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Makers of Civilization in Race and History

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This is a must for anyone interested in the beginnings of anything! I understand Waddell was out of favor at one time (maybe even now) because of his criticism of Assyriologist obstruction of Sumerian research. But you must read about the origins of St George (of Merry England -- and Cappadocia)and his Trojan, Ancient Brits, Sumerians and, and -- wow all you want to know about early civilization! Those Sumerians! They went everywhere, Waddell explains, and left their marks everywhere -- but not as Sumerians because they became assimilated into where ever they were -- just like they went into America and Australia, and Scandinavia and virtually the world! They were the original long-distance ocean crossers! Just read it!

This is a must for anyone interested in the beginnings ofanything! .... ...you must read about the origins of St George (ofMerry England -- and Cappadocia)and his Trojan, Ancient Brits,Sumerians and, and -- wow all you want to know about early civilization!

Makers of Civilization in Race and History by L. Austine Waddell ranges from the sublime to the pits. Its major thread (in 606 pages) is that Aryan (Hittite) peoples from eastern Turkey and modern Syria started up the Sumerian civilization in 3335 BC which was in turn responsible for bringing civilization to the Indus Civilization and to Egypt. That is the sublime part. The pits is his repeated statements to the effect that the Aryan (Nordic) race is basically responsible for everything good that ever happened and that every other race just brought us down. I am sure that the racist nature of his arguments caused this author to not be taken seriously ever since the book was published in 1919. The writing is turgid with a lot of redundancy giving the impression that one is supposed to believe it based on getting hit over the head with it so often. However, It is difficult to argue with the facts that he presents even though his arguments are not as air tight as he would have us believe. His main contribution is the decipherment of Indian (Vedic, Puranic) king lists used as keys to analyze Sumerian and Babylonian king lists. Correspondences abound as he makes the case for early (Indus) civilization and later Vedic civilization being ruled by the same kings as those of Sumeria. In doing so he compares early Sumerian Pictographic writing with inscriptions on Indus seals. The connection with Egypt is similar with (Sumerian) Sargon and his son Manis as the early pre-dynastic Pharaohs of Egypt. His conjecture is that Manis=Menes unified Upper and Lower Egypt and that they are both buried at Abdyos where the early pictographic script is read the same as Sumerian.

Seafaring Phoenicians who were part of the Summerian civilization held the empire together by providing trade and mobile troops where needed. Menes who dates to 2700 BC is seen as having traded tin in Britain and as King Minos of Crete. With the Sumerians traveling all the way to Ireland and Britain it does make us think about the white, bearded people showing up in the Americas and being remembered down through the native peoples memory. However, the racism breaks through constantly in his complaining about traditional Assyiologists who he claims mistranslated the king lists to favor Semitic readings. He shows with his analysis that Aryan kings ruled Sumeria down throughout the ages until the end of the Kish dynasty in 1175 BC. This book really made me want to know more about the early Egyptian, Sumerian and Indus pictographic scripts that Waddell says he could read easily as the same language but today traditional scholars say none of them can be deciphered convincingly.

One of the more interesting arguments is that the original Sumerian King named Ukishi or Dar dated to 3380 BC and his sun Bakus were later deified as the father God (Indra) and as Bacchus, spreader of agriculture. In fact most of the mythology and persona of middle eastern and Greek religion are portrayed here as echos of Summerian civilization. This book really opened me up to a greater understanding of Middle Eastern civilization. Now I want to know where those Hittites with their ready made civilization came from when they settled Sumeria.