” their nails were rather like beasts’ claws; they used their nails (according to report) as if they were iron tools; with these they tore asunder their fishes, and even the less solid kinds of wood; everything else they cleft with sharp stones; for iron they did not possess.”

Yes, they used sharp stones as did Neandertal. Interesting mystery here and one that deserves a study on its own, but what ancient language scholars are interested in cryptozoological subjects? Also Wonder what else may be in Sumerian or Persian history and archaelogy ? Or indeed the Gobekli-tepe site?

I think you could be looking to deeply there and it simple states he had nice long hair, sometimes the simple explaination gets over looked.

As an archaeology student it is wrong to see a person or a community as primordial because they do not have the ability to farm. Hunter Gathers existed long into the period of domestication 10,000 ka, as i mentioned in a previous post not everyone adapts at the same time or decides something is benefical to them. As my Prehistory Tutors will tell you, farming is not an advantage. It is more benefical to H/G as it is less time consuming and less risk. It is also important to remember H/G communities still exist today and are not a thing of the past.

In all i think there is too much enthesis on the “hairy” nature of these people, considering male grooming is prevalent in Greece it is just likely that the tribe mentioned were long haired and unkept.

I know it would be interesting to see this as a remnant Hominin group, but the only piece of information that is unusual is the word “hairy” which could be an exaggeration?

Also mention of the nails being used to tear soft wood (Yowie like) and fish which descriptions strengthen the evidence for the hairy one having real talon like nails. Maybe the feet nails were also beast like as some local deities are shown with clawed feet.
Here is an example of fishskin clothed beings see,
http://www.tanogabo.it/mitologia/images/Altri_popoli/dogon_oannes2.jpg

As you know, the Sumerians, (and the likes of their successors the Assyrians), used a highly allusive style in which things were always indirectly implied or hinted.

The quote “his (uncut) locks were like a woman’s or the hair of the goddess of grain,” not only marks Enkidu out as a proto Samson, but it implies he’s of divine descent, (a primordial spawn of the Earth goddess in the same way the Ancient Greek Titans were), but it also hints he’s a male who’s in some way “like a woman”, which may be a gay allusion but may also have more metaphysical implications.

It also implies Enkidu belongs to a time before city-states arose, to at least the age when the crop growing experiment was first initiated.

But then not only is his deityhood double-underlined, it’s implied he’s from an even more primordial era: “Moreover, he knew nothing of settled fields or human beings and was clothed (in skins) like a deity of flocks.”

Now, apart from the amazing fact the ancients seem not only clearly aware of the roots from which societies evolved, but also that humans were preceded by earlier types of humanoid, I’m struck by the fact the ancients seemed to view these earlier humanoids as in some way godlike, which is somewhat suggestive when one recalls various accounts of Sasquatch, etc., exhibiting apparently supernatural capacities.

Which brings me to the conclusion of the Alexander account: “For clothing they wore skins of animals, some even the thick skins of the larger fishes.”

Now if one takes this information in a way the Sumerians would’ve, the implication is not only were these foes of Alexander from an era at least as early as Enkidu, but from an even more primordial one, the age in fact of Oannes, which makes it intriguing only some of these hairy men wore “skins of the larger fishes” because that was precisely the situation among the Sumerians, were wearing such fish skin marked you out as a priest of Oannes.

Not to mention ESAU, Jacob’s brother. He also was a “Hairy” Man.

Got cheated out of his “birthright” as well. Hmmmmmmmmm.

For those who are into “symbolism” in the Bible, that leaves one with much to ponder. There is so much we DON’T know…

Referencing Medieval illustrations is not a good idea as it is secondary.

To me this sounds like an Hunter/Gather community, yes by the time of Alexander most of the old world was well into the Iron Age, but as with any archaeology any process is diffusionist in that not all communities reach the same level at the same time. And as we go further back in time there will likely be more H/G communities.