The first book of mankind with baked clay

As a result of archaeological works from the early 19th century until now, the cradle of Western civilization has been confirmed as a large plain in the Near East. The land of this region is very fertile because it has been created by alluvial soil from long rivers including the Jordan River (Palestine) Nil River (Palestine) and especially the Euphrate and Tigris rivers are derived from Asia Minor poured into the Persian Gulf together. If we color these fertile plains on the map, we will see an arc that looks like a long crescent from Egypt through Palestine, Jerusalem, Babylon (Iraq and Koweit today). to the Persian Gulf. Archaeologists call the Fertile Cressent of the Near-East region of the day.

To search for the relics of civilization in this region, many of the scale excavations of scientists of many nationalities have been carried out over the past two centuries. However, it took until the end of the 19th century, because of the coincidence, that the archaeologists were fortunate to discover the sun-baked clay tablets with strange signs .

(Photo: Angelakaelin)

So far, tens of thousands of dried clay sheets have been collected. Most of these clay plates are about 10cm x 20cm in average, with a few having prism or cyclinder shapes. After decades of patience research, archaeologists from all over the world, especially in archaeological faculties of American, French, British and Turkish universities, have discovered the plates The dry clay is the " book " of the Sumerians, the first person to settle in Babylon. The Greeks called Babylon the Mesopotamia, the Mesopotamia (Meso: In The Middle, Potamia: Rivers). Archaeologists have set up a national language study course called Sumerology. The efforts of archaeologists have resulted in most of the Sumerian " books " being translated into many languages.

At first, the Sumerians invented a pictographic characters, but only a short time later, this type was replaced by a phonetic system of writing consisting of 18 signs. symbolizes 18 basic sounds. These signs are mostly triangles, sharp corners, sharp-shaped rhombus . that look like wedges. Therefore archaeologists call it Cuneiform, because the Latin term " Cunei " means wedge (wedge).

By the middle of the 20th century, many dictionaries and grammar books on this type of literature were published, making it easier to translate a great treasure of ancient books of the Sumerian people. Thanks to that, the secret door of Western civilization history has been expanded.The first writing of the Sumerian people was assumed to have appeared in 3150 BC (BC) . This is an important milestone marking human history. All that happened before 3150 BC was considered Prehistoric (prehistoric).