9 Things You May Not Know About the Ancient Sumerians

History Channel dot com ^ | Original: Dec 16, 2015 Updated: Feb 5, 2019 | Evan Andrews

[SunkenCiv]

Along with inventing writing, the wheel, the plow, law codes and literature, the Sumerians are also remembered as some of history's original brewers... dating back to the fourth millennium B.C. The brewing techniques they used are still a mystery, but their preferred ale seems to have been a barley-based concoction so thick that it had to be sipped through a special kind of filtration straw. The Sumerians prized their beer for its nutrient-rich ingredients and hailed it as the key to a "joyful heart and a contented liver." ...

The Sumerian invention of cuneiform -- a Latin term literally meaning "wedge-shaped" -- dates to sometime around 3400 B.C. In its most sophisticated form, it consisted of several hundred characters that ancient scribes used to write words or syllables on wet clay tablets with a reed stylus... The Sumerians seem to have first developed cuneiform for the mundane purposes of keeping accounts and records of business transactions, but over time it blossomed into a full-fledged writing system used for everything from poetry and history to law codes and literature. Since the script could be adapted to multiple languages, it was later used over the course of several millennia by more than a dozen different cultures. In fact, archaeologists have found evidence that Near East astronomical texts were still being written in cuneiform as recently as the first century A.D.

The origins of the sixty-second minute and sixty-minute hour can be traced all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia... Base-60 eventually fell out of use, but its legacy still lives on in the measurements of the both hour and the minute... [and] spatial measurements such as the 360 degrees in a circle and the 12 inches in a foot.

[SunkenCiv]

This ancient "Stele of Music" depicts 'King Gudea of Lagash' carrying a peg and cord and followed by figures probably representing his princely heir and two priests. Image credits: Louvre

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

[dp0622]

They also invented the first AA :)

[hope_dies_last]

Bkmrk

[a fool in paradise]

that’s nothing, I’ll tell you 10 things I don’t know about Ancient Sumerians

[rlmorel]

I love your threads, but I have to admit, the mention of their brewing prowess made me think not of the excellent Sumerians, but of the SNL Sketch: Medieval Barber Theodoric of York

"I guess I had a little too much mead and darted out in front of an oxcart!"

[Grimmy]

I don’t know more about the Ancient Sumerians than you don’t know.

[SunkenCiv]

LOL

[nickcarraway]

They invented the super hero.

[SunkenCiv]

what is the letter a in cuneiform

Google

[rlmorel]

By the way, I know I got off subject, but that was an interesting article. It sounded like they were in a state of nearly constant civil war between entities that should have been friends and allies...

[dp0622]

It looks like 2 arrowheads next to each other.

I wish I knew how to insert that on here :)

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/456341374722070315/

[SunkenCiv]

The city-states would occasionally get more prosperous than their neighbors and would march on out and couquer as many as they could. This often happened when another city-state had some kind of setback such as a military defeat, dynastic crisis, that kind of thing. Lagash, which I'm sure most had never heard of, went through a boom phase, lots of public building construction, prosperity -- then got pulverized shortly after Gudea's time, and pretty much wiped out. The large cuneiform archive (clay tablets) of Mari was preserved by the inferno that consumed the city when it was destroyed by a none-too-neighborly neighbor. But that ws a huge break for modern scholars, so, too bad, so sad. :^)

[bagster]

I have solved the riddle.

Oh, wait. Ancient SUMERIAN.

Never mind.

[GOP Poet]

:)

[Viking2002]

The Sumerians prized their beer for its nutrient-rich ingredients and hailed it as the key to a "joyful heart and a contented liver." ...

Tell that to my damned doctor, will ya???

[Viking2002]

Where do you put the baking powder to make it submerge and surface?

[SunkenCiv]

Zey alzo zmoked ziggurats!

[SunkenCiv]

1. One of the larger Sumerian cities may have had 80,000 residents.
2. The list of Sumerian rulers includes one woman.
3. The Sumerian city-states were often at war with one another.
4. The Sumerians were famously fond of beer.
5. Cuneiform writing was used for over 3,000 years.
6. The Sumerians were well-traveled trade merchants.
7. The hero of the Epic of Gilgamesh was probably a real Sumerian historical figure.
8. Sumerian mathematics and measurements are still used today.
9. Sumerian culture was lost to history until the 19th century.

---

Epic of Gilgamesh and Gilgamesh keywords, chrono sorted, duplicates out, a three hour tour? A three hour tour?

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