the widespread myths of a prehistoric Golden Age.With evidence dating back as far as 24,000 BC, Ashe shows how the culture of prehistoric southern Siberia was matrifocal, Goddess-worshiping, and heavily shamanic and served as the progenitor of advanced ancient culture in the Western world, the missing link that later influenced Indian, Middle Eastern, Native American, and European society, culture, and religion. He reveals how ancient Altaic culture was the source of the pervasive mythic symbolism of the number 7, found in cosmologies and mythological traditions around the world, as well as reverence for the seven stars of Ursa Major, the Big Dipper, and the idea of a "sacred mountain to the North."Ashe reveals how this transmission of beliefs had a profound influence on the seven-note musical scale, the seven astrological planets, and the seven vowels of the Greek alphabet, as well as the development of seven as a sacred number in Judaism. Offering proof that advanced cultures existed in Europe before the immigration of Eastern peoples, Ashe shows that early societies did not look into the future for perfection but to the past, to the Golden Age of peace in the sacred northern mountains.