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Saturday, November 28, 2020

How Sumerians of Sumer Affected Our Mathematics and That of the Biblical Ages Part XII

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

Each row of people, and it goes on and on above, tells of a different situation about their culture.  Any classroom could do a mural this way; one row for themselves, next of their parents at work, next of the businesses in their neighborhood, on and on.  

Sumer or Sumeria was where Abraham, father of the Jewish and Arab people, lived.  He lived in the city of Ur and was born in about 1948 BCE.  I'm interested in the large numbers given for the ages when people died, and why they were so large.  

The numerical system based on 60 originated with the Sumerian civilisation, 4500 years ago. Sumer was located in what is now the southern part of Iraq. It is thought the number 60 is related to the origin of the number 12, which is the number of joints on 4 fingers of a hand, the thumb being free to count.

                                                               

Five repeated hand counts delivers the number 60 which was used as the base for counting large numbers. Scholars of ancient history think that the finger-joint counting pioneered by the Sumerians explains why much of the ancient world based their numerical systems on 12 and multiples of 12, such as 24 and 60.

                                                             


This system was handed down to the Babylonians, another ancient civilisation that emerged just north of Sumer on the banks of the Euphrates river about 600 years after the Sumerians.  The Babylonians were in the land of Shinar or of the Kasdim (Chaldees).  It's where the Tower of Babel was built, and the Flood story was found here.  Abraham was born in Ur here, then migrated to Canaan where he later fought the king of Shinar, Amraphael (Gen 14).  

The Babylonians were very good mathematicians and inherited the sexagesimal (60) based counting system from the Sumerians which they used for a more elaborate counting system written in tables of symbols.

                                                            

Enoch was the father of Methusela.  Enoch was 65 when Methusela was born.  Enoch lived 300 more years, fathering more children and then died at age 365.  Under base 12 he died at age 30 and 5 months, having fathered Methusela at age 5 and 5 months.  Base 12 was not used here.  Base 3 gives us that Enoch was 21 and 8 months when he had Methusela.  3 is a derivative of 12.  He died at age 121 and 8 months.  That's okay.                   

We come to the point where our ancestors found in the Torah had extremely out of this world long lives, with Methusela living for 969 years!  People read that and thought the rest of the history was just a legend.  However, divide this number by 12 and you get that Methusela died at age 80 years 9 months. 

                                                                 

His son, Lamech, is said to have died at age 205.  Then his son, Noah, died at age 950 years, which divided by 12 is that he died at age 79 years 2 months.  Lamech is definitely out of order, here.  But using base 3, get Lamech dying at age 68 and 4 months.  Very reasonable.  

Lamech was the father of Noah who lived for 950 years.  Divide this by 12 and he lived for 79 years 2 months. 

It seems to be a hit or miss as to the ages as they are not following a pattern always, using base 3 or 12.  Of course this depended on when they died and  the method used at that moment.  

Sumer or Sumeria was a region of Southern Babylonia named after a non-Semitic people which migrated there in prehistoric times and founded a series of city-states.  It's culture was the basis of Babylonian civilization and influenced the Semitic inhabitants of ACCAD (northern region of the valley between the Euphrates and the Tigris which contained Babylon, Sippar and other important cities)  to their north.  It's not specifically mentioned in the Bible but some early names such as Nimrod and Cush are mentioned. and connected with Sumerian tradition.

  • The Sumerians were a people living in Mesopotamia (Iraq) from the 27th-20th century BCE. Abraham was born in the 2nd millennium or about 1948 BCE.  The Sumerian Renaissance/Third Dynasty of Ur (2047-1940 BCE) saw the rulers Ur-Nammu and Shulgi, whose power extended into southern Assyria. However, the region was becoming more Semitic, and the Sumerian language became a religious language. Ur of the Chaldees or Ur of the Cassites was an ancient Babylonian city, home of Abraham and his father, Terah and Abraham's 2 brothers before they left it for Haran.  Evidence of the FLOOD was found here by archaeologist Sir Leonard Wooley,    
                 6,000 years ago, the Sumerians of Ancient Mesopotamia were “given” a counting system that, over time, has revealed a coincidental numeric pattern found in geometry, harmonic frequencies, Earth cycles, time and space.
  • Sumerians invented or perfected many forms of technology, including the wheel, mathematics, and cuneiform script.  Sumerians invented or improved a wide range of technology, including the wheel, cuneiform script, arithmetic, geometry, irrigation, saws and other tools, sandals, chariots, harpoons, and beer.
  • The Sumerians, using their finger-joints to count the duodecimal (12) system, divided the day, sunrise to sunset, into 12 parts, so the combined day and night was divided into 24 parts. About 3500 years ago the Egyptian civilisation became the dominant civilisation and they embraced the duodecimal system (base 12).  (Hmm, they were using Abraham's descendants to build and they were the Israelites whose descendants were from Ur and that area.)  
  • The Sumerian Renaissance ended with invasion by the Amorites, whose dynasty of Isin continued until 1700 BCE, at which point Mesopotamia (Iraq) came under Babylonian rule.
  • The Sumerians were eventually absorbed into the Akkadian/Babylonian population.Thus we have people carrying the genes of Semites and non-Semites. 
  • They must have had an Einstein in their midst to have such involved geometry under their belt.  How else could they have stumbled onto that?  Check out youtube below.   
Resource:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78jeSmgEF8k
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldcivilization/chapter/the-sumerians/#:~:text=Sumerians%20invented%20or%20improved%20a,chariots%2C%20harpoons%2C%20and%20beer.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/71273903/roger-hanson-the-origins-of-the-number-60-as-a-counting-method#:~:text=The%20Sumerians%2C%20using%20their%20finger,duodecimal%20system%20(base%2012).


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