Posts Tagged ‘Babylon’
Kudurru? (meaning ‘boundary’ or ‘frontier’ in Akkadian civilization). Land grants, bestowed by the king onto a person.
By Wu Mingren
While stone monuments have been used at various times in ancient Mesopotamia, it is especially associated with the Kassite period. The kudurru served as a record of gifts, especially land grants, bestowed by the king onto a person.
Today, examples of these boundary stones are exhibited in Museum.
The Origin of the Kudurru
Prior to the Kassite period (known also as the Middle Babylonian period), which lasted from around the 16 th century BC to the middle of the 12 th century BC, stone monuments like the kudurru were already being produced. These were known as narus.
It was only during the Kassite period that kudurrus began to be made. These were highly polished stone, normally limestone, slabs / blocks onto which royal grants were recorded.
The kudurru derived its name from the fact that these gifts usually took the form of land grants . Although one might imagine that the kudurru was used to physical mark the boundaries of a person’s land, this was not the case.
Instead, a kudurru would have been kept in a temple, while a clay copy of the original was given to the landowner.
Babylonian kudurru of the late Kassite period. (Rotatebot / Public Domain )
Kudurrus Were Considered Sacred
For modern scholars, kudurrus also provide some insight into the religious beliefs of the ancient Mesopotamians. Since kudurrus were kept in temples, an indication that they had some sacred value attached to them.
They were meant to be visible not only by worshippers who came to the temple, but also by the gods. The association with the divine realm is also evident in the imagery carved onto these stones.
In general, all the gods responsible for the preservation of the universe are depicted on the kudurru. The gods are arranged in rows according to their position in the divine hierarchy and are represented by their symbols.
The ordering of the gods on these boundary stones reveals to us the beliefs held by the ancient Mesopotamians regarding the organization of both the cosmos and the divine realm.
A kudurru, boundary stone, from ancient Mesopotamia. (Mbzt / CC BY-SA 3.0 )
The top row of the stone was reserved for the astral deities – the moon god, Sin, the sun god, Shamash, and the goddess of Venus, Ishtar.
The next row was occupied by the sky god, Anu, the air god, Enlil, the god of freshwater, Ea, and the earth goddess, Ninhursag.
These were important gods , as they were responsible for maintaining the equilibrium of the universe.
In some instances, there is a line separating these gods from the astral deities, while in others they are placed together.
The next three rows were occupied by the warrior gods, the gods in charge of the earth’s fertility, and the deities of the underworld respectively.
What Was the Purpose of the Kudurru?
Like the arrangement of the deities, the text inscribed on kudurrus also follows a certain order. The text may be divided roughly into 2 parts..
The first part contains the nature of the land grant, as well as the clauses attached to it, whereas the second part contains a list of curses to deter anyone from violating the agreement.
These curses called upon the gods to punish those who violated the agreement.
Thus, the land grants documented on the kudurru were not merely contracts made among human beings but also with the gods, and those who dared break them risk divine retribution.
The text on the kudurru described the land grant and conditions. (Dudubot / CC BY-SA 2.0 )
Although the Kassite period came to an end around the middle of the 12 th century, the popularity of the kudurru continued and is considered to be a legacy of this dynasty.
This is evident, for instance, in the kudurrus dating to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I, a ruler of the Isin dynasty.
This was the dynasty that succeeded the Kassites . Kudurrus have been unearthed by archaeologists and are on display in various museums around the world today including the British Museum and the Louvre Museum.
Top image: The engraving of the gods depicted on the kudurru were arranged in a particular order. Source: Jastrow / Public Domain
By Wu Mingren
- Lost Years of Nabonidus, Last King of the Neo-Babylonian Empire
- Cursing Stones of Ireland: When Christianity and Pagans Pooled Their Sacred Water
- Nabopolassar: The Rebel Ruler of Babylonia Who Had the Gods on His Side
Note: Updated from 2019 article
“Monolithic” religions in the Land: Copy/paste of ancient stories since 4000 BC
Posted on: April 29, 2020
“Monolithic” religions in the Land: Copy/paste of ancient stories since 4000 BC
Note: Re-edit of “Assyrian myths transformed into Religious Stories in the Bibles and the Quran. posted in 2008″
The stories and myths in Assyrian and Sumerian mythologies were transformed into Jewish and Islamic sanctified stories.
These legends emerged in current Iraq (Assyria, Babylon and Ur) before 3500 BC or around 4000 years before the era of Islam.
The stories spread and moved into Jewish religious books, and deployed from Iraq to Palestine and then to Mecca, Medinah, Yemen and the Mashreq (North Africa) countries.
There was presence of many foreign immigrants in the Arabian Peninsula.
For example, the young Iraqi from Mosul who served water and grapes to the Prophet Muhammad at Taif as its inhabitants were stoning Muhammad, and the Persian Salman, Suhaib and Bilal the Abyssinian…
These are some of the myths of ancient Iraq and corresponding in Islam.
1. The legend of the flood:
In an Assyrian mythology the gods determined to annihilate mankind and they warned Uttonbshtm and his wife and sons. He was to build a great ship and put a couple of each kind of animal. In the Koran the same story and details with the one difference is that the hero is Nou7 (Noah).
Archaeological excavations uncovered that the flood covered 300 miles in the old city of Ur.
Details of the flood are identical between Iraqi and Jewish mythology, and in the Islamic text the flood was intended to punish humans who have rotted in the ground except a good man, his family and a number of animal-build ship and resort group are excluded from it.
Send birds to explore the Earth after the flood recedes.
The Prophet Abraham came from Ur old Iraqi city in the South and brought with him the story of the flood.
2. Trip to heaven: gods Adaba corresponding story of ISRA ‘ and Mi’raj.
3. Journey to the sky: gods Etana, the bird Eagle offset in the Quran the Prophet Muhammad’s journey to the bright sky in Ascension.
4. The journey of Gilgamesh to paradise.
5. Paradise in the legends of Iraq in the Pharaonic monuments mentioned paradise and their descriptions. In both cases where the rivers and trees and eternal life, a garden of Eden.
Eden is a word derived from the word Eden Sumerian and means easy and flat ground and the location of the garden of Eden in the South of Mesopotamia.
The idea of paradise appeared and was invented by the Sumerians in Iraq and then moved to the Canaanites and then the Pharaohs then moved to Jews and Muslims.
6. The underworld of floors: in Islam the 7 earths.
7. Demons and goblins appeared in legends of the old Iraq as set out in the Qur’an and Hadith.
8. The story of the beginning of the creation of the universe when Iraqi veterans (the sea was the first in the creation of the universe): in the Qur’an (the throne over the water).
The journey to the underworld = Islam shake them down low.
Seven days seven nights – using the number seven is repeated seven earths skies in Islam, seven 7 days.
9. Expulsion from paradise and eternity: God’s wrath on the ethics for refusing his food and the expulsion of immortality and paradise to land in Islam expelled Adam from paradise for he ate of the tree was the same story in Jewish books (Torah) before Islam the same meaning of the Qur’an.
10. Hell-the seven gates of the underworld.
Big doormen in the underworld: equivalent in Islam there is paradise Ranger Rizwan guard fire.
Eternity of God is only matched in the Qur’an God live and not die.
Gilgamesh is grappling with the divine bull that represents seven years lean-lean in the Qur’an in seven years.
Repetition in speech when the Assyrians – Kan Muhammad repeats certain phrases a lot.
Cleansing, washing the God Oruro = offset ablution in Islam.
The God Enki restored life to the goddess Inanna after death = ISA Hayat returned the dead.
The God Enki eat 8 plants and fuck that befell it because of that = offset in Islam and Judaism the Adam ate from the tree and was cursed and the anger and the expulsion from paradise.
The God Enki became ill in his rib and Lady of the gods were invited to his recovery = corresponding create women’s rib.
11. The God Enlil sending plagues to kill humans in the story of Moses, = and in the Qur’an God take revenge from the people of Egypt sent a plague on them.
12. Eternity is obedience to God = Islam to obey human beings to God their intervention paradise eternity.
13. Was thought in ancient Iraq that the kindness of God and satisfaction of human disease and saves lengthens age = and the same belief in Islam.
14. Babylonian goddess Ishtar Arabic versions were called LAT and ‘ Uzza and Manat (warrior goddesses in the Arabic Peninsula).
15. The rise of the goddess Inanna of death = in Islam Jesus resurrects the dead and God limit people and then animates them.
16. The separation of the soul from the body = Islam out of the spirit of death.
17. Pad in legends of Assyria and Babylon = palette and fatalism in Islam.
18. The legend of ancient Iraqi culture similar to the story of Adam and Eve and take out them from paradise.
19. A person must die when the Assyrian gods do = in Islam God decides when a human dies.
Note 1: What the author mentions as Assyrian mythology is a direct hand me down transcript from one Empire to another in Iraq and Greater Syria that I call The Land (countries west of the Euphrates River and including south west Turkey, current Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan).
The Assyrian Empire is one of the latest that conquered other empires in the Land. These mythologies go as far back as 4,000 years before Christian calendar, and span the Empires of Akkad, Sumer, Babylon, Canaan…
Note 2: What the western countries label as the 3 monolithic religions are in fact a single one in 3 main versions.
The Old Testament or Bible was written in Alexandria two centuries before the coming of Christ. The New testament was written in several languages: Byzantine Empire selected 4 Books that happened to be written in popular Greek (not the elite formal Greek).
All the many dozens of Books were labelled Heretics, burned, discarded, and lost for lack of heretic Christian sects to transcribe and disseminate.
The Quran was written in many Arabic slang languages (which are derived from the Aramaic, the language of the people in the Land. The third caliph Ibn Affan decided to rewrite the Quran in the Mecca slang of the tribe of Quraish.
Note 3: Actually, besides the mythical or typical stories of the Land, the Old Testament is a description of the customs and traditions of The Land, and everything else is pure historical falsification, kind of extending a history to roaming tribes.
For over a century now, Israel and the Zionist movement couldn’t locate a single archaeological finding that prove the existence of the Kingdoms of David or Solomon or any Jewish artefact: The Jews remained mostly bedouin tribes in the land of Canaan (current Palestine and southern parts of Syria and Lebanon) and never reached the seashore at any moment in their existence in Palestine
https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2009/09/19/complete-story-of-jesus-visit-to-jerusalem/
Note 4: References: book flight to paradise and hell in the legends of the old Iraq – a Ministry of culture and information, 1998-book mythology in Mesopotamia-Baghdad 1984 book of Ishtar and Tammuz and tragedy book epic of Gilgamesh – Beirut and many Arabic and translated books on religion and mythology in ancient Iraq Sumer, Assyria and Babylon Sami dj_jigga civilized dialogue-number: 2354-7/26/2008
Note 5: The Arabic text posted on FB by Zahrat Al Mandella
وانتشرت وانتقلت إلى اليهود وادخلوها ضمن كتبهم الدينية والذين انتشروا وانتقلوا من العراق إلى فلسطين ومنها إلى المدينة المنورة وبلدان المشرق.
…
وكان هناك وجود للعراقيين في مكة وما جاورها فالشاب الذي قدم الماء والعنب للنبي محمد في الطائف عندما زارها للدعوة لدينه وقابله أهلها بالرجم بالحجارة كان شابا عراقيا مسيحيا من الموصل وكان في مكة والمدينة أشخاص من بلدان عديدة مثل صهيب الرومي وسلمان الفارسي وبلال الحبشي مما يعنى وجود مهاجرين وانتقال ثقافات وتلاقى وانتقال أفكار.
وهذه بعض الأساطير العراقية القديمة وما يقابلها في الإسلام:– أسطورة الطوفان : في أساطير أشورية أن الآلهة عزمت على محق البشر وأنها أنذرت أوتونبشتم وزوجته بذلك فبنو سفينة عظيمة ووضعوا ا فيها زوجين من كل نوع من الحيوانات ونجو من الطوفان وفى القران نفس القصة والتفاصيل مع فارق واحد هو أن بطلها نوح بدل أوتو نبشتم وجود دلائل على وقوع طوفان نهرى حقيقي في مناطق من العراق في الألف الثالث قبل الميلاد.
من خلال الحفريات الأثرية وغطى الطوفان 300 ميل ووجدت في الحفريات آثار الطمي في مدينة أور من أثار الطوفان.
تفاصيل الطوفان متطابقة بين الأساطير العراقية واليهودية والنص الإسلامي الهدف من الطوفان عقاب البشر الذين افسدوا في الأرض باستثناء رجل صالح وعائلته وعدد من الحيوانات – بناء السفينة ولجوء المجموعة المستثناة من العقاب إليها.
إرسال طيور لاستطلاع الأرض بعد انحسار الطوفان.
– إبراهيم النبي جاء من أور المدينة العراقية القديمة في الجنوب وجلب معه قصة الطوفان.
– رحلة الإلهة إيتانا إلى السماء على طائر النسر يقابلها في القران رحلة النبي محمد على البراق إلى السماء في الإسراء والمعراج.
– رحلة جلجامش إلى الفردوس الأرضي.
– الجنة وردت في أساطير العراق ووردت في الآثار الفرعونية ذكر الجنة وأوصافها وفى كلتا الحالتين ذكر أن فيها انهار وأشجار وحياة أبدية كلمة جنة عدن – عدن كلمة عدن مشتقة من كلمة إيدن السومرية وتعنى سهل وارض منبسطة وموقع جنة عدن في جنوب وادي الرافدين وفكرة الفردوس والجنة ظهرت واخترعها السومريون في العراق ثم انتقلت إلى الكنعانيين ثم الفراعنة ثم انتقلت إلى اليهود والمسلمين.
– العالم السفلى مكون من طوابق = في الإسلام الأرضون السبع.
– الشياطين والعفاريت وردت في أساطير العراق القديم كما وردت في القرآن والحديث.
– في قصة بداية إنشاء الكون عند العراقيين القدماء (كان البحر الأول في خلق الكون) = في القرآن (كان عرشه على الماء).
الرحلة إلى العالم السفلى = في الإسلام يخسف بهم أسفل سافلين.
سبعة أيام سبعة ليال – استخدام الرقم سبعة يتكرر في الإسلام سموات سبع أرضون سبع سبعة أيام.
الطرد من الجنة والخلود: غضب الإله على آدابا لأنه رفض الطعام المقدم له وطرد من الخلود والجنة إلى ارض وفى الإسلام طرد ادم من الجنة لأنه أكل من الشجرة ووردت نفس القصة في كتب اليهود ( التوراة) قبل الإسلام بنفس المعنى الوارد في القرآن.
الجحيم – البوابات السبع للعالم السفلي.
الرحلة إلى العالم السفلى = في الإسلام يخسف بهم أسفل سافلين.
سبعة أيام سبعة ليال – استخدام الرقم سبعة يتكرر في الإسلام سموات سبع أرضون سبع سبعة أيام.
الطرد من الجنة والخلود: غضب الإله على آدابا لأنه رفض الطعام المقدم له وطرد من الخلود والجنة إلى ارض وفى الإسلام طرد ادم من الجنة لأنه أكل من الشجرة ووردت نفس القصة في كتب اليهود ( التوراة) قبل الإسلام بنفس المعنى الوارد في القرآن.
الجحيم – البوابات السبع للعالم السفلي.
كبير البوابين في العالم السفلى يقابله في الإسلام رضوان حارس الجنة وهناك حارس النار.
الخلود من نصيب الآلهة فقط يقابله في القران الله حي لا يموت.
جلجامش يصارع الثور الإلهي الذي يمثل سبع سنوات عجاف – في القرآن سبع سنوات عجاف.
التكرار في الكلام عند الأشوريين – كان النبي محمد يكرر بعض العبارات كثيرا.
التطهير بغسل اليدين الإلهة أورورو = يقابله الوضوء في الإسلام.
الإله أنكي أعاد الحياة إلى الإلهة أنانا بعد موتها = عيسى أعاد الحياة للأموات.
الإله أنكي أكل من النباتات الثمانية واللعنة التي حلت عليه بسبب ذلك = يقابل ذلك في الإسلام واليهودية قصة ادم الذي أكل من الشجرة وحلت عليه اللعنة والغضب وطرد من الجنة.
الإله أنكي أصيب بمرض في ضلعه ودعيت سيدة من الآلهة لشفائه = يقابل ذلك خلق المرأة من الضلع.
– الإله إنليل يرسل الأوبئة لقتل البشر= وفي قصة موسى في القران الله ينتقم من أهل مصر بإرسال الوباء عليهم.
– الخلود مرتبط بطاعة البشر للآلهة = وفى الإسلام طاعة البشر لله تدخلهم الجنة دار الخلود.
– ساد الاعتقاد في العراق القديم أن عطف الآلهة ورضاها ينقذ البشر من الأمراض ويطيل أعمارهم = ونفس الاعتقاد في الإسلام.
– الإلهة البابلية عشتار كانت لها نسخ عربية تسمى اللات والعزى ومناة.
– نهوض الإلهة أنانا من الموت = في الإسلام عيسى أحيا الموتى والله يميت الناس ثم يحييهم.
– انفصال الروح عن الجسد = في الإسلام خروج الروح من الجسد علامة الموت.
– لوح القدر في أساطير أشور وبابل = لوح القدر والقضاء والقدر في الإسلام.
– أسطورة أدابا العراقية القديمة تشابه قصة ادم وحواء وخرجهما من الجنة.
– لا بد للإنسان أن يموت عندما تقرر الآلهة الأشورية ذلك = في الإسلام الله يقرر متى يموت الإنسان.
المراجع:
كتاب الرحلة إلى الفردوس والجحيم في أساطير العراق القديم – إصدار وزارة الثقافة والإعلام العراقية 1998 –
وكتاب الأساطير في بلاد مابين النهرين – بغداد 1984
وكتاب عشتار ومأساة تموز وكتاب ملحمة جلجامش – بيروت وكثير من الكتب العربية والمترجمة عن الدين والأساطير في العراق القديم سومر وأشور وبابل
سامي كوكابي الحوار المتمدن – العدد: 2354 – 2008 / 7 / 26
Babel, Babylon: A historic site, a city, a kingdom, a “communication confuser”…?
Posted on: April 4, 2012
Babel, Babylon: A historic site, a city, a kingdom, a “communication confuser”…?
Babel is Bab Eblo in Babylonian language, which translates to Bab Eel (Door of the God) in Sumerian language and called Kad Nekrowa 6,000 years BC. Babel is situated 60 km south of Bagdad and became famous during the Akkadian Kingdom around 3,350 BC and later during Hammurabi, the king who is renowned for the first laws penalizing builders for defective constructions…
River Euphrates flowed by Babel, bu the river is very distant now from its original bed. Later, the Persian kingdom built their Capital Ctesiphon south of Bagdad and on the eastern side of the Tigres River. Babel and this region was the center of the universe for thousand of years, and Babylon was the center between 562-604 BC during the reign of Nabukhodnossor who ruled over Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Egypt…Babel was rediscovered by German archeologists around 1899, particularly by Robert Coldway.
Babel northern entrance was dedicated to goddess Ishtar (goddess of fertility) and the huge door was transported to Berlin. The door was painted of 575 animal species, and the dragon (dedicated to God Marduk) had a fish body, the tail of a serpent, the front legs were a lion, and the hind legs those of an eagle.
The south castle was the heart of the city and spanned 52,000 square-meter and had 172 rooms. Each of the 5 successive esplanade, stretching from east to west, had specific function, and the south side on each esplanade had a huge community housing. The central esplanade was the Throne headquarter. The third is recorded to witness Alexander death in 323 BC and who offered sacrifices every day during his stay in Babylon. Actually, Babylon was Alexander capital for 9 years.
The Street of Victory was on the north side and 60 sculpted lions were lined on the sides. The Street was used for religious ceremonies, especially on Babylon New Year that started on April and celebrations extended for 11 days. The festivities begin at the Tower of Babel, pass through the temples, to the north area, and end at the House of Celebration (Beit Akito)
The long and vast Street of Victory was in asphalt, a tar product extracted from the Heat region in Ramadi, and scientists are still unable to reconstitute this product. Mind you that oil products, afloat in abundance in the south regions, were known at the period and the cities in Iraq were lit by oil lamps.
By the south-east side of Ishtar Door is the main temple called A-Mach (the High House). A well was in its center for the virgin girls to bath before getting wed during the New Year. Alexander offered sacrifices in this temple.
There is this famous Babel Lion of one block of basalt and weighting about 5 tons, and sitting on a base representing the various vanquished people. The rock is from north current Syria and brought via the Euphrates River.
The US military used this particular historic site as one of the major headquarter and vandalized the site and transported the precious artifacts and sold many of them. Later, the US returned a few historic pieces to the Iraqi government.
Urban and warlike civilizations
Posted on: June 16, 2010
Lions and lionesses along the Fertile Crescent ancient Empires
Major civilizations built empires and cities along major rivers such as the Nile, Euphrates, Tiger, Indus (Pakistan), Ganges (India), and the Yellow River in China.
At the current rate of modernization and deforestations most of the aborigine tribes would disappear within a few decades. Many civilizations have vanished but a few have managed to survive precariously so far.
The best approach to explaining the succession of civilizations and Empires in the Fertile Crescent that raided and conquered the Near East civilizations such as in Lebanon, Palestine and Syria (Phoenicia, Canaan, Aram) is the analogy of survival among the lions and lionesses.
As a young lion attains two years, after being chased out of the clan, prowls the region for lionesses to mate and establish clans of their own. Old lions are attacked and displaced and the cubs are eaten and slaughtered by the new King to quickly attract the lioness in heat and then new progenitors are formed. The lioness fights valiantly to preserve her cubs but ends up giving up.
Since a lion lives to be 10 years old, on average, while the lioness can outlive him by 7 years and diffuse many progenitors of her owns then the survival of these mammal carnivores is mainly due to the survival of the lionesses. The lionesses chase and bring meat to the clan and care for the cubs.
Almost all the ancient civilizations in the Middle East, (the Nile River excluded because in Africa), were established along the Fertile Crescent of the main Rivers of Litany, Al Aassi, Euphrates and the Tiger (for example, the people inhabiting Lebanon, Syria, the southern part of Turkey, the Western part of Iran and Iraq).
The warrior Empires were Akkad, Babylon (Iraq), Assyria (Kurdestan of Iraq), Persia, Pharaonic Egypt, Hittite (Inland Turkey), Greece, Selucian, Roman, and later Byzantium, Sassanide, Arab (Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatemid), Seljuk, Crusaders, Mamelouks, and Ottomans.
The young male lions from emerging warrior Empires, during their conquests and expansion, reclaimed the civilized glory and achievements of the Near East people as their own proper. The Near East people were constantly behaving like the lionesses: they first fight valiantly for their cubs, and when they inevitably fail against the young lions then they mate with the conquerors after the invaders had tried to kill all their progenitors.
The latest archeological discoveries located developed urban centers around the borders of Syria and Turkey that were 10,000 years old; it is these centers that later established the Sumer Kingdom in southern Iraq around 5,000 years ago.
A few citizens of City-States like Byblos, Sidon and Tyr and much later Carthage burned down their cities and then set fire on themselves to avoid servitude and surrender. While these young lions were strutting and showing off in the regions and adapting to the new civilizations, it was the constant duty of the lionesses to chase and bring the meat to the table and care for the household: They fed and civilized the conquerors.
The Near East people were bringing the food to the tables and caring for the glamour and wants of the invaders whose sole job was to making war and killing on their war paths.
I read chapters from an Arabic book by Georges Masrou3a. Masrouaa asked an archeologist about the Achmoun Temple in Sidon “Saida”, built around 550 BC and he replied that it was a Persian design from King Kourush I period.
Masrouaa then asked the archeologist why he claimed that it is Persian and the latter said because that is what the archeology archives claim to be. Persia had no such Temple at Kourush’s time; even if the Persian King paid for it at the expense of the invaded people that should not be a basis to claim achievements of other civilizations.
This is the same story with the temples in Baalbak; the archeologists would claim that it was the work of the Romans since 200 BC but if this monument was of Roman style and glory then why the Romans failed to build something close to it in Rome or in Italy?
We have the same contentions for the impressive horse track and humongous amphitheater in Tyr (500 by 200 meters) that was built before 500 BC according to Herodotus; if this amphitheater was the work and style of the Romans then why did the Roman wait another three centuries to build their Coliseum? The same goes to the Jerusalem Temple even though the architects, builders and foramens and craftsmen and master workers were from Tyre during King Hiram or “Ahiram”.
Euclid, Zenon, Plotin, Tales, Homer, Pythagoras and scores of great thinkers were born and lived in our coastal City-States stretching from Palestine to Turkey such as Akka, Tyr, Sidon (called the eldest son of Canaan in the Bible), Beyrouth, Byblos, Ugarit, Antaqia, and so on and yet they were labeled as Greeks. Is it simply because we were under Greek dominion that our famous thinkers should be Greeks, even if they didn’t enjoy the privileges of Greek Athens City-State citizens?
Scores of our famous people were labeled Romans simply because we were under Roman hegemony. For example, the eminent legal masters, in the third century, Papinian and Olypian lived in Beyrouth (Beryt); Olympian is indeed the martyr of jurists because he adamantly refused to offer a legal opinion in favor of Emperor Caracala for the killing of his brother Jeita.
If this is the case then, why Jesus is to be simply a Jew and not Roman? St. Paul was actually a Roman citizen that he inherited from his father and great father and yet Paul is said to be simply a Jew. There is undoubtedly a systematic disinformation concerning the cultural heritage of the Near Eastern civilizations.
The Europeans purposely have chosen to start their civilization from Ancient Greek in 600 BC because they claimed Athens City-State to be democratic and they had to emulate the democratic system in Greek Athens.
Democracy was developed in the City-States of Byblos, Sidon, Tyr, Ugarit and Mary several centuries before Athens existed. These City-States had democracy within their city limits as Athens and Rome emulated later on because communication and transport were limited and the administration of such a complex democratic system was not feasible at a larger magnitude at the time. Thus, democracy was not translated to the colonies as Greek Athens also failed to do.
Theaters via their verbal communications in plays were the main medium for spreading democracy and the clashing of ideas of various opposition groups; plays created a citizen consciousness that is different from immediate civic consciousness of oratorical speeches. The Near Eastern civilizations were ahead of Athens several centuries in theater plays; Athens got the attention because a few of its written literatures were preserved and translated. For example, Aeschylus wrote over 90 works but only seven of his tragedies remained to prove the dynamics of Athens’ democratic system.
Although the City-States in the Levant developed commercial empires they never built theocratic warrior Empires because their citizens focused on civilized endeavors and opted in armed struggles to just defending their central Cities. Athens managed to defend its civilization outside its City limits and even asked the cooperation of other Greek City-States like Sparta and the famous Thebes that the Phoenicians had built centuries before Athens existed and which Alexander erased completely before launching his Asian campaign.
We can confirm that the Near East region was the bedrock of all the civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea in religion, philosophy, sciences, literature and arts.
Regardless of genetic sources, which are an amalgamation of many nations and which is not that important for the purpose of this article, anyone from current States in the Near East should take pride in their ancient civilizations and their original identity as the forefathers of contemporary modern democratic civilizations in Europe and the Greater Mediterranean Sea regions.
Note: Currently, we still have the ethnic Saamis (Norway and Finland), Inuits (Siberia, Alaska, and Canada), Ainous (Japan), Indians (USA and Canada), Zapotec (Mexico), Mosquitos (Nicaragua), Quiches (Guatemala), Cunas (Panama), Yanomamis and Guaranis (Brazil), Galibis and Akawaios (Guyana), Paez ans Guambianos (Colombia), Waoranis (Equator), Amueshas (Peru), Chimanes (Bolivia), Araucans (Chili), Touaregs and Bororos (Sahel in Northern Africa), Tigres (Ethiopia and Somalia), Dinkas (Sudan), Masais (Kenya and Tanzania), Pygmees (Zaire), Sans or Bushmen (Namibia and Botswana), Kalingas (Philippines), Kachins and Rohingas (Myanmar or Birmani), Hmongs (Laos), Santals and Gonds (India), Punans (Malaysia), Uzbeks and Tadjiks (Afghanistan), Aborigines (Australia), Maoris (New Zealand), Papous (New Guinea).
Adonis Diaries 