Sumerian civilization

The first civilized people in this area were the Sumerians, who settled in the southern region of Mesopotamia about 6,000 to 7,000 years ago. The Sumerians had an advanced culture with distinctive arts and urban centers. Around 3500 b.c.e. they became the first people to develop writing and therefore the first to leave historic records. Another of their achievements was the construction of artificial mountains in the form of step pyramids called ziggurats, which they used to observe the sky and worship their gods who lived there. 

Morphine is the principal alkaloid obtained from opium. Opium is the resinous latex that exudes from the seed pod of the opium poppy, Papver somneferum, when it is lacerated. Alkaloids account for approximately 25% of opium, and of this 25% about 60% is morphine. Remains of poppy seeds and pods have been found in Neolithic caves, indicating that the use of opium predates written history. The opium poppy is native to the eastern Mediterranean, but today it is chiefly cultivated from the Middle East through southern Asia and into China and Southeast Asia. The first civilization known to use opium was the Sumerians, who inhabited Mesopotamia in present-day western Iraq, around 3500 B.c.E. Sumerians traded opium with other civilizations, and this led to the cultivation of opium poppies and the production of opium in many geographic areas including Egypt, India, Persia (Iran), Southeast Asia, and China. 

OPIATES AND OPIATE-LIKE NEUROTRANSMITTERS The euphoric and sleep-producing effects of opiates, which are derived from the poppy plant, were well-known to ancient civilizations. Around 4000 BCE, for example, the Sumerians... 

The use of crude opium preparations is truly an ancient practice. There is evidence that opium was cultivated and used as long as 6,000 years ago by the Sumerian and Assyrian civilizations. The ancient Egyptians had discovered medical uses for opiates 3,500 years ago, as documented in the Therapeutic Papyrus of Thebes (Scott, 1969). Opium also was used for a variety of medical puiposes by the Greek and Roman civilizations. The great Greek physician Galen (a.d. 130-201) noted the following uses for opium ... 

The focus of this paper is to review and identify those psychoactive plant species of sub-Saharan Africa. The biological and cultural diversity of Africa is immense (there are over 2,000 languages represented in sub-Saharan Africa). However, these ancient medicinal systems, usually based on oral traditions, are poorly documented even to this day. In contrast. North Africa and the Middle East have a relatively well documented traditional medicine (12-14). The Babylonians, Assyrians and Sumerians recorded heibal remedies in cuneiform on clay tables as long ago as 4000 BC. Not only can we attribute the origins of civilization to North Africa and the Middle East but also possibly the most important psychoactive plant, Papaver somniferum (opium poppy), from which the first alkaloid and psychoactive chemical was isolated. Morphine was first isolated by the German pharmacist Sertuner in 1803 (15). 

Briefly, petroleum and bitumen have been used for millennia. For example, the Tigris-Euphrates valley, in what is now Iraq, was inhabited as early as 4000 b.c. by the people known as the Sumerians, who established one of the first great cultures of the civilized world. The Sumerians devised the cuneiform script, built the temple-towers known as ziggurats, and developed an impressive code of law, literature, and mythology. As the culture developed, bitumen or asphalt was frequently used in construction and in ornamental works. 

Sharru-Kin did not erase civilization in the manner of the Indo-Iranians but fused with Sumerian culture over his fifty-five year reign. He adopted their system of writing and built a grand new capital in northern Mesopotamia called Agade, which became the richest city in the world. 

History. In the past, volatile oils of terrestrial plants were used in Chinese [4], Assyrian [5], Sumerian [6], Babylonian [7], and Egyptian civilizations [7-9]. Volatile oil was first isolated from marine algae, Fucus, by Heilbron et al. [10] and later in a series of research by Katayama in 1951-1961 [11]. 

Further evidence supporting the use of insecticides dates back to the Sumerians and the Chinese between 3,200 to 4,500 years ago. As with the leaves lining prehistoric beds, the original pesticides used by these civilizations were readily available animal, plant, and mineral compounds. Mercury, arsenic, and sulfur compounds were all used for insect control in these ancient civilizations. Generations later, approximately 2,000 years ago, a botanical pesticide, dried chrysanthemum flowers, was added to the list of ancient pesticides. 

Little documentation of the geodetic accomplishments of the oldest civilizations, the Sumerian, the Egyptian, the Chinese, and the Indian, has survived. The first firmly documented ideas about geodesy go back to Thales of Miletus (ca. 625-547 BC), Anaximander of Miletus (ca. 611-545 BC), and the school of Pythagoras (ca. 580-500 BC). The Greek students of geodesy included Aristotle (384-... 

In press. Sumerian Literary Texts from the Ur III Period (Mesopotamian Civilizations). Winona Lake, IN Eisenbrauns. 

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