The Sumerian Civilization Part 2

or=blue]]The
Sumerian Civilization Part 2
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High Alien
Technology & Inventions








In addition to
writing,
the Sumerians should also be credited
with the
invention of printing. They used ready-made "type" of the
various pictograph signs... which they used, as we use rubber
stamps to impress the desired
sequence of signs in the wet clay. They also invented
the
fore-runner
of our Rotary presses, the "cylinder seal". Made of
extremely hard stone.

It was a small cylinder into which the message or
design... had been

engraved in reverse: (Whenever the seal was rolled on the
wet clay,
the
imprint created a "positive" impression on the clay.








Many Sumerian
and Mesopotamian...


written records concerned themselves,
not necessarily with the divine or spiritual, but with
such daily tasks as

recording crops, measuring fields, and
calculating prices. No high civilization would have been
possible... without a parallel advanced system
in Mathematics.









Mathematics




The Sumerian
System, called
"sexagesimal", combined a mundane 10...

with a "celestial" 6, to obtain the base figure 60.
This system is in some

ways
superior to our present one, and much superior to later
Greek and

Roman systems. It enabled Sumerians to divide into
fractions and multiply

into
the million, to calculate roots or raise numbers several
powers.


This was not
only


the first known mathematical system, but also one that

gave us... the "place" concept: Just as, (in the
decimal system), 2
can
be
2 or 20 or 200, depending on the digits place, so
could a Sumerian 2

mean 2, or 120 (2 x 60), and so
on, depending on the place.


The 360 degree
circle,


the foot and its 12 inches, and the "dozen" as

a unit, are but a few examples of the vestiges of
Sumerian Mathematics,

still evident in our daily lives.



Their
achievements in Astronomy, the establishment of a calendar, and

similar mathematical feats will come up later.












Historical Documents




Just as our
own economic and social
system: Our
books, court and
tax records, commercial contracts, marriage
certificates, and so on...
depends on paper. Sumerian / Mesopotamian
life depended on clay.



Temples, courts, and trading houses,
had their scribes ready with
tablets
of
wet clay, on which to inscribe all.
Clay was also crucial
raw material...
for the manufacture of utensils
for daily life, containers
for storage and transportation of goods. It was
also used to make
bricks… another Sumerian
"first", which made possible the building
of
houses for the people, palaces
for Kings, and the imposing temples
of the
gods.












Clay Pottery,
Stella and Sculptures






The Sumerians
are credited with two
technological breakthroughs...
that
made it possible to combine lightness with tensile
strength, for
all clay products: "reinforcing and
firing" .





Modern architects...
have discovered
that reinforced concrete, an
extremely
strong building material, can be created
by pouring cement
into molds... containing iron rods; long ago, the
Sumerians gave their
bricks great
strength... by mixing the wet clay with chopped reeds

or straw.










They also
knew...


that clay products could be given
tensile strength and
durability by firing them in a kiln. The first
high-rise buildings and archways,

as well as durable ceramic wares were
made possible... by these
technological breakthroughs.





The invention
of the kiln...


a furnace in which intense, (but controllable
temperatures), could be attained
without the risk of contaminating products

with dust or ashes made possible... an even greater
technological advance:

The Age of Metals.






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The Age of Metals




The first
hammered metal artifacts...


were found in the highlands of the

Zagros and Taurus mountains. However, as R. J. Forbes
(the Birthplace

of Old World Metallurgy), pointed out, " in the ancient
Near East, the supply

of Native Copper was quickly exhausted,
and the miner had to turn to ores.




This required the knowledge and ability...



to find and extract the ores,
crush them, then smelt and refine them.
Processes that could not have

been carried out, without kiln-type furnaces and a
generally advanced

technology.











The Art of Metallurgy... soon encompassed
the ability to alloy copper
with
other metals, resulting in a hard, but malleable metal,
we call Bronze.

The Bronze Age, our first Metallurgical Age, was also a
Mesopotamian
contribution... to modern civilization.


Much of ancient
commerce, was devoted
to the metals trade, it also

formed the basis... for the development in Mesopotamia of
banking, and

the
first money… the silver shekel ("weighed ingot").


The many
varieties...


of metals and alloys for which Sumerian and
Akkadian
names... have been found, and the extensive technological

terminology... attest to the high level of metallurgy...
in ancient Mesopotamia.
For a while this
puzzled scholars, because Sumer, as such, was devoid
of metal ores, yet metallurgy... most definitely began
there.









Energy and Fuels




The answer is
energy.


Smelting, refining, and alloying, as well as
casting, could not be done... without ample
supplies of fuels to fire the
kilns, crucibles and furnaces. Mesopotamia may have lacked
ores,

but it had
fuels... in abundance. So the ores were brought to the
fuels,
which explains many early inscriptions... describing the
bringing of

metal ores, from afar.


The fuels... that made Sumer technologically
supreme, were bitumen
and
asphalt, petroleum products, that naturally seeped up to
the surface,
in many places in Mesopotamia.


R. J. Forbes


(Bitumen and Petroleum in Antiquity), shows that the

surface
deposits... of Mesopotamia, were the ancient world’s prime
source of
fuels, from the earliest times... to the Roman era. His

conclusion is that the
technological use of these petroleum products,
began in Sumer, circa
3500 BC, indeed, he shows that the use

and knowledge of fuels, and
their
properties, were greater in
Sumerian times... than in later civilizations.










The Sumerians used petroleum products,



not only as fuels, but also
as road building materials for water-proofing, chalking,
painting, cementing

and molding... there was a "mound of bitumen", in Ur.
Forbes shows...

that
the Sumerian language... had terms for every genus, and
variant of
bituminous substances found in Mesopotamia.





For example,

the most common word for petroleum, "Naphta", derives
from
"Napatu", "stones that flare up".



The Sumerian
use of petroleum products, was also basic to an

advanced chemistry and alchemy. The
high level of Sumerian knowledge
in the variety
of paints and pigments used... and such processes... as

glazing, as well as the remarkable artificial
production... of semi-precious

stones, including a substitute for Lapis Lazuli.



Bitumens... were
also used in Sumerian Medicine, another field

where
the
standards were impressively high. Hundreds of Akkadian

texts... that
have been
found, employ Sumerian Medical terms and
phrases extensively, pointing to
the Sumerian origin... of all Mesopotamia medicine. They
were
very advanced in cloning.









The texts were
divided into 3 groups:
Bultitu "therapy", Shipir-bel-imti

"surgery", and urti-mashmashshe " commands and incantations".









Ancient Law and Medicine




Early law
codes...


included sections dealing with fees payable to

surgeons for successful operations, and
penalties to be imposed
on them ... in the case of failure: A surgeon, using a
lancet, to open

a patient’s temple, was to
lose his hand... if he accidentally destroyed

the patient’s eye.



Some skeletons
in Mesopotamian graves...


bore unmistakable
marks...
of brain surgery. A partially broken medical text...
speaks
of the
surgical removal of a "shadow... covering a man’s eye",

probably
a cataract. Another text.... mentions the use of a
cutting
instrument,
stating that "if the sickness
reached inside the bone,
you shall scrape
and remove".


Sick persons... in Sumerian times, could choose
between an A.ZU

(water physician), or an IA.ZU (oil physician). A seal
depicted surgical

tongs... and also shows the serpent on the tree, the
symbol of medicine...

to this very
day.









Sumerian texts... deal with diagnosis and
prescriptions. They recommended
cleaning and washing, soaking in baths of hot water and
mineral solvents,
application of vegetable derivatives, rubbing and petroleum
compounds.



Medicines were made... from plant and mineral compounds and were

mixed
with liquids or solvents. Appropriate to the method of
application.

If
taken by mouth, the powders were mixed with wine, beer,
or honey,

if "poured through the rectum", administered in an enema,
they were

mixed with plant or vegetable oils. They were advanced
in cloning,
DNA
and
alchemy.









Alcohol, which
plays such an important role...



in surgical disinfecting,

and as a base for many medicines, reached our language
through

the Arabic
: "Kohl", from the Akkadian "kuhlu". Models of livers...
indicate

that medicine was taught at medical schools... with the
aid of clay

models... of human organs. Anatomy must have been an
advanced

science, for temple rituals called for elaborate
dissections... of

sacrificial animals.



Sumerians and
their successors were concerned...



with matters
of life,
sickness, and death. Men like "Gilgamesh", a King of
Erech,

sought the
"Tree of Life", or some mineral (a stone), that could
provide
eternal youth.
There were also references to efforts to resurrect the
dead, especially
if they happened to be gods.









"Upon the
corpse, hung from the
pole, they directed the pulse and

the Radiance. Sixty times the water of life, sixty times
the food of life,

they sprinkled upon it, and Inanna arose".


There were some
secret methods, about
which.... we can only speculate,
known and used in such revival attempts. Many "Fakirs"
in India... still

know the secrets and practice the art.









The First Clothing
in History




One of Sumer’s
earliest material achievements...



was the
development of textile and clothing
industries. Our own industrial
revolution is considered to have commenced
with the introduction
of spinning or weaving machines in
England... in the 1760’s. Man
could not have made woven fabrics...
before the advent of agriculture,
which provided him with flax, and the domestication of
animals, creating

a source for wool.



The Book of
Joshua...


reports that during the storming of Jericho, a

certain person could not
resist the temptation to keep "one good coat

of
Shinar", which he had found in the city, even though...
the penalty was

death. So highly prized....
were the garments of "Shinar" (Sumer), that

people were willing to risk their lives... to obtain
them.









A rich
terminology...


already existed in Sumerian times...
to describe
both items of clothing and their makers. The basic
garment... was
called "Tug", without a doubt, the forerunner... to the
Roman "Toga".


Another major
Sumerian achievement...
was its agriculture. In a
land
with only seasonal rain.... the rivers were enlisted to
water year
round
crops....
through a vast system of canals.
Mesopotamia the land
between the rivers… was a veritable
food basket in ancient times.









The First Boats
and Seafaring Ships











They made the
worlds first boats,


using the canal system... for easy
water borne transportation of people, goods,
and cattle. They also
engaged in deep-water seafaring, using a variety of ships
to reach
faraway lands... in search of metals, rare woods, and
other materials.
They produced many specialized sea vessels.
Over land... they used
carts and chariots, as well as their air ships.










Tablets of Sumer



The Table of
Contents... from the
Tablets of Sumer,
is an encyclopedia
in itself, for each one of the 25 chapters... described
a "Sumerian" (first), including the first schools, the first
bicameral congress, the first historian,

the first pharmacopoeia, the first "farmer’s almanac", the
first cosmogony
and cosmology, the first job, the
first proverbs and sayings, the first
literary debates, the first "Noah", the
first library catalog, the first law
codes
and social reforms, his first medicine, agriculture, and
man’s search for

harmony in the world.









The First
Musical Instruments



The Sumerians
and their successors...

had a full musical life, we
find a great variety of musical instruments, as well as
singers and dancers.

As we contemplate the great Sumerian civilization, we
find... that not only

are
our morals and our sense of justice, our laws and
architecture,

our arts
and technology... rooted in Sumer, but the Sumerian
institutions...

are so
familiar, so close. At heart, it would seem, we are
all
Sumerians.








And their appearance...



in the history of man was
sudden, unexpected
and out of Nowhere! With stunning abruptness… there
appears in

this little Sumerian mud garden... the whole cultural
syndrome... that has constituted
the germinal unit of all the high civilizations of the
world.

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