Thanks again to Matt Parker for taking on so many ancient unit fractions. If you've found us through Matt's video on the mathematical pa-π-rus we think you'll like these 2 videos: Learn to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs with Ilona Regulski: th-cam.com/video/LwZB0MsXCjQ/w-d-xo.html Watch the whole process of excavating cuneiform tablets from Girsu: th-cam.com/video/dwGmyy2Aabg/w-d-xo.html
Loved the video & the insight into Mesopotamian metrology. A thought occurs to me if you have a moment. Has anyone measured the gaps between the fractional sections? If these gaps were the same or in progression then the ruler as well as indicating unit fractions would also function as a half vernier or slide rule to take measures from the plan & scale them to create the 1:1 working templates. That I suppose predisposes a plan to building progression. Which looking at the asymmetries in the building might be the reverse of the chronology if it was found that this building is fitted to the landscape instead of imposed.
@@GaryMarriott 14.6.24 2208pm Comments on ‘We found a lost temple using maths sent by an ancient Sumerian god | Curator's Corner w. Matt Parker’ ahahah ratio and templates and the environment as a blue print... i never watched the video, i was otherwise engaged with some shut eye but yeah... building walls to fit within the overall scheme of the landscape is nothing new...
@@DC-wt2vi Comments on ‘We found a lost temple using maths sent by an ancient Sumerian god | Curator's Corner w. Matt Parker’ 1015am 16.6.24 i can't imagine what a mathematicians humour is like... probably very literal. so spite must play a great part in the thinking of maths genii like yerself? here's all su the griff rhys jones and mel smth sketch where they parody open university - bedecked in 70's fashions - and laugh uproariously as they realise a mathematical equation has been set out incorrectly... ummmmmmmmmm.... i really should have stayed in bed...
If I were one of the archaeologists on the site when they found out that the second hole showed exactly what they predicted, I think I would have exploded. This is such a pleasing thing to see.
I know this isn't strictly speaking a question, but I thought I'd pass your comment on to Sébastien as I wanted to know how he reacted too. Here's what he responded with: It was extremely rewarding to be sure. The excavation process is slow and painstaking, so it took us a couple of weeks to unearth the gate and confirm the theory. By the end of the fieldwork, we knew we had made a significant discovery. It’s the beauty of archaeology!
@@britishmuseum Thanks for sharing! I think most people dont understand what archeological digging is. I like to explain it this way: Imagine you burry a piece of a needle a few meters in the ground. If this spot is part of an archaelogical dig site, they will *for sure* not just find it, but know exactly in what position it was laying 😉
That is a great, elegantly simple way of reducing archaeology down to its bare essentials, particularly with individual object finds. And while that is very much what Sébastien and the Girsu team are doing at Girsu are doing with Sumerian objects still in their original context, the thing that got me was the team using the same process in the old archaeological spoil heaps (dirt mounds) left by the 19th century excavators. It's amazing to look at a pile of dirt and see the discarded objects thrown into the spoil heaps by workers with baskets full of soil. The way ancient Sumerian bricks land in those spoil heaps preserves the direction and angle with which those workers emptied their baskets. It's quite literally like they're frozen in time. Now I've written this out, think we might need to make a video just about spoil heaps.
Such a brilliant video! Some years ago, the BM invited subscribers to vote on how they would like to see the BM increase its outreach - and I voted for small vids, from curators, about special objects in their collections. Each and every one is pure gold - but as an architect this just hit my sweet spot. Beautiful guys - many many thanks!
Wow - that was some years ago. Next year will be the 10 year anniversary of said vote, as well as the 10 year anniversary of the first Curator's Corner episode. It also looks as though we'll be hitting our 100th episode around that time...what a coincidence... thanks for sticking with us for so long, and keep your eyes out for something a little extra next year.
It must have been shortly after that when I noticed and started watching the Curator's Corners. Thank you for voting for these! They are so beautiful, really well-shot, re-watchable, and nonstop fascinating. I've clicked on lots of them thinking I wouldn't be interested, but might as well give it a shot since all the other options are people talking about why they're mad at one another; then ten minutes later I'm somehow extremely interested in medieval teapots or some wacky thing. Like you said, every episode is a treasure. Thanks, British Museum!
@@britishmuseum Come on, nobody believes that! In a couple of thousand years there will be archeologist, who find a lost statue of a curator with writings that he had a dream about making the 100th video 10 years after the vote! ;-P This video really is awesome! Frequently dipping my toes both in history and alternative history, this video really is a great example of making predictions, the scepitcs, but winning the sceptics over in the end. What a lovely story! You just earned a new subscriber!
‘To make things function as they should’. Thank you, Sumerians. Thank you, Sebastien and Matt. Mathematically proportioned buildings are immensely pleasing. I need more of this sort of thing.
There'll be more with Sébastien shot at Girsu very soon (hopefully next episode). And we'll being going deeper into the phrase 'To make things function as they should'. Thanks for the love.
Great to see how study is bringing to light the mindset of this ancient civilisation. It's chilling though, Who in the social structure decides what how things are supposed to be ? Smacks of totalitarianism. I wonder what daily life was like for the average citizen in that culture. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to get on the wrong side of the ruler or the clergy. "Things are exactly as they should be !" was said by a Japanese military planner on surveying the carnage after a notably grisly battle with the Russians near Port Arthur in 1905. We know how all that worked out.
@@OutbackCatgirl 😉. There is often more content in what people say than one might suspect. It is like reading a picture. British Museum features are always loaded with wonderful content.
The only problem is that nowadays everyone has their own idea of how things should be and also the opportunity to shout this unfiltered to the whole world.
6:25 Matt switching from counting the tally’s to the gaps really highlights the later point about the evolution of numbers just existing to count physical things into objects that you can act on themselves
I'm honestly seriously tempted to get a tattoo of the Sumerian "to make things function as they should", but I'm afraid to find out in ten years that it actually means "sesame chicken" or "property of he Louvre".
I have two Sumerian tattoos now, I translated them myself but used common known phrase for that reason...and yes one of them incorporates their sexagesemal numeral system ha
For the interested, I encourage serious students to read these fairly easy books on the origins of the Sumerian numerical systems and their link to mathematics. They also show the link to sedentary agriculture, and solar calendars. Schmandt-Besserat, Denise 1992 "Before Writing Volume I: From counting to cuneiform" Austin: University of Texas Press Dalley, Stephanie 2000 “Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others, Revised” Oxford University Press Black, Jeremy, Anthony Green, Tessa Rickards (illustrator) 2003 "Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia" Austin: University of Texas Press. The religious interpretations of solar observation led to the orientation of building walls, streets, etc...
One Megalithic hour is 240 minutes, or 14,400 seconds (1/4) There are 6 Megalithic hours to the day, each made up of 6 minutes, each of which is 6 seconds long. If the Megalithic hour was divided into 60 minutes, each would be 1,440 of our seconds, times 100 is 144,000. One Megalithic second is 400 of our modern seconds, divided by 60 (to get minutes) is 6.6666666.... 360 ÷ 6.66 is 54 54 x 2 is 108 108 x 2 is 216 To effect this the hands on a clock count out 10 (units of 6) x 10 (units of 6) × 4 (=400 units of 6). Therefore the relationship of the Megalithic second to our current form is mathematically proportional to the ratio between the Sun and Moon. A Megalithic second is 6.66 minutes (400 seconds). A Megalithic Minute is 40 minutes, or 2,400 seconds. 6 x 6 x 6 x 400 = 86,400, the number of seconds in a day. This would mean a clock with 216 seconds would go around 40 times in a day (2160 x 400). This means 1 Megalithic second is 6.66 of our modern minutes, meaning their metric system is based on the Full Moon, of which 360 fit into to the night sky, and 720 will encircle the globe, divided by half gives us the 360 degree circle, and the basis for our present hexadecimal system of time. Which is why 1 degree of Arc on the Moon = 100 Megalithic Yards (2700ft). This means the Beast, the hidden hand of the Masonic fraternity, is the Moon; and Time. The white limestone covering of the Pyramids denotes the Pale Moon in Megalithic Ireland, like at New Grange, where Enoch describes a Crystal Palace illuminated by the Full Moon every 19 years. 6 x 6 x 6 is 216, there are 2160 years in an astrological age, and the Moon is 2160 miles in diameter, the solar metonic calendar using 60 6 day weeks produces 1 extra day every 216 years. There are also 216 Megalithic seconds in a day, and 216 letters in the name of the Hebrew God, Just as Solomon has 36 or 72 scrolls, and Muhammed speaks of 72 sects. Enoch also buries 36,525 scrolls, the number of days in a year, times 100. Oh by the way, this shows that our current measure of time is based on the principle of 1/6, the basis of an Egyptian Royal Cubit, but first they built the first ring at Stonehenge, which is 100 metres (330 ft) wide, with an area of 2160 square feet, a Cube's interior angles also add up to... 2160! This produces a Calendar of 60 6 day weeks plus five. Every 4th year a 366th day makes exactly 61 weeks. This means every 216 years this calendar produces 1 extra day, so after 648 years 3 days must be removed. This is when the Phoenix arrived, and stepped onto the Alter of Ra or Holy Grail, completing the Metonic cycle and bringing the Calendar back into sync with the first New Moon of the Spring equinox. The Capstone of the Pyramid is even called the Benben Stone, the Egyptian Phoenix is called the Bennu. It likely relates to Deneb, in Ophiuchus, the 13th Starsign of the Zodiac. The base of the Pyramid is exactly 13 Acres, as is Teotihuacan, because they share the exact same base dimensions. Such a location would be ideal for calculating the speed of light using the transit of Venus. Incidentally the Great Pyramid's Latitudinal coordinates are the speed of light. 1440 ÷ 108 = 13.333333 11 and 3 are the most sacred Celtic numbers of royalty, and also happen to be the proportions of the Earth to the Moon, and the Great Pyramid. The starsigns also precess 1 degree every 72 years 72 x 3 is 216 2160 ÷ 648 is 3.3333333 The Aztec Calendar also begins with a double transit of Venus, in 3116BC. This whole code can be encoded into a single Pythagorean Triangle of Dimensions 666 by 630, by 216, this is the Key of Solomon, 33 is the inverse of 66. 100 is the "perfect number" because it represents 10 6 unit metrics times 10 6 unit metrics, a unit being 6.66 ie 60 x 60 (3600) the number of Arcdegree seconds in a second, or a one second unit on a clock the size of Earth This means seconds represent 10ths of the Moon; 216, or 6 x 6 x 6 (100 ÷ 6 ÷ 6 = 2.7): Euler's number, and the number of feet to a Megalithic Yard, 3/11 is .27 and the number of days in a sidereal month is also 27. 11/3 is 3.66, the number of days in a Canicular leap year, the character of Thoth, Cuchulainn, and Kukulkan, the Dog Star, and star by which the Sothic (Seth) Calendar is determined. Thoth was the Son of Seth, who is portrayed as a Serpent. 3 x 11 is 33, the years in a Great Solar Return. As the Sun and Moon inhabit their respective houses of the Zodiac they animate the character within, playing out the dramas and battles we know as myths, for example the Moon traveling through each of the Zodiac houses each month, for a grand total of... 144 (12 x 12) Metatron/Enoch/Echnaton/Arkenaten's Cube is 13 circles in a Star of David: 13 x 360 is 4680 4680 ÷ 216 is 21.666..
I love the model of the blueprint being ordered in parts rather than precise measurements so that it can be built really at any scale. There’s something about this that is so satisfying to my brain.
Seeing the plans, and specifically the ruler, it makes me think of the beginning of engineering professor Bill Hammack's book "The Things We Make". In it he describes how the engineering method was used to build structures like cathedrals, when the architects may not have knows about the specific structural integrity of their building materials, but by deriving rules based on simple math like this, structures can be built that don't fall over under their own weight.
A religion that determined that mathematics was the language of the gods and of a universal order 4000 years ago. Uh...my mouth is still hanging open after watching THIS VIDEO!
We found a lost temple using maths sent by an ancient Sumerian god | Curator's Corner w. Matt Parker 0622am 14.6.24 mathematics determined the religion.... divesting itself of idiots desperate to be the guys who conveyed the message....
@@garethsmith3036 Yes, as we know NOW. Thing is it's not so much who does something first as it is a matter of consequence. For example, we have evidence now that Scandavians reached the "New" World long before Columbus. But his had the greatest consequence.
@@didjitalone9544 Fair point. I honestly don't know. Timing perhaps. The people influenced by him being key to subsequent developments. Who knows. He was all over the place in what he did, or we think he did. The business with harmony, his disproving astrology by noting identical twins having different life outcomes. Much of it legend really.
The God, Ningirsu is literally the wall of the temple embodying the numbers of the Gods. This wall is the barrier that keeps wild animals from entering into the inner sanctuary.
In Zoroastrianism, there is Asha, which is the order of the world that must always be maintained. Whoever is against Asha and promotes chaos is Ahriman and must be fought to maintain Asha and keep the world in order. The building is very similar to Persepolis in Persia/Iran.
This video is brilliant. Maths, archeology, ancient history, ancient mythology, all combined into one. I think there could be no better temple to Ninurta than this one. And yes, that is another name for Ningîrsu. Thank you, thank you very much for this :)
Thanks for the love for the video, genuinely really appreciate it. I showed your comment to Sébastien and wrote this for you about Ninurta vs Ningirsu: Yes, Ninurta was another name of Ningirsu. It’s essentially the name of the god used outside of Girsu. Since he was the patron god of Girsu he was called by Girsu inhabitants the Lord of Girsu (this is literally the translation of Ningirsu). In other cities of Mesopotamia, he was known as Ninurta
It also makes sense that the unit measure is 8 meters. A meter is roughly the measurement from the tips of one's fingers to the center of one's chest, which is also about 2 cubits. Cubits were an ancient measurement (seen in the Bible as well as Egyptian hieroglyphs, for example), and measures from the tip of your hand to your elbow. Since 1 meter is about 2 cubits, the unit of measure could be translated to 16 cubits. 16 cubits is super handy as it can be divided into halves as well as 3rds. It's so handy we still use it on non-metric rulers that deal with inches as feet. An inch is divided into 16ths! .
@@fairygrove3928 There were variations in what was considered to be a 'cubit' even within the same 'nation' -- Assyria had two different definitions of a cubit. I think you've tied in two different concepts and arrived at a conclusion which isn't necessarily so...
Hello you beautiful maths nerds! If you're here early, you might want to check out Matt's video with curator Ilona Regulski on the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus first. Matt's video is premiering at 4pm BST (so 30 mins before ours). But make sure to come back here at 4.30 BST sharpish to catch another major dosage of ancient mathsy goodness. You can join Matt's premier here: th-cam.com/video/g_qbIsltNmQ/w-d-xo.html EDITED: 4.30 was reading as a timecode for the video so changed colon to a full stop. Silly TH-cam.
That's incredibly cool! I love that the sculptor bothered to put a completely accurate plan of the completely accurate temple with the king, though I suppose he'd have demanded nothing less.
This is, like the BM itself, nothing short of amazing. I have not been back to the BM in 43 years. It is time. Thank you again for an intelligent and pleasurable series.
yes, it's basically the advantages of base 12 and base 10 with the downside of more numbers. though calling it base 60 is slightly wrong, it's base 10*6, the sub-unit is down presses in a 3x3 grid, and the 10s is a right press in a 3x2 grid. zero is either marked as a space or a dot. so 60 could be written as either "v " or "v." (they wrote on clay tablets with a tool that is basically a dull knife, so it left a triangle)
The standard they mention DOES relate to a known unit. 8 meters is equal to 15 royal cubits, a standard used by the Sumerians. That would make 15 royal cubits a number that could easily be divided by the odd numbers 3 and 5 (which would be convenient and relates to the ruler mentioned in the video). Even divisions of the 15 royal cubits are easier because you measure 15 royal cubits with rope and just fold it into halves, quarters, and eighths.
And for all those who love Nordic & Marvel Universe characters. (16:10) Ningirsu is your Thor. In Sumerian he was also named Ninurta. He is representative of Gilgamesh in the Epic of Gilgamesh in metaphor.
that was an incredible presentation and shows the professional archaeologist at work and then explaining the conscious thought of the ruler in this famous statue and the essence of how their religion is expressed to provide a form of peace to the worshippers in a world of myth and chaos. fantastic!!!
Not just the Sumerians, but Noahs Ark, The Tabernacle, and Solomons temple all had the same thing going on. Gen 6:14-22 is the construction of the Ark (a 3 deck structure, which the tabernacle and temple follows). A huge chunk of the book of exodus goes into excruciating detail for the construction of the tabernacle (most chapters between Exodus 25 and 40) And the temple of Solomon's divine inspiration was established in 1 Chronicles 28, and carried out in 1 Kings 5-6. This was a very widespread phenomenon for temple construction. The temple was the house of a god so you would make it to that god's specifications. But that, like mentioned in the video is what is going on in the bible too. That order is separated from chaos. The word "justified" and "justice" is directly related to things being in their proper order, just as they are in Heaven (stars and planets) and the Heaven of Heavens (God's throne room). This is what is the point of the Lord's prayer "...thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven" I loved the video. It's cool to see it work out in archaeology.
the ark story originally came from the Sumerians. Irvine Finkle reconstructed it from the Sumerian tablets. It was not that big. Its likely the Hebrews borrowed a lot from the Sumerians, by way of Babylonia.
@@ratsammich The reasoning that lead to your conclusion is not sound. The Sumeria was an early civilization that wrote on the hardy and plentiful writing material clay. THis means that they can quickly, cheaply, and prolifically write whatever they want, whenever they want. Other civilzations mostly wrote on plant material and occasionally stone for big important things (which succeeding civilizations had the propensity to destroy) This leads to their being lots and lots and lots of Sumerian and Babylonian writings of the flood in archaeology, but not very many of other cultures in the same time period. Stories didn't start being told when we learned how to write, they were first told orally then, eventually, they got written down. We can tell this through variations and literary devices found in things like the illiad and the like. This reasoning alone (the propensity for sumerian and babylonian artifacts to survive, and others not) is enough to call into question any strictly archaeological reasoning to the stories origins. The normal premises required to get from the physical evidence to your conclusion usually involves a couple of assumptions: 1. "patterns aren't real, man makes them up and it has no basis in reality"; 2. "if a story has a pattern it is made up"; 3. "All patterns are made by man, so all commonalities between different religions must mean they come from the same origin as it is highly unlikely that two or more different unrelated people would come up with specifically the same story if there is no actual pattern to reality"; 4. "these religions are competing so any similarity between them is not based in reality or earlier union between the two, but 'plagiarism' or 'borrowing'"; 5. "consensus views in archaeological studies give us opinions and models that we can be certain are "more or less" right (or enough so) that we can make absolute statements discrediting millennia old religious systems with near certain accuracy." I got a little specific on the last one, but these all have problems.1 and 2 are related but based off a nominalist assumption that there is no meaning to the world until a human mind decides to give it one through it's own system of "naming" based off of observations that have no grounding in reality. This is a youtube comment, I'm not going to attempt to convince you otherwise, but lets just say this isn't as easy to prove as one might think and is not a common assumption in all religious groups (especially christian and jewish ones, the ones that your comment primarily targets), so the burden of proof kind of lands on you (i think) to tell me why I should believe that the world does not have a pattern of meaning. 3 and 4 are based off the first two and have more or less the same problem because of that. 5. is a bit faulty because we are always finding new things that can challenge previous interpretations and old models change with time. And overtime, these errors build up until you end up with nonsensical models because everyone bases it off of conclusions that are quite easily brought into question like the origins of the flood story. This leads to people over confidently and hastily using really specific and derivative postulations to throw out belief systems that have been around for thousands of years and they miss out on really important knowledge because they think it's ridiculous. I like your username and profile pic though.
A) 8 Meters (1 Unit) to Cubits (18 inches) = 17.4978 Cubits. B) "In ancient Rome, according to Vitruvius, a cubit was equal to 1+1⁄2 Roman feet or 6 palm widths (approximately 444 mm or 17+1⁄2 in)." -Ancient Rome, Cubit, Wikipedia. C) A 1 ft radius gives 6.28 ft circumference. 6.28 ft - 3 ft = 3.28 ft = 1 meter. 1 ft + 1 meter + 1 Royal Egyptian Cubit (20.64 inches) = 6 ft. D) 8 meters / 6 feet = 4.37445 feet (1/6 Unit). 1 foot x 3 = 1 yard. 4.37445 Yards = 4 meters (1/2 Unit, Wall thickness).
to extend the end of the video. one must bear in mind that as logical and right minded as this religion might seem, it was still reserved *only* for the priests and kings, and m.a.y.b.e. a few of the higher-ups. the rest of the peons would, probably, only be allowed to serve... what is more compelling is that M. Rey figured out that the building was still there, and then *actually found it* using the statue as a guide. (I won't ask what his religion is)
I think the problem is that they called it a religion when it isn't one, it's more an ideology or a way of thinking. The gods order the world, the just king makes sure to follow the order stablish by the gods. Temples are sacred places and as such must follow divine order. They are the most organize place in a world surrounded by chaos and all elements, including architecture, reflect this. It's an idea present in a lot of ancient cultures (and not just the ancient cultures).
@@mariatorres-by6du I won't disagree. I would say, though, that religion *is* ideology. one that has been plastered with sanctity, to impress we the peons, so we submit. and donate.
This is just incredible. It's like Indiana Jones/ Da Vinci Code ancient puzzle nonsense, but actually real. If Hollywood doesn't make a schlocky movie about it they're basically passing up free money.
My interpretation is that their construction technology said that walls should have this proportion to doors, and so on ... and to keep track of it all, these various fractions ensured that various components would be neither too thick nor too thin.
It's called a story pole. Any old stick will do. As long as you know the proportion or ratios, upu can mark up any old stick on the ground and use it to build. I bet each section between doors had its own team with a foreman that had a story pole.
Wow thank you for this video series. This is the cultural nourishment that my brain desperately needs. Also, a bit late, but I would like to thank the Sumerians for including the blueprints and ruler on that statue. Brilliant move.
A more recent comment claims that it is equivalent to 15 Royal Cubits, a common standard of the time/location. It makes sense for that to be the case, but I haven't actually verified the claim
Is there any meaningful relation between different parameters? Like, the width of the gate is related to thickness of the walls as the golden ratio, or they express Pi, or something like that?
The artefacts shown on this video are remarkable. But I loose my path on the argument storyline when the relationship between the excavations and the graphic line imposed over the photo. I don’t see any connection between the two. the white lines don’t match the picture.
Everything about this is cool. The only actual question I would have is how did they get the 4000 years ago date? Was it carbon dating? Or are they just throwing a contemporary number out there because I've seen both happen.
Interesting. One question remain. How did they make the ruler? Had they a (mathematical) trick to divide any length into 6 or 5 parts? Or just trial and error.
There are geometrical methods for dividing up a length into fractions. Halves are easy: draw a circle from each end of such a size that the two circles cross each other twice. Rule a line between the two crossing points. That gives you the middle of the length.
@@MikeReevesMcMillan Yes dividing by 2 or 4 comes to mind. The others (3,5,6) i don't know (maybe ask GPT/Google..). But i should have added trics in the BC timeframe.
If the ruler was a rope, it would be fairly easy to break it up into equal lengths by folding the rope, right? Also, presumably an 8 metre long rope would be easier to deal with than some kind of 8 metre stick.
"To make things function as they should" - that is design. So this is also the first occurence of design, I guess. Def. from Oxford Languages: 1. a plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, or other object before it is made.
2. a decorative pattern. 3. purpose or planning that exists behind an action, fact, or object. verb decide upon the look and functioning of (a building, garment, or other object), by making a detailed drawing of it.
Cool, I found Atlantis simply by following their directions to Rockall Plateau... 555km x 370km.. This one location matches ALL the criteria while ALL other locations can't match one...
Is it possible to think of a practical use of fractions in indicating a measurement? If the typical building element of Mesopotamia was the brick, a unit of 8 meters could correspond to a fixed number of bricks, for example 60 (or 30). Using a fractional ruler in drawing the plan of the building, the builders of the walls would have simply had to count the bricks to align: 1/6=10 1/5=12 1/4=15 1/3=20 1/2=30. What is the length of the bricks used in that building? 🤔 Thank you so much for your enthusiasm that is sooo contagious! ;-) (y)
This is just brilliant I love this. Great video guys did an amazing job with this find. I say this find is more important than any rn it's crazy cool 💗💗💗💗💗
It kind of reminded me of modern "architect's rulers" which are triangular in cross-section, giving them 6 edges, with a different scale on each. Edit: Maybe there is a larger plan carved into some larger stones under the dirt somewhere. Edit: Could we get a high-ish res download of the plan and the ruler, as I have nothing better to do today ...? Thank you!
Considering base60 is expressed in a circle, that 48M length is probably the circumference of a circle, whose radius has some special meaning. But that's just a guess.
there are 6 of the 8 meter sections on the right of the ruler, matching the 6ths fractions, there looks to be 15 total of the 8 meters( that includes the fractions and between the fractions and the whole parts. and also the ruler fits the whole plan. the units used would be important. I'm not sure if the 8 meter sizes is the special unit or if the full length of the ruler. 15*6 = 90 and for an interesting part, 90 is 1/4 of 360. there's more to see but that's a start.
Oh that's actually really coolllll because most builders would not be educated in math right, a similar thing was done in gothic cathedral building sites, where you can give the head of construction the plan and the proportions without the exact measurements and they can in turn direct the builders better using instruments like that ruler. You don't need to know any numbers to be able to build a temple!
Very true! I showed your comment to Sébastien and this was his response: This is actually super important. The temple was built with square bricks of a standard shape and size (each side measures 0.35 cm). The thickness of the temenos wall was 4 m (which is half a unit). Dividing the thickness by the length of a standard brick gives 12.5 bricks. This seems to suggest that the walls were twelve and a half bricks thick, but the number includes the mortar in between joints. If the each joint is taken to be 2 cm wide, then the wall was made up of twelve bricks plus the total width of the mortar: (12 bricks × 0.32 m = 3.84 m) + (11 joints × 0.02 m = 0.22 m) = 4.06 m. This already extremely close but it becomes even closer if the joints are taken to be the width of a finger, which was an actual Sumerian unit measuring 17mm: (12 bricks × 0.32 m = 3.84 m) + (11 joints × 0.017 m = 0.187 m) = 4.027 m. The degree of accuracy is unwarranted!
I'm sorry to have to write this but all these posts about returning everything in our museums to the discovery sites should consider: the original people and cultures don't exist anymore, so return to whom, in many cases. These amazing bits of world history, the bedrock of our human civilizations are being well looked after and researched for now and finally many parts of the world have ongoing wars, violence and destructive regimes, think of the amazing history totally destroyed by ISIS not so long ago. So when the time is right, of course some things will go back, in some cases. The British Museum has done amazing research and discovered such a lot of our shared early history by translating so many Cuneiform tablets etc, that could easily have been lost to history. Think intellectually on these matters, not temperamentally.
Did you read about the British Museum losing over 2,000 items in one theft by an employee? It turned out the Museum had not had enough money to catalogue everything they have in storage, so they don't know for sure what they have and so don't know what they have lost.
@@michael_177 That makes sense Only in the manner of a playground retort. You might ponder those long ago peoples a bit longer. They are not us. They were displaced by successive invasions and are mostly forgotten. I put it to you that your position is a modern reformist stance which might not have been recognised by the creators of the Great Institutions.
Im a bit confused - is the video saying it took them time to figure out that was a floor plan and a ruler? I would have thought it was obvious (it was to me). But also, when he says the statue is 'almost life size' - 1. How do we know, are we assuming they were the same size as us and 2. Why would a math-fixated king building a temple to a math god have a statue made that was not life-size? If its truly not life-size, what is the significance of the scale reduction?
Imagine in a few thousand years they find a plan of the space shuttle & cutely admire the naive math in it. At last king Gudea had his wish - he made it known to the gods that he understood the relations. There you have it: We are our own gods through time, we don't need imaginary ones to cope with the inevitability of the universe. Respect, king Gudea.
I have a masters degree in hermeneutics and biblical exegesis and i have studied also biblical archeologie and there we studied all this kind of interesting things from the near east from Mesopotamia , Babilonia , Egipt, Persia , Israel and so on ....
This is awesome! Having some luck to get to such discovery! It is not surprising Sumerians used fractions. It is natural and it is used even today in natural measurement systems (opposite to metric). After all natural measurement systems originate from Sumerians. As ruler does not specify base measure, and fractions must be fraction of same base unit, while in this case is revealed to be identical to eight meters, maybe it can be assumed that that base length measurement unit was in wide use, like standard unit in whole Summer? Maybe it could be applied in eventual similar discoveries or even make relation to other length measurement units that are also used in Sumerian time?
Thanks again to Matt Parker for taking on so many ancient unit fractions. If you've found us through Matt's video on the mathematical pa-π-rus
we think you'll like these 2 videos:
Learn to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs with Ilona Regulski: th-cam.com/video/LwZB0MsXCjQ/w-d-xo.html
Watch the whole process of excavating cuneiform tablets from Girsu: th-cam.com/video/dwGmyy2Aabg/w-d-xo.html
We found a lost temple using maths sent by an ancient Sumerian god | Curator's Corner w. Matt Parker 0607am 14.6.24 well done!!!
Loved the video & the insight into Mesopotamian metrology. A thought occurs to me if you have a moment.
Has anyone measured the gaps between the fractional sections? If these gaps were the same or in progression then the ruler as well as indicating unit fractions would also function as a half vernier or slide rule to take measures from the plan & scale them to create the 1:1 working templates.
That I suppose predisposes a plan to building progression. Which looking at the asymmetries in the building might be the reverse of the chronology if it was found that this building is fitted to the landscape instead of imposed.
@@GaryMarriott 14.6.24 2208pm Comments on ‘We found a lost temple using maths sent by an ancient Sumerian god | Curator's Corner w. Matt Parker’ ahahah ratio and templates and the environment as a blue print... i never watched the video, i was otherwise engaged with some shut eye but yeah... building walls to fit within the overall scheme of the landscape is nothing new...
Haha! This non-mathematician actually got the joke 😊 I enjoyed watching this. Many thanks for this video.
@@DC-wt2vi Comments on ‘We found a lost temple using maths sent by an ancient Sumerian god | Curator's Corner w. Matt Parker’ 1015am 16.6.24 i can't imagine what a mathematicians humour is like... probably very literal. so spite must play a great part in the thinking of maths genii like yerself? here's all su the griff rhys jones and mel smth sketch where they parody open university - bedecked in 70's fashions - and laugh uproariously as they realise a mathematical equation has been set out incorrectly... ummmmmmmmmm.... i really should have stayed in bed...
If I were one of the archaeologists on the site when they found out that the second hole showed exactly what they predicted, I think I would have exploded. This is such a pleasing thing to see.
I know this isn't strictly speaking a question, but I thought I'd pass your comment on to Sébastien as I wanted to know how he reacted too. Here's what he responded with:
It was extremely rewarding to be sure. The excavation process is slow and painstaking, so it took us a couple of weeks to unearth the gate and confirm the theory. By the end of the fieldwork, we knew we had made a significant discovery. It’s the beauty of archaeology!
@@britishmuseum Thanks for sharing! I think most people dont understand what archeological digging is. I like to explain it this way:
Imagine you burry a piece of a needle a few meters in the ground.
If this spot is part of an archaelogical dig site, they will *for sure* not just find it, but know exactly in what position it was laying 😉
That is a great, elegantly simple way of reducing archaeology down to its bare essentials, particularly with individual object finds. And while that is very much what Sébastien and the Girsu team are doing at Girsu are doing with Sumerian objects still in their original context, the thing that got me was the team using the same process in the old archaeological spoil heaps (dirt mounds) left by the 19th century excavators. It's amazing to look at a pile of dirt and see the discarded objects thrown into the spoil heaps by workers with baskets full of soil. The way ancient Sumerian bricks land in those spoil heaps preserves the direction and angle with which those workers emptied their baskets. It's quite literally like they're frozen in time. Now I've written this out, think we might need to make a video just about spoil heaps.
Yeah they rolled the right answer first try, pretty dang lucky innit?
@@harriehausenman8623 LOL Don't go into rescue archaeology with that attitude or you'll be VERY disappointed!
Such a brilliant video! Some years ago, the BM invited subscribers to vote on how they would like to see the BM increase its outreach - and I voted for small vids, from curators, about special objects in their collections. Each and every one is pure gold - but as an architect this just hit my sweet spot. Beautiful guys - many many thanks!
Wow - that was some years ago. Next year will be the 10 year anniversary of said vote, as well as the 10 year anniversary of the first Curator's Corner episode. It also looks as though we'll be hitting our 100th episode around that time...what a coincidence... thanks for sticking with us for so long, and keep your eyes out for something a little extra next year.
It must have been shortly after that when I noticed and started watching the Curator's Corners. Thank you for voting for these! They are so beautiful, really well-shot, re-watchable, and nonstop fascinating. I've clicked on lots of them thinking I wouldn't be interested, but might as well give it a shot since all the other options are people talking about why they're mad at one another; then ten minutes later I'm somehow extremely interested in medieval teapots or some wacky thing. Like you said, every episode is a treasure. Thanks, British Museum!
@@SarcasticronI get what you’re saying, _and_ tbf there are a number of other great history channels here 🙃
@@britishmuseum Come on, nobody believes that! In a couple of thousand years there will be archeologist, who find a lost statue of a curator with writings that he had a dream about making the 100th video 10 years after the vote! ;-P
This video really is awesome! Frequently dipping my toes both in history and alternative history, this video really is a great example of making predictions, the scepitcs, but winning the sceptics over in the end. What a lovely story! You just earned a new subscriber!
‘To make things function as they should’. Thank you, Sumerians. Thank you, Sebastien and Matt. Mathematically proportioned buildings are immensely pleasing. I need more of this sort of thing.
There'll be more with Sébastien shot at Girsu very soon (hopefully next episode). And we'll being going deeper into the phrase 'To make things function as they should'. Thanks for the love.
@@britishmuseumawesome can’t wait!
Great to see how study is bringing to light the mindset of this ancient civilisation.
It's chilling though, Who in the social structure decides what how things are supposed to be ? Smacks of totalitarianism. I wonder what daily life was like for the average citizen in that culture. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to get on the wrong side of the ruler or the clergy.
"Things are exactly as they should be !" was said by a Japanese military planner on surveying the carnage after a notably grisly battle with the Russians near Port Arthur in 1905. We know how all that worked out.
@@causewaykayakholy long jumping to conclusions batman, you got all that out of a video about mathematically pleasing architectural archaeology?
@@OutbackCatgirl 😉. There is often more content in what people say than one might suspect. It is like reading a picture. British Museum features are always loaded with wonderful content.
"To make things function as they should" … now that is a maxim today's world should be acting upon.
Thank you very much for this video.
The only problem is that nowadays everyone has their own idea of how things should be and also the opportunity to shout this unfiltered to the whole world.
Judaism has a very similar maxim, Tikun Olam, which means that we are here to be God's partners in perfecting the world.
@@nunuvyerbizness
That's rather sensible and very well put. I like that.
some ppl see disoerder and chaos everywhere, sometimes in the their own refusal to function as they should.
6:25 Matt switching from counting the tally’s to the gaps really highlights the later point about the evolution of numbers just existing to count physical things into objects that you can act on themselves
I'm honestly seriously tempted to get a tattoo of the Sumerian "to make things function as they should", but I'm afraid to find out in ten years that it actually means "sesame chicken" or "property of he Louvre".
🤣 Your body will get a copyright strike!
do it
I was having the same thought. It would be an amazing tattoo.
Me too, it'd combine my love of maths and history.
I have two Sumerian tattoos now, I translated them myself but used common known phrase for that reason...and yes one of them incorporates their sexagesemal numeral system ha
For the interested, I encourage serious students to read these fairly easy books on the origins of the Sumerian numerical systems and their link to mathematics. They also show the link to sedentary agriculture, and solar calendars.
Schmandt-Besserat, Denise
1992 "Before Writing Volume I: From counting to cuneiform" Austin: University of Texas Press
Dalley, Stephanie
2000 “Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others, Revised” Oxford University Press
Black, Jeremy, Anthony Green, Tessa Rickards (illustrator)
2003 "Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia" Austin: University of Texas Press.
The religious interpretations of solar observation led to the orientation of building walls, streets, etc...
Thanks
Thank you
Thanks for this, maths history is seriously underrated.
One Megalithic hour is 240 minutes, or 14,400 seconds (1/4)
There are 6 Megalithic hours to the day, each made up of 6 minutes, each of which is 6 seconds long. If the Megalithic hour was divided into 60 minutes, each would be 1,440 of our seconds, times 100 is 144,000.
One Megalithic second is 400 of our modern seconds, divided by 60 (to get minutes) is 6.6666666....
360 ÷ 6.66 is 54
54 x 2 is 108
108 x 2 is 216
To effect this the hands on a clock count out 10 (units of 6) x 10 (units of 6) × 4 (=400 units of 6). Therefore the relationship of the Megalithic second to our current form is mathematically proportional to the ratio between the Sun and Moon. A Megalithic second is 6.66 minutes (400 seconds). A Megalithic Minute is 40 minutes, or 2,400 seconds. 6 x 6 x 6 x 400 = 86,400, the number of seconds in a day. This would mean a clock with 216 seconds would go around 40 times in a day (2160 x 400).
This means 1 Megalithic second is 6.66 of our modern minutes, meaning their metric system is based on the Full Moon, of which 360 fit into to the night sky, and 720 will encircle the globe, divided by half gives us the 360 degree circle, and the basis for our present hexadecimal system of time. Which is why 1 degree of Arc on the Moon = 100 Megalithic Yards (2700ft). This means the Beast, the hidden hand of the Masonic fraternity, is the Moon; and Time. The white limestone covering of the Pyramids denotes the Pale Moon in Megalithic Ireland, like at New Grange, where Enoch describes a Crystal Palace illuminated by the Full Moon every 19 years.
6 x 6 x 6 is 216, there are 2160 years in an astrological age, and the Moon is 2160 miles in diameter, the solar metonic calendar using 60 6 day weeks produces 1 extra day every 216 years. There are also 216 Megalithic seconds in a day, and 216 letters in the name of the Hebrew God, Just as Solomon has 36 or 72 scrolls, and Muhammed speaks of 72 sects.
Enoch also buries 36,525 scrolls, the number of days in a year, times 100. Oh by the way, this shows that our current measure of time is based on the principle of 1/6, the basis of an Egyptian Royal Cubit, but first they built the first ring at Stonehenge, which is 100 metres (330 ft) wide, with an area of 2160 square feet, a Cube's interior angles also add up to... 2160!
This produces a Calendar of 60 6 day weeks plus five. Every 4th year a 366th day makes exactly 61 weeks.
This means every 216 years this calendar produces 1 extra day, so after 648 years 3 days must be removed. This is when the Phoenix arrived, and stepped onto the Alter of Ra or Holy Grail, completing the Metonic cycle and bringing the Calendar back into sync with the first New Moon of the Spring equinox. The Capstone of the Pyramid is even called the Benben Stone, the Egyptian Phoenix is called the Bennu. It likely relates to Deneb, in Ophiuchus, the 13th Starsign of the Zodiac. The base of the Pyramid is exactly 13 Acres, as is Teotihuacan, because they share the exact same base dimensions.
Such a location would be ideal for calculating the speed of light using the transit of Venus. Incidentally the Great Pyramid's Latitudinal coordinates are the speed of light.
1440 ÷ 108 = 13.333333
11 and 3 are the most sacred Celtic numbers of royalty, and also happen to be the proportions of the Earth to the Moon, and the Great Pyramid.
The starsigns also precess 1 degree every 72 years
72 x 3 is 216
2160 ÷ 648 is 3.3333333
The Aztec Calendar also begins with a double transit of Venus, in 3116BC.
This whole code can be encoded into a single Pythagorean Triangle of Dimensions 666 by 630, by 216, this is the Key of Solomon, 33 is the inverse of 66.
100 is the "perfect number" because it represents 10 6 unit metrics times 10 6 unit metrics, a unit being 6.66
ie 60 x 60 (3600) the number of Arcdegree seconds in a second, or a one second unit on a clock the size of Earth
This means seconds represent 10ths of the Moon; 216, or 6 x 6 x 6 (100 ÷ 6 ÷ 6 = 2.7): Euler's number, and the number of feet to a Megalithic Yard, 3/11 is .27 and the number of days in a sidereal month is also 27.
11/3 is 3.66, the number of days in a Canicular leap year, the character of Thoth, Cuchulainn, and Kukulkan, the Dog Star, and star by which the Sothic (Seth) Calendar is determined. Thoth was the Son of Seth, who is portrayed as a Serpent. 3 x 11 is 33, the years in a Great Solar Return. As the Sun and Moon inhabit their respective houses of the Zodiac they animate the character within, playing out the dramas and battles we know as myths, for example the Moon traveling through each of the Zodiac houses each month, for a grand total of... 144 (12 x 12)
Metatron/Enoch/Echnaton/Arkenaten's Cube is 13 circles in a Star of David:
13 x 360 is 4680
4680 ÷ 216 is 21.666..
I love the model of the blueprint being ordered in parts rather than precise measurements so that it can be built really at any scale. There’s something about this that is so satisfying to my brain.
True!
Seeing the plans, and specifically the ruler, it makes me think of the beginning of engineering professor Bill Hammack's book "The Things We Make". In it he describes how the engineering method was used to build structures like cathedrals, when the architects may not have knows about the specific structural integrity of their building materials, but by deriving rules based on simple math like this, structures can be built that don't fall over under their own weight.
"order out of chaos" is the definition of creation in the Ancient Near East Creation Stories.
Way more to it than that
A religion that determined that mathematics was the language of the gods and of a universal order 4000 years ago. Uh...my mouth is still hanging open after watching THIS VIDEO!
We found a lost temple using maths sent by an ancient Sumerian god | Curator's Corner w. Matt Parker 0622am 14.6.24 mathematics determined the religion.... divesting itself of idiots desperate to be the guys who conveyed the message....
Yeah that’s like 1500 years before Pythagoras
@@garethsmith3036 what Dr'you expect..i never saw the skit....
@@garethsmith3036 Yes, as we know NOW. Thing is it's not so much who does something first as it is a matter of consequence. For example, we have evidence now that Scandavians reached the "New" World long before Columbus. But his had the greatest consequence.
@@didjitalone9544 Fair point. I honestly don't know. Timing perhaps. The people influenced by him being key to subsequent developments. Who knows. He was all over the place in what he did, or we think he did. The business with harmony, his disproving astrology by noting identical twins having different life outcomes. Much of it legend really.
The God, Ningirsu is literally the wall of the temple embodying the numbers of the Gods. This wall is the barrier that keeps wild animals from entering into the inner sanctuary.
In Zoroastrianism, there is Asha, which is the order of the world that must always be maintained. Whoever is against Asha and promotes chaos is Ahriman and must be fought to maintain Asha and keep the world in order. The building is very similar to Persepolis in Persia/Iran.
This video is brilliant. Maths, archeology, ancient history, ancient mythology, all combined into one. I think there could be no better temple to Ninurta than this one. And yes, that is another name for Ningîrsu.
Thank you, thank you very much for this :)
Thanks for the love for the video, genuinely really appreciate it. I showed your comment to Sébastien and wrote this for you about Ninurta vs Ningirsu:
Yes, Ninurta was another name of Ningirsu. It’s essentially the name of the god used outside of Girsu. Since he was the patron god of Girsu he was called by Girsu inhabitants the Lord of Girsu (this is literally the translation of Ningirsu). In other cities of Mesopotamia, he was known as Ninurta
@@britishmuseum Shouldn't we be calling him Ninurta then?
The scale of the ruler to the temple seems to be close to 1:360. Considering that they used base 60 it is appropriate.
It also makes sense that the unit measure is 8 meters. A meter is roughly the measurement from the tips of one's fingers to the center of one's chest, which is also about 2 cubits. Cubits were an ancient measurement (seen in the Bible as well as Egyptian hieroglyphs, for example), and measures from the tip of your hand to your elbow.
Since 1 meter is about 2 cubits, the unit of measure could be translated to 16 cubits. 16 cubits is super handy as it can be divided into halves as well as 3rds. It's so handy we still use it on non-metric rulers that deal with inches as feet. An inch is divided into 16ths! .
Nice!
@@fairygrove3928 16 can be divided into thirds!? Like, 48 times ⅓, you mean?
No, like one third is 5, the second third is 5, and the last third is 6. What's the problem? xD
@@fairygrove3928 There were variations in what was considered to be a 'cubit' even within the same 'nation' -- Assyria had two different definitions of a cubit. I think you've tied in two different concepts and arrived at a conclusion which isn't necessarily so...
I didn't expect this crossover. Fantastic.
Hello you beautiful maths nerds! If you're here early, you might want to check out Matt's video with curator Ilona Regulski on the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus first. Matt's video is premiering at 4pm BST (so 30 mins before ours). But make sure to come back here at 4.30 BST sharpish to catch another major dosage of ancient mathsy goodness. You can join Matt's premier here: th-cam.com/video/g_qbIsltNmQ/w-d-xo.html
EDITED: 4.30 was reading as a timecode for the video so changed colon to a full stop. Silly TH-cam.
4:00 "it was revealed to me in a dream"
Totally works when you're a king in antiquity.
cf. " Hilprecht's Dream "
@@johannageisel5390 or you know, Joseph Smith's Mormons much more recently
Ramanujan's maths be like
tfw the foundation of the entire discipline of architecture is this.
That was really enjoyable, thank you both. Additionally, you two should be on your own TV show, finding and solving mysteries of the ancient world.
Wonderful to see harmony. It helps one believe in our ancestors for more than just worship.
Just incredible, beautiful research, amazing results from the cradle of modern culture....Thank you for showing us.❤
This wins the internet. It's a long time since I saw something so interesting!
That's incredibly cool! I love that the sculptor bothered to put a completely accurate plan of the completely accurate temple with the king, though I suppose he'd have demanded nothing less.
Thanks Matt for sending me here. Great video!
This is, like the BM itself, nothing short of amazing. I have not been back to the BM in 43 years. It is time. Thank you again for an intelligent and pleasurable series.
This is great content, please keep up the curator's corner videos 😀
60 is, of course, 5 x 12 = 3 x 4 x 5 = 3 x 2 x 2 x 5. Quite useful for calculating if you don't have a calculator.
yes, it's basically the advantages of base 12 and base 10 with the downside of more numbers.
though calling it base 60 is slightly wrong, it's base 10*6, the sub-unit is down presses in a 3x3 grid, and the 10s is a right press in a 3x2 grid.
zero is either marked as a space or a dot. so 60 could be written as either "v " or "v."
(they wrote on clay tablets with a tool that is basically a dull knife, so it left a triangle)
Or a micrometer or a caliper from ancient days
@@satibelthey didn't really write they made clay columns to roll out their message
@@ericchastain1863 They had rulers and measuring rods. They didn't really need micrometers or calipers.
@@paulblase3955 you can't tell me a ruler would get you a drill hole nor 2 slabs weighing 2-10tons 1/100000ths of inch close
As someone quite into archaeology, absolutely love this. Beautiful work.
Love the energy of their excited interaction of discovery. Great vid.
The standard they mention DOES relate to a known unit. 8 meters is equal to 15 royal cubits, a standard used by the Sumerians. That would make 15 royal cubits a number that could easily be divided by the odd numbers 3 and 5 (which would be convenient and relates to the ruler mentioned in the video). Even divisions of the 15 royal cubits are easier because you measure 15 royal cubits with rope and just fold it into halves, quarters, and eighths.
Ah, that's interesting! I thought that the single unit must have been a known measure
I love this! I am so glad you are showing this to us, I am fascinated by anything Sumerian.
This is absolutely fascinating! Mesmerised by the story 🙌🙌🙌
And for all those who love Nordic & Marvel Universe characters. (16:10) Ningirsu is your Thor. In Sumerian he was also named Ninurta. He is representative of Gilgamesh in the Epic of Gilgamesh in metaphor.
I love the parallel between the thought that went into intepreting the plan an the thought that must have gone into creating it.
that was an incredible presentation and shows the professional archaeologist at work and then explaining the conscious thought of the ruler in this famous statue and the essence of how their religion is expressed to provide a form of peace to the worshippers in a world of myth and chaos. fantastic!!!
Wow! Love the predictive archeology. Thanks for sharing.
The birth of engineering! "Make things function as they should". Love it
Not just the Sumerians, but Noahs Ark, The Tabernacle, and Solomons temple all had the same thing going on. Gen 6:14-22 is the construction of the Ark (a 3 deck structure, which the tabernacle and temple follows). A huge chunk of the book of exodus goes into excruciating detail for the construction of the tabernacle (most chapters between Exodus 25 and 40) And the temple of Solomon's divine inspiration was established in 1 Chronicles 28, and carried out in 1 Kings 5-6. This was a very widespread phenomenon for temple construction. The temple was the house of a god so you would make it to that god's specifications. But that, like mentioned in the video is what is going on in the bible too. That order is separated from chaos. The word "justified" and "justice" is directly related to things being in their proper order, just as they are in Heaven (stars and planets) and the Heaven of Heavens (God's throne room). This is what is the point of the Lord's prayer "...thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven" I loved the video. It's cool to see it work out in archaeology.
the ark story originally came from the Sumerians. Irvine Finkle reconstructed it from the Sumerian tablets. It was not that big. Its likely the Hebrews borrowed a lot from the Sumerians, by way of Babylonia.
@@ratsammich The reasoning that lead to your conclusion is not sound. The Sumeria was an early civilization that wrote on the hardy and plentiful writing material clay. THis means that they can quickly, cheaply, and prolifically write whatever they want, whenever they want. Other civilzations mostly wrote on plant material and occasionally stone for big important things (which succeeding civilizations had the propensity to destroy) This leads to their being lots and lots and lots of Sumerian and Babylonian writings of the flood in archaeology, but not very many of other cultures in the same time period. Stories didn't start being told when we learned how to write, they were first told orally then, eventually, they got written down. We can tell this through variations and literary devices found in things like the illiad and the like. This reasoning alone (the propensity for sumerian and babylonian artifacts to survive, and others not) is enough to call into question any strictly archaeological reasoning to the stories origins. The normal premises required to get from the physical evidence to your conclusion usually involves a couple of assumptions:
1. "patterns aren't real, man makes them up and it has no basis in reality";
2. "if a story has a pattern it is made up";
3. "All patterns are made by man, so all commonalities between different religions must mean they come from the same origin as it is highly unlikely that two or more different unrelated people would come up with specifically the same story if there is no actual pattern to reality";
4. "these religions are competing so any similarity between them is not based in reality or earlier union between the two, but 'plagiarism' or 'borrowing'";
5. "consensus views in archaeological studies give us opinions and models that we can be certain are "more or less" right (or enough so) that we can make absolute statements discrediting millennia old religious systems with near certain accuracy."
I got a little specific on the last one, but these all have problems.1 and 2 are related but based off a nominalist assumption that there is no meaning to the world until a human mind decides to give it one through it's own system of "naming" based off of observations that have no grounding in reality. This is a youtube comment, I'm not going to attempt to convince you otherwise, but lets just say this isn't as easy to prove as one might think and is not a common assumption in all religious groups (especially christian and jewish ones, the ones that your comment primarily targets), so the burden of proof kind of lands on you (i think) to tell me why I should believe that the world does not have a pattern of meaning.
3 and 4 are based off the first two and have more or less the same problem because of that.
5. is a bit faulty because we are always finding new things that can challenge previous interpretations and old models change with time. And overtime, these errors build up until you end up with nonsensical models because everyone bases it off of conclusions that are quite easily brought into question like the origins of the flood story. This leads to people over confidently and hastily using really specific and derivative postulations to throw out belief systems that have been around for thousands of years and they miss out on really important knowledge because they think it's ridiculous.
I like your username and profile pic though.
A) 8 Meters (1 Unit) to Cubits (18 inches) = 17.4978 Cubits.
B) "In ancient Rome, according to Vitruvius, a cubit was equal to 1+1⁄2 Roman feet or 6 palm widths (approximately 444 mm or 17+1⁄2 in)." -Ancient Rome, Cubit, Wikipedia.
C) A 1 ft radius gives 6.28 ft circumference.
6.28 ft - 3 ft = 3.28 ft = 1 meter.
1 ft + 1 meter + 1 Royal Egyptian Cubit (20.64 inches) = 6 ft.
D) 8 meters / 6 feet = 4.37445 feet (1/6 Unit). 1 foot x 3 = 1 yard. 4.37445 Yards = 4 meters (1/2 Unit, Wall thickness).
Sorry to say not the first architectural plan known in history. But definitely doing a good job at finding the lost temples and architecture. Salute!
to extend the end of the video.
one must bear in mind that as logical and right minded as this religion might seem,
it was still reserved *only* for the priests and kings, and m.a.y.b.e. a few of the higher-ups.
the rest of the peons would, probably, only be allowed to serve...
what is more compelling is that M. Rey figured out that the building was still there,
and then *actually found it* using the statue as a guide.
(I won't ask what his religion is)
I think the problem is that they called it a religion when it isn't one, it's more an ideology or a way of thinking. The gods order the world, the just king makes sure to follow the order stablish by the gods. Temples are sacred places and as such must follow divine order. They are the most organize place in a world surrounded by chaos and all elements, including architecture, reflect this.
It's an idea present in a lot of ancient cultures (and not just the ancient cultures).
@@mariatorres-by6du Great point -- but isn't that still what most folk call religion ?
@@causewaykayak I would say is a philosophical principle that informs religion but not religion itself.
@@mariatorres-by6du I won't disagree.
I would say, though, that religion *is* ideology.
one that has been plastered with sanctity, to impress we the peons, so we submit.
and donate.
This is just incredible. It's like Indiana Jones/ Da Vinci Code ancient puzzle nonsense, but actually real. If Hollywood doesn't make a schlocky movie about it they're basically passing up free money.
That was a delightful presentation. Thank you.
☮️👏👏👏👏👏👏
excellent work !!
fascinating to say the least
Finally , a science God . He must make another wild card entry .
This is great. I appreciate the the collab with Matt Parker. I hope there can be others in the future.
My interpretation is that their construction technology said that walls should have this proportion to doors, and so on ... and to keep track of it all, these various fractions ensured that various components would be neither too thick nor too thin.
Yes, additionally couldn't it be related to mateirials? Mudbricks cast in standard moulds
World's first laptop tablet.
😂this is the best comment!
If you were really big on unit fractions base 60 makes a lot of sense!
This is the best video Ive seen in a while! ❤
Outstanding archaeology in action. 🎉 Saved a lot of work
It's called a story pole. Any old stick will do. As long as you know the proportion or ratios, upu can mark up any old stick on the ground and use it to build. I bet each section between doors had its own team with a foreman that had a story pole.
Archeologist Goblin is Here
That was awesome!! Thank you guys
I'm impressed. Wow! You did this.
That s so amazing! Thank you thank you thank you for this videos and your work 😊
Wow thank you for this video series. This is the cultural nourishment that my brain desperately needs. Also, a bit late, but I would like to thank the Sumerians for including the blueprints and ruler on that statue. Brilliant move.
"The Lost Temple of the Parker Square"....... ;)
been loving all this ancient maths, matt!
Very excellent and entertainig video, its got the Mesopotamia touch, the archeology & mystery history vibe, some religion and its also about maths.
So, are those length units (8m, and presumably 1/60th of that), attested in other structures and things in the area as standards?
A more recent comment claims that it is equivalent to 15 Royal Cubits, a common standard of the time/location.
It makes sense for that to be the case, but I haven't actually verified the claim
24 divided 1.25 equals 19.2, upper chamber height.
19.2 divided by 1.25 equals 15.36, middle chamber height.
15.36 x 19.2 equals 294.912, width, squared, both chambers.
Honestly, what could be more perfect than finding a temple of the god of Math using Math?
Finding a temple of the god of music by playing a tune would be impressive
If 1 = 8 meters than the 1/5 = 1.6 meters.. does that make a mile a sensible measurement method finally?
Simply amazing 🙀
Who would of thought,,,To make things function as they should,,, love it.
It’s always jarring to me when the Brit’s say maths, with the s on the end.
Is there any meaningful relation between different parameters? Like, the width of the gate is related to thickness of the walls as the golden ratio, or they express Pi, or something like that?
The artefacts shown on this video are remarkable. But I loose my path on the argument storyline when the relationship between the excavations and the graphic line imposed over the photo. I don’t see any connection between the two. the white lines don’t match the picture.
Everything about this is cool. The only actual question I would have is how did they get the 4000 years ago date? Was it carbon dating? Or are they just throwing a contemporary number out there because I've seen both happen.
The Sumerians deserve a lot more credit and investment into what they wrote
Interesting. One question remain. How did they make the ruler? Had they a (mathematical) trick to divide any length into 6 or 5 parts? Or just trial and error.
There are geometrical methods for dividing up a length into fractions. Halves are easy: draw a circle from each end of such a size that the two circles cross each other twice. Rule a line between the two crossing points. That gives you the middle of the length.
@@MikeReevesMcMillan Yes dividing by 2 or 4 comes to mind. The others (3,5,6) i don't know (maybe ask GPT/Google..). But i should have added trics in the BC timeframe.
Any carpenter knows this. It is how a saw fence can be set to mill boards.
If the ruler was a rope, it would be fairly easy to break it up into equal lengths by folding the rope, right? Also, presumably an 8 metre long rope would be easier to deal with than some kind of 8 metre stick.
@@estherstreet4582 Like i said, trial and error. But i was hoping the Egyptians had a more 'mathematical' way of doing it.'
"To make things function as they should" - that is design. So this is also the first occurence of design, I guess.
Def. from Oxford Languages:
1. a plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, or other object before it is made.
2. a decorative pattern.
3. purpose or planning that exists behind an action, fact, or object.
verb
decide upon the look and functioning of (a building, garment, or other object), by making a detailed drawing of it.
wonderful !!! Howard Crowhursts' work and video brought me here ! thanks so much for revealing this important work
Cool, I found Atlantis simply by following their directions to Rockall Plateau... 555km x 370km.. This one location matches ALL the criteria while ALL other locations can't match one...
Is it possible to think of a practical use of fractions in indicating a measurement? If the typical building element of Mesopotamia was the brick, a unit of 8 meters could correspond to a fixed number of bricks, for example 60 (or 30). Using a fractional ruler in drawing the plan of the building, the builders of the walls would have simply had to count the bricks to align: 1/6=10 1/5=12 1/4=15 1/3=20 1/2=30.
What is the length of the bricks used in that building? 🤔
Thank you so much for your enthusiasm that is sooo contagious! ;-) (y)
This is just brilliant I love this. Great video guys did an amazing job with this find. I say this find is more important than any rn it's crazy cool 💗💗💗💗💗
Were they called Sumerians because they were good at sums?
(Thanks to Johnny Ball for that one.)
The trippy thing is the kings divine story is now known tens of thousands of people thousands of years later
It kind of reminded me of modern "architect's rulers" which are triangular in cross-section, giving them 6 edges, with a different scale on each. Edit: Maybe there is a larger plan carved into some larger stones under the dirt somewhere. Edit: Could we get a high-ish res download of the plan and the ruler, as I have nothing better to do today ...? Thank you!
Brilliant!!! Thank you for posting!!!!!!!
this is just a DM's first foray into drawing a battle map for D&D, innit.
For inviting a guest to solve your math problem, you sure made it easy by solving it for him... Lol..
The "sticky out bits" are fractal.
I just found the phrase Im going to on my engineering gradiation thesis:
"To make things function as they should" --King Guda of Girsu, ~2000 BCE
Feel free to use the cuneiform in the video if you want to take that excellent title OTT
Considering base60 is expressed in a circle, that 48M length is probably the circumference of a circle, whose radius has some special meaning. But that's just a guess.
there are 6 of the 8 meter sections on the right of the ruler, matching the 6ths fractions, there looks to be 15 total of the 8 meters( that includes the fractions and between the fractions and the whole parts. and also the ruler fits the whole plan. the units used would be important. I'm not sure if the 8 meter sizes is the special unit or if the full length of the ruler. 15*6 = 90 and for an interesting part, 90 is 1/4 of 360. there's more to see but that's a start.
Oh that's actually really coolllll because most builders would not be educated in math right, a similar thing was done in gothic cathedral building sites, where you can give the head of construction the plan and the proportions without the exact measurements and they can in turn direct the builders better using instruments like that ruler. You don't need to know any numbers to be able to build a temple!
Very true! I showed your comment to Sébastien and this was his response:
This is actually super important. The temple was built with square bricks of a standard shape and size (each side measures 0.35 cm). The thickness of the temenos wall was 4 m (which is half a unit). Dividing the thickness by the length of a standard brick gives 12.5 bricks. This seems to suggest that the walls were twelve and a half bricks thick, but the number includes the mortar in between joints. If the each joint is taken to be 2 cm wide, then the wall was made up of twelve bricks plus the total width of the mortar: (12 bricks × 0.32 m = 3.84 m) + (11 joints × 0.02 m = 0.22 m) = 4.06 m. This already extremely close but it becomes even closer if the joints are taken to be the width of a finger, which was an actual Sumerian unit measuring 17mm: (12 bricks × 0.32 m = 3.84 m) + (11 joints × 0.017 m = 0.187 m) = 4.027 m. The degree of accuracy is unwarranted!
I'm sorry to have to write this but all these posts about returning everything in our museums to the discovery sites should consider: the original people and cultures don't exist anymore, so return to whom, in many cases. These amazing bits of world history, the bedrock of our human civilizations are being well looked after and researched for now and finally many parts of the world have ongoing wars, violence and destructive regimes, think of the amazing history totally destroyed by ISIS not so long ago. So when the time is right, of course some things will go back, in some cases. The British Museum has done amazing research and discovered such a lot of our shared early history by translating so many Cuneiform tablets etc, that could easily have been lost to history. Think intellectually on these matters, not temperamentally.
So by that logic people can come and take all of our beaker-culture artifacts from the british Isles right?
Did you read about the British Museum losing over 2,000 items in one theft by an employee? It turned out the Museum had not had enough money to catalogue everything they have in storage, so they don't know for sure what they have and so don't know what they have lost.
same goes for anti racists. You are programmed to dislike racism.
@@michael_177 That makes sense Only in the manner of a playground retort.
You might ponder those long ago peoples a bit longer. They are not us. They were displaced by successive invasions and are mostly forgotten. I put it to you that your position is a modern reformist stance which might not have been recognised by the creators of the Great Institutions.
@@causewaykayakWhat gives the British more right to house it than the place where it came from? Not everywhere is in political turmoil
He Math in a video? Immediately clicked.
Also because I’m interested in the subject of course!
Im a bit confused - is the video saying it took them time to figure out that was a floor plan and a ruler? I would have thought it was obvious (it was to me). But also, when he says the statue is 'almost life size' - 1. How do we know, are we assuming they were the same size as us and 2. Why would a math-fixated king building a temple to a math god have a statue made that was not life-size? If its truly not life-size, what is the significance of the scale reduction?
And the max division is 1/6th because the sexagesimal system (1/60th) was common to them (now we only use it for time measure).
That was fun thanks😊❤
Imagine in a few thousand years they find a plan of the space shuttle & cutely admire the naive math in it. At last king Gudea had his wish - he made it known to the gods that he understood the relations. There you have it: We are our own gods through time, we don't need imaginary ones to cope with the inevitability of the universe. Respect, king Gudea.
I have a masters degree in hermeneutics and biblical exegesis and i have studied also biblical archeologie and there we studied all this kind of interesting things from the near east from Mesopotamia , Babilonia , Egipt, Persia , Israel and so on ....
_Much_ better than the golden ratio!
No need to fudge or force any lines anywhere!
Definitely not better than the golden ratio, but damn well an archaeological and philosophical wonder
How amazing! What a time we are living in!!
If you rebuild gates you may find sun rays enter the temple on significant days, solstices, equinox .. :)
This is awesome! Having some luck to get to such discovery!
It is not surprising Sumerians used fractions. It is natural and it is used even today in natural measurement systems (opposite to metric). After all natural measurement systems originate from Sumerians.
As ruler does not specify base measure, and fractions must be fraction of same base unit, while in this case is revealed to be identical to eight meters, maybe it can be assumed that that base length measurement unit was in wide use, like standard unit in whole Summer? Maybe it could be applied in eventual similar discoveries or even make relation to other length measurement units that are also used in Sumerian time?