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A stunning revelation of archaic Sumerians in Mesopotamia and ancient People of East in downstream of Yellow River of China THE ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION Thomas Tao, Ph.D. 1 The Origin of Civilization Thomas Tao In memory of Mr. Wentai Tao, a professor of Chinese History and Culinary Art 献给陶文台先生,中国历史烹饪教授 i The Origin of Civilization Thomas Tao Contents Precis ............................................................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter Civilization and its origin ................................................................................................................. 6 Tribe culture of paleo-lithic era ................................................................................................................ 6 What is civilization and where is “cradle of civilization” .......................................................................... 7 Ancient four river valley civilizations are related ..................................................................................... 8 Does large settlement of city lead to birth of civilization? ....................................................................... 9 Millet farming leads to the first neo-lithic civilization ............................................................................ 10 Archeological findings, ancient texts and legends in telling our history ................................................ 11 Chapter Written language and its origin..................................................................................................... 13 The earliest Mesopotamia writing reveals Chinese connection ............................................................. 13 Archaic Sumerians performed ancient Chinese Ritual Divination 卜 Bu ............................................ 17 The Sumerian landowner Khiginmi-Sal is priestess with Chinese name 星相八卦女巫.................... 19 The archaic Sumerian characters and Chinese Oracle Bone Script 甲骨文 ........................................... 21 The archaic Sumerian pictographic writings ....................................................................................... 22 Chinese Oracle Bone Script 甲骨文 Jiǎgǔwén .................................................................................... 23 Characters of natural objects in Sumerian and Chinese ..................................................................... 25 Characters of man-made objects in Sumerian and Chinese ............................................................... 27 Character Land: Sumerian and Chinese channeled and irrigated farm land .................................. 28 Character Water Well: Sumerian and Chinese use it for irrigation also as a land unit .................. 29 Character Jug: Sumerian and Chinese are the same pointed bottom for taking water from well . 31 Character Sailboat: Sumerians and ancient Chinese are masters of sailboat ................................ 34 Character Bow: Sumerian and People of East are the first............................................................. 35 Characters with suggestive meanings in Sumerian and Chinese ........................................................ 36 Character Divination: Sumerian and Chinese are identical tree twig ............................................. 37 Character Eat: Sumerian and Chinese are both “mouth on a Bowl full of grain”........................... 37 Character King: Sumerian and Chinese both mean “he rules all lands” ......................................... 38 Characters Slave and Ancestry: Sumerian and Chinese use male sex organ .................................. 40 Characters Value or Treasures: Sumerian and Chinese “valuables inside House” ......................... 41 Characters of Sumerian weights and Chinese counterparts........................................................... 41 Archaic Sumerian Characters and Oracle Bone Script are the same family ....................................... 41 Ancient texts regarding to origin of Chinese writing .............................................................................. 44 ii The Origin of Civilization Thomas Tao Cang Jie 倉頡 is a court official of Huang Di 黄帝 .............................................................................. 44 Cang Jie 倉頡 is a tribe king predated Huang Di 黄帝 ........................................................................ 45 Cang Jie 倉頡 is associated with People of East in Yellow River downstream ................................... 46 Falsification by the Western Zhou (1046BC-771BC) and School of Confucianism ............................. 47 Archeological findings of proto writings in China ................................................................................... 48 A new narrative of the origin of written language ................................................................................. 49 Chinese language and its influence on Chinese culture ......................................................................... 51 Chapter Calendar, numerology of numbers, and their origin .................................................................... 53 Sumerian numbering system of decimal and sexagesimal ..................................................................... 54 Chinese numbering systems of decimal, duodecimal and sexagesimal ................................................. 58 The book of Er Ya 尔雅, the Jupiter and the Supreme God of Year 太岁 .......................................... 59 Chinese archaic decimal of 10, the Heavenly Trunk 天干 and its origin ............................................ 64 A story of millet farmers who observe sunsets .............................................................................. 65 How it becomes a tree trunk?......................................................................................................... 67 Interpretation of the oldest Chinese legend of Ten-Sun 生十日 and origin of decimal 10 ........... 68 Chinese archaic duodecimal of 12, the Earthly Branch and its origin ................................................ 71 Chinese sexagesimal of 60 干支 Gan Zhi, calendar and their origin .................................................. 74 Ancient Chinese texts claimed Chinese sexagesimal Calendar started at 4,731BC........................ 74 The Jupiter’s solar cycle reveals Chinese calendar in circulation at 5,324BC ................................. 76 Genealogy of Numerology of numbers................................................................................................... 78 Chapter Metrology and its origin ................................................................................................................ 82 The oldest known units in metrology are based on grain of millet ........................................................ 82 Weights of archaic Sumerian and ancient Chinese................................................................................. 83 Weights of the archaic Sumerian ........................................................................................................ 83 Units, scales, and average means of the Sumerian weights ........................................................... 84 The archaic Sumerian pictographic signs of weights – 3-grain, shekel, mina, and talent .............. 85 Sumerian Pictogram of “grain” is ancient Chinese character Pictogram of Shekel being a rope wedge of 10-millet ........................... 85 is an archaic form of Chinese character 丁 din....... 87 Pictograms of mina being ax and hammer are 斤和锤 Jing and Chui in Chinese .......................... 88 Pictogram of talent being a pottery container is 石 Dan in Chinese ......................................... 90 Ancient Chinese weights ..................................................................................................................... 92 iii The Origin of Civilization Thomas Tao Chinese Qin & Han weights 232BC-8AD ......................................................................................... 92 The Market Unit of Qin & Han weights........................................................................................... 93 Millets, barley, their sizes, and weights .......................................................................................... 94 Millet tells all stories ....................................................................................................................... 95 Chinese weight unit Din 丁 as Sumerian shekel ............................................................................. 97 Chinese weight unit Liang ............................................................................................................... 98 Qin bronze coin of Half Liang 秦半两 ............................................................................................. 98 Chinese weight unit Jin 斤 being half of Sumerian mina ................................................................ 99 Metrology of length, area, and volume ................................................................................................ 101 Land area of Sumerian unit and ancient Chinese unit ........................................................ 101 Why would ancient people invent their metrology with units and scales? ......................................... 103 Chapter Pottery of Sumerians and neo lithic Chinese .............................................................................. 105 Ancient ceramics and pottery ............................................................................................................... 105 Pointed bottom pottery in Mesopotamia (3,500BC-500BC) ................................................................ 107 Pointed bottom pottery in China (6,000BC-3,000BC) ........................................................................... 109 Wheeling of pottery .............................................................................................................................. 111 Archeological sites of Yang Shao (5,000-3,000BC) and Da Wen Kou (4,300-2,500BC) ..................... 112 Slow-wheel pottery at the 跨湖桥 Cross-Lake Bridge site (6,000BC-5,000BC) ................................ 114 Slow wheeling in Yang Shao culture (5,000BC-3,000BC) .................................................................. 115 Slow and fast wheeling in Da Wen Kou culture (4,300BC-2,500BC) ................................................. 115 Sumerians brought with them Chinese wheeling technology .......................................................... 116 Chapter Yellow River Downstream ........................................................................................................... 118 Yellow River downstream and Flood Zone ........................................................................................... 118 Kei Feng, a city built on top of six stratified ancient cities.................................................................... 120 Hundreds of Iron Age cities in downstream buried yet to be found – Shuijing 水經........................... 122 Downstream of Yellow River is a black hole of archeology .................................................................. 124 People of East led by Tai Hao create the earliest civilization at 5324BC .............................................. 126 Ancient texts of Tai Hao and People of East Fu Xi 伏羲 ....................................................................... 127 Tai Hao of People of East and Sumerians ............................................................................................. 128 Chapter Astronomy, astrology and their origin ........................................................................................ 132 Astronomy in four ancient civilizations has their origin in neo-lithic China ......................................... 132 Astronomy is science and its findings are pivotal ................................................................................. 134 iv The Origin of Civilization Thomas Tao Ancient Chinese astronomical texts and neo-lithic archeological findings .......................................... 136 Zodiac of 12 constellations - Solar Zodiac............................................................................................. 138 “Bull” as the start in Sumerian Zodiac in 3,000BC ............................................................................ 139 Precession and its use for dating ancient astronomical events........................................................ 140 Chinese zodiac: Yin-Sagittarius 5300BC, Chou-Capricornus 3000BC and Zi-Aquarius 800BC .......... 142 What are the “bulls” in Sumerian and Chinese Zodiacs telling us? .................................................. 146 Why Chinese Zodiac of 12 constellations advanced in opposite direction of the rest of world? .... 147 Zodiacs of ancient Indians and Chinese ............................................................................................ 148 The Jupiter and its use in dating of Chinese calendar of 5324BC ......................................................... 149 Capricornus 牵牛 Qian Niu ................................................................................................................... 152 Capricornus in Chinese as Plowing Ox and in Sumerian as Horned Sea Goat .................................. 153 What does 牵牛 Qian Niu in Chinese mean?................................................................................ 155 When the constellation Capricornus 牵牛 first became visible on horizon after Sunset? ........... 155 Capricornus was a sign of millet planting during 3,000BC-4,000BC ................................................. 157 Five-Planet appearance in Capricornus in Sumerian and Chinese astrologies ................................. 159 Impact of five-planet line up on climate changes ............................................................................. 160 Zodiac of 28 constellations - Lunar Zodiac............................................................................................ 161 North Poles and North Stars ................................................................................................................. 163 Tai Yi 太一 as North Star in 2400BC and possible in 5300BC ........................................................... 165 Pivotal stars of Tian Shu (100BC), You Shu (3000BC) and Zuo Shu (5000BC) ............................. 167 Chapter Government and its origin .......................................................................................................... 172 Sumerian Standard Professions List...................................................................................................... 172 Chinese Professions List and 100-Surname List .................................................................................... 175 Sumerian Professions List is Organizational Chart of Government in feudal China ............................. 176 Nine Royal States in The Classic of Mountains and Seas ...................................................................... 180 People with surname of Wang are descendants of those who created the first civilization ............... 182 Chapter Early intercourses in our civilizations .......................................................................................... 185 Mesopotamia and Sumerians ............................................................................................................... 185 Pre-Sumerian Mesopotamia ............................................................................................................. 185 Sumerians and their innovations vs. neo lithic Chinese ................................................................... 187 Race of Sumerians and Lady of Uruk ................................................................................................ 189 Logistics of Royal Expedition of People of East to Mesopotamia ..................................................... 190 What might motive the People of East to move? ......................................................................... 190 v The Origin of Civilization Thomas Tao How could ancient people get to Mesopotamia?......................................................................... 191 How could they survive on month-long or year-long journey? .................................................... 191 Does migration of People of East in 3500BC lead to later trades among four ancient civilizations? ...................................................................................................................................................... 192 Early papers in suggestion of intercourse ......................................................................................... 192 Great hurdles in proposing Chinese origin ....................................................................................... 194 A new narrative of Neo-lithic civilizations ............................................................................................ 195 Chapter The oldest continuous civilization and what is meant to us ....................................................... 200 Ending of Chinese feudal society and establishment of Republic of China in 1912 ............................. 200 The People’s Republic of China ............................................................................................................. 201 Neolithic Imperial-Mandarin Civilization in today’s China.................................................................... 202 References: ............................................................................................................................................... 206 Chinese ancient texts about 100 Professions List:................................................................................ 208 三公 Three-Gong: ............................................................................................................................. 208 六卿 Six-Senior-Administrator: ......................................................................................................... 208 百官、百工, 百姓 Hundred Professions-Mandarins-Surnames List: ............................................... 209 Origin of Royalty 诸侯....................................................................................................................... 209 The Classic of Mountains and Seas 山海经 .......................................................................................... 209 vi The Origin of Civilization Thomas Tao Precis Today the story of our civilization is told largely by means of findings excavated in archeological sites. For example, Mesopotamia where the Sumerians or the early Babylonians settled has been regarded as the “cradle of our civilization”, because of archaeological ruins found there. It is also known that these archaic Sumerians, when they first appeared in Mesopotamia ca3500BC, already had all “Elements of Civilization” such as written language known as the archaic Sumerian pictograms, advanced astronomy and astrology, numerology, metrology, king-led feudal government, sailing and wheeling, etc. However, where these Sumerians came from remains to be a mystery, as no archeological findings can convincingly pinpoint to motherland of these Sumerians. Furthermore, it has been known that the civilizations of the four ancient river valleys, Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, Indus River, Nile River and Yellow River appeared to have some intercourses especially at their early days, for example their similarity in astronomy and astrology, numerology, metrology, written languages, calendar, pottery, irrigated agriculture, religions, and priest-king government, etc. Nevertheless if or how they interacted then remains to be a mystery too. In either way archeology as science is only one or two hundred years old, and we have all realized archeology has its own limitations and often cannot tell the whole story of our history, especially when ancient ruins were destroyed or yet to be found, for example in this particular river valley, motherland of the Sumerians where the earliest civilization was born, pretty much all neo-lithic ruins have been buried deep underground by the extraordinary and unparalleled river silt likely reaching a depth up to 60 meters, making it extremely difficult if not possible to find and excavate them. Now we have been confronted with insufficient archeological findings, knowing that the direct archeological evidence with their magnificence of Egyptian’s Pyramids and Mesopotamian’s Uruk ruins are not available anytime soon or ever, and it is becoming what we have called the “Black Hole” of archeology that has prevented us from finding the truth of our civilization. How are we going to approach this thorny issue of “Black Hole” of archeology while in seeking the truth of our civilization? It is what we have done and what this book is about. Despite of lack of direct archeological sites of its neo-lithic cities and capitals, the motherland of the Sumerians has survived its ancient civilization, amazingly as we now know, for 7000 years more. Some of its ancient texts have survived and are still in existence today which have provided us with the unique opportunity to peek through its past. Also, recent archeological findings there have convincingly supported neo-lithic “cultures” and dynasties being recorded in ancient texts, as we have shown in this book, to be as early as 5400BC. These invaluable ancient texts in combination with recent archeological findings have helped us in mitigating the thorny issue of “Black Hole” and ultimately led us to our stunning discoveries. In the “Chapter Written language and its origin”, author starts with the oldest known writing in the world, the University of Pennsylvania Museum Tablet, Cat# B16105, of archaic Sumerians Characters ca 3500BC, a telling story of a priest performing a divination to get rid of pests in fields. Author has found its Chinese connection by revealing that the divination itself is an ancient Chinese pyromantic divination 卜 bu, and that one of the landowners is a female priest with an ancient Chinese job title. This accidental 1 The Origin of Civilization Thomas Tao discovery led author to take further steps of making comparisons of various archaic Sumerians and ancient Chinese characters including the Oracle Bone Script and he was stunned by widespread similarity among them. The most significant discoveries are that author has been able to identify a number of characters in the Sumerians and Chinese with the same writings, nevertheless bearing the exact yet very specialized meanings, for example, and , both representing a water well, inscribed the same way as a water hole in ditched channels for irrigation and both have also been used as a unit of land acreage, and their origin is known in ancient Chinese Well-Land System 井田制; and , both representing a stone headed pick-ax, and also being used as a weight unit of about 250 grams, being “ma” of half the “mina” or pound in Sumerian weights, and 斤 Jin in Chinese weights; and , the exact same writing, representing a tree twig, with a special meaning not found anywhere on earth, to be exclusively the pyromantic divination. Author then analyzed both the archaic Sumerians characters 3500BC and Chinese Oracle Bone Script 1300BC and he has found they are linguistically identical, and both are born to the same family tree. Author has further explained there are at least 18 archeological findings known in China of proto writings, some as old as 6400BC, while none were found in Mesopotamia, thus it only makes sense that Chinese predates the Sumerian writings. Author then identified the origin of Chinese writing to be from the Yellow River downstream where the ancient People of East had settled. It is such a stunning finding that Chinese have pretty much used the same linguistic system for 7000 years, as a result, its influence on today’s China is obvious we can even find its impact on their real estate market in their cities. In the “Chapter Numerology and its origin”, author has described both the Sumerians and ancient Chinese used sexagesimal of 60, and further revealed ancient Chinese decimal of 10 known as the Heavenly Trunk, duodecimal of 12 known as the Earthly Branch, and sexagesimal of 60 known as Gan Zhi are the origin of the Sumerians Sexagesimal of 60. In fact, Chinese archaic numbering systems of 10, 12 and 60 have been intertwined with the earliest legends of China known from the People of East who were millet farmers in the Yellow River Downstream. One of the most significant discoveries author has made as revealed in this book, is that Chinese sexagesimal calendar starts at 5324BC during the reign of Tai Hao, the legendary Emperor of Heaven, the first known emperor in literate China, and the sexagesimal calendar is still counting years in China today for stunning 7300 years. This new dating places the Chinese Sexagesimal calendar to be 2000 years older than the Sumerians ca 3500BC, and this discovery was made possible by using the Jupiter’s solar circle and the astronomical events recorded in ancient Chinese texts, which has been detailed in Chapter Numerology and in Chapter Astronomy. In the “Chapter Metrology and its origin”, author has detailed all ancient metrologies of weights, lengths, and volumes, both the Sumerians and Chinese used, start with the smallest unit as “grain”, which has been specifically identified to be originated from a special type of millet called “Common Millet”, not barley, wheat, corn, and rice though, a native crop cultivated in the Yellow River downstream since 8000BC. Author further has analyzed the whole set of the Sumerian and ancient Chinese weights, and succeeded in deciphering all of them and found them to be identical, for example, the smallest unit of “grain”, the Sumerian “three-barley” to be originally from Chinese 10 or 20 common millets; the Sumerian shekel to be Chinese 丁 Din meaning a rope wedge; the Sumerian mina or pound, actually being two characters “ma” and “na”, to be Chinese 斤 Jin and 锤 Chui, with their meanings to be a pick-ax and a wooden hammer respectively; the Sumerian talent to be Chinese 石 Dan, meaning a 2 The Origin of Civilization Thomas Tao weighing container initially for royal payment of tax in form of grains. Author has also demonstrated, simply by employing the weight of single common millet, he can derive and project the whole set of all weight units in both the Sumerian and Chinese sexagesimal metrology of weights, and their projected weights match well with those found in the archeological sites and in ancient texts. There is no doubt that the Sumerians and Chinese weights are the same with Chinese being the origin. Nevertheless, author has left much analysis of metrology of lengths, volumes, and areas to future researchers to pursue, while he has also pointed out that both the Sumerians and Chinese used the pictogram of “water well” as a unit for their land area or acreage, which is known originating from ancient Chinese Well-Land System. In the “Chapter Astronomy and its origin”, author has stated that people knew and have been fascinated by similarity in ancient astronomy in different civilizations, for example both the Sumerians and Chinese used the Jupiter’s movement in deriving their zodiac of 12 constellations and used 360 degrees in describing sky. Author has further revealed Chinese zodiac has three phases based on ancient texts and precession, characterized by its starting constellation, Yin 寅 Sagittarius at ca 5300BC, Chou 丑 Capricornus at ca 3000BC and Zi 子 Aquarius at ca 700BC which is still in use today in China. The Sumerians inherited Chinese zodiac of the second phase Chou Capricornus at ca 3000BC, so did the ancient Indians and the Egyptians via their mutual trades with the Sumerians. Capricornus was used as a telling sign of planting millet during 4000BC-3000BC in the Yellow River downstream, Qian Niu 牵牛 as a bull being led for plowing field, however Sumerians changed the “bull” to Taurus as Sun at the Vernal Equinox, instead of Chinese at the Winter Solstice. Author has also made a breakthrough by determining ancient Chinese started their sexagesimal calendar at 5324BC and their first phase zodiac of 12 constellations known as Yin 寅 Sagittarius was already in place then, based on ancient texts and the Jupiter’s solar circle, an astonishing discovery which has also been independently verified by another astronomical event based on precession that Chinese started their Phase One zodiac around 5300BC. Author has further demonstrated Chinese used the Left Pivotal Star known as Lota-Draconis today as their North Star at 5000BC and the Right Pivotal Star known as alpha-Draconis as their North Star at 3000BC. Recent archeological findings indicate the People of East had observed the North Star at 4400BC. Chinese astronomy has always been under strict state supervision and, according to our findings revealed in this book, is the oldest known, two thousand years older than the Sumerians. These ancient People of East developed the earliest astronomy and invented the earliest calendar for one practical purpose, to determine the precise dates of their brief planting of millet, which occurs at the end of May and the beginning of June at the northern latitude of 36 degrees. This is the precise reason why the first civilization was born to farmers of millet, not to cultivators of barley, wheat, corn, or rice in warmer climates at lower latitudes. In the “Chapter Pottery of Sumerian and Chinese”, author has summarized neo-lithic people in preSumerian Mesopotamia and China had already mastered pottery making, and the Sumerians are not the first to use pottery. However, it is this type of pottery, the small-mouthed, pointed bottom or reversed cone shaped potteries, originally for hauling water from water wells and riverbanks for large scale irrigation for the purpose of agriculture, that have first offered concrete archeological evidence of their Chinese origin. The pointed bottom potteries have been found in the Sumerian tablets, inscribed in the Sumerian archaic pictographic characters, and found in Sumerian archeological sites, however not found in the pre-Sumerian era prior to 3500BC. These type of pointed bottom potteries have commonly been found in the Yellow River middle and downstream during 5000BC-3000BC, and found being inscribed in 3 The Origin of Civilization Thomas Tao ancient Chinese pictographic characters, the same way found in the Sumerian archaic characters. We know the Sumerians have been credited with the invention of pottery wheeling, but here in Neolithic China, author has pointed out that the slowing wheeling of pottery had existed since 6000BC and the fast wheeling also appeared 3500BC-2800BC in the Yellow River downstream. Pottery making offers solid archeological evidence that the Sumerian civilization comes from ancient China. In the “Chapter Government and its origin”, author has discovered that the famous Sumerian Professions List ca 3500BC-3200BC is a complete Organizational Chart of Government in feudal China, the earliest known surviving document of a fully functional government. Later around 2300BC in China the list had evolved into, being known as, the list of Bai Guang, or Bai Gong or Bai Xing, literally means the Hundred Mandarin Officials, the Hundred Professions, and the Hundred Surnames. By examining surviving ancient texts of Shang dynasty (ca1600BC-1046BC), the last dynasty of the People of East and the subsequent Western Chou (1046BC-771BC), author has deciphered the top ten posts in the Sumerian Professions List with their actual Chinese positions largely held by royalties. Shockingly author has found Chinese had had the same structure of government since at least 3500BC and it ended in 1911 when the last dynasty Qing was overthrown, for stunning 5500 years. Ended, really? The current regime in mainland China insists on so called “Chinese Characteristics” in their governance, essentially being their Neolithic “imperial-mandarin civilization”, a stratified society in a highly hierarchy order. Also, in this chapter author has studied the genealogy of family, the Chinese surname of “Wang”, which more than 100 million people are bearing today, and found its origin in the Sumerian Professions List. In the “Chapter Yellow River Downstream”, the historical playground of the People of East, author has analyzed geology, hydrology, climate changes, archeological findings and ancient texts, therefore points out, for the first time, that Neolithic playground of the People of East must have been buried with up to 50-60 meters of river silts in the immediate downstream where the ancient People of East roamed, for example the ancient capital city of Kei Feng since Wei ca 350BC, located on the alluvia fan of the Yellow River downstream, and its vicinity, during the reign of Tai Hao known as the Emperor of Heaven 5300BC, should have been buried by 50-60 meters thick of river silt. Ancient texts also indicate hundred cities known being of the Iron Age however have never been found in the downstream. Thus, author maintains neo-lithic archeological sites in the Yellow River downstream have been deeply buried and offers his criticism to those researchers who have claimed “no archeological sites” as an excuse to deny their existence in the flood zone, to be short-sighted. Author then describes who are these ancient people called the “People of East”, where their dynasties or kingdoms are, and capital cities they had built, and the burial site of their emperor, etc. The contributions the People of East made to mankind, according to ancient texts, are ironically like what the Sumerians have been credited to, further indicating they are the same origin. In the “Chapter Early intercourses in our civilizations”, author has listed known scholars in the past who had proposed a single origin of our civilizations, for example, the Sumerian origin, which is the most noted, the Egyptian origin, the Indus River valley origin, and lastly the Chinese origin however being few. Mutual trades by ocean going sailings among the Mesopotamians, the ancient Indians and the ancient Egyptians are known, however their intercourses with ancient Chinese have not been recognized. Today contemporary scholars have treated each ancient civilization to be independently developed despite of their widespread and recognized similarity. How the Sumerians obtained ancient Chinese know-hows has yet to be deliberated, conversely author favors a “Royal Expedition” of the planned mass migration as the Top Choice, that this migration of the People of East to Mesopotamia likely was caused by big 4 The Origin of Civilization Thomas Tao floods, upon prophecy from their divination, they planned their journey, packed up and took on ocean going sails, an exact story of the Deluge and Noah’s Ark as told in the Old Testament, as we know today ancient Hebrews had taken the root of the Sumerians, who now are revealed as the People of East in the Yellow River downstream of China. Still author has finished his book with the “Chapter The oldest civilization and what is meant to us”. While we are clearly awe-struck and deeply impressed by the amazing Chinese civilization of more than 7000 years, we have felt perturbed as it originated from neo-lithic, survived for 7000 years in China where had largely kept its original form intact, the “imperial-mandarin feudal civilization” as the critics call. As the Mainland China rapidly ascends being the second largest GDP now, soon to be the largest one as some have predicted, and its leadership insists on “Chinese Characteristics” in their governance, a polished phrase for the “imperial-mandarin feudal civilization”, we have to ask what is meant to us, is this world moving forward or going backwards to neo-lithic again? Each chapter in this book has been told with new discoveries and findings, unique and quite a few unprecedented, and these breakthroughs are made possible mainly due to audacious efforts by author and others. Each chapter was intended to be a standalone subject, dealing with a particular field or discipline, and author had considered to have each chapter submitted for publication in peer-reviewed papers but changed his mind. Clearly submitting each chapter for publication is a nightmare of logistics. Author’s original plan is to present more materials with additional chapters, and to provide more details in existing chapters, for example, adding chapters of religions, calendar, agriculture and irrigation, wells and canals, transportations via sailings and land based, ceremonies, burials, temples and ziggurats, current pictographic writings in the world, and the oldest civilization in today’s societies, etc. Author nevertheless has consolidated some chapters and left out some for future missions. In any way author believes by adding more materials will not change at all the conclusion and the objective of this book, only making the writing to take much longer time than anticipated. It literally takes author three-year full time making to complete this mission, now we have had a valley of meticulous evidence and discoveries in full support of our writing of the Origin of Civilization. Writing such book presents itself an extremely challenging task, as we have to deal with a broad field of many disciplines, including but not being limited to, written languages and linguistics including ancient pictographic writings, history, politics, religions and spirituality, government and its organization, genealogy of family, archeology, astronomy and astrology, physics, mathematics and numerology, metrology, calendar, pottery, geology and hydrology, climate changes, agriculture and irrigation, anthropology, civil engineering, transportation and sailing, numismatics and currencies, metallurgy, etc. Today’s disciplines are extremely specific, and these specialized tasks are performed by so called specialists. Author himself is a highly trained scientist, and has been an inventor, author, entrepreneur, senior executive and founder of technology companies, and a board member of start-ups and clean-tech coalitions, but he has not been trained in many of these fields. Author has no other alternatives but placing himself on the Ground Zero, literally training himself to learn each field exactly as a student, and gradually managing to get familiar with the subject he was studying. Nevertheless, author regards himself as an independent investigator with critical thinking, examining each subject entirely based on facts, logics and scientific merits, not unsubstantiated opinions. Thomas Tao, Ph.D. 陶涛博士, Massachusetts, USA, December 2020 5 The Origin of Civilization Thomas Tao Chapter Civilization and its origin Home sapiens or the Modern Human originated from a single region, as scholars termed “Out of Africa” 200,000-60,000 years ago. Did our civilization evolve in a similar way, our written language, mathematics, calendar, astronomy, and government etc., first emerged and matured in a unique environment, in a single region from where they unfolded? Yes, in this book we will present our stunning findings that our civilization essentially emerges in a special Neo-lithic settlement, a river valley located approximately at the northern latitude of 36 degrees where a crop of millet had been cultivated, a grain requiring high temperatures however with a brief planting and growing season. From this valley plain its neo-lithic civilization spreads to the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers valley, to the Nile River valley and the Indus River valley, with its unprecedented astronomy, mathematics, accounting and numerology, metrology, religion, king-led government, wheeling, written language, calendar, irrigated agriculture, a stratified society with specialized professions etc. the neo-lithic world has never experienced before. This newly identified neo-lithic civilization (5400BC) is the earliest and certainly predates by two thousand years the widely known Mesopotamia Sumerians (ca3500BC) in the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers Valley, where has been regarded today as the “Cradle of Civilization”. As stunning as it is, the Mesopotamia Sumerian civilization arises directly from this neo-lithic Yellow River downstream of China. Tribe culture of paleo-lithic era Archeological findings and genome studies indicate the Modern Human had already spread widely in the Eurasia continents, for example, from the Near East to the Far East after their migrations out of Africa 200,000 – 60,000 years ago and some of them had also interbred with or displaced old stocks from previous migrants from Africa. These Modern Human were known to be capable of doing things or performing tasks we have regarded as civilized people can do today. They already had the intelligence and acumen with a brain size we have, their body builds were equivalent to ours and their physical strength and ability to adapt elements were equal to or even superior to us. Modern traits of color of skins, eyelids and hairs are believed to come much later around 20,000 years ago. These Modern Human had used fires as ash filled pits and hearths of 200,000 years old are known, and they also knew how to make tools and to build their shelters. They were known to have made their shelters either digging holes in ground or erecting houses using materials available to them, plants of reeds, grasses and trees, muds, animal bones and hides, stones, or anything they could find. They were known to have made covers for themselves as clothes. Domestication of crops and animals were still in infancy. They were mainly hunters and gathers. The Modern Human also conducted communications via their bodily or oral languages. They had started spirituality believing there was another world beyond one they had lived in, a concept of afterlife and burials. They practiced worshipping of deities. They did dance and singing. The Modern Human were also practicing warfare, as none or few species would do, by waging wars against and killing their own kind, often deliberately with purposes. 6