Historians have been scratching their heads over Greek inscriptions discovered at the ancient Sumerian temple of Girsu, in the present-day city of Tello.
At 4,000 years old, it is ancient and dates back long before the time of the ancient Greeks, erected around the same time that Stonehenge was being collected in Britain.
Archaeologists at the British Museum have decoded some of the inscriptions and discovered that a Greek temple dedicated to Alexander the Great was founded on the site.
In a twist of fate, they suggested that the temple might even have been erected by Alexander himself, transforming our view of the ancient Greek empire and man himself.
A silver coin discovered near the temple, minted around 330 BC. It suggests that the conquering king may have visited the temple after defeating the Persians in present-day Iraq.
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If true, the temples at the site would be one of Alexander’s acts before his death at the age of 32.
The discovery also suggests that Alexander’s contemporaries knew the lifestyle of a 4,000-year-old man who had been abandoned for millennia.
It would also imply that ancient societies possessed accurate ancient wisdom and cultural memory, which lends itself to exploring how they might have stored those memories.
Dr Sébastien Rey, an archaeologist at the British Museum, told the Telegraph: “It’s really impressive. Our findings place the most recent temple in Alexander’s lifetime.
“We discovered ofrendas, the kind of offerings that are made after a battle, figurines of foot soldiers and horsemen. There is a possibility, we’ll never know for sure, that he got here when he came back to Babylon, just before he died.
The site was probably inhabited as early as 5000 BC. C. and in the 3rd millennium BC. C. a city rescued by the Sumerians, the first civilization established in the world.
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It abandoned in 1750 B. C. , more than 1,000 years before Alexander was born, and was not revealed to the world until more than 1,000 years later, when French excavations at the site in the 19th century exposed structures and relics.
Later excavations unearthed Greek cloth combined with older Sumerian statues, creating a timeline that made little sense.
They knew that a Greek track should have been built on the site, but there were few clues, only a pill written in Greek and Aramaic that read, “Giver of the two brothers. “
The paintings in the British Museum may have finally solved this enigma after locating the coin that dates the site to the time in which Alexander lived.
The team also discovered an altar and figurines that would have been left as offerings in Greek temples, such as the coin, suggesting that it was a cult position.
And terracotta horsemen were found, similar to those of the other great cavalry that formed Alexander’s personal guard, implying whoever had left the offerings nearby, if not the man himself.
The inscription “giver of any of the brothers” may simply refer to Alexander’s intended father, Zeus, who gave him the global commander and his brother Hercules and his Sumerian counterpart Ningirsu, according to Dr. Rey.
He added that the fact that other people knew that Tello, deserted more than 1,000 years ago, is the abode of the god suggests a “deep cultural memory. “
It is possible that the youngest Greek temple located atop the ancient Sumerian site was built when Alexander passed through the dominion on his return from India, before his death in 323 B. C.
“This honors Zeus and two divine sons. The sons are Heracles and Alexander. That’s what those findings suggest,” Dr. Rey said.
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