hattusas

///////////////////////////

"The origin of the Sumerians is unknown. The intriguing question keeps returning into the literature but has so far unsatisfactory answers. The Sumerians were not the first people in Mesopotamia. They were not present before 4000 BCE, while before that time village communities existed with a high degree of organization. The ''principle of agriculture'' was not discovered by the Sumerians. This is evident from words the Sumerians use for items in relation to the domestication of plants and animals.

Substrate Languages
A language (in particular as it appears in proper names and geographical names) may show signs of so called substrate languages (like the influence of Celtic on ancient Gaul; compare some Indian geographical names in the US attesting the original inhabitants). Some professional names and agricultural implements in Sumerian show that agriculture and the economic use of metals existed before the arrival of the Sumerians.

Sumerian words with a pre-Sumerian origin are:
professional names such as simug 'blacksmith' and tibira 'copper smith', 'metal-manufacturer' are not in origin Sumerian words.
Agricultural terms, like engar 'farmer', apin 'plow' and absin 'furrow', are neither of Sumerian origin.
Craftsman like nangar 'carpenter', agab 'leather worker'
Religious terms like sanga 'priest'
Some of the most ancient cities, like Kish, have names that are not Sumerian in origin.
These words must have been loan words from a substrate language. The words show how far the division in labor had progressed even before the Sumerians arrived."
(http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/meso/meso.htm - No longer available)

"Soon after 8,000 BC sedentary communities and domestic plants and animals began to appear in many areas of South-west Asia. These domesticates and allied agricultural economies were to prove both successful and adaptable to the extent that within centuries of their first appearance they had spread far outside the Fertile Crescent. By 7,000 BC farmers in Greek Thessaly were subsisting on cultivated emmerwheat and barley as well as domestic cattle and pigs."

Ohalo II
Israel Sea of Galilee"When the sea level fell dramatically in the sea of Galilee ten years ago [1994] the modern calamity revealed an archaeological treasure: the camp of Stone Age fishermen and hunters, abandoned nearly 20,000 years ago.
     In the last decade, falling water levels have allowed Dani Nadel of the University of Haifa in Israel to excavate at the camp five times. It is emerging as perhaps the best preserved Upper Paleolithic dwelling site found anywhere in the world. (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/01/0102galilee.html)



The calibrated date is 21,500 BC and the site is similar to the Natufian culture. Although this is not a pre-city it is the earliest settlement so far known. Grains were found suggesting the earliest attempt at agriculture. Extremely remarkable as it would be about another nine thousand years before the Natufian culture started farming. As you can see it is presently under water.