SCIENCE III

SUMERIA AND OTHER ANCIENT CULTURES

Previously: “Studying the ancient stories of Sumer, some history buffs believe some Nephilim (also called the Annunaki) came cruising by from the planet Nibiru and created humans as slaves.”

Apparently the idea of a paradise, a heaven and hell, of a god and angels, a tree of immortality and even a great flood came originally from Sumeria. In fact some call the Sumerians the first human civilization, and already it was filled with these fantastic stories. They show the first evidence of a system of writing (or we wouldn’t know so much about them), had the first standing army in history, and had cities with walls around them. it appears as though they just burst full-blown onto the scene. But of course we must always keep in mind that Archaeology is barely getting started, and we’ve only dug up about 5% of the earth’s land surface – there could be father-civilizations out there still.

I once assisted with the making of a short film set in medieval times. It started out with a nursemaid telling a story to children in a castle. We decided that the children should be of every race we could get hold of. Only later did it occur to me that we were actually altering history. Children of every race did not live in European castles in the Middle Ages. It felt so right to do it that way, but it wasn’t the truth. Given the choice, I wouldn’t do it that way again, but it goes to show, I think, how astonishingly easy it is to make the story just a little more fair or pleasant or clear or just. Not only were there children of all races, they were all dressed as only princes and princesses would have been dressed at the time. I call this the 25% embellishment allowance. If you seriously consider this story-telling flaw, then extrapolate over a few centuries - think how many generations came and went before our ancient stories were written down, it’s frightening. What have we been believing? This is why so many seekers are searching for the most ancient of religions – we want to know what mankind thought before the deterioration of centuries. Sumer gives us that.

But it would be too bad if someone mistook “2001: A Space Odyssey” as a true history or as a religious teaching of our century. How can we tell Sumerian’s entertainment literature from actual beliefs? We can’t.

The fact that Sumerians “invented” writing is also to their blame – for what is oral changes with the times, but what is written can last for centuries without change. I guess that’s both a good thing AND a bad thing.

When archaeologists uncovered evidence of a kind of combination soccer/basketball court in South America, what made them decide it was a religious pastime? We’re never told. The ball going through the hoop describes the same arc as the sun in the sky? Oh, please! Can’t they have enjoyed sports? Sure, there are some murals that depict one team killing the other, but don’t we basically say the same? We’re going to murder the other team? And the Aztec bent for executions (sometimes several thousand in a single DAY) is believed to be a way of sending prayers to the gods. I haven’t seen the evidence of that (and I don’t believe we’ve deciphered their writing as yet). Is it just an archaeologists’ imagining? Of all the sciences out there, archaeological anthropology is probably the one we’d be most likely to understand, but we’re not shown the evidence, just fed the party line.

In the study of history, listen! The most difficult lesson to learn is that people of the past were NOT stupid! They were just like us. I’ve heard people laughing about some of Walt Disney’s creations, saying if a future archaeologist found them, they might think we worshipped mice. What part of that is funny? It’s probably what we’re doing now!