7.3 The near east: 5000 to 3000 b.c.  (Page 2/2)

The Sumerians had wheeled vehicles

These same Sumerians developed the duodecimal system of measurement giving rise to our twelve inches to the foot, sixty minutes in an hour and three hundred sixty degrees in a circle. In addition to the island "Dilmun", they mention "Magan" as a distant copper mountain and "Meluhha" which may well have been the great Indus Valley civilization. At 5,000 B.C. they had primitive irrigation systems used to water fields as far as three miles on either side of a river. The resulting larger and richer crops, along with the necessity of water administration systems, probably led to the growth of some of the towns. Eventually, however, this leaching out of the earth's salts led to soil infertility. The food of Sumer included barley, wheat, millett, chickenpeas, lentils, beans, turnips, onions, garlic, leeks, cucumbers, lettuce, cress and mustard. There was plenty of fish and some beef and veal if one could afford it. The beef source, however, was from animals after their useful worklife was over and therefore it was tough. Mutton was common along with goat and pork, the last only until about 1,800 B.C. The Indo-European nomads roaming through the Mid-East may have started the loathing of pork, since they could be herded only with difficulty and had little stamina for movement. Forty percent of the Sumerian grain yield was used for ale production, but since no hops were available there was no true beer.

A temple workman received the equivalent of 2.2 American pints of ale a day and senior dignitaries five times that amount, some of which they may have used as currency. The cultivated grape came to Mesopotamia from the Caucasus about 5,000 B.C. and in later years, as the irrigation soured the soil and grain became more difficult to grow, many people took to either grape or date wines. (Ref. 211 , 95 , 238 , 136 , 94 , 175 , 213 )

AKKADIA-KISH This second center of civilization consisted of a Semitic people living to the north and west of Sumer with a separate culture. There is evidence that their Third Dynasty was in effect as early as 3,638 B.C. More will be heard about them in the next chapter.

Iran (persia)

A third center of civilization with copper weapons and tools, hieroglyphic writing and domesticated animals appeared east of Sumer, with a capital at Susa. Older writers thought that they might have been a Negroid

Asia minor

In this era there were colonies of the Cycladian civilization along the coast and a well developed Chalcolithic culture of basic Caucasian peoples inland. A 1978 study of skeletons from a dig at Kalinkaya in central Anatolia, dating to this period, indicated that the people were relatively short, the men averaging five feet four inches and the women just five feet. 20% of the women had healed ankle fractures or foot bone changes, probably from falls in their rocky country homes. There is some indication of nutritional stress in bowed tibiae, flattened long bones and flattened pelvic inlets. 33% of the limited number of skeletons studied showed vertebral osteoarthritis (compared to 50% in modern United States), and 12% showed extremity osteoarthritis (compared to 29% in modern U.S.) (Ref. 4 ). Agricultural societies were well distributed and there was trade and migration with other countries of the Near East. (Ref. 88 )

Forward to The Near East: 3000 to 1500 B.C.

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