INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE___ CULTURE

DID YOU KNOW?

Sumerians

That diorite was a hard rock quarried from far away in Oman and transported up the Persian gulf and was used for carving statues?

That they had libraries of clay tablets?

That they had a numerical system based on the number 60?

That they bequeathed the divisions of the hour and minute in use to this day?

That they are known for the potter's wheel and the plow?

That their techniques included: engraving, soldering, construction, building large edifices with the aid of arches, vaults, and domes?

That they had wedged-shaped script called cuneiform?

That the soil is alluvial silt deposited by seasonal flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers?

That Sumerians had to incorporate irrigation in order to create very fertile soil in an otherwise dry, sun-baked, 125-degree temperature region?

That their tablets contained multiplication tables for every number from 1 to 1,350?


Sumer: Cities of Eden
by the Editors of Time-Life Books
Alexandria, Virginia


Iroquois

That the Iroquois people, originally 5 feuding tribes, formed a confederacy by the 16th century, which gave each nation claim to a portion of the abundant land?

That in the 1800's, people could cover up to 50 miles with the use of snowshoes?

That bear meat was used in some religious ceremonies and that bear hides were used as blankets? That sometimes hunters would even take bear cubs alive and fatten them in pens for later consumption?

That deer were as important to the Iroquois people as buffalo were to the Plains American Indians?

That Iroquoians staged elaborate drives, and several hundred people, both men and women, formed a V-shaped line walking through the forest with those at the open end leading the way (making noise) to chase deer out toward a river or some other natural obstacle where hunters waited with bows or spears to dispatch the animals?


Realm of the Iroquois
by the Editors of Time-Life Books
Alexandria, Virginia

Africa's Glorious Legacy 

That there were hundreds of stone ruins in Africa?

That fossil evidence clearly indicates that Africa is the birthplace of the human species?

That the bow and arrow was probably an African invention?

That Nubia - Kingdom of Kush conquered Egypt

and that they started a pharaonic dynasty which lasted 60 years? That the excavation of Lower Nubian territory revealed 151 cemeteries, with some 8,000 burials?

That one burial mound contained 322 sacrificial victims? That it is the largest number of human sacrifices anywhere in the world, and that the position of the bodies means that they were buried alive? 

That a far-flung trade network (Niger’s river vine trade) used long narrow canoes called pirogues, and traded blackened catfish (smoked for preservation), fish oil, onions, and red African rice?

 
That after warring with the Romans (Romans prefect of Egypt), the Romans defeated Nubia, so borders were set and the Treaty of Samos established a border between Roman Egypt and the Meroitic Kingdom? That they established or forged an enduring and mutually profitable commercial relationship (evidence can be seen in Nubian burials)?

  
That the people of Meroe developed a written script containing 23 alphabetic symbols?

Africa's Glorious Legacy
by the Editors of Time-Life Books
Alexandria, Virginia