Streets of Sumer

On the agenda today is the infrastructure and culture of

ancient Sumer. This vastly colorful civilization was

extremely colourful and efficient when it comes to

everyday life. They also had a lot of firsts for the ancient

world, especially at their time in history. I'll start with a

basic rundown of the cities within, and how the people

lived. I will also go into their communication methods, and

some of the incredible infrastructure they employed in their

cities. I will even talk a little about each city to the best of

my ability, and as always, if i leave anything out or if

something is incorrect, please leave it in the comments

below.

So, obviously, I’m not going to talk about every sumerian

city, but what I will talk about is the most Important ones,

or rather the central cities of Kingship. Those cities would

be Eridu, Uruk, Ur, Larsa, Isin, Adab, Kullah, Lagash,

Nippur, and Kish. The most well known being Eridu,

Uruk, Ur, Lagash and Nippur. They were mostly

nestled between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers

in what is now known as Iraq.

I wasn't originally going to give a rundown of each

city, and as there is a few things to talk about the

known culture of Sumer, I think it's fitting to talk

about a few, as it all ties into it.

Ur is the fabled home of Abraham, and was a center

of worship for the fertility goddess Inanna. My

understanding from research is that the city itself

was destroyed and rebuilt many times, and housed

a ziggurat dedicated to Inanna that rose 70ft over the

desert. There were other dynasties of rulers who later

excavated, rebuilt and built on to the city, eventually

making it one of the most prosperous cities of

mesopotamia. Ur sat on the northern tip of the persian

gulf, next to the Euphrates river.

Uruk was a very important city in history, as writing

was considered to be birthed here with the creation

of the well known Sumerian cylinder seal. This was

also home of the historical king Gilgamesh, whose

epic outlined his search for immortality and his

meeting of the gods. In some of the research I have

found, the city was dedicated to two prime deities,

one being Inanna, and her grandfather, Anu. It was

believed that Anu presided over the city originally,

and later he handed it down to Inanna. It is popular

belief the city was founded in about 4500 bc, but

many researchers believe that date contradicts what

the sumerians themselves wrote, and it could be

much much older.

Eridu was considered the first city of Sumer according

to the Sumerian Kings List, and the first home of the

gods. There is also a debate from mainstream

scholars of this being the home of the famed ‘Garden

of Eden’, but many believe it had another location. It

is also believed by mainstream scholars that this later

became a center for Inanna, but i find it hard to believe

that she would control all the cities of the area,

including the first. Eridu was the home of the Abzu,

temple to the god Enki. In some research, it's

suggested that this was a main landing place of the

gods, and much of the mined gold was moved through

here.

These cities were built with different styles of

architecture for their dwellings and temples.

Dwellings often consisted of a mud brick style

construction, while temples were built on a

megalithic scale using multi-ton blocks that survived

the ages. Most dwellings were equipped with basic

plumbing, so to speak, or basic toilets that led way to

a complex sewer system to bring waste out of the

cities. They had a booming social system and many

of the same amenities that we have today. From

doctors to printing presses. Though doctors weren’t

actually doctors at the time, they were known as

chemists, or alchemists, and there are places in the

world today that pharmacies are still known as

chemists, such as Great Britain. The Sumerian

chemists would often prescribed their patients things

for their ailments written on clay tablets. Which brings

me to what we could call their newspaper. The

Sumerians essentially made the first printing press

using the cylinder seal. Whatever message, picture,

or news they wanted written was carved in reverse

on the cylinder seal and rolled out into clay tablets

and baked for a few hours. My guess is that like

modern newspapers of our time, people worked into

the night to have the tablets ready for people to read

by morning. While the news wasn't as complex as

ours is today, they would outline upcoming events

and things the gods expected of them.

What marvels me the most about this culture is the

temples they built. Most we still don't know today

how they were built. As mentioned earlier about the

ziggurat of Ur that was dedicated to Inanna, they

were many more. One of the most complex was

Baalbek in Lebanon, which used in some places up

to 1300 ton stones. Stones which we cannot be

moved today. It's clear they had a method of

construction that makes ours today obsolete as

these stones were carved and placed in a manner

that wouldn't even allow a piece of paper to fit

between.

While the Sumerians had many firsts, they people

eventually abandoned these cities. But the amount

of technology used here is vast and still

unexplainable to this day. Their social life revolved

around the gods, and times of the year are very

important, such as harvest celebrations and so on.

So this obviously isn't everything there is about

Sumer. But I realize at the end of this that I will

have more to post on this topic at a later date.

There are many more cities, and important centres

of culture to go through. And the information is vast.

So stay tuned for a second part to this post.

So as always, thanks for supporting my blog. Like,

share and subscribe to keep up to date on anything

new I release.

Warm regards,

Spencer

The Great Civilizer

Today we're going to talk about some of the lesser known

South American gods, which many believe were connected

to the gods of Sumer. These two gods I will talk about are

the great civilizers of the South and North American worlds,

and it's the story of where they came from, what they looked

liked and what they did that is the most interesting. It is also

believed that they were old, very ancient, and that belief

comes from the Incas themselves, who say explicitly that

the pyramids of the south were there long before they got

there.

The one I'm going to start with is the lesser known of the two.

I'm talking about the great teacher known as Viracocha. If

you're not familiar with South American culture, specifically

the Inca, then you've likely never heard of him. The story

comes from the Nazca and Cuzco area of Peru, where a

great temple, called the Coricancha, was dedicated to

Viracocha in the pre-columbian era. The Coricancha itself

no longer exists, or as described by Graham Hancock, it was

buried under layers of later architecture, specifically a

cathedral built by the spanish. The lower walls are very old,

and build extremely strong, and the spanish simply built on

top. The temple itself was said to be fashioned with over 700

sheets of pure gold, and even had a replica crop of corn in

the courtyard fashioned from gold, and where an idol of

Viracocha once stood as well.

Viracocha was the great creator deity of the incas, and taught

them just about everything they know, and helped build the

temples they used to worship. It is said that Viracocha looked

a lot like Saint Thomas. Described as being lean bearded white

man, with a long flowing cloak. This to me is rather odd, as the

Incas themselves did not fit this description, and it makes

Viracocha sound strikingly Caucasian. This is why when the

bearded Spanish Conquistadors to conquer the Inca lands,

they welcomed them with open arms. Fed them with unending

food, and lavished them with gold. It was because of this that

they gained the decisive victory over the more numerous Inca.

For me, Viracocha resembles other deities, specifically one from

ancient Sumer. In Graham Hancock's book, Fingerprints of the

Gods, Viracocha is described by ancient culture as the Foam of

the sea, a master of science and magic who wielded terrible

weapons and who came in a time of chaos to set the world to

rights. He was described by an early Spanish chronicler as being

able to turn mountains into valleys, and valleys into mountains and

cause streams to flow from living stone. It was said that he came

from the south, and traveled along the highland route to the north,

creating miracles as he went. Speaking of great love and kindness

and admonishing them to be good and to do no damage or injury to

one another, but to love one another and show charity to all. He later

went to the coast, though it's not clear which one, and disappeared

in amidst the waves, where they named him Viracocha, which means

‘Foam of the Sea’.

Now, for me, the god that he resembles from ancient sumer is one

i spoke of in an earlier article, and i have a sort of story from Zecharia

Sitchin's work to go with it. The one I speak of is Ningishzida, who

according to ancient Sumerian text was driven out of Egypt and sent

to the western world by his father, Enki, after fighting with his brother,

Marduk, over the rights to egypt. This same story was also outlined in

the Emerald Tablets of Thoth, where after the sinking of Atlantis, Thoth

arrived in egypt to rule over the hairy barbarians and erect great

monuments, such as the Great Pyramid.

I know this might seem like a bit of a stretch, but i encourage others to

do some research and you’d be surprised as to what kind of parallels

you will find. They all were masters of science and magic, and they

spoke of love and charity towards others. Different gods with the same

exact message and skills? All were civilizers and teachings, bringing

people up as they went. Some believed they were part of a group of

civilizers that traveled as far as North America, as the Hopi have very

similar stories. As much as they are described as different people,

through my research Im lead to believe they are likely one in the same

person. Making his way across the Americas, raising people up from

savagery and teaching them how to live and love one another.

Unfortunately i didn't get to the other god, so that will have to be a later

post in itself. I didn't realize how much I had to say about this one, but

it wouldn't be right if i didn't give the whole story, and in fact there is a

lot more i could've included. For more information on Viracocha, I

encourage people to check out the work of Graham Hancock, and his

book Fingerprints of the Gods for a wealth of information on ancient

Inca culture.

Thanks for taking the time to read, and as always, please like, comment,

or subscribe to keep up on future posts.

Warm regards,

Spencer