Posted by Tiglath from 005.mel0105.mel.iprimus.net.au (211.26.201.5) on Tuesday, May 06, 2003 at 12:27PM :
In 1258 the Mongols sacked Baghdad the pre-eminent centre of learning in the world, at the time. It is said the Tigris ran black from the ink of the vast number of books that were thrown into the river by the Mongols, Books that had preserved the scientific wisdom of the ancient Mesopotamian, Greeks and Hellenistic cultures, as well as of the later Islamic cultures at their zenith. The Tigris turned colour twice in one day. It first turned red from the butchery of the Mongol hordes and then turned black from the ink of the books as they tipped into the river the largest and greatest library in the world at the time.
History has repeated itself.
In what has been described as the "Crime of the century" the "modern-day mongols," otherwise known as the US army, have stood back and allowed the destruction of some of the most ancient, greatest and rarest museums and libraries in the world.
A recent documentary on the Discovery channel called 'Nebuchadnezzar: The Babylonian Mystery' an interesting point was made.
The narrator explained how the ancient Mesopotamians were prolific writers and how of 1 million cuneiform tablets discovered to date there yet remains an estimated 99 million buried in and around Iraq. The narrator continued, explaining that of the 1 million cuneiform tablets uncovered thus far only 25 % had to date been translated.
Doing the maths it becomes apparent that only 1% of our tablets have been found and that 0.25% translated!
And of the tablets that have been translated thus far we have discovered that our ancestors were using the telescope to chart the stars 2,000 years before Galileo was born. Our ancestors had invented the Aquaduct 400 years before the Romans, Pythagorus's Theorem 1,000 years before Pythagorus was born.....plus much more.
Just imagine what other discoveries lie buried beneath Mesopotamian soil yet to be uncovered, or remain yet to be translated and published.
Perhaps we'll learn that our ancestors were the first to discover that the earth revolved around the sun thousands of years before Copernicus was born. Who knows maybe democracy was first invented and practised by our ancestors hundreds of years before the Greeks and our ancestors may also have held the very first Olympic games!
With 99.75% of our ancient history yet to be discovered only Ashur knows the true greatness of our ancient ancestors.
-- Tiglath
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