Introduce the characteristics of Sumerian mythology.
We know that civilization needs minerals such as copper, gold and silver in order to experiment and create metallurgical technology in a few decades. However, Sumerians not only knew geology and how to obtain ores and other technologies, but also produced completely different metals and the world's first alloy and bronze.
Stars and planets in the sky. Surprisingly, in ancient Sumerian books, we can find almost the same pattern as modern star maps. Did they invent modern surveying and mapping instruments?
People always pursue ancient history from two directions. One is to follow the clues provided by many myths, so human beings have the historical origin of God. One is to follow the track of civilization changes shown by cultural classics, so human beings have a historical development. Therefore, various archaeological achievements often prove the prophecy of God or the hypothesis of man. In fact, the significance of cultural relics unearthed from all human cultural sites mainly lies in the fact that ancient historical vacancies can be filled in some form. Perhaps many cultural relics can really play the role of connecting historical fragments, while more cultural relics just mark the truth of historical fragments, thus leaving a hazy and even mysterious history.
Almost all the excavation results confirm that Sumerians were the first ancient people to enter the Mesopotamian plain, because they were a dark-haired race from far away, and they called themselves "blackheads" in the inscriptions on stone tablets they brought. Since they came to the fertile soil brought by the two big rivers to rebuild the country's delta, Sumerians found that there were neither stones like their native land nor papyrus like Egypt, so they invented such a writing method: making clay tablets out of soft mud, then writing, and drying them after writing to preserve documents. Because they write with a pointed pen, the words they write are cuneiform, which is the origin of the famous cuneiform writing.
So, where did the Sumerians come to Mesopotamia? One possibility is that it comes from the mountainous areas of the Iranian plateau, because the earliest unearthed Sumerian buildings were built according to the principle of wood structure, which is usually only widely used in mountainous areas with dense trees, but this contradicts Sumerian myths and legends; Another opposite possibility is to come from the rough sea to the place where the river flows into the sea. However, among the funerary objects of Sumerian Queen Shubo-Yade, only one model ship, each about 0.6 meters long, can only sail on the Euphrates River.
A clay tablet with cuneiform characters. Perhaps by accident, the ancient Sumerians invented a special way of writing: making clay tablets from soft clay, then writing, and drying the clay tablets after writing, so as to preserve them for a long time. Because the pen is sharp when writing, the words written are wedge-shaped, which is the origin of the famous cuneiform writing.
Therefore, some researchers believe that Sumerians can be found among residents from the mountains of Afghanistan to the valleys of India within a radius of nearly 2,500 kilometers east of the Mesopotamian plain. This hypothesis seems to be proved by archaeologists soon, because a highly developed ancient cultural site was excavated in the Indus Valley. Among the unearthed cultural relics, there are several rectangular seals, which look very similar to those unearthed in the ruins of the ancient city of Ur, both in appearance and design style. However, an unexplained question is: In ancient times, was it possible for an ancient nation or country to migrate to a place more than 2,000 kilometers away? At the same time, there were no clues left in national myths and no records left in cultural classics. Therefore, although people have found the Sumerian homeland through hardships; Thus, it is confirmed that Sumerian culture once existed, which directly promoted the formation of Mesopotamian cultural circle. However, the question of where the Sumerians came from has never been answered. However, the mystery of Sumerians goes far beyond this. For example, Sumerians have surprisingly long life spans and surprisingly high wisdom. However, these are all recorded on the clay tablet. Whether it is true or not needs to be proved. The only thing that does not need to be proved is the numerous stepped pyramids built on the plains around the ruins of the ancient city of Ur.
What are the uses of these pyramids? According to the records on the clay tablets, they are all used for sacrifice. Because their gods have been living high on the top of the holy mountain, they need to pray at the top of the pyramid, so that people can get close to the palace of God and God can accept people's worship more easily. The influence of this worship in Mesopotamia expanded rapidly and lasted for thousands of years. From the kingdom of Babylon to the kingdom of Assyria, from Babylon to Nineveh, such stepped pyramids can be seen everywhere. Even the Babel in the Bible is stepped. If it can be built, it will be a small gold pagoda.
Therefore, many amazing miracles are also related to the Sumerian pyramids. In the ancient books and patterns left by Sumerians, the recorded images of Sumerian gods are all related to the stars in the sky. None of these gods are human. Each god represents a star, and there are many different planets around each star. The whole star map is almost the same as that drawn by modern people! At least one thing is incredible: maybe Sumerians can see those stars. However, common sense tells us that it is impossible for them to observe those stars and planets with their own eyes! In addition, in some patterns, some people wear stars on their heads, or some people spread their wings and fly balls, and there are even such patterns: a string of virtual and real balls form a big circle, which makes people look like gene models.
If these written records are not enough to prove that Sumerian culture has the characteristics of surpassing other ancient national cultures, then Sumerians' use of numbers can be said to have reached an unparalleled level: on a clay tablet found near the pyramid, a calculation problem of multiplying two numbers is listed. If the final product is represented by Arabic numerals, the result is actually a fifteen-digit number 195.
However, the Greeks around 500 BC still believed that five digits 10000 was simply an "incalculable value", and anything exceeding 10000 was called "infinity". For Europeans, mathematicians and philosophers such as Descartes and Leibniz were not used for calculation for the first time until after 1600. However, in the concept of ordinary people in the west, people began to understand the number of numbers after entering the19th century, so that the name millionaire became synonymous with the richest man with countless wealth.
The name Sumerians is not Sumerians' own name, but names given to them by others. Akkadians first used this name. Sumerians call themselves "sag-gi-ga" and their place of residence is called "ki-en-gir". The word Shumer used by Akkadians may be a variant of this name in the local dialect. Sumerians are different from their Sumerian neighbors and heirs in language, culture and possible appearance. In the past, some people thought they were invaders, but archaeological excavations proved that the residential culture in southern Mesopotamia lasted from the Obeid culture in the early 53rd century to the 46th century. Today, the arid alluvial plain in southern Iraq is a difficult area for local residents. To survive here, people here must be able to control the Tigris River and the Euphrates River to ensure the source of irrigation and drinking water throughout the year. In Sumerian, words such as canal, dam and reservoir are very rich. Obeid ceramics are related to the earlier ceramics of Samara culture in the north (from the 58th century to the 50th century). People of Samara culture used the water of Tigris River and its tributaries for early and primitive irrigation agriculture. The settlements excavated by French archaeologists in the 1960s and 1980s near present-day Larsa clearly show the connection between the two cultures. Here, eight-layer ceramics from early Obeid culture coexist with Samara culture. Sumerians spread southward from here, and their advanced social organization and technology provided them with such conditions. They can control the water source and survive and develop in a difficult environment, but the local primitive hunting culture can't compete with it.
Some people think that the word Sumerian should only refer to Sumerian language, but there is no isolated Sumerian nation. Sumerian is an isolated language in linguistics and does not belong to any language family. Akkadian belongs to Semitic language family.
history
The earliest Sumerian period consisted of several independent city-states, which were separated by canals and boundary markers. The center of every city country is the temple of the patron saint or goddess of the city. Each city-state is ruled by a priest or king who presides over the religious ceremonies in the city.