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Uruk

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The Epic of Gilgamesh is, perhaps, the oldest written story on Earth. It comes to us from Ancient Sumeria, and was originally written on 12 clay tablets in cunieform script. It is about the adventures of the historical King of Uruk (somewhere between 2750 and 2500 BCE).

 

Tablet XI, tells story of the Flood in Genesis chapter 6 and 7

 

 

 

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Genesis 9 vs 24 - 27; curse be Canaan (only Canaan)

Genesis 10 vs 6 - 20;

6. And the sons of Ham; Cush (Ethiopia), and Mizraim (Egypt), and Phut (Libya), and Canaan (Palestine).

7. And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.

8. And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

9. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.

10. beginning of Nimrod (Enmerkar) kingdom was Babel, Erech (Uruk), Accad and Calah in the land of Shinar (Sumer)

 

Map of the Land of Shinar / Sumerians (3rd Millennium BC)

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GENESIS 11 vs 27 - 32:

27. This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. 

28. And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 

29. Then Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.

30. But Sarai was barren; she had no child. 

31. And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. 

32. So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.

 



Uruk (Erech) was one of the most important cities (at one time, the most important) in ancient Mesopotamia. According to the Sumerian King List, it was founded by King Enmerkar (Nimrod) sometime around 4500 BCE.  Located in the southern region of Sumer (modern day Warka, Iraq), Uruk was known in the Aramaic language as Erech which, it is believed, gave rise to the modern name for the country of Iraq (though another likely derivation is Al-Iraq, the Arabic name for the region of Babylonia). The city of Uruk is most famous for its great King Gilgamesh (could be Nimrod or maybe his son) and the epic tale of his quest for immortality but also for a number of `firsts’ in the development of civilization which occurred there.

It is considered the first true city in the world, the origin of writing, the first example of architectural work in stone and the building of great stone structures, the origin of the ziggurat, and the first city to develop the cylinder seal which the ancient Mesopotamians used to designate personal property or as a signature on documents. Considering the importance the cylinder seal had for the people of the time, and that it stood for one’s personal identity and reputation, Uruk could also be credited as the city which first recognized the importance of the individual in the collective community. The city was continuously inhabited from its founding until c. 300 CE when, owing to both natural and man-made influences, people began to desert the area. It lay abandoned and buried until excavated in 1853 CE by William Loftus for the British Museum.

 

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The Uruk Period

The Ubaid Period (c. 5000-4100 BCE) when the so-called Ubaid people first inhabited the region of Sumer is followed by the Uruk Period (4100-2900 BCE) during which time cities began to develop across Mesopotamia and Uruk became the most influential. The Uruk Period is divided into 8 phases from the oldest, through its prominence, and into its decline based upon the levels of the ruins excavated and the history which the artifacts found there reveal. The city was most influential between 4100-c.3000 BCE when Uruk was the largest urban center and the hub of trade and administration.

In precisely what manner Uruk ruled the region, why and how it became the first city in the world, and in what manner it exercised its authority is not fully known. The historian Gwendolyn Leick writes:

The Uruk phenomenon is still much debated, as to what extent Uruk exercised political control over the large area covered by the Uruk artifacts, whether this relied on the use of force, and which institutions were in charge. Too little of the site has been excavated to provide any firm answers to these questions. However, it is clear that, at this time, the urbanization process was set in motion, concentrated at Uruk itself. (183-184) 

Since the city of Ur had a more advantageous placement for trade, further south toward the Persian Gulf, it would seem to make sense that city, rather than Uruk, would have wielded more influence but this is not the case.

 

Artifacts from Uruk appear at virtually every excavated site throughout Mesopotamia. The historian Julian Reade notes:

Perhaps the most striking example of the wide spread of some features of the Uruk culture consists in the distribution of what must be one of the crudest forms ever made, the so-called beveled-rim bowl. This kind of bowl, mould-made and mass-produced, is found in large numbers throughout Mesopotamia and beyond. (30) 

 

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Ur

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Ur was a city in the region of Sumer, southern Mesopotamia, in what is modern-day Iraq. According to biblical tradition, the city is named after the man who founded the first settlement there, Ur, though this has been disputed. The city’s other biblical link is to the patriarch Abraham who left Ur to settle in the land of Canaan. This claim has also been contested by scholars who believe that Abraham’s home was further north in Mesopotamia in a place called Ura, near the city of Harran, and that the writers of the biblical narrative in the Book of Genesis confused the two.

Whatever its biblical connections may have been, Ur was a significant port city on the Persian Gulf which began, most likely, as a small village in the Ubaid Period of Mesopotamian history (5000-4100 BCE) and was an established city by 3800 BCE continually inhabited until 450 BCE. Ur's biblical associations have made it famous in the modern-day but it was a significant urban center long before the biblical narratives were written and highly respected in its time. 

 

The Early Period & Excavation

The site became famous in 1922 CE when Sir Leonard Wooley excavated the ruins and discovered what he called The Great Death Pit (an elaborate grave complex), the Royal Tombs, and, more significantly to him, claimed to have found evidence of the Great Flood described in the Book of Genesis (this claim was later discredited but continues to find supporters). In its time, Ur was a city of enormous size, scope, and opulence which drew its vast wealth from its position on the Persian Gulf and the trade this allowed with countries as far away as India. The present site of the ruins of Ur are much further inland than they were at the time when the city flourished owing to silting of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

 

From the beginning, Ur was an important trade center owing to its location at a pivotal point where the Tigris and Euphrates run into the Persian Gulf. Archaeological excavations have substantiated that, early on, Ur possessed great wealth and the citizens enjoyed a level of comfort unknown in other Mesopotamian cities.

 

As with other great urban complexes in the region, the city began as a small village which was most likely led by a priest or priest-king. The king of the First Dynasty, Mesannepadda, is only known through the Sumerian King List and from inscriptions on artifacts found in the graves of Ur.

The Second Dynasty is known to have had four kings but about them, their accomplishments, or the history during this time, nothing is known. The early Mesopotamian writers did not consider it worthwhile to record the deeds of mortals and preferred to link human achievements to the work and will of the gods. Ancient hero-kings such as Gilgamesh or those who performed amazing feats such as Etana were worthy of record but mortal kings were not afforded that same level of concern.

 

The Hero-Kings of Akkad

This changed with the rise of Sargon of Akkad (r. 2334-2279 BCE) and his Akkadian Empire which ruled over the diverse regions of Mesopotamia between 2334-2083 BCE. Sargon the Great claimed to have been born of a priestess and a god, floated down the river in a basket of bulrushes to be found by the servant of the king of the city of Lagash, and rose from obscurity – through the will of the goddess Inanna – to rule all of Mesopotamia. The inscriptions he left dare those who follow him to do the deeds he did if they hope to call themselves a king and his life was worthy of the efforts of the scribes of the region for centuries after his death. 

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Sumer



Sumer (Shinar) was the southernmost region of ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq and Kuwait) which is generally considered the cradle of civilization. The name comes from Akkadian, the language of the north of Mesopotamia, and means “land of the civilized kings”. The Sumerians called themselves “the black headed people” and their land, in cuneiform script, was simply “the land” or “the land of the black headed people”and, in the biblical Book of Genesis, Sumer is known as 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.

 

The Ubaid Period

The region of Sumer was long thought to have been first inhabited around 4500 BCE. This date has been contested in recent years, however, and it now thought that human activity in the area began much earlier. The first settlers were not Sumerians but a people of unknown origin whom archaeologists have termed the Ubaid people - from the excavated mound of al-Ubaid where the artifacts were uncovered which first attested to their existence - or the Proto-Euphrateans which designates them as earlier inhabitants of the region of the Euphrates River.

 

Whoever these people were, they had already moved from a hunter-gatherer society to an agrarian one prior to 5000 BCE. Excavations from al-Ubaid and other sites throughout southern Iraq have uncovered stone tools from the Ubaid people such as hoes, knives, and adzes and clay artifacts which included sickles, bricks, painted pottery, and figurines.

These people were the first agents of civilization in the region. At what point the people who came to be known as Sumerians entered the area is not known.

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The Sumerian King List

According to the scholar 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” (The Sumerians, 43). The Sumerian King List is a cuneiform document, written by a scribe of the city of Lagash, sometime around 2100 BCE which lists all of the kings of the region, and their accomplishments, in an attempt to show continuity of order in society dating back to the beginning of civilization.

As the Mesopotamians generally, and the Sumerians specifically, believed that civilization was the result of the gods’ triumph of order over chaos, the King List is thought to have been created to legitimize the reign of a king named Utu-Hegal of Uruk (r. c. 2100 BCE) by showing him as the most recent in a long line of rulers of the region. Etana is famous from the myth of the man who ascends to heaven on the back of an eagle and, like other kings mentioned in the list (Dumuzi and Gilgamesh among them) was known for superhuman feats and heroism.

 

Utu-Hegal, it is thought, was trying to link himself to such earlier hero-kings through the creation of the King List. Since the Mesopotamians believed that the gods had set everything in motion, and that human beings were created as co-laborers with the gods to maintain order and hold back chaos, the early writers of history in the region concentrated more on the links between the rulers and their gods.

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Dogon Creation Mythology & Origin of Mankind (The Dogon Series Pt 1)

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The Dogon are believed to be of Egyptian decent and their astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC. According to their traditions, the star Sirius has a companion star which is invisible to the human eye. They are renowned for their knowledge about the Sirius system which dates back to 3200 BC, long before scientists discovered it in 1862. 

 

According to them, the Sirius A, which is the brightest star in Earth’s night sky, had a much dimmer companion: Sirius B, which has a fifty-year elliptical orbit around the bright Sirius A and is extremely dense. From oral tradition, the Dogon confirmed their affiliation with extraterrestrial bodies which visited earth some years ago. According to them, ugly amphibious beings in the form of mermaids and mermen from the Sirius system known as Nommos, visited earth. The Nommos lived on a planet that rotated around other stars in the Sirius system.

 

The Dogon recount that the Nommos, after descending on earth in an ark-like structure, gave them information about the Sirius system and the earth’s Solar system: that Jupiter has four major moons, Saturn has rings and that all planets orbit around the sun. The Dogon commemorate the Sirius A’s fifty-year elliptical orbit around Sirius B with the Sigui Celebration, held every sixty years. It is unclear why the Dogon celebrate the rotational year of the Sirius B every sixty years and not fifty. However, since the last Sigui celebration was in 1967, the next celebration is expected to happen in 2027. They believe that the celebration of the Sirius B’s rotation comes to renew the earth. 

 

Mali is a small landlocked country situated in the West African region of the continent and home to the legendary Dogon people.

The Dogon tribe occupies a region in Mali (south of the Sahara Desert), currently having an estimated 100,000 members and are believed to be of Egyptian descent (a debated speculation). After living in the Libyan region for a time, they settled in Mali, West Africa, bringing with them astronomy legends dating from before 3200 BC.

 

The first Western scientists to visit and study the Dogon people were French anthropologists Drs Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, who initially made contact with them in 1931. They documented the traditional mythology and sacred beliefs of the Dogon, which included an extraordinary body of ancient lore regarding Sirius ­ the brilliant, far-distant Dog Star.

For food, they grow mostly onion which is exported to all Sudan regions and sorghum or millet which is consumed locally
 

DOGON CREATION MYTHOLOGY

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The Dogon creation myth is bit complex and quite controversial, having different versions. However, it is general believed that Heaven, which is regarded as the creator, is called Amma (also called Amen).  At the beginning of time, Amma (a supreme god who lived in the celestial regions and was the origin of all creation) created the Earth and immediately joined with it.  The stars represent the various bodily parts of Amma, while the constellation of Orion is called “amma bolo boy tolo“, “the seat of Heaven“, or “Amma’s navel“.

 

Amma split in two, creating Ogo, who represents disorder. Ogo descended to Earth in an ark, along the Milky Way which connects Heaven and Earth through a form of bridge, and he created havoc on Earth.

 

Amma then decided to create a representative of order, called Nommo, and also created for him 8 assistants, comprising of 4 couples of twins.  These 8 were called the ancestors of human beings, and they too descended to Earth in an ark, also created by Amma. The ark was suspended from Heaven by a copper chain, which allowed the ark to float down to Earth, like the Sun traverses the sky and settles in the west.

 

As a matter of interest, the Dogon build a representation of the ark which is left in every home for ritual purposes; it is woven from dry leaves into a boat shaped basket. Amma created the stars by throwing pellets of earth into space. He created the sun and moon by modelling two white earthenware bowls, one encircled with red copper, the other with white copper.

‘Black people were born under the sun and white people under the moon.’ L.V.Thomas, Les Religions de L’Afrique noire, Paris, 1969)

The Nommos descended from the sky in a vessel accompanied by fire and thunder. After arriving, the Nommos created a reservoir of water and subsequently dove into the water. The Dogon legends state that the Nommos required a watery environment in which to live.

The Nommo divided his body among men to feed them; that is why it is also said that as the universe “had drunk of his body, the Nommo also made men drink. He gave all his life principles to human beings.” The Nommo was crucified on a tree, but was resurrected and returned to his home world. Dogon legend has it that he will return in the future to revisit the Earth in a human form.

It must be noted that there are a number of different versions of the Dogon’s origin myths as well as differing accounts of how they got from their ancestral homelands to the Bandiagara region. The people call themselves ‘Dogon’ or ‘Dogom’, but in the older literature they are most often called ‘Habe’, a Fulbe word meaning ‘stranger’ or ‘pagan’.

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THE BOOK OF ENOCH

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Ge’ ez

 

Geez is the father of all languages and is the oldest language in the world, it is 5000 years old and still spoken in Eritrea and Ethiopia with own alphabet and numbers. Born in Mosobotawian (Syria) and used by christian in east africa.

 

Geʿez language, also spelled Geez, liturgical language of the Ethiopian church. Geʿez is a Semitic language of the Southern Peripheral group, to which also belong the South Arabic dialects and Amharic, one of the principal languages of Ethiopia. Both Geʿez and the related languages of Ethiopia are written and read from left to right, in contrast to the other Semitic languages.

 

The Book of Enoch (also 1 Enoch;[1] Ge'ez: መጽሐፈ ሄኖክ maṣḥafa hēnok) is an ancient Hebrew apocalyptic religious text, ascribed by tradition to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah.[2][3] Enoch contains unique material on the origins of demons and giants, why some angels fell from heaven, an explanation of why the Great Flood was morally necessary, and prophetic exposition of the thousand-year reign of the Messiah.

The older sections (mainly in the Book of the Watchers) of the text are estimated to date from about 300–200 BC, and the latest part (Book of Parables) probably to 100 BC.[4]

Various Aramaic fragments found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as Koine Greek and Latin fragments, were proof that The Book of Enoch was known by Jews and early Christians. This book was also quoted by some 1st and 2nd century authors as in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. Authors of the New Testament were also familiar with some content of the story.[5] A short section of 1 Enoch (1:9) is cited in the New Testament, Epistle of Jude, Jude 1:14–15, and is attributed there to "Enoch the Seventh from Adam" (1 En 60:8), although this section of 1 Enoch is a midrash on Deuteronomy 33:2. Several copies of the earlier sections of 1 Enoch were preserved among the Dead Sea Scrolls.[3]

It is not part of the biblical canon used by Jews, apart from Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews). Most Christian denominations and traditions may accept the Books of Enoch as having some historical or theological interest and while the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church consider the Books of Enoch as canonical, other Christian groups regard them as non-canonical or non-inspired.

It is wholly extant only in the Ge'ez language, with Aramaic fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls and a few Greek and Latin fragments. For this and other reasons, the traditional Ethiopian belief is that the original language of the work was Ge'ez, whereas modern scholars argue that it was first written in either Aramaic or Hebrew; Ephraim Isaac suggests that the Book of Enoch, like the Book of Daniel, was composed partially in Aramaic and partially in Hebrew.[6]:6 No Hebrew version is known to have survived. It is asserted in the book itself that its author was Enoch, before the Biblical Flood.

 

The most complete Book of Enoch comes from Ethiopic manuscripts, maṣḥafa hēnok, written in Ge'ez; which was brought to Europe by James Bruce in the late 18th century and was translated into English in the 19th century.



June 28, 2016

World’s first illustrated Christian Bible discovered at Ethiopian monastery. The world’s earliest illuustrated Christian book has been saved by a British charity which located it at a remote Ethiopian monastery.

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Genesis 10 vs 6; And the sons of Ham; Cush (Ethiopia), and Mizraim (Egypt), and Phut (Libya), and Canaan (Palestine).

 

BOOK ENOCH: (Angels, the Children of the Heavens) 

Chapter 6; 1. And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. 2. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.' 3. And Semjâzâ, who was their leader, said unto them: 'I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.' 4. And they all answered p. 35 him and said: 'Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.' 5. Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. 6. And they were in all two hundred; who descended ⌈in the days⌉ of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. 7. And these are the names of their leaders: Sêmîazâz, their leader, Arâkîba, Râmêêl, Kôkabîêl, Tâmîêl, Râmîêl, Dânêl, Êzêqêêl, Barâqîjâl, Asâêl, Armârôs, Batârêl, Anânêl, Zaqîêl, Samsâpêêl, Satarêl, Tûrêl, Jômjâêl, Sariêl. 8. These are their chiefs of tens.

 

Chapter 7; 1. And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. 2. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: 3. Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, 4. the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. 5. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood. 6. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.

 

Chapter 8; 1. And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals 〈of the earth〉 and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. 2. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjâzâ taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, Armârôs the resolving of enchantments, Barâqîjâl, (taught) astrology, Kôkabêl the constellations, Ezêqêêl the knowledge of the clouds, 〈Araqiêl the signs of the earth, Shamsiêl the signs of the sun〉, and Sariêl the course of the moon. And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven . . .



False:

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Enoch Chapter 9 vs 1 - 5; (maṣḥafa hēnok, written in Ge'ez)

1. And then Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel looked down from heaven and saw much blood being shed upon the earth, and all lawlessness being wrought upon the earth. 2. And they said one to another: 'The earth made †without inhabitant cries the voice of their crying† up to the gates of heaven. 3 ⌈⌈And now to you, the holy ones of heaven⌉⌉, the souls of men make their suit, saying, "Bring our cause before the Most High.".' 4. And they said to the Lord of the ages: 'Lord of lords, God of gods, King of kings, 〈and God of the ages〉, the throne of Thy glory (standeth) unto all the generations of the ages, and Thy name holy and glorious and blessed unto all the ages! 5. Thou hast made all things, and power over all things hast Thou: and all things are naked and open in Thy sight, and Thou seest all things, and nothing can hide itself from Thee.

 

Genesis 5 vs 18 - 24; Enoch the seventh from Adam

 

Ancient workers were paid with BEER: 5,000-year-old clay tablet from one of the first cities could be the world's first 'payslip'

* Clay tablet was unearthed at the site of ancient city of Uruk in modern Iraq

* It shows a human head eating from a bowl - the cuneiform text for 'ration'

* A funnel shaped vessel beside the figure depicts the word 'beer'

* Marks also show how much of the beer each of the workers received 

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It was one of the first fully functioning cities to emerge in the ancient world and it survived for more than 4,000 years before being finally abandoned.

Now a 5,000-year-old tablet found in the city of Uruk in modern-day Iraq could help to explain what helped keep it inhabitants happily living together for so long – they were paid in beer.

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In what is thought to be one of the oldest payslip to ever be discovered, the tablet excavated from the site of the city shows the cuneiform depiction of human head eating from a bowl, meaning 'ration'.

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A clay tablet (pictured) found among the ruins of the ancient city of Uruk could be the world's earliest payslip. The cuneiform writing depicts a human head eating out of a bowl - meaning 'ration' - and a conical container meaning 'beer' Scratches on each of these are thought to denote the payment given to each worker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beside each is a conical vessel, meaning 'beer' and scratches alongside each that depict the amount of beer being given to a particular person.

WHERE WAS THE FIRST CITY?

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While the world's first cities are thought to have been founded in Mesopotamia following the Neolithic revolution in around 7,500BC, there is a great deal of debate about where the oldest city is.

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There is evidence that Jericho on the West Bank has been settled since 9,000BC. Byblos, now in Lebanon, is thought to have been the first Phoenician city founded in 7,000BC.

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The Egyptians founded Shedet, which later became known as Crocodilopolis, in about 4,000BC.

Much of the debate about where the first cities appeared lies in how they are defined.

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Most definitions require a certain population and housing density to be met.

The city of Uruk, an ancient Sumerian city on the Euphrates, for example, boasted a population of around 14,000 people by the year 3,700BC.

Others also require a settlement to have distinct walls or fortifications, or the presence of some sort of administrative government before it can be regarded as a city.

 

Experts believe this is evidence that in this early civilisation to emerge in Mesopotamia there were already concepts of workers and employers.

Before this human society revolved around sharing of the chores and resources that accompanied small scale farming and hunting.

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