Mesopotamian Olympics

[Free Capitalist 0]

Ever since the Western archaeological discovery of the ancient Olympic Games - which were used as the antecedent of the modern Olympic Games - historians and archaelogists have made numerous attempts to trace back the ancient Olympic Games to their historical source in an attempt to better understand their meaning and importance.

Finally on August 1st, 2008, on the eve of the modern Beijing Olympic Games, and on the same date used by the ancient Mesopotamians to commemorate the ancient Gilgamesh Games, the Gilgamesh Games thesis has finally been published online. After years of researching archaelogical source data we are able to present to you what may very well be the origins of the ancient Olympic Games.

The main thesis shall show that the Mesopotamian (modern day Iraqi) cultural influence that had for centuries percolated into ancient Greece through contact with the Hittites (modern day Turks) and other peoples appears to have suddenly swamped Greece during the middle of the 8th century BC. This was during the start of the Sargonid dynasty which saw the Assyrian (ancient Iraqi) empire reach its geographical zenith and incorporate colonies such as the Greek island of Crete.

It was during this period that the funerary rituals and the athletic ‘feats of strength,’ depicted in the Death of Bilgames cuneiform tablet, along with other Mesopotamian athletics festivals may have been adopted from the ancient Mesopotamians and gradually incorporated into the ancient Greek Olympic Games.

Based on original Mesopotamian and Greek source material there are a total of eleven major similarities discovered thus far that may show that the ancient Greek Olympic Games have their antecedent in the ancient Gilgamesh Games.

The revelation that the Olympian “jewel in the crown” of Western civilisation may trace back to the Middle East may unsettle many readers, who have been immersed within the framework of Orientalism. It will also sound the final death knell for the artificial concept of “Western civilisation."

http://www.gilgameshgames.org/

Wasn't Rev. Wright right? The chickens are coming home to roost.

[piz 0]

The revelation that the Olympian “jewel in the crown” of Western civilisation may trace back to the Middle East may unsettle many readers, who have been immersed within the framework of Orientalism. It will also sound the final death knell for the artificial concept of “Western civilisation."

I was about to question what such a statement was doing in a relatively (and seemingly - see the next paragraph, below) academic article. So what if the ancient Greek Olympics had a precursor? There's no question that ancient middle eastern civilizations interacted with classical Greece - if nothing else, Alexander the Great took a bit of a journey in that direction. And it's well established that many peoples throughout history that had advanced to a sufficient economic and cultural level held games and other large-scale celebrations. So a finding such as this (if it's true, I have to add - again, see the next paragraph, below) should come as no surprise, and be not at all unsettling, to anyone.

Then I followed the link in the article itself, the first paragraph of which revealed the author's motives. So shallow and pathetic, if not outright evil, to count on and exploit others' ignorance of history to advance such an agenda.

[Free Capitalist 0]

There's no question that ancient middle eastern civilizations interacted with classical Greece

They did in other, intellectual things. Not in fitness and physical perfection. Persians and all the rest were frequently flabby and fairly pudgy, not that they ever minded it. There's a story when Spartans defeated a Persian squadron, they stripped them down to search for hidden items, and, chiseled and tanned as they were, faced down the sight of a flabby, pale-skinnned "soldier". The historian actually records that they started laughing.

It's simply inconceivable that Middle Easterners could've fathered physical perfection, as much today as then (since nothing's changed in the last 2000 years).