Download M-sectionI - Antique Cannabis Book

May 17, 2009
MESOPOTAMIA
A SHORT GRAPHICAL HISTORY
OF Medical Cannabis
[Picture]
Although, primitive forms of picture or character writing first started appearing around
4,000 BC. It was the Sumerians (Mesopotamia or southern Iraq), that seem to be the first
ones to have developed a practical form of writing that today is known as Cuneiform at or
around 3,000 BC. And while pictographs (using pictures to portray whole words or
concepts) were in use long before that, Cuneiform writing provided a means of
recording specifics. Thus it can be said that written history began at that time.
And one of the reasons that we know that Medical Cannabis was well in use before
written history is because so many civilizations (as soon as they obtain a written
language), speak of it in their writings, in the past tense, as if it had already been in use
for many hundreds of years before then.
ABOUT CUNEIFORM
In order to continue, we first have to have a basic knowledge of Cuneiform. As can be
seen by the table below, like many other forms of writing, it too seemed to start out as a
series of basic pictographs. But soon became (what is believed to be) earths first written
language.
From Simple Pictographs to Syllabic Alphabet [1]
THE BASIC MECHANICS OF CUNEIFORM:
In order to simplify things; --- imagine yourself in a place without paper --- plenty of mud,
and water, but no paper. This helps explain the very nature of cuneiform [literally wedge
shape] writing. One can almost see how natural it would have been for a scribe to have
simply taken a cut reed (many water reeds have naturally wedge-shaped stocks) and
used it to imprint the delta-wedge unto the soft clay.
Cut Water Reed
The same reed could also have had a sharpen edge at the other end to imprint lines as
well. Afterwards, the clay tablets themselves would be harden by either baking them or
simply allowing them to be dried in the hot-sun for preservation. [Granted, not as good as
paper, but better then nothing]
SYLLABLES VERSES ALPHABET:
Unlike our alphabet which is built up around individual sounds (one sound, one character),
cuneiform is built up around complete syllables. Let us use the Sumerian word for
Medical Marihuana A.ZAL.LA as a good example:
The sound “Ah” in English = “A”;
in Cuneiform =
The sound “zal” in English = “zal”;
in Cuneiform =
The sound “la” in English = “la”;
in Cuneiform =
Thus Azalla =
Note that using an alphabet we need to use 6 characters [azalla], while in cuneiform (with
is built up around complete syllables) only 3 characters are needed. Now lets look at a
second example, by the time of the early Assyrian empire, the word for Medical
Marihuana had somehow changed from azalla to A.ZAL.LU :
The sound “Ah” in English = “A”;
in Cuneiform =
The sound “zal” in English = “zal”;
in Cuneiform =
The sound “lu” in English = “lu”;
in Cuneiform =
Thus Azallu =
Once developed syllabic cuneiform proved so popular that it quickly spread to . . . well just
about everywhere in the area. And why shouldn’t it, while different languages have
different sounds, the basic syllables stay the same. Thus almost any multi-tonal language
group could adapt cuneiform with ease.
With reference to the two examples above -- notice that although we are dealing with two
different languages, because the sounds are so similar that the cuneiform characters used
to write the word are very similar. Ok, one last example, somewhere around the middle of
the 7th Century BC, the Assyrian word for Cannabis changed from Azallu to QU.NU.BU
The sound “qu or ku” in English = “qu”;
in Cuneiform = “
The sound “nnu” in English = “nu”; in Cuneiform = “
The sound “bu” in English = “bu”;
”
”
in Cuneiform = “ ”
Thus Qunubu =
Here note that we are dealing with a completely different sound pattern and thus the
syllable symbols, needed to represent the word would obviously be different. However,
this brings an obvious question -- Why the Change? Answer - No one seems to really
know. However, note how close its sound pattern sounds is to the ancient Greek for
Cannabis.
Which is the source-word for our present-day word Cannabis, thus making it one of the
oldest words still in use today.
=============================================
MODERN ENGLISH AND PROBLEMS WITH CUNEIFORM:
Today cuneiform writing presents us with two major problems.
First, just like in English, cuneiform seems to have had multiple letters that stood for the
same sounds. For example, in English the “F” sound can be represented using three
different letter patters:
Laughs
Fool
Phone
So too in Ancient Mesopotamian, the same sound could be represented differently. For
example, the sound pattern “La” can actually be written using three different cuneiform
letters:
LÁ
la
`
nu or là
As can the sound pattern for “Lu”:
lu
lu
lú
Point being made, just be aware that there is more than one way to spell Medical
Cannabis in Cuneiform. Which translates into some confusion for the reader; for example,
Tablet K10507 denotes Medical Cannabis [a.zal.la] as
While tablet K4023 spells Medical Cannabis [a.zal.la] as
.
So which is right, which is wrong? Probably both (with my spelling problems, I should
speak), again, just be aware that different spelling exist.
The second problem is that the ancient Sumerians didn’t seem to speak English very well.
And because its been quite a while since any native speakers of Sumerian have been
around. Thus we now have some translational problems, which obviously have created
some disagreements on the subject.
===============================================
AM-01 #4 = Has [K.2615] Line 4
AM-14 #5 = Has [K.2974] = Has Line 7
AM-19 #3 maybe [K] Line
AM-66 #4 [K.10507] = K.10507 Line #3
AM-87 Has [K.3201] Line 15 = AM-87 #5
AM-89 #1 = Has Found on line 5 (K.6261)
AM-90 Has = AM, 90, 1 (K.8127 + 8438) Line 20
AM 102 #1 = Has Line 39 [K.2566 + 10475: K.4023: K.7642 : K.7884: K.8090] K.4023 Line 39
==========
K.2615 = Has Line 4 AM-01 #4
K.2974 = Has Line 7 - AM-14
K.3201 = AM-87 #5 Line 15
K.4023 = Has Line 39 AM102
K.4345
K.6261 = Has see AM-89
K.8127 + K.8438 Has = AM, 90, 1 (K.8127 + 8438)
K.10507 = Has Line #3 AM-66 #4 Line 3,
===============================================
Assyrian Medical Tablet K.4345 - Original
Assyrian Medical Tablet K3201
Assyrian Medical Tablet K2615
Assyrian Medical Tablet K6261
Assyrian Medical Tablet K8127 + 8439
Assyrian Medical Tablet K2974
Assyrian Medical Tablet K4023
Assyrian Medical Tablet K10507
===============================
A DICTIONARY OF ASSYRIAN CHEMISTRY AND GEOLOGY
By R. Campbell Thompson
Assyrian Botany
The Assyrian Herbal, as we know it from the botanical lists and the medical prescriptions of the
Royal Library at Nineveh, contains more than four hundred Sumerian names or expressions for
plants, trees, and the like, and nearly twice as many Semitic equivalents fro these. in medicine
more than a hundred of these were in common or fairly common use as drugs, with perhaps a
hundred and fifty more, which were less popular, although, indeed, of these last some may be
synonyms of the first hundred. A large proportion of these have been identified with their modern
equivalents. These are drawn up in the plant-lists in double columns (the usual method in these
syllabaries) which are subdivided into paragraphs or registers by cross-lines, the contents of each
register relating either to one particular plant, or to similar plants connected with each other for
some reason by the scribe. The arrangement of the order is peculiar, the botanists beginning, for
instance, with grass, . . . .
MORE ====>> AsyriaHerbal-II.htm
===========================
THE ROYAL LIBRARY OF ASHURBANIPAL:
Why we know so much about Assyrian Medicine?
To my eye, the above relief shows members of ancient Assyria’s drug police. No doubt
they just made a raid on a hospital, dragging off cancer victims that needed to make use
of Medical Cannabis. The guy on the left with the hail-Hitler salute, is obviously their Drug
Czar, while the two on the left represent members of the Nation Drug Enforcement
Industries (big bucks in it, even back then), rooting them on.
Ok, ok, maybe that is a bit far fetch, but how do we know that any other story is any better.
Answer: because the Assyrians had a written language, allowing them to write down
exactly what was happening. However, the present day reader should be warned or at
least aware of the following:
“Our knowledge of the medicine of the Babylonians and Assyrians is derived almost
exclusively from the great library of clay tablets gathered in his palace by King Ashurbanapal
of Assyria, who ruled from 668 to 626 B.C., and which was discovered by Sir Austen Henry
Layard in 1849 in the course of his excavations at the mound Kouyunjik, opposite Mosul, the
site of Nineveh, which was the capital of the later Assyrian Empire. About 30,000 fragments of
the clay tablets of the collection, which may well have numbered over 100,000 when complete, .
. “ --- Medicine of the Babylonians and Assyrians By Morris Jastrow (1913)
Which means that about 80% of what we know about ancient Mesopotamia comes solely
from one source, the Library of Ashurbanapal [aka the library of Kouyunjik], which
contained around 650 medical tablets. Thus this brings up an obvious question --- what if
this one source had a hidden agenda? What if they had censored some things, but not
others?
This issue can be addressed as follows:

First, it is well acknowledged that the library of Kouynjik, for the most part was not
made up of original works, but actually a collection of reproductions from other
sources. Meaning someone else had the originals.

Next, for what-ever reasons, medical textbooks have a way of escaping
destruction. Even the evil Narc’s today have not seen fit to destroy all historical
evidence of the use of Medical Cannabis.
Then there is the fact that other sources also exist; example, the following is taken from,
“The Nimrod Tablets”, 1950 Author(s): D. J. Wiseman and J. V. Kinnier Wilson [2]
ND.460. 12.2 X 8.3 cm. Fragment from lower rev. of large tablet. Parts of 14 11. GP (S).
Medical text, or part of a detailed recipe since no specific part of the body is mentioned.
Among the instructions are "If a man .... its taltallu you shall cut off, in the . . . for 10 days
the waters (juice) of taltallu2 (part of a palm-tree) you shall drink . . . oil, the gum of the
taltallu .... 4 days each Cannabis .... 5 /6 mana of myrrh . . . twice 10 shekels from the
land of Carchemish . . . you shall beat it out . . . you shall press it out . . . . " Text (needs
further checking) :?
(1) [fum-ma] am elu. (2) . . . . az a-na ni[? . . .]ru. (3) .... (is)tal-tal-li-fu .... (4).. . . su ta-bara-as ina . . . (mes). (5). . . . a-na io u^-me-fu me(mes) sa (is) tal-[tal-] li. (6) . . . . e-bit-?-II
samni(mes) riqqu istu (is) tal-tal (?)-li-su. (7). . . . ina di-ki-lat mat a-di bit i-?- SAL.NUN.ni
... (8) .... 4 urne (riq) gu-nu-bu al(?) Kal-bu ina muh-hi ta-za-am. (9) . . . ri-si parap ma-na
riq SES ta-ma-sal. (10) . . . ta-ga-mar a-na su ta-bat- tak. (11) .... kar-ra-sr-di io siqli(mes)
? sa (mat) Gar-ga-mis. (12) ... . ta-ma-sal a-na z-su-ma ta-bat-tak. (13) . . . ta-kar-ra-dr ibi-ia da . . (14) .... 2 e-si-su ta-za- ha-at tu-ul-? ....
2nd Example (none Medical) from The Royal Correspondence at Kouyounjik,
Letter 368 (p. 381) pertains to performance of religious observances undertaken in
the court of King Esarhaddon ------------------>> Kouyunjik.htm
===============================
FOOTNOTES:
[1]- From the book “They Wrote on Clay” by Edward Chiera
[2]- “The Nimrud Tablets”, 1950 Author(s): D. J. Wiseman and J. V. Kinnier Wilson Source: Iraq, Vol. 13, No.
2 (Autumn, 1951), pp. 102-122 Published by: British Institute for the Study of Iraq