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Reality Check
from
TheLunaticFringe Website
It is inauspicious to begin an article with an oxymoron such as
"cycle of human evolution." You know things won’t improve.
The term human evolution refers only to phylogeny (Stirling failed
to consult a dictionary). Perhaps what he really wants to say is
cultural development.
"Almost 6000 years ago" (4000 BCE) falls within the Chalcolithic (or
Eneolithic) in Mesopotamia, which is currently the countries of Iraq
and northeastern Syria. Notice it’s Mesopotamia, because Sumerian
was a language and Sumer was a culture. Sumerian disappeared as an
official language during the Agadian (Akkadian) period (2371-2230
BCE).
"Almost 6000 years ago" coincides with the building of a very simple
temple at Tepe Gawra (Notice to archaeology wonks: I’m using the
Middle Chronology). Ubaid culture evolved into the Warka (Uruk)
culture; Warka culture provided the earliest sample of writing in
Mesopotamia.
About 5500 years ago (3500 BCE) Sumerian-speaking people came out of
the hills, settled along the Euphrates River, and built a large
temple of mud brick at Eridu. Almost 5000 years ago (about 3000 BCE)
Sumerian-speaking people added to existing structures to create
monumental architecture (such as the White Temple in Kullaba and the
temple at Eanna). They also began establishing city-states and urban
areas.
The boundary of the cultures of Sumer and
Agade, according to the
Sumerian king-list, consisted of the area south of Baghdad defined
by the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the Persian Gulf. Influence of
these cultures extended to Ebla in the west, Nineveh in the north,
and Susa (in Elam) in the east.
Unu (what Agadians called Uruk) was the largest of the urban areas
in Mesopotamia around 3000 BCE, a total of 5.5 km2.
Zecharia Sitchin has done a good job researching the Sumerian
records.
One might start by reading that first.
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