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Ancient Sumerians created the first writing system
11–20 of 199 posts
Re: Ancient Sumerians created the first writing system
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn’t that redundant? It’s like asking everyone to prefix every statement with “As far as I know…”
Fair point, I think it depends on the certainty. I am just about 100% certain Neil Armstrong was the first human to walk on the moon, so "first" makes sense. Hillary and Norgay were the first "confirmed" climbers of Everest. The "confirmed" part is needed because it is reasonable that others before them made it without evidence. I am open to the possibility a civilization had a writing system before the Sumerians, an…
I'm more than open to the possibility - I think it's very likely that something existed beforehand which we don't (yet) know about.
Re: Ancient Sumerians created the first writing system
#13The Cucuteni–Trypillia megasites in Ukraine appear to predate the Mesopotamian ones by a few centuries, though they didn't have writing (apparently).
Re: Ancient Sumerians created the first writing system
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn’t that redundant? It’s like asking everyone to prefix every statement with “As far as I know…”
As an anecdata most of my friends believe that we know everything about ancient history. They are also very eager to hear about other parts of human knowledge to be progressing, for example AI models. Yet, when it comes to history they have this sort of static view.
Well, I can see how someone would naively think that was true, because only a fixed set of events have already happened in the past, so there is a correct answer.
I think it also stems from the way it is taught in schools, where there is a lot of focus on memorising dates and events etc, rather than on the process of actually deriving them from sources of questionable trust.
Also, the majority of focus in schools (in the UK) is on much more modern history and doesn’t really focus too much on the really ancient stuff and the extra difficulties that arise from learning about it.
Re: Ancient Sumerians created the first writing system
#15I would love if the government had a class people could take at 30, 40, whatever to catch me up on dinosaur lore updates and all the other shit i learned about in school
Re: Ancient Sumerians created the first writing system
#16I've always wondered whether the Sumerians knew they were the first. Past empires, lost civilizations, and ancient artifacts have always fascinated us. The first museum emerges is Mesopotamia around 530 BC; the Egyptian obelisk installed next to the brand-new Colosseum in Rome was older then than the Colosseum is now; legends of giants and heroes of bygone ages are literary universals. We hunger for the past.
But the Sumerians were first. There was no glorious but crumbled past empire to inspire them. They figured out everything for the first time, and we know little about what they thought about it.
Now consider that humanity is likely the first in the Milky Way galaxy. We too have to figure things out for the first time, but on a grander scale. What will history think of us?
Re: Ancient Sumerians created the first writing system
#17Lots of interesting details around the beginning of writing systems but it seems to overdramatise the conditions and role of Sumer in kickstarting civilization as we know it?
> the original organized, literate, urban culture was produced by a far crueler and more challenging environment than either of those (Indus, Nile)
Egypt and the Nile don't seem particularly different as an environment. Dry desert with regular river floodings etc.
> The Sumerians invented kingship, priesthood, diplomacy, law, and war.
Of those, only law sounds like a legitimate priority claim, in the sense of having writen, thus fixed, laws rather than whatever the potentate of the day feels like declaring as being the law today.
Re: Ancient Sumerians created the first writing system
#18I would love if the government had a class people could take at 30, 40, whatever to catch me up on dinosaur lore updates and all the other shit i learned about in school
I would like something like that, but I wouldn’t want it to be run by the government.
Re: Ancient Sumerians created the first writing system
#19I would love if the government had a class people could take at 30, 40, whatever to catch me up on dinosaur lore updates and all the other shit i learned about in school
I would like something like that, but I wouldn’t want it to be run by the government.
Sure, really just fired off my comment without much thought and obviously would suck in real life since it would be hijacked by politicians. Not wedded to the government part, kinda just pretending US gov capable of public services like this
Re: Ancient Sumerians created the first writing system
#20I would love if the government had a class people could take at 30, 40, whatever to catch me up on dinosaur lore updates and all the other shit i learned about in school
I would like something like that, but I wouldn’t want it to be run by the government.
The Nordic countries have a longstanding tradition of state-run “folk high schools”. In fact, in modern economies where it is harder for unemployed middle-age people to find new work, and AI might cause unemployment in more sectors, this kind of state intervention seems like a good way to keep adults doing something enriching instead of doomscrolling or drinking all day.