An Introduction to the Sumerians

Sumer was located in the southernmost region of ancient Mesopotamia. This area of southern Mesopotamia roughly corresponds to modern Iraq and Kuwait, which is generally considered as the cradle of civilization. The name [which name?] comes from Akkadian, which means the “land of the civilized kings.” [3]

Akkadian was the language of northern Mesopotamia in the most ancient times, whereas in the south, the common tongue was Sumerian. Over time both of these languages eventually died out, giving way to the Babylonian tongue, among others, as well as different forms of script, the Arabic script for example, in far later times. The Sumerians referred to themselves as “the black-headed people.” [3]

This is an interesting title, because it assumes that they had knowledge of or interaction with other people who had hair of different color. After all, would they distinguish themselves by a trait which was absolutely normal to them and where they had never seen any other differentiation? Would a native refer to themselves as being red-skinned if they had never seen a white man? Or an African in ancient times refer to themselves as the ‘black-skinned’ people, if they had never seen a white man? It is merely a curiosity.

Their land, in cuneiform script which the Sumerian people seem to have invented, was simply referred to as “the land” or “the land of the black headed people”. [3] In the Book of Genesis Sumer was possible referred to as the land of Shinar.

“According to the Sumerian King List, when the gods first gave human beings the gifts necessary for cultivating society, they did so by establishing the city of Eridu in the region of Sumer. While the Sumerian city of Uruk is held to be the oldest city in the world, the ancient Mesopotamians believed that it was Eridu and that it was here that order was established and civilization began.” [3]

The Ubaid Period

The region of Sumer was occupied by the people that we know of as the Sumerian people, beginning in around 4,500 BC. However, while this rough date is not contested for the culture that we know of as the Sumerians, there has been evidence that the Sumerians were not the first culture of this land. Based on pottery and artifacts first excavated in the mound al-Ubaid, attested to the existence of a proto-euphratean culture known to archaeologists as the Ubaid people, their era being known as the Ubaid Period.

The Ubaid people had already moved to an agrarian lifestyle (from being hunter gatherers prior to 5000 BC, as other finds such as Gobekli Tepe which have attested to a far greater age than earlier expected for the date of agriculture. They were not Sumerian and remain of an unknown origin. They are call Proto-Euphrateans to refer to the fact that they were the earlier, or the first, inhabitants of the land around the Euphrates river, and excavations from all over southern Iraq have uncovered artifacts such as: hoes, knives, and adzes made out of stone, along with their famous clay bricks, among other clay objects such as sickles, painted pottery, and figurines. [3]

The Ubaid people were not a high civilization. The didn’t have a written script, schools, or significant political or even religious institutions it seems. However, their agrarian (agricultural) lifestyle certainly does display a degree of development and civilization, and was certainly a significant step towards urban civilization from the hunter-gatherer stage. This step, however, occurred in the region of Mesopotamia and Anatolia at around 10,000 BCE at least. This fact is attested by the find at Gobekli Tepe, which pushed the birth of agricultural back millennia from when it was previously believed to have occurred in the region, opening up a whole realm of possibility for the prehistory of human civilization, period.

The designs of their homes were economical and community orientated. Their pottery also displays intelligence and creativity in the intricate geometric patterns with which they decorated their largely utilitarian pottery. Not least because they were producing and storing their own food, which was one of the most fundamental and important functions of pottery in ancient times.

However, at some point, probably around 4,500 BC they are no longer the dominant culture and seemed to be either completely displaced, or absorbed, into the culture that we know of as the Sumerians. All that we know according the the archaeological record at least, is that there was a dramatic shift in culture at this time. A great influx of a new culture, style, and even technique in their craft indicates the infusion of new cultural influences, distinguishing these immigrants from the earlier Ubaid people. The geographical origin of these new people is uncertain. It is believed that they came into the Sumer region from the northeast, from somewhere possibly around the Caspian Sea in Central Asia. Moreover, it is quite possible that at some time in the future we will be able to show a definite link between an earlier high civilization of that region as the ancestral homeland of the people who would later be known, to us especially, as the Sumerians. So it is quite possible that within this distinctly new culture we are catching a brief glimpse into another older culture whom the Sumerians were a part of, for they seem to have arrived bringing with them knowledge of civilization and other arts which they then taught to the native inhabitants of the region, the so-called Ubaid people, or proto-euphrateans.

The two main options is that they were either forced to migrate due to the arrival of the Sumerian people, or they were integrated into the Sumerian people and way of life when they arrived. However, perhaps a third option exists. There is really no certainty, but could the evidence not be explained by the fascinating possibility of the arrival of a group of people/beings who were teachers, and by these teachers (and maybe perhaps a small population who arrived with them, and as a result were transformed into the high civilization that we know of as the Sumerians by this contact and by this influence.

The Rise of the First Cities

By 3,600 BCE the Sumerians had invented the wheel, the sailboat, and writing, along with much development in their agricultural practices such as fairly advanced irrigation techniques. They were also among a select few cultures who are potentially owed the honor and recognition for establishing the first true cities in all history (at least in post-diluvian times). There are potential sites in China, India, and even South America which are also contenders (speaking nothing of the cultures who built those sites), not to mention Egypt. But as far as we know, according to historical record, the Sumerians were the first.

The main cities of the Sumerian people, and the first cities in the entirety of recorded history were: Eridu, Uruk, Ur, Larsa, Isin, Adab, Kullah, Lagash, Nippur, and Kish (of which Etana was the first ruler). However, Kramer points out that these names were not even Sumerian, but come potentially from the Ubaid peoples, whoever they were. But at least this means that the villages or “sites”, were settled before c.5000 BCE. But with the establishment of these cities the Sumerian history begins to unfold from about c.5000 BCE to 1750 BCE, when, as Kramer phrases it, “the Sumerians ceased to exist as a people.”

Afterwards, Sumer was invaded by Elamites and Amorites. After the Ubaid period (c.5000 BCE – 4100 BCE) came the Uruk Period (c.4100 – 2900 BCE). During the Uruk period cities began to emerge across the landscape and, predictably, Uruk began to rise in prominence. Thus the period was named after it. Trade was established during this period with foreign lands, including among them the Indus Valley civilization, and the ancient Egyptians. [Citation needed]

While it is believed based on the archaeological record (that we have accumulated and analyzed thus far) that Uruk is the oldest city in the world, the ancient Mesopotamians believed that it was actually Eridu that was the first city. As it was their traditions and ‘histories’ which stated that it was there, at Eridu, that order was first established from chaos, when kingship descended, and civilization thence began.

Or, rather, when civilization was taught. For that is what the ancients themselves say happened. What else would the “gifts necessary for cultivating society” be, if not the knowledge necessary for civilization? Such as, possibly, language, social structure, craftsmanship, woodworking, metalworking – in short, the basic sciences. Learning centers, astrology, morals, and spiritual teaching. Sciences, including basic medicine, animal husbandry, agriculture, and who knows what else more! These are the gifts necessary for cultivating society. Knowledge. But who gave them? Who was in a position to at this ancient time? And who were these benevolent teachers?

Firstly, Joshua Mark suggests that the Mesopotamians in general and the Sumerians specifically, believed that civilization was the result of the gods “triumph over chaos.” In my opinion and based off of the facts that I have available, I would conclude that the chaos that was triumphed over was the cataclysmic end of the last ice age, which potentially destroyed a large number of human communities and potentially whole cultures, who remained afterwards as but fragments of what they once were. Thus one way to understand the gods “triumph over chaos” is to say that these ‘gods’ triumphed by teaching humanity once again, after a few thousand years apparently, and raising them back to a level of ‘high civilization’ through the knowledge and arts which they taught. So the way that I understand it is that a small group of people, beings who still retained the Old Ways, and the knowledge of the civilization and histories before the flood, returned to humanity, and gave back to them at least a portion of what was lost.

A further question is: what was the high civilization that existed before the end of the last ice age, and who were those individuals that were in a position to – and capable of – overcoming the cataclysmic end to the last ice age, and to even possibly predict it as well? And, moreover, to bestow the gifts necessary to cultivate civilization, i.e. knowledge, to the struggling peoples of the world, at such an early date?

The ancient texts themselves speak of gods, and of aerial battles. Of wars of gods, and men. Thus could this not have contributed to the true meaning and actual historical fact which was the chaos they were referring to? That is the problem with translation. There is far too much stress on the literal interpretation of what was written, as opposed to what was meant. What specifically was referred to. An example is the Norse kenning of ‘Grani’s burden’. In oral recitations, they would use that phrase, and everyone, even the smallest children, knew that by Grani’s burden the bard simply meant “gold”, because they were well aware of Grani’s own story and mythology. Yet to ourselves, a people so far removed from them in time and culture, we could easily make the mistake of thinking that this person named Grani must have been carrying something of some sort, either physically or metaphorically – an emotional or weight of some sort of duty – due to our completely understandable and rational literal interpretation of the words. Yet this is a mistake no Norse child would have made…

The Sumerians were a people who emerged upon the floodplanes between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Thus the Greeks referred to it as Mesopotamia, “the land between the rivers.”

“The Sumerian civilization emerged upon the flood plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers around 4000 BCE. The social structure of the Sumerians was decidedly different from other societies of that… and later times. The Sumerian communities were city states organized around a temple and ruled by a priesthood. The bulk of the people of the community were considered to be the servant-slaves of the god of the temple. The insecurities of life justified the role of the priesthood. When calamities occurred despite the best efforts of the priesthood this was explained as being the result of the actions of the other gods acting in concert which over-ruled the wishes of the local god.” [Thayer Watkins, San Jose State University]

[“The insecurities of life justified the role of the priesthood…”? What does that even mean?]

[That sure is an interesting piece of information. My first question is, who where these gods specifically? What were their attributes? Their names? How did they get around? What are the core Sumerian myths? There was also a class of craftsman, in addition to priests and peasants. Craftsmen devoted most of their time to producing things for the temple. There were also warrior-soldiers who protected the community. The people themselves allegedly devoted their lives to the propitiating of the gods, which was believed to prevent calamities.]

The political structure of ancient Sumer was in the form of city-states, not unlike the later Greek polis or polity. The origin of the Sumerians is uncertain. They were thought to have come from the south through the Persian Gulf, such as Bahrain. Sumerian literature speaks of their homeland being Dilmun.

“The story of Sumer is like the plot to a science fiction story. The modern world learns of its existence through references in ancient literature to a still more ancient times. The Sumerians appeared at the dawn of history with a fully developed society with a technology and organization that was different and superior to other societies of the time. And civilization itself seems to have stemmed from this alien and mysterious people. Communists proposed what they claimed was a new and progressive structure of society, but what they seemed to be trying to create was basically the same sort of society that the Sumerians created with a priesthood controlling society and its economy five thousand yeas ago.” – Thayer Watkins

What I feel needs to be understood is that first of all, the Sumerian community was controlled by astrologer-priests. However, I believe that shift occurred later and was not so in the earliest times. I believe the initial priests were more like attendants to a god which they at least believed existed before them as a physical presence, as opposed to our rendition of priests. In any case, they were astrologers first, and priests second. But they were priests not in the fashion of those we see, have, and thus allow to cover and influence the view of the past and the view of truth. It also has to be recalled that they had schools or educational institutions in their city-states, which were essentially scribal schools, predominantly. They also had an approximation to doctors. So, in other words, they were a surprisingly and mystifyingly advanced civilization.

Sumerian Gods and the Peoples Relationship To Them

Thayer already gave us some information on this subject. He already stated that much of the population was considered as servant-slaves. Their metal-workers seemed to always be building or constructing for them. They had a class of warriors who protected their city-states. And the gods themselves, according to the Sumerians, physically dwelt in the temples, or in their own lavish abodes located near the temples.

Mining was also going on. For one major purpose, which we shall get into later. For now, however, we can say that the gods and whoever attended them, and those in positions of power within the society lived a life of opulent excess.

[Who were the gods? What if exodus us actually a much older story? How many people lived in Sumer and in each city state?]

In the Sumerian script, they referred to their land as simply “the land”, or as “the land of the black-headed people.” In the book of Genesis, Sumer is known as Shinar.

Sumerian King List

The Sumerian King List is a cuneiform document, written or transcribed by a scribe of the city of Lagash c.2100 BCE. It lists all the kings of the region, and their accomplishments, showing a continual order (ancestral or unbroken chain of rulers) back to the dawn of civilization. Back all the way to the gods, who were the first rulers on Earth, according to the Sumerians. For it was the gods who first granted them the knowledge and arts of civilization, who bestowed kingship, but also who ruled for the first eras before kingship was passed onto, essentially demi-gods, and then to human kings. The initial rulers were said to have been gods in the first place. Then demi-gods, and human kings and queens, those who were divinely chosen by the gods.

In any case, the king list is thought to have been created in order to legitimize the reign of a king named Utu-Hegal of Uruk (who is believed to have ruled c.2100 BCE) by tracing his lineage back to the gods. However, there are more King Lists in existence than that one, Egyptian, not to mention Vedic, and then two more king lists of the Sumerians as well. However, they were both written at different times and by different people.

According to Samuel Noah Kramer:

“The first ruler of Sumer, whose deeds are recorded, if only in the briefest kind of statement, is a king by the name of Etana of Kish, who may have come to the throne quite early in the third millennium B.C. In the King List he is described as ‘he who stabilized all the lands.'”

Etana is famous for riding to heaven on the back of an eagle. Among other qualities and heroic deeds attributed to him, he is named in the king list alongside the likes of Gilgamesh and Dumuzi. He was also known for various super-human feats, and for his heroism.

Joshua Mark continues on stating that Mesopotamian’s believed the gods had set everything in motion, and that human beings were created as co-laborers to maintain order and hold back chaos.” (Joshua Mark) But is this fully accurate? Were we created as co-laborers? Or replacement laborers as Sitchen, among others, suggest? We have to instead consider two important things:

(1)A more detailed examination of the source material, the Sumerians themselves and their actual beliefs on the topic. Their histories and myths and such; as well as (2) a more refined understanding of what this chaos is. Specifically. I have already suggested a meaning previously, although we need more information.

And There Were Giants…

“Amon was an epithet meaning “The Unseen” that had been applied in Egypt to the great god Ra since about 2160 B.C., when he [Ra] left Egypt to seek dominion over the whole Earth; his full Egyptian name was Ra-Amon or Amon-Ra, “the Unseen Ra.” In my previous books I have shown that ‘Ra-Amon’ established his new headquarters in Babylon in Mesopotamia – where he was known as Marduk, son of the olden god whom the Egyptians called Ptah and the Mesopotamians Enki. The secret presumably revealed to Alexander was that his true father, the Unseen (=Amon) god in Egypt, was the god Marduk in Babylon; for within weeks of learning all that, Alexander set out for distant Babylon.” – Zecharia Sitchen (There Were Giants Upon The Earth, p.11)

Well, by saying “learning all that,” all we can really say for certain is that Alexander visited the oracles, both of them, who share strange likenesses, and then afterward he set out for Babylon. The rest, is most rumor.

In Babylon, whose chief God was Marduk, the site was dominated by his temple which was called the Esagil (or Esagila), whose names means “House whose Head is Lofty”.

The other main site which was potentially in Babylon, but which was certainly in Babylonian, was the famous ‘Tower of Babel’. The word ‘Babel’ most likely comes from the Akkadian bab-ili, which translates to “Gateway of the gods”  in Akkadian. Though to most modern people it is known, from the Bible, as Babel. Babel’s fortunes were closely tied in with its supreme god, Marduk, whose main temple was the E.sagil. It rose as a sprawling precinct and was home to “a plethora of priests arranged hierarchically from cleaners and butchers, to healers, administrators, then scribes, astronomers, and finally, at the peak, were the astrologers.” (There Were Giants Upon the Earth, p.19) Marduk’s name meant “Son of the Pure Mound”]

The god Enlil, according to Sitchen, equates with Jupiter of the Romans, Zeus of the Greeks, Indra of the Indians (who was the great Hindu god of storms who attained supremacy by battling his rival with lighting bolts, as Zeus had done), as well as Adad, whose name means “Wind Stormer” to the Assyrians and the Babylonians (known as Hadad to the Canaanites). Furthermore, the name Indra was found syllabically in the Hittite god lists of Asia Minor. Another name for this chief deity is Teshub, the god of thunder and lighting.

All throughout the ancient world, derivations of the winged disk symbol were found (image right). The Persian kings used this symbol as their supreme symbol. It was also found in Egypt (indeed as the symbol to the right originated), and other places as well.

Soon after Alexander’s death, the conquered lands were divided between two of his generals because the rightful successors – Alexander’s brother and his four-year-old son – were murdered. Ptolemy and his successors were headquartered in Egypt, and they also seized the African domains. Seleucus and his successors were based in Syria and ruled Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and distant Asian lands as well.

The Ptolemy’s established the Library of Alexandria. They also chose an Egyptian priest known as Manetho to write down the dynastic history of Egypt, as well as its divine pre-history as well. The Seleucids retained a Greek speaking Babylonian priest known as Berossus, who compiled a similar history and prehistory of humanity, although his was based on the gods and knowledge ancient and sacred in Mesopotamia. Interestingly, both the Seleucid’s and the Ptolemy’s had the same impulse: to compile a history. Both also saught to legitamize their rule by claiming legitamate continuation of dynastic kingship.

Manetho (Greek from Men-Thoth, which means the ‘Gift of Thoth’ who taught writing to man, as the legends say) wrote the three volume work on history of Egypt called Aegyptiaca, which perished in and with the Library of Alexandria. What we know from other writers of antiquity, such as Josephus who quoted this work, is that Manetho listed Gods and demigods ruling Egypt before human pharaohs.

Herodotus wrote that Mên was the first king of Egypt, according to Egyptian priests. Manethos list of pharaohs also began with Mên (Menes in Greek). (There Were Giants… p.21) Manetho was the first to arrange the succession of pharaohs into dynasties, which is followed to this day. This combined 5 geneological affiliations with historical changes. The divine dynasty began with Ptah, the creator god.

Ptah reigned 9000 years; followed by Ra who reigned 1000 years; followed by Shu who reigned 700 years; followed by Geb who reigned 500 years; followed by Osiris who reigned 450 years; followed by Seth who reigned 350 years; followed by Horus who reigned for 300 year. As Sitchen points out, this list of 7 gods reigned, according to this King List, for a combined total of 12,300 years.

Ra, like his father Ptah, was a god of “Heaven and Earth”, who arrived in antiquity from “Planet of Millions of Years” [does that mean it was millions of years old? or was it civilized for millions of years? or perhaps was it’s orbit millions of years long?] In any case, Ra arrived in a celestial barque called the Ben-Ben (meaning ‘Pyramidion Bird’, according to Sitchen). It was kept in the City of Anu, Heliopolis, On in the Bible.

The first dynasty ended with Horus, according to Manetho, and the second began with Thoth, half-brother of Ra. The second dynasty reigned for 1,570 years. So gods ruled for 13,870 years in total. Then, after a chaotic intermediate period which lasted about 350 years, Men was the first fully human pharaoh who ruled over a unified Egypt. Archaeological discoveries that confirm Manetho’s list include: the Turin Papyrus, Palermo stone, and the Abydos list. [Needs reference]

It is now known with certainty that Pharonic rule began in Egypt c.3100 BCE, the timeline given to us by Manetho takes us back to a time before the deluge. It first began with the 1st dynasty of gods lasting 12,300 years, then the second dynasty of gods lasting 1,570 years, then a dynasty of 30 demi-gods lasting 3,650 years. Divine and semi-divine rulers lasted for 17,520 years. Then the intermediate period for 350 years. Then human rule began c.3100 BCE.

So if we take ourselves back 17,520 years from 3100 BCE, we arrive at the date of 20,620 BCE which according to Manetho’s list is when rule over Egypt began, thus probably when Egyptian civilization was founded. The Abydos list, carvd on the walls of Abydos main temple, lists 75 of their predecessors (Seti I and a son of Ramses II). Both reigned 1000 years before Manetho – beginning with Mên. The Turin Papyrus agrees with Manetho’s list, and names 330 rulers, as Herodotus had been told.

It appears that the deluge abruptly ended Ra’s reign at ~10,700 BCE. According to Egyptian lore, Egypt is known as “The Raised Land” by its inhabitants because during the flood which inundated Egypt, Ptah the chief go and a great scientist, built sluices and a great cavern in Elphantine Island (Abu) to control the flow of water away from land downstream.

Berossus [Greek from Bel-Re’ushu, which means ‘The Lord [Bel or Marduk] is his Sheperd’] wrote a combined history of the whole Earth, from the beginning, to Alexander’s time. Alexander Polyhistor of the 1st century BC reported that:

“[I]n the second book [of Berossus] was the history of the ten kings of the Chaldeans, and the period of each reign, which consisted collectively of a hundred and twenty shars, or four hundred and thirty-two thousand years, reaching to the time of the deluge.” [There Were Giants Upon The Earth, p.27]

Babylon

Joan Oates says of ancient Sumer that the natural geography enforced a degree of separation between city-states, which founded the nature of the Sumerian population in these earliest of times. This separation was due to the extensive marshes which occurred along the main rivers – the Tigris and Euphrates – thus they had to build their cities and communities on irrigable land between these marshes. “This pattern produced in ancient Sumer two groups of cities separated by an area of open desert known in Sumerian as the Edin.” (p.12) However, is that really what the Edin meant?

Ur, Eridu and Uruk (Warka) were the oldest city-states founded in Sumer, and they were founded along the Euphrates. Babylonia as a geographical term refers to the southern portion of modern Iraq, modern Baghdad being roughly the northern reach. In the north of this land called Mesopotamia by the Greeks, and Babylonia by some scholars is the land known as Akkad (Ki-Uri or Uri), home to the Akkadians. In the south we have famed Sumer (Ki-en-gi / Kengir).

Settlement in this area begins to take place sometime duing the 6th millenium BCE (6000-5000 BCE). However, there is evidence of earlier occupation. And there is also the concern that the land is sinking while the water table is rising, which means that there may be far older remains from earlier settlements still underground, but also some that have already been destroyed. Samuel Noah Kramer gives the date of between 4500-4000 for the beginning of Sumerian civilization. And, at any rate, there was a culture in this area first known as the Ubaid peoples.

“Although it is axiomatic that the development of farming and herding preceded the growth of cities, it is significant that the first cities not only in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys but also along the Nile and Indus arose outside those ‘nuclear’ areas where agriculture was first practiced.” (Babylon, p.14)

“In theory the Sumerian city was the actual property of its main deity, to whom it was assigned on the day of creation. This total identification of [a] god with city was an underlying tenet of Sumerian society. The temple of the city-god was the city’s central feature.” – Joan Oates (Babylon, p.25)

Based on a study of the earliest Sumerian cuneiform texts, in c.2500 BCE much of the land was owned by ‘nobility.’ However, there is evidence of a more democratic ‘assembly’ existing in prehistoric times made up of ‘elders’ and normal ‘men’ at which decisions would be made. (26) this is before the lugal (literally ‘great man’, although there is some debate about the translation) was instituted, which was a precursor to kingship. But more of a tribal leadership feel to me.

Kingship was bestowed (brought down and descended from heaven by the gods authority) after, or at some point after the greeat flood, c.9600 BCE, roughly. But also could have been later, sometime in the 8th millenium. The undisputed source of kingship was the authority of Enlil, through his temple Ekur at Nippur, which was apparently the head of many city-states at an early time in history.

The similarity or even near identical nature of Sumerian city-states with the later Greek polis is hard to ignore. Showing a potential lineage into Greece. Although it is certainly possibly that these forms of proto-government were entirely independent and natural developments. Yet this lineage into Greece is a strong possibility, I believe, also extending through Troy (in Anatolia) to the Norse Vikings and people of ancient Germanic lands through Tror (Thor) or Troy, whom the Norse peoples in the Prose Edda claim as part of their ancestry. The other part is from Odin, who was said to have travelled from Turkey. In Sumer, the lugal was chosen by a ‘council of the gods’, who each resided in their own city, which also had homes and sometimes palaces built for their families – children, wives, and later extended families.

King Hammurabi’s legal code distinguishes three main social classes within later Babylonian society, the true definitions and meanings of which are not clear and are still debated. Nonetheless, they are: awilum, wardum, and mushkenum. According to Oates, wardum is the most certain and can be translated as ‘slave’. Awilum is used to refer to a ‘man’, any man depending on the circumstances and the context, sometimes referring to the king or to a slave; at other times referring to the upper class, thence ‘nobility’ in some cases, oftentimes with the connotated meaning of ‘gentleman’. (68)

Mushkenum on the other hand has been more difficult to translate, but it seems to refer to a class below awilum, which is often translated as ‘freeman’. Thus I feel a tentative definiton could be something along the lines of ‘serf’. Which also parallels perfectly the main classes in Egypt (nobility, serf, and slave), which is fascinating to no end because it is further proof essentially of a separate bloodline. Zecharia Sitchen would probably say the difference is pure-blooded anunnaki, half-blood, and slave (or, full human). Or, royal/noble blood (thus any percentage of the ancient lineage), human/serf/those of the land, and slave in the sense of literally b4eing bought, sold, or awuired through war or conquest. It is difficult to say.

The other interesting thing is how some kings, Sargon’s grandson, Nim-Sun I believe, was the first to claim himself as a divine king, literally a god. When before the kings were appointed by the god of their city. I believe this illustrates a very specific shift from present deities to august ones…

Another interesting fact about Sumerian architecture is that because these structures where made of adobe bricks, they were impermanent. They lasted only around 20 years or so, and they were rebuilt by the new ruler/king/lugal, once again in dedication to the gods. But the foundations were considered sacred, thus they were maintained. However, because all that was kept was the foundations we know little to nothing of the actual structures themselves. The Sumerian metalwork, on the other hand, we know was astounding. As such, with their proven delicate, sophisticated, and highly advanced technical skills in metal, we can at least assume that they decorated and fashioned their adobe brick houses with a similar level of skill and beauty, and in some cases lavish opulence.

Moreover, possibly because the Anunnaki were essentially a warring culture, at least based on the tales of their home planet, could this be why our ancient ancestors were so combative between their own clans and families? Or could this be more genetic? More primitive behavior due to a more primitive genetic code, or remnant of our more primitive past?

[Furthermore, if the Anunnaki do exist, then this could be insight into how the universe itself propagates life. For example, there are more than one race and more than one level of being (consciousness,  yes, but also level of being in terms of culture, advancement of science and technology and understanding of the universe. But all of this comes back to awareness in the first place, meaning that there are a variety of levels of awareness involved in the process of life – that is, cultivating consciousness.) Consciousness is cultivating consciousness. We are all growing together. And this is also why astrology works, because it is based on the geometric and rotating (cyclic) structure of reality. Within infinite space-time, which is always shifting over an infinite singularity of consciousness, we rotate and spin cyclically, ever deepening within infinite space – and expanding infinitely. Geometrically within each point of space-time. Whether we are alive or not, epends entirely upon our awareness. It depends on the direction of our awareness.]

The Kassites

The Kassites were a people who seemed to have absorbed ‘mesopotamian’ culture. They believed in their gods, and they were ‘servants of the God Marduk’, if we are to consider them within the Sumerian way of life.

The Hurrians, on the other hand, were thought to be ruled by an Indo-European dynastic line of kings. And they worshipped Vedic deities, thus most likely arriving from India. Mitra, Varuna, and Indra, to name a few. Joan Oates states that this Indo-European link is tenuous. But I believe when considered in the light of other evidence and connections the link becomes less tenuous.  What if their belief system ot into the Greek and Roman cultures through these Indo-Europeans from the East? There was obviously contact, because they share the same gods. That implies deep contact and connection, to share the same gds. The Hurrians are indeed indirectly responsible for the introduction of belief systems to other cultures acting a an intermediary between them.

Nebuchadrezzar, succeeded the throne after a period of inconsequential political movement. And when he tried to avenge Babylon, which was sacked by Elamites, his troops were struck down by a plague. Genetic cleansing? Divine wrath? Or just bad luck?

Later, Assurbanipal became the King of Assyria, and the King of Babylon. But he was also a scholar and his greatest contribution to us, the world, was ultimately his library at Nineveh, which provides us with the most complete – or rather, extensive – collection of cuneiform tablets. Written presumably in Sumerian and Akkadian. THe ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’ and the ‘Creation Epic’ come from this library.

One of the Kassite kings was named Kadashman-Enlil, linking himself to the god Enlil, as well as the cult of Marduk, which is what the Kassites could be calle, or partially, the line of Marduk? But through Enlil as well?

Moreover, the Kassites were in contact with Akenaten at his city of Aketaten (‘the Horizon of Aten’) – which could be a reference to the dan of the Aten, a reference to a single deity, and not merely brushed off as a ‘solar deity’ in a completely pagan and unenlightened sense. And could this not actually be a higher plan, a game behind the world, directing humanity towards higher spirituality and independence.

Moreover, they were in contact with the Kassites whose ruling class could well have been Indo-European. Who could very well have been of the line. Incarnated – around the same time as Hammurabi, if I am not mistaken – who call incarnated to give the world the necessary shift and information they needed (Laws in Hammurabi’s case, and singular and divine religion in the case of Akenaten) to direct humanity onto the right path.

With the death of the last Kassite king, Babylon became ‘Babylon for the Babylonians.’ [Babylon, 105] What this means essentially is that perhaps there was no direct royal lineage? Or that the geners were being homogenized by the continued interbreeding between those with noble blood, and others. Humans in the early past especially seem to have formed tribal groups and tribes of families, ancestors, and a unique people based on those common fewe ancestors and their own characteristics and disposition. [A vision of an underground civilization peeking out of their fortress after a cataclysm swept the Earth] However, I also believe that environment had a factor in their genetic adaptation – but equally so was the variation through extended combination of the genetic code amongst the people [?]. It is also a question then of permutations and combinations, which is abssolutely ideal for the proliferation of life – and increasing its resilience.

Thus, we are all human. And we were close enough genetically for ‘the sons of god’ to have ‘[seen] the daughters of man…’ that old quotation. Often used. Overused, perhaps. But each of the families among these groups, and also the tribes of the gods, including the intermarriages between and the lineages founded. And each of these expanded and changed through this mixing and this contact.

Asshurbanipal was apparently also a learned man, as attested by his famous inscription about his school days, when he learned (presumably in a scribal school):

“…the hidden treasure of all scribal knowledge. I solve complex mathematical reciprocals and products with no apparent solution; I read abstruse tablets whose Sumerian is obscure and whose Akkadian is hard to construe…” (Babylon, Joan Oates, p.125)

Oates also continues that Assurbanipal “was instructed in archery, the javelin, chariot driving and ‘royal decorum’.” (125) The above implies that there was an institution still in place whose apparent sole purpose was to learn to read, write, and, most importantly, to copy ancient texts – and in some cases to compose new ones. Although copying texts seems to have been far more common. This was also true in Egypt. At the Egyptian scribal schools they similarily learned to read and write in Hieroglyphics (and apparently two other more shorthand and less decorative writing systems) along with exceedingly practical mathematic problems dealing with engineering problems – architectural problems, it seems. Like how to move a stone of x weight y distance, or something like that.

But it also seems that the scribal schools in most place were difficult. Not just hard work, but it also appears that writing itself was difficult enough to learn that not everyone could do it. Which in a way leads credence that writing itself may have been the invention of one man (or perhaps woman) in ancient times, an ancient Einstein so to speak. However, I do not believe this to be the case. I think that perhaps writing was passed down by an unidentified culture who were powerful and persuasive enough to deeply impact later generations to spend so much time and energy in establishing and maintaining scribal schools with a fundamental purpose being to maintain traditions, and record ancient matters. But perhaps it was an ancient Einstein who came up with the idea, designed it over a lifetime, and taught it to successors who passed on the art, and certainly developed and possibly improved it as well.

Certainly the writing system developed over time, and it was this subject to extensive evolution and expansion over the years, and change obviously, as stylistic an essential creative shifts occur based on public tendency and appreciation in wide-spread use. Style that goes in and out of fashion, as we see even today. So too did this occur in the ancient world as well. But it is not out of the realm of possibility that a single person (or a coherent body of people, an organization) invented writing, or handed it down to people. For after that even, it was only the exceptionally intelligent and/or diligent people who could learn to write, and thus use it, and it was propagated by continual use, in business, commerce, trade, etc.

In any case, the fact that scribal schools still existed hints at the importance placed on these texts in some cases copies of copies dating back to an increasingly early dates, incredibly early, perhaps. Not unlike the Vedic texts which were composed thousands of years before they were even written down and were thus retained almost perfectly, word for word. THese writings, I believe, are of extreme importance.

To further this idea, all the new successors to ancient cities and their temples specifically, display incredible observance towards their religious traditions (for it probably was extensively religious at this time). Assurbanipal restored Marduk’s E.sa.gil, and his contemporary, Sin-ballasu-iqbi [?] also restored the sacred sites as well. The Kassites likewise were extremely devoted to their ancient traditions. Sin-ballasu-iqbi also had a copy of a tect of Ur III Amar-Sin displayed in ancient Sumerian, in a temple museum. [Babylon, Oates, 126]

Nebuchadnezzar, who was the king in Babylonia, died in 562 and was succeeded on the throne by a son named Amel-Marduk (‘evil Marduk’ (Merodach)[?]).

Later on an individual named Nabonidus (Nabu-na’id) was chosen for the throne, who was described by Oates as:

“often regarded as little more than an aging antiquarian. Certainly his concern with the past and with the restoration of the proper rituals and embellishments of the ancient shrines of Sumer and Akkad bordered on the obsessive…” (Babylon, Oates, p.131)

Yet he was probably also a distinguished general in his own right. Nontetheless, the continued interest in Sumer and Akkad is still seen in Babylon at this time, its presence and influence more like. But he, Nabonidus, also made quite an interesting statement:

“I am Nabonidus who have not the honor of being a somebody – kingship is not within me.” (Babylon, p.132, Oates)

This indicates to me that he was not of royal blood, of the noble ancestral pedigree. In this case he was referring to the fact that he was not descended from Nebuchadnezzar: “His mother was Adda-Guppi votaress [?] of the god Sin at Harran.” [Graham Hancock mentioned Harran also, in reference to the moon god, Sin] And there is a surviving tects recording a dream made to Nabonidus in which:

“At the beginning of my reign the gods let me see a dream; in it there stood both Marduk, the Great Lord, and Sin, the light of heaven and earth. Marduk said to me: ‘Nabonidus, King of Babylon, bring bricks on your own horse and chariot and build the temple of Ehulhul [the moon god’s shrine, literally ‘the house of joy’]” [reference needed]

Fascinatingly, under the reign of the Seleicids, Babylon changed its location, its environment (energetically and formally, it seems) to refound the city and renew once again the interest in cuneiform tects. Moreover, “the Anu-Enlil priesthood” was the cult at the time, with no mention of Marduk (which means that the original two regained supremacy and potentially quelled Marduk). I also believe tht Ea/Enki was Orsiris in Egypt, also being the head and founder of the ‘Seven Sages/Apkallu’, and being Quetzalcoatl in Mesoamerica. However, that also had connecions to Vedic times – which really shows a mission to teach civilization (diseminate it) to all the ‘significant’ population centers of the world. What I mean by that is merely large enough and civilized/advanced enough to be receptive to the new knowledge. Yet their capital seems to have been Abydos in truly ancient times.

However, what also interests me is the clear pattern throughout history of a massive shift and advance in knowledge being carried out. The most illustrious of Babylon’s kings – Kurigalzu, Esarhaddon, Assurbanipal, and Nebuchadressar – all seemed to have put considerable effort into reviving and reestablishing the ancestral cult-centers, ‘home city’ of their gods. The temple, which was considered as the literal home of their gods – built and staffed as such. What could an idol possibly do with food and serving staff, scribes and administrators. In later times they certainly ‘pampered’ stone idols. But what if that was the tradition of once present gods? A ruling race, whom the kings are chosen of their distant (or direct) descendents, or if there was none, a person – a normal human – who was in some way distinguished or suitable for the task. Or they would make heirs by reproducing with human females. Such as Nabonidus, who was not of the royal bloodline by his own admission.

The thing is, if it weren’t for the perceived ‘impossibility’ of these higher beings existing at all, of the evidence and statements at hand, we would be forced to conclude that their gods did exist, as there does seem to have been some sort of communication and direction. Especially in the earliest Sumerian times. And, even during Nebuchanezzar’s time and before, we frequently have stelae showing clearly Nebuchadnezzar in front of his Lord, Marduk, presenting something to him. Maybe something that he was asked to create, or do, or transcribe, almost as if to say ‘I have completed the task that you have sent for me.’ Or else being presented with something in return for his work, or being presented with his instructions. Even Nabonidus relayed how Sin and Marduk came to him directly in a dream, instructing him to rebuild the Harran temple to the moon-god Sin. Which he did while removed in Taiapa [?].

In any case, several of the ancient cities were rebuilt or refurbished amongst almost all of the most prestigious cities of ancient Sumer and Akkad, including: Sippar, Ur, Borsippa, Nippur, Uruk, Isin, and Kish as well.

The edubba, the ancient Sumerian form of scribal school (which was known as the tablet-house, undoubtedly referring to the tablets stored in the school, those which they transcribed, studied from, and used to practice their craft, the students practice tablets) was crucial in the dispersion of ancient Sumerian works, and of literature and the craft of writing itself.

“The teaching process relied on memorization, and the curriculum included what might be termed ‘scientific studies’, mathematics, grammar and studying and copying of a large and diverse group of literary compositions. Already amongst the earliest pictographic tablets from Uruk are found word-lists apparently intended for study and practice. The Sumerians delighted in classification, to which their language was particularly suited, and these word-lists or ‘glossaries’, to which were later added Akkadian translations for each individual word, came to include all Sumerian and Babylonian knowledge.” (Joan Oates, Babylon, p.164)

Once again, as in Egypt also, religion seems not to have been practiced by the general public. Certainly the general public knew of the gods and were certainly acquainted with at least some of their stories, myths and legends. However, their prayer to them was a private affair. If it occurred at all. In Egypt only the priests were permitted to perform the daily rituals. And in Sumer, Babylonia (Mesopotamia) it was mostly the scholar-scribes who could write at all.

Moreover, much of the Sumerian literature we have points to extensive knowledge through classification of as many things as there was to know of on this planet – which they could know at least, that which was in their local region.

“When the gods had ‘eaten’, the dishes of his meal where sent to the king for consumption. What was not destined for the table of the main deity, his consort, or his children or the servant gods was distributed among the temple administrators and craftsman. The quantities of food involved could be enormous: a Seleucid text from Uruk enumerates among other offerings a daily total of over 500 kg (10 cwt[?]) of bread, 40 sheep, 2 bulls, 1 bullock, 8 lambs, 70 birds and ducks, 4 wild boars, 3 ostrich eggs, dates, figs, raisins and 54 containers of beer and wine.” (Babylon, p.175, Oates)

First of all, I wonder how many that food could reasonably feed, and how many it actually did feed. And if it was proportionate to the temple administration alone or not. But in any case, I cannot imagine this task every single day! If large quantities of food were left for these gods – there had to be someone consuming it. Large numbers of caskets of beer, bread, and other meats given daily to the quarters of the deity and then leaving it there on a daily basis. As Oates stated above… it was the king who ate it… however I cannot help but feel that in earlier times, these traditions were based off of living presences within the temple quarters. After all, in Mesopotamia the temple and palace both functioned as ‘households’, and the household was considered literally the ‘home of the god’. But their home was the place of work – and possibly of residence (in the case of the Egyptians too) of a whole group of servants. Because the gods – in Sumerian and Babylonian epics – were said to have created human beings to be the servants of the gods. This the ‘chief priest’ (administrator), along with various types of exorcists [either the exorcist or the chief priest where known as the sanga], naru (singers), and kalû (musicians) “whose duties included calming the god [with] music.” In addition there where scribes and administrators. All those who could take care of the household tasks so that a person (whether a god, king, or pharaoh) could live in luxury, with an abundance of time, presumably to spend with matters of their own. Musicians, scribes to translate and/or copy the gods ancient texts. And presumably to tell the tales to the general public, this their own intrinsic knoledge of the gods, just like every Greek child woul have been deeply shaped by the stories of the gods, their deeds, natures persnalities and arrtibts and probably even affairs. a scribes literacy benefited any person whom he shaped and retold the stories and contents of the SUmerian mythologies to in his native tongue, the native tongue of the population, and whatever the lingua franca was at that time.

However, I cannot understand on any level that the servants – the people who thought their life was to literally serve their gods – clothe them, feed them, play music for them – where not actually playing to, feeding, clothing, someone. I believe that this was certainly true at the earliest periods of Mesopotamian and Egyptian history. If not later on as well, however, how much later I do not know. There seems to have been a shift in bloodline which hit peaks and troughs on those who are said to be fully human (both of a royal lineage and some who were commers. Those who were favoured by the gods I would assume. Or who the gods fell in love with. After all there are instances of female deities taking human males for a husband, and vice versa. And in Japan there are stories of human women being carroed off ‘spirited away’ to be the concubine of a god, or the musician of the god, or something like that. [However, I must read Japanese mythology to verify this. How about Japanese folk tales. And Naruto.]

Mesopotamian technology. There are several aspects of babylonian and earlier sumerian and akkadian technoloy which is ar more advanced and speaks to a hihly adcanced and deceloped ciltire, more so than is commonly considered or inderstoof. the manufacture of glass, brewing of beer, early use of copper, late use of iron, early use of gold – even tough it doesnt seem to have been too local – caulting, other bulding techniques, and doctoes (asu) who used many chemical compounds with proven medicinal value. [citation needed.]

Resources

1. (www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sumer.htm)
2. Babylon :: Joan Oates
3. Sumer | Written by Joshua J. Mark [http://www.ancient.eu/sumer/]