Origins of Tamils?[Where are Tamil people from?] PART :46



 [Compiled by: Kandiah Thillaivinayagalingam]

Metalworking
Three gold cups from Ur, dating to approximately 2450 B.C.The cup on the right belonged to Queen Shubad[or Puabi] and may once have contained the poison that killed her.Also found that She was buried with 52 attendants — retainers who had been suspected by excavator Leonard Woolley to have poisoned themselves (or had been poisoned by others) to serve their mistress in the next world.Sumerians worked extensively with metals – mainly gold, silver, tin, lead, copper, and bronze.Craft workers were usually men who passed their skills on to their sons.  They created weapons, tools, and luxury items out of these metals. For everyday items, the Sumerians used copper, bronze and iron. For decorative and high-quality items such as jewellery, the Sumerians used gold and silver.Iron-working was used to create tools to help in agriculture and other industries. They would often trade for metals that were scarce in their region and sent finished metal working products back in return.we learn from written records of ships from other lands by Sargon,the of king Mesopotamia(2334 to 2279 BC) that the Mesopotamians bought gold, copper and jewellery from 'Meluhha'.[Meluhha-earlier variant Me-lah-ha/மேல் அகம்-mel akam],Which Was the Mesopotamian name for the Indus civilisation.
Music
'A reconstruction of a lyre found at Ur. The original lyre was made of wood and decorated with gold and lapis lazuli, and it dates to approximately the first half of the third millenium B.C.This lyre was fashioned into the shape of a bull.In Sumer the BULL was a symbol of fertility and divine power. This shows that the Sumerians loved music. It seemed to be an important part of religious and civic life in Sumer. Although we can't hear that music, we can reconstruct the instruments and get an idea about the sounds and the rhythms that were heard. Before playing a stringed instrument, the musicians would wash their hands to purify them. Many of the songs were for the Goddess Innana.
Organized Armies
Two groups of soldiers in formation behind their leaders. They are depicted on a fragment of The Stele of Vultures, a rounded stone slab found at Lagash in Iraq dating to the first half of the third millennium B.C.It is the oldest known historiographic document. A long Sumerian inscription narrates the recurrent conflict between the neighboring city-states of Lagash and Umma, and records the victory won by Eannatum, king of Lagash, who ruled around 2450 BC.It has two sides.The so-called "historical" side shows Eannatum marching at the head of his troops, who advance in a tight phalanx, trampling over the dead bodies of the enemy. The lower registers show the victory parade, led by the ruler in his chariot, and then the funeral ceremonies that ended the military engagement.The other, "mythological" side is dominated by the majestic figure of Ningirsu, the protector god of the city-state of Lagash, who has the enemy troops entrapped in a gigantic net and strikes them with his mace. One side narrates the actions of men and the other the intervention of the god, in a thematic division that has symbolic importance: human determination and divine protection come together to ensure victory.
Plow
A cylinder-seal impression of two Gods, one with a left hand in the shape of a scorpion and the other plowing behind a dragon and a lion. The impression was made by a seal found at Tell Asmar in Iraq.Early Mesopotamians began changing from hunter-gatherers to farmers who cultivated cereal crops around 6,000 B.C. Planting seeds requires scratching or plowing a furrow in the soil to receive the seeds.Before the plow was invented seeds were scatered by broadcasting them by hand.Once tne plow appeared the young plants could grow in rows and develop deeper roots system.The first plow was little more than a tree branch that as one person pulled and another pushed,made a furrow in the ground.Both men & women shared in agricultural work.Later sumerian farmers attached  a simple stone blade  to a wooden shaft,followed by a arrow shaped metal piece on the plow. making it go deeper and straighter.Oxen now pulled the plow instead of human.This,however,change the roles in the sumerian family.Now the need for men only to manage the animals pulling plows gave women a lesser role in the family's food production.Their lesser position increasingly relegated them to the home with the result that patriarchal attitudes grew more prominent .Men made the decisions on economic matters and they soon monopolized political decisions as well because they also filled the ranks of the armies. .

PART::47 WILL FOLLOW IN NEXT WEEK..

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