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Why is the The Mesopotamian Civilization considered the oldest civilization?

Posted on 02/19/2022 8:36:01 AM PST by MNDude

As long as I have been alive, the The Mesopotamian Civilization has been considered the oldest civilization. I'm curious what is the criteria to be considered a civilization? Is it really the oldest, or is something that archeologists do not wish to update their books after spending a lifetime devoted to this teaching.

The Mesopotamian civilization dated back to 6500 BC, but the Jiahu in China dated back to 7000 BC.

Gobekli Tepe, in Turkey, was a temple was built along a grand geometric plan in 9000 BC.

I'm curious to hear an opinion from any archeology\ anthropology experts here.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: agriculture; ancientnavigation; animalhusbandry; archaeoastronomy; catalhoyuk; chat; china; cuneiform; dietandcuisine; epigraphyandlanguage; fauxiantroll; fauxiantrolls; gobeklitepe; godsgravesglyphs; harappan; megaliths; mesopotamia
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To: Kevmo
They wish.
61 posted on 02/19/2022 11:24:40 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: MNDude

Why is the The Mesopotamian Civilization considered the oldest civilization?

Because with that declaration no one will pay any attention to all the blatant anomalies that predate it by thousands and even hundreds of thousands of years.

It is the steady-state that only changes ever so slowly, where everything is known - except a few minor details, ask no questions, do as you are told, and never ever look up.


62 posted on 02/19/2022 11:27:51 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: SunkenCiv

Does it seem odd that so many definitions of civilization seem to claim it’s not really civilization if it’s based on kin and tribes?

Most civilizations have been, at least until very recently.


63 posted on 02/19/2022 11:28:30 AM PST by jjotto ( Blessed are You LORD, who crushes enemies and subdues the wicked.)
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To: KobraKai

Not to mention sites in California that date to 150-200,000 BC or the ones in Mexico to South America that date to 360,000 BC.

The deep past is not what it used to be. Its far far deeper.


64 posted on 02/19/2022 11:31:01 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Noumenon

They were the first to brew beer.

Neanderthals brewed beer 40,000 years before them.


65 posted on 02/19/2022 11:32:45 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Buttons12

Not bad, (before lunch) but you forgot to include when women realized men could, on occasion, be right about stuff.


66 posted on 02/19/2022 11:36:39 AM PST by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches anything.)
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To: Buttons12

That said, I suspect those creatures depicted on the GT pillars were totem animals, representing not prey but tribes of humans


Or astrological figures - the Vulture seen on several pillars later may have became the Swan - a very prominent star group all around the world in many old world views.

Then there is the interpretation that there is actually a message conveyed and a warning using symbols people of that time would have understood.


67 posted on 02/19/2022 11:38:03 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: MNDude

Meanwhile, they’re done with nation states.


68 posted on 02/19/2022 11:46:03 AM PST by aspasia
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To: Bob Ireland
It is established that Göbekli Tepe was built by hunter gatherers over about a 2,000 year span ...

It is established theorized that Göbekli Tepe was built by hunter gatherers over about a 2,000 year span. And more theorizing after that - no one knows what it was for, especially since only a fraction of the site has been opened.

69 posted on 02/19/2022 11:46:23 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: marktwain

That;s exactly what many are coming to believe happened in 10,600 BC.

The Earth passed through a huge (100 mile dia) broken up comet field - the resulting strike burned of 4% of the worlds vegetation, killed off the mega fauna, destroyed existing world wide civilization, ushered in the Younger Dryas Cold Event which lasted 1000 years.

In the process, the surviving human population was driven insane, lost their memory of the past, and had to start over again without knowing who they are or what came before.

You don’;t have to wipe out 99%.

We all can describe how phones work, but who here could build one from scratch? Mean while, while you write down all the steps you can remember, some one has to feed you, or you have to fed your self, but other people have dibs on the food so you get none, starve to death ; no one has a clue what was on the paper where you wrote everything down, but it makes a good fire started which is more important that phones.

You just have to make life about personal survival, minute to minute - all the rest is unimportant and is quickly forgotten.


70 posted on 02/19/2022 12:00:28 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: SunkenCiv
***Civilization is, plain and simple, living in cities. Nothing at all to do with writing***

Nevalı Çori
OR:
http://www.fhw.gr/chronos/01/en/intro/nevalicori.html

For your viewing pleasure... 👴

71 posted on 02/19/2022 12:05:12 PM PST by Bob Ireland (The Democrap Party is the enemy of freedom.They use all the seductions and deceits of the Bolshevics)
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To: GreyFriar
My pleasure.

72 posted on 02/19/2022 12:07:47 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: outofsalt
Not bad, (before lunch) but you forgot to include when women realized men could, on occasion, be right about stuff.

I study history, not sci fi! :P

73 posted on 02/19/2022 12:10:04 PM PST by Buttons12 ( )
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To: MNDude
“I'm curious what is the criteria to be considered a civilization?”

In my opinion civilization does not require writing. For example Slavic or Scandinavian states/petty kingdoms hadn't use writing until they accepted Christianity in 9-11th century AD. Nevertheless, some of them were fairly strong and well organized. Does it require cities ? I guess it depends how you define a city. It definitely requires a sort of urban permanent settlements + control over territory + the structure of power.

In short, civilization should somehow resemble contemporary era countries. Göbekli Tepe is fascinating but (unless they find out something totally new over there) it wasn't a civilization, more like a place of occasional gatherings. In the last decades we learned that people living 5-10 thousand years ago were not as primitive as previously thought but still they weren't really creating civilizations, they were more like a missing link between primitive hunters/gatherers and civilizations.

Regarding the ice age civilizations and so on... never say never but for now there's nothing indicating that they existed. They are domain of new age cults / conspiracy nutjobs, who generate a lot of fake information. Actually, many archeologists would straight away give their kidney for the opportunity to discover some unknown ancient civilization.

74 posted on 02/19/2022 12:13:51 PM PST by Grzegorz 246
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To: dhs12345
"Wonder which happened first — math or writing? At the same time?"

Math. The moment Og realized his neighbor Zug had 3 more pelts than Og did, it was on like Donkey Kong.

"And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

'Here are eleventy billion trees just don't eat from this ONE'. Math.

75 posted on 02/19/2022 12:15:36 PM PST by StAnDeliver (Each of you have at least 1 of these in your 401k: Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, J&J, Merck and GSK)
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To: Bob Ireland

Again, civilization is, plain and simple, living in cities.

Nothing at all to do with how residents supported themselves.

Just that one criterion — living in cities.

Not literacy, not how they fed themselves.


76 posted on 02/19/2022 12:15:53 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Grzegorz 246

Norse runes originated about the beginning of the Christian era, circa 0 AD or BC.


77 posted on 02/19/2022 12:17:58 PM PST by marktwain (Amazing people can read a persons entire personality and character from one photograph.)
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To: PIF

“killed off the mega fauna”

For example ?


78 posted on 02/19/2022 12:19:27 PM PST by Grzegorz 246
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To: wgmalabama

Speaking of penicillin:

It has been noted that in North Africa in the 19th c, tribesmen used an ointment derived from the mold on harnesses and saddles. A French doctor by the name of Ernest Duchesne pointed this out but his peers ignored him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Duchesne

Back in the 1st c BC, Marcus Terentius Varro wrote:

“there are bred certain minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, but which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and cause serious diseases.”

His peers ignored him too.


79 posted on 02/19/2022 12:22:26 PM PST by Buttons12 ( )
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To: SunkenCiv

How do cities appear? Big bang? Alakazam?

I’d say cities are a feature of civilization. Not synonymous with it.


80 posted on 02/19/2022 12:26:09 PM PST by Buttons12 ( )
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