Bogdan Fiedur's Personal Interest Blog: September 2013

Sumerian Depiction on a cylinder seal of a spacecraft

In my previous posts I have written about Sumerian culture and how historians believe that such an unexpected civilization not being preceded by any other civilized group has been established. Some 2,000,000 years earlier man has used stones as tools until circa 3800 B.C.
Out of nowhere man achieved unprecedented development of civilization and to this day scholars have no answers where the Sumerians came from and who they were.

Sumerian Clay Tablets - A differnt story about human kind
Were ancient Gods simply astronauts from different planets?
Genesis by Sumerians - Anunnakies and Nibiru

How was it possible that out of nothingness new civilization showed up and have created beginnings of what we today might consider as our own accomplishments.

Reading book "The 12th Planet" by Zecharia Sitchin I have found out that Sumerians have discovered or were given solutions which some of them were not know to human kind even 200 years ago.

How civilization 4000 years ago was able to use mass printing devices, use oil to create fuel, build highrises (40 stories pyramids), understand cosmology better than our science even 50 years ago, be able to do medical operation on humans, have legal and financial system, developed their own writing, understand mathematics and medicine, have basics for family arrangement where they were able to give support to divorced woman, have known how to travel by ships and traveled through oceans, while during Middle Ages we believed that earth was flat, that Columbus discovered America, and later that Gutenberg invented print and certain medical procedures were not know to us even 100 years ago.

Why all this in first placed appeared and then disappeared or at least stagnated for thousands of years.

Here is condensed list of know facts about Sumarians and what they have contributed to based on the "The 12th Planet" by Zecharia Sitchin.

Hellenic alphabet which was forefather to Latin came from Near East and was closley related to Phoenicia alphabet. From this two languages all other European languages were adopted.
All numerical values were adopted from Near East.
It has been establish that the cultural, religious and historic roots of Old Persians go back to Babylon and Assyria.
The language used by Babylonians and Assyrians called Akkadian has been used during the Sumerian times.
Sumerians invented cuneiform (a form of writing), which has been adopted by Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians and other Near East nations.
There are remains of building plans made in stone, showing measurements of the building and size and shape of the bricks to be used. Even though plan is two dimensional and single floor it describes 3 dimensions of the 7 floor building.
Sumerians invented printing. Sumerians scribes used ready-made "type" of the various pictographic signs, which they used (in the same fashion as we use today rubber stamp), to impress desired sequence of signs in the wet clay.
They invented predecessor of our rotary press, the cylinder seal. Made out of stone cylinder had engraved negative image of a message or design. When cylinder was rolled on the wet clay, positive image was impressed. It has been used for example as a seal and proof of authenticity.
Sumerians created mathematical sexagesimal system. Combination of 10 with 6. Considered even today as superior system to the current decimal we are using. The remnants of this system still in our life is 360-degree circle, foot and its 12 inches, the dozen and more.
They Established calender.
Advancement in astronomy (more in another article).
Since all messages were stored on clay tablets, Sumerians have highly developed profession of scribes who had wet clay available for any kind of contracts or documents.
Sumerians invented bricks. One of their breakthrough was to mix clay with chopped straw and then they hardened them in a kiln.
They have build first high rise buildings using their bricks.
They understood art of metallurgy and were able to create bronze.
The first use of petroleum products in Sumer is dated circa 3500 BC. It appears that use and knowledge of fuels in Sumerian times was greater than in later civilizations. In addition to use as a fuel, Sumerians used petroleum products to build roads, waterproofing, caulking, painting, cementing, molding and medicine. They had terms in their language for any form and kind of bituminous substances found in Mesopotamia. The word naphta is derived from napatu.
Within medical profession, they had surgeons, therapists and domain called "commands and incantations",
Their law codes describe fees payable to surgeons for successful operations and penalties in case of failure. If surgeon would harm patient's eye during head operation, he would lose his hand. They were skilled in removing cataracts. There were two groups of physicians. Water physicians and oil physicians. There were also veterinarians.
Sumer was known in ancient times for its woven fabrics and its apparel.
Another major Sumerian achievement was its agriculture. They developed irrigation canals. It appears that all fruits, vegetables, seeds and spices reached Europe from Mesopotamia.
Sumerians have known processes of converting grains into breads, porridge, pastries, cakes and biscuits. They have fermented Barley to produce beer. Wine was obtained from grapes and from the palms.
Milk was available from sheep, goats and cows, which was used for cooking, converted into yogurt, butter, cream and cheese.
Fish, pigs and mutton were commonly available as meats. Roasted meat was offered with libation of prime beer, wine and milk. One tablet describes food as follows.
- In the wine of drinking
  In the scented water,
  In the oil of unction-
  This bird have I cooked,
  and have eaten.
Sumerians had water transportation system for people, goods and cattle. Early depictions show boats used for transportation.
They used ships to reach faraway lands in search of metals, rare woods and stones and other materials not available in Sumer. There are around 69 known Sumerian terms connected with managing and construction of ships.
Sumerians first used the wheel for overland transportation. They had verity of vehicles, from carts to chariots and they were first to employ ox as well horse power for locomotion.
The first schools were established in Sumer. There is evidence of school buildings by the beginning of the third millennium B.C. There were thousands of scribes in Sumer. The schools taught language, writing, sciences such as botany, zoology, geography, mathematics and theology and were headed by umnia (expert professor). Whip has been used as a correctional tool very extensively. You could be punished for missing the school, not being neat enough, for loitering, for not keeping silent and even for not even handwriting.
Sumerians had first congress. There are writings about Sumerian ruler, Gilgamesh who had to submit the question of war and peace to The Assembly of the Elders some 5000 years ago.
There was a written code which was setting max price for foodstuffs, for rental of wagons and boats. There were also laws dealing with person's offenses against person and property, regulations pertaining to family matters and master-slave relationship, real estate, marriage and inheritance and default on taxes and unfair use by supervisors of their powers. The rights of the blind, poor, widowed and orphaned were present. A divorced woman nearly 5000 years ago-was granted the protection of the law.
The Sumerian laws were upheld by court system. Contracts were meticulously recorded and preserved. The justice acted more like juries than judges. There were usually up to four judges, where one was a professional judge and others drown from a panel of thirty six men.
They were able to record musical notes written on a cuneiform tablet. There were "key numbers" and coherent musical theory existed. There were found countless depictions on cylinders and clay tablets of musical instruments, singers and dancers performing.
Sumerians are credited with creation of the first clay bricks, plastered walls, mosaic decorations, cemeteries with brick-lined graves, painted and decorated ceramics, copper mirrors, paint of eyelids, copper-headed cloth, houses and monumental temple buildings.

When you read this list you might scratch your head if this is all not made up. It definitely sounds like this is, but supposedly all this has been written on thousands of clay tablets and cylinder seals.

The question still remains, why all this knowledge is not part of school curriculum and mainstream views? Why 1000s of artifacts in museums in Iraq during the American invasion and occupation have been displaced and gone missing. Maybe because millions of books would have to be rewritten and many people who made their career on current views would lose their jobs?
And what about religions? Would they correct their Bible and start interpreting events from different level?