Civilization One: The World is Not as You Thought it Was (33 page)

Modern understanding of Sumerian and Old Babylonian measuring systems has been reconstructed by experts who have studied many cuneiform texts found on clay tablets in the ruins of ancient cities of Mesopotamia. Like many long-lived cultures, the various linear lengths, weights and volumes used in the ‘Fertile Crescent’ can be terribly complicated, with specific lengths or weights often reserved for a particular commodity. However, as we suggested in Chapter 4, there are certain weights and measures that were used as standards, and which did not change significantly over time. According to Professor Livio C. Stecchini these units stem from the Sumerian Period, circa 1800
BC
.

The smallest unit of length associated with the Sumerians and the Babylonians was the ‘se’ which meant ‘barley seed’. There were 6 se to one shu-si and 360 se to the double-kush. Most experts in Mesopotamian metrology would not argue with these figures and it seemed reasonable to us that the se or barley seed, being the smallest denomination of length, weight and volume, should offer the perfect starting point for understanding the entire system. We had been somewhat surprised when an expert in this area of research answered our request for more information about the barley seed as a Sumerian unit of measure by email in the following way:

‘The barleycorns are more for calculational convenience rather than being considered as actual barleycorns.’ 1

Our response was to keep an open mind as to whether or not these ancient scientists actually meant what they said or whether it was indeed a kind of nickname for something small.

The standard ‘calculational convenience’ theory is quite understandable because in the British and many European measuring systems, the ‘grain’ existed as a term until the introduction of the metric system. In Britain, the grain was originally a true barley grain, though for some purposes wheat seeds were used. In the British and many of the western European systems, the grain eventually became a standard unit, often differing greatly from the humble seed that had been its origin.

Another reason why many archaeologists deny that the Sumerians were referring to real barley seed relates to information dealt with while we were working with the Sumerian cube, in Chapter 4. The supposed problem lies in the fact that 180 x 60 is the number of barley seeds in both a mana (weight) and a sila (volume). Using the barley seed as a unit of weight, this could never be the case, since a mana is about 500 grams and a sila is about a litre, which, we are told, weighed almost exactly a kilogram. All the same, we felt obliged to look more closely at this Mesopotamian se or barley seed. We knew from the texts that a kush (cubit) was said to have a value of 180 barley seeds. When we tried the experiment for ourselves, it became immediately obvious why experts in the past had dismissed the barley seed as a reality in the system. Given that the kush was around half a metre, each barley seed would have to measure 2.77 millimetres. Our own experiments showed that the length of a modern barley seed, when laid end to end, averages out at 8.46 millimetres. We might have left the situation at that, except for the fact that we decided to measure all the barley seed’s dimensions.

If the seeds had been pierced in their centres and placed onto a very fine thread, as in a necklace, the seeds would have been on their sides. We did not thread the seeds but laid them out in a row on double-sided sticky tape
(see Colour Plate section).
When we did so, we discovered that they conformed incredibly well to the Sumerian/Babylonian model and there were indeed close to 180 barley seeds on average to the kush!

Taking the kush at 49.94 centimetres in length, each barley seed should measure 2.77 millimetres. The average width of our own sample of modern barley grains (using both large and small seeds at random and across a number of examples) was around 2.81mm, typically giving more than 177 to the kush. This is incredibly close to the hypothetical Sumerian model and tended to suggest that, at least in terms of physical dimensions, our own barley seeds were not greatly different to the Sumerian examples.

At this point the theory that ‘barley seed’ was merely a word used for ‘calculational convenience’ by the Sumerians was already looking less likely. As we thought about the Sumerians and Babylonians dividing the horizon (like all circles) into 360 degrees we realized that if the seeds were arranged in a curve to form a circle it would hold just a few more seeds. It turned out that a circle of 360 barley seems was indeed a double-kush in length – so each grain was precisely equal to one degree in this circle. Here was another example of Sumerian thinking, with circles within circles dancing to the number pattern based on 360.

We next turned our attention to the weight of the seeds. In order to obtain the ‘intended’ weight of the basic unit known as the mana, we performed the calculation outlined in Chapter 4, taking one-fifth the length of the kush and cubing it. The kush is 49.94 centimetres, a fifth of which is 9.988 centimetres. The cube of this is 996.404 cubic centimetres. The metric system says that the weight of water in such a cube would be 996.4 grams.

According to the cuneiform texts (or at least to the standard interpretation of them) there ought to be a total of 180 x 60 = 10,800 barley seeds in a mana. We already knew that the weight of a mana must be exactly half that of the sila and it is the sila that is created from the one-fifth kush cube. Put simply, this means that the mana is only half the value of the one-fifth kush cube and so should be expected to return a weight of 498.2 grams. If this weight is made up of 180 x 60 = 10,800 barley seeds, then each seed must weigh 46 milligrams.

We next measured the weight of our own barley seeds on a set of simple but accurate balance scales. In one pan, we placed a one gram weight, and in the other we began to place seeds, both large and small, until the scales balanced exactly. We repeated the procedure many times until we had a good average for the number of barley seeds necessary to balance the one-gram weight. The result was 21.5 seeds, meaning that our barley seeds weighed an average of 46.5 milligrams. For thoroughness we also checked this against independent figures, taken from the 1979 English crop, which averaged 45 milligrams per barley seed. Both our figures and those from the 1979 crop were so close to the expected Sumerian/Babylonian system that we were amazed how little our barley differed from that harvested more than 4,000 years ago. As a result of these findings, we are now confident about reconstructing the intended Sumerian measuring systems.

Judging by our own experiments, the originators of this system used a combination of large seeds from the centre of the ear of barley, and smaller ones from the ends of the ear. To obtain the definitive weight of one barley seed would have been impossible for the Sumerians. The whole system is built around significant numbers of seeds, the better to gain an accurate average.

The beauty of the system lies in its simplicity. The linear length (kush) was originally derived from a pendulum with a period of one Sumerian second but the same unit could be reasonably accurately established by any buyer or seller in the marketplace by simply stringing 360 barley grains together. A brilliant ready-reckoner.

We remembered what we had been told by the expert:

‘The barleycorns are more for calculational convenience rather than being considered as actual barleycorns.’

By now we had confidently concluded that this statement was entirely wrong because even modern barley seeds replicate every aspect of the Sumerian/Babylonian weights very accurately.

As previously stated, the use of grains, meaning barley and wheat grains, still exists within the imperial system of measurements. In this case the most rudimentary experiment will prove to anyone that the grains used in the imperial system have, during the passing of centuries, become divorced from genuine wheat or barley seeds. They have essentially become symbols. Experts in this field have doubtless come to believe, or were taught to believe, that the same is true in terms of Sumerian grains or barley seeds. We respectfully suggest that those involved in the study of Sumerian weights and measures disregard, for a while at least, what they have learned and try these experiments for themselves. We are confident they will come to the same conclusions.

¹
We have deliberately chosen not to name the professor in question. He was very helpful to our research and it is not our intention to embarrass him.

I joined Freemasonry back in 1976 for the simple reason that I wanted to know what these men where doing behind their closed doors and obscured windows. It did not take too long to realize that even the most senior practitioners had virtually no idea where their weird old rituals came from or what they meant. Between 1989 and 2003 I researched and co-authored four books with fellow Freemason Robert Lomas, starting with
The Hiram Key
which was a first tentative and speculative attempt to make sense of the oddball rituals of the many degrees of Freemasonry.

As our research became more and more focused, Robert and I found ourselves being taken further and further back in time to the Old Testament period and beyond. Here we found that science and religion had once been two sides of the same coin, with the study and worship of the planet Venus being connected with king-making and stone-building. From the Megalithic sites of Britain to the Temple of Jerusalem we found evidence of careful Venus observation that appeared to be associated with birth, death and resurrection.

The entire layout of a masonic temple is astronomical in design, with the three principal officers placed in the east, south and west to mark the rising Sun, noon and the setting Sun. There are two large pillars in the east that represent the freestanding pillars of Boaz and Jachin from the Old Testament that marked the north/south extremes of the solstice sunrises in the original temple, supposedly built for King Solomon.

A candidate for membership is made to represent a worker in stone and in the all-important third degree of Freemasonry he or she is ritually ‘killed’ and resurrected in near total darkness as the planet Venus symbolically rises in the east ahead of the Sun.

As mentioned in the closing chapter of this book the theme of building in stone being linked to astronomical events is central to these rituals, and God is referred to by Freemasons as ‘The Great Architect of the Universe’ or ‘The Grand Geometrician of the Universe’. This description of the Creator emphasizes the importance of the measurements of both heaven and Earth.

Although this book has nothing directly to do with Freemasonry, I believe that it finally ends my personal quest, for in solving some part of the riddle of the Megalithic Yard, Alan and I have also identified the inspiration that lies behind Freemasonry. Masonic ritual used today states that the real secret of the Order was lost 3,000 years ago and substituted secrets were created until such time as the original ones will be recovered. I believe that time has come.

The picture that I see, built up through researching and writing five books, is that more than 5,000 years ago some unknown group taught the inhabitants of western Europe how to create a measure that was taken directly from Venus, the ‘Queen of Heaven’. This divine unit, designated the Megalithic Yard by the man who recovered it, was the cornerstone of civilization. The power of ancient priesthood lay in their knowledge of working with stone, understanding astronomy and the ability to give their flock measurement!

An 18th-century masonic stamp depicting the central importance of measuring the world and its place in the universe. One pillar carries the Earth and the other the globe of the heavens. The instruments of measurement, the compass and tri-square, surround the letter ‘G’, signifying God, otherwise known as the ‘Grand Geometrician of the Universe’. Above are the Sun and the Moon, surrounded by the planets. In the centre is the ‘All-seeing Eye’ from which no-one can ever hide.

At some point, probably well before 2000
BC
, cultures in the Mediterranean adopted the principles of the geometry used by the Megalithic builders of the British Isles. This knowledge extended from Malta to Crete and the city states of Phoenicia on the coast that we now know as Israel and the Lebanon. The Minoan culture adapted the principles to create their own unit based on this 366 geometry and the Phoenician knowledge passed to another Canaanite group of tribes, later knows as Jews, from the principal tribe of Judah.

Like the British Isles and Brittany, Malta and Israel have Megalithic structures scattered across them and the Old Testament gives detailed evidence of how the Canaanite rituals were adopted for king-making. In the Jewish state they were also associated with the ritualized slaughter of royal children to ensure God’s support for their reign, which apparently was allowed to run for just 40 years. This 40-year period mentioned throughout the Bible was unquestionably linked to the study of the cycle of Venus, which is so reliable that it forms a perfect calendar and clock.