Civilisations- Mesopotamia [5/6]

[anabolicErik]

jesus christ this french guys is spectacularly annoying without a fucking translator

[amn3h23h2]

"gilgamesh was a just king"... except for the whole raping of men's wives before their wedding night. until he met enkidu (who was awesome), gilgamesh was not a good person

[unifiedreality]

I wonder if the fact that they had a God for each city meant that the cities had no origin in memory for the residents; no records of any city founding. Was their writing invented after the cities developed?

[AloofPeregrine]

@unifiedreality I am still new to this myself so bear with me. There were peoples in these areas before the Sumerians (ex Ubaidians). Earlier peoples also weaved, farmed, etc but did not advance as far as the Sumerians later did. Sumerians invented writing after cities developed and as commerce along the river advanced, originally intended as a way to keep track of transactions. Patron gods and goddesses for each city-state was common in ancient world, even Greece (ex Athena to Athens).

[unifiedreality]

@AloofPeregrine Perhaps the patron god was the most popular one, and the success of a city being attributed to divine favour would mean that all the worship to their patron was paying off?

[CamoKhan2000]

They aren't myths, but accurate descriptions of real events. They are Anunnaki adventures.

And Enki, or Ea is very much alive. I have been teleported to His space ship more than once.

He rules.

[Ulterior1980]

Thumbs up if you waiting to skip the ramblings of a french guy

[Rapido2101]

Does anyone know if this is something of History Channel?

[AgApE010]

@Kudzaiofficial

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That's irrelevant. Did you even know what I was commenting about?

[narrowcross]

Iraq and maybe modern day Kuwaitis Arab, Kurdish and Assyrian natives are all the same! We are all native of this land! Sunni, Shia’s and Assyrian Catholic STOP fighting, it ONLY makes us weaker as a nation!

People of Iraq UNITE!

[MrAdee28]

no more beer, no more city. lol, thats how my city of los angeles is gonna die. once all the beer is gone, the party is over.

[britishmaniac1]

I love being french

[Yggi11]

Why on EARTH aren't there subtitles for the french guy??

[matthewkcarty]

what a shit portrayal of the sumerian wardrobe

[tk23456789]

frogo ruined the doc

[britishmaniac1]

@tk23456789 well the english talk in french documenterys and there annoyed too

[AgApE010]

@britishmaniac1

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English is the common language. French isn't.

[mongoose100989]

i wanna create a god and give it somthun character like the sun and give it a new name and associate it with myself.

[mongoose100989]

mesopotoms ate tortillas.

[mongoose100989]

bee-hive. honey comb.

[AntiquityCentury21]

The documentary also keeps showing the same neo-Assyrian monumental relief sculpture (from the Louvre) when describing all different types of topics on Sumerian history.

[perusperiaate5]

I read both Sumerian and Akkadian. This documentary mixes cultures. That is misleading. Sumerians and Akkadian-speakers spoke completely different langauges. The Sumerians preceeded the Akkadian-speaking cultures; however they did intermingle for a while. The statue looks Assyrian (Akkadian-speaking). That tablet looks either Babylonian-Akkadian or Assyrian-Akkadian. The steele is the famous steel of Naram-Sin the Assyrian king.

Anyway this documentary is pretty interesting.

[AriniaLendin]

French translation (end of vid): The decline of the Mesopotamian civilization happened for a number of reasons. The crops were in decline, which led to food shortages. The fish/ game in the area became scarce. The people were under attack by other nations who wanted their technology/ ideas about farming, hunting, etc. for themselves. It was a combination of these things that ultimately led to the end of the Mesopotamian civilization. These are speculations. The exact reasons remain unknown.

[AriniaLendin]

French translation (end of vid, 2): This is something you see with many of the ancient civilizations. You see a civilization that thrives for thousands of years and than seemingly disappears over night. This idea is inaccurate. Civilizations do not just disappear. There are a number of reasons why the people chose to move on. The people end up migrating to other parts of the world and integrate into other civilizations/ ways of life. In history, the stronger power rules. This is the case here.

[dhbeckwith]

Thank you so much for your translations. I suppose the assumption by the producers is that we are all multilingual. Thank goodness for you.

Donald

[AriniaLendin]

French translation: There were many ceremonies, festivals, and sacrifices that were held in honor of the gods. The different events were performed according to the time of year, or to mark births/ deaths/ other aspects of the Mesopotamian life. The Mesopotamian people offered food and drink to the gods as a sacrifice most commonly, although there are records of them spilling the blood of animals and in some cases human sacrifices were made, although they were not as common.

[AriniaLendin]

French translation (continued): Religious figures (priests) made an appearance at many of these events. The Mesopotamian people valued life and had many ceremonies that celebrated it. It was important to appease the gods and to make them a part of the celebrations, festivals, etc. The people celebrated by throwing large banquet parties with food and drink. All of these events were run on a schedule and celebrated different aspects of life.

Note: This is not a direct translation. Basic idea.

[peymaania]

The Chinese do not have scholarship on Ancient Mesopotamia, perhaps they will in the future.

[peymaania]

I hate to break this news to you, but French has been an established language far longer than English. Just because English is popular these days it does mean it will continue to do so in the future. Most scholarship in Ancient History was

done in French and German, so pick your poison, you'll have to learn one or both of these languages if you want to read serious scholarly texts from the 18th-20th centuries concerning the ancient Mediterranean world, which includes the

the Middle East.

[nesikhaNofret]

LMAO! youre absolutely right.

[HomoGnosticus]

Nobody than the French care about French language, , english, chinese, spain. russian, indian they are all of more relevance in the 21th century.

[peymaania]

That may be True, but a lot of Archaeology in the 19th-20th Centuries was conducted by Frenchmen and Germans. So if you want to

go to the sources, you have NO CHOICE but to learn these languages. Just like if you want

to study the Bible in depth, you must study Ancient Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew.

[abaex]

@peymaania uuuhm well at least for a documentary movie they SHOULD choosa ONE language - dub or at least sub if there is another language

[peymaania]

Learn French!

[Nihilodei]

Donnie, there are also other dating methods.. records kept by the mesopotamians, language transfer and idiom transfer from subsequent documents. King lists help. So do records kept by neighbours and trading partners.

Engineering styles can place things.

Look at the egyptian wars with the "hittites" at kadesh.. we know when it happened by literature and the kings who were entertained at the time

[Nihilodei]

Radio carbon dating is essentially based on dates before present (BP). You dont get a date but a range of dates where the carbon in an item originated.

Sometimes dating can be problematic because the carbon in the sample may be older (at manufacture) or younger (by contamination.

Even if the big J was born in the period 10 BCE to 10CE, radiocarbon dates would have to be incredibly precise to place a J artifact in end Herodian (1) time.

[fherlinn]

subtitles?

[DrummuingGod12]

thats what i was wondering ???

[szmataty]

english please!

[donnie2164]

Great stuff but how do they know the date bc means before christ an event uknown so how do they put adate on things. radio corbin on stuff found at the site ?

[jsucooldude1]

Awesome, we're learning that!

[triroberto]

I enjoyed the images. I believe there are inaccuracies in the way the story of Gilgamesh was told. Nonetheless this documentary has given good bits of knowledge.

Thank you.