Table of Contents
Matthew LaCroix hosts this episode of his Lost Civilizations podcast. Archaeologist Jenn Deyo joins him. His claim is that the name Sumerian is being stretched across more than one age. He reads the king list as an early run of cities, with Kish and Uruk coming back in a second stretch of kingship. He treats those stretches as separate. He also says the very long reign totals should not be counted as ordinary years. He takes a shar as months, not as a year, and he asks whether that language is Sumerian at all. Deyo answers from fieldwork. She says the sequence under the ground is not a straight line. She tells of a cave in the American Southwest that she came to call older than Clovis, with radiocarbon results she places near twelve thousand years. Near the end he sets that river chronology apart from a Younger Dryas flood date, and apart from the Atlantis story carried by Solon. The two of them are speaking about tablets, digs, and school charts, not issuing a settled excavation report.
Key points
- LaCroix says the Sumerian name is being applied to more than one age.
- On that list he puts an early group of cities first, and he puts Kish and Uruk in a second stretch of kingship.
- He refuses to treat the huge reign figures as ordinary years, takes a shar as months, and asks if that language is Sumerian at all.
- Deyo says the sequence under the ground is not a straight line.
- She describes a southwestern cave she came to call older than Clovis, with dates near twelve thousand years.
- He will not place the river flood on a Younger Dryas date, and he will not match it to the Atlantis story Solon carried.
Topics on this site
- Sumerian King List
- Dynasty of Uruk
- Utnapishtim, Ziusudra, and Noah
- Flood deposits in southern Mesopotamia
- Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet I
Short quotes
It's a language isolate that nobody knows how to translate.
Matthew LaCroix, The Sumerian King List Is Not One Age
LaCroix is describing the older tongue behind the later written languages. Watch at 13:02
We're going to talk about origin stories, these mysterious time periods of human history.
Matthew LaCroix, The Sumerian King List Is Not One Age
He is opening the section on origin stories and the early stretches of time. Watch at 27:57
We thought it ended up being a pre-Clovis site essentially.
Jenn Deyo, The Sumerian King List Is Not One Age
She is describing a cave dig of her own in the Southwest. Watch at 1:02:51
And that the first city ever created in that reemergence is Kish.
Matthew LaCroix, The Sumerian King List Is Not One Age
He is summarizing a second text beside the king list and names Kish for the return. Watch at 1:39:14
Because it doesn't make any sense when you put into the accounts of Solon and the destruction of what they describe as Atlantis.
Matthew LaCroix, The Sumerian King List Is Not One Age
He is answering her question about dating that flood to the Younger Dryas. Watch at 1:42:26
Video by Matthew LaCroix. Watch on YouTube.