The Wise Men From the East

By Matthias Ifejika

Tracing and Revealing the True Origins of Sumerians, their Language, Culture and History.

In the beginning was the word and that word is finally revealed.

The “Wise Men from the East” is the result of more than seven years

of painstaking and extensive research employing the tools of language

and culture to trace the origins, language, culture and history of the

mysterious Sumerians back to the East of the River Niger.

“God did not confuse the language of Babel. Those who left

confused the original language and in turn became confused

with the original language.”

Opening the unknown chapters of history

The story of humankind has always been from one tragedy to another. After

expulsion from the paradise, came the great flood, which sought to wipe off the

entire humanity from the face of the earth yet we were supposed to multiply and

fill the void left behind by the Gods. Even after the flood, our journey to

populate the world continued. At that point in time, we were still speaking one

tongue and on getting to Shinar after migrating from the East, our language

became confused. This would have been like a total eclipse of consciousness

but there was something to learn from this remarkable story with respect to

migration and evolution of languages.

The people migrating from the East must have carried the original language

with them until they started to build a new civilization and modify this

language. As a child, I always imagined how God would have climbed down

the staircase of Heavens just to confuse our speech because we were trying to

erect some gigantic structures into the heavens.

But where was this place that men from the east were coming from - Japan,

Americas, Asia, Europe, etc? The term – East had become synonymous with

Asia. The world’s history had always been set like a pendulum clock - the East

or the West although in antiquity, the east being referred to was the one that

went round the world and had nothing whatsoever to with Asia or Middle East

in terms of its roots. It is not enough to say that I have found the original land of

the East, where the original speech flowed from (or what many would refer to

as the world’s urheimat), into the stream of the world’s consciousness.

What exactly did I find and how did I know that I found it. Strange question?

Isn’t it? A careful study of the language of Ancient Near East, will reveal to the

most observant philologist that truly there was the first language that existed

from the beginning, which became confused into several languages of Ancient

Near east. Its words had become the wanderworter in the world’s stream of

languages as revealed in every chapter of the above work although many

scholars had failed to appreciate where it was flowing from.

Today, the men from the East are known as the Sumerians or as such

Babylonians although their origin is not known. Much of the research done had

often neglected or failed to address the problem of Sumerian origin choosing to

remain on the safe path that the language is dead or as such an “isolate” when

this proposition already invalidates itself from conception. How possible is it to

teach a language that was dead or unrelated to another language but here comes

this remarkable and stimulating piece offering a brilliant analysis of the

Sumerian problems and providing a practical and methodical approach to

understanding and solving them thereby offering hope to a number of scholars

around the world who are often frustrated due to lack of background

information. We cannot fully appreciate assyriology without first of all

establishing the language and culture of this non-Indo-European and non-

Semitic people who established civilization in Middle East some 4000 years

plus ago.

Although their language was perceived to be unrelated to any other language on

this sphere, I have been able to resolve this most significant problem by first of

all tracing their origin with the help of the words that they left behind together

with their remarkable culture. You need to know where people are coming from

so that you will appreciate what they spoke and how they structured their

language. This most important aspect for appreciating this enigmatic people

who planted civilization in Middle East some 4000 years plus ago, had often

been neglected and how do we think that we will ever appreciate ancient Near

Eastern languages or as such assyriology without figuring out the exact

language that the Sumerians spoke? It is very much like trying to appreciate any

of the Romance languages without studying Latin. There is a massive black

hole in historiography, which needs to be covered as soon as possible if we are

to make sense of the very first acts in the original theatre of civilization. This is

the very first book that explores all the scenes of Sumerian civilization.

Before now, anyone could simply write any word and assume that it was

Sumerian considering that the language was not fully understood. As Prof

Thorkild Jacobsen once indicated – “…translations, even by highly competent

scholars, may diverge so much that no one would ever guess that they rendered

the same text...” This book having digested the works of notable sumerologists

and assyriologists, finally provides a standard orthography for Sumerian –

known as the Sumerian Orthographic Triangle (SORT) - something that has

not been done before now because of the nature of the language and this is very

essential for appreciating the many features of the language - including their

great epic literature as well as a lot of facts that are lost in mistranslation.

It is strange for some to imagine how it could have been possible to attempt this

sort of adventure but I can assure you that it is very possible only if we can try

and then see how it was not. Language is a great tool for exposing many facts of

our long forgotten past. Somehow, it does not lie but reveals a certain truth that

could open our eyes to lies. That is why in linguistics we have something we

call etymology, which has to do with true words or as such the study of the

history of a word.

Every word tells a story. Every word reveals a fact and resolves a certain

mystery that material artifacts cannot reveal. Language can reveal certain

unknown facts about past events. Many would have thought that the men from

the east were dead but I can assure you that their language is still very much

alive and breathing sense in every tongue. Like a shadow, it remains at the

background of every thought and reveals what the word is thinking. It was this

shadow that I followed until I found the light of the world.

The Wise Men From the East reveals how certain key words in Sumerian are

essential to unraveling and appreciating the culture in which the language

developed; as well as the people that spoke the language or practised the culture

– a key tool for developing a prosopography. Funnily enough, the language of

the black-heads had a word meaning black in it, which sumerologists were able

to decipher. In addition, it presents and employs the basic vocabulary of

Sumerians to explore every aspect of their civilization including their kingship,

kinship, anthropology, ethnology, economy, religion, astronomy, mathematics,

crafts, etc; thereby engaging the reader with stunning facts about Sumerian

civilization, which have not been understood before now.

With the correct decipherment of Sumerian language, the reader is afforded the

ample tools to appreciate the true origins and meanings of the great epic

literature and how they were copied, recasted and distorted to fit a new stage.

For the very first time, we are exposed to the first pun in Eden, which became

lost to the biblical authors together with the true identity of the serpent, which

was originally a Sumerian River-dwelling deity. The exact structure that Noah

built before the flood is finally revealed so that we know how to take refuge the

next time the flood arrives ‘cause the “igigi” will surely return again.

Now that this great book of revelation had revealed who these entities “from

above who came to earth” were, and their more than 5000 years of descending

on earth, we will better prepare ourselves for any eventuality and know the best

action to take rather than building some gigantic structures that will expose us

to some titanic devastation. There is a flood hero in each and every one of us if

we understand what action to take. Pay heed to my advice Actpictish - “Wall!

Wall! Destroy your yacht, so that you may live forever!”

There is more to reveal now that we can dive deeper into the deep sea of

Sumerian language. We can no longer afford to remain on the surface and still

be confused. The book delves deeper into the many puzzling features of the

Sumerian language, which has continued to impede scholarly research and

literary appreciation. As Late Prof Kramer correctly pointed out – “Sumerian

language is difficult for linguists because it is context-dependent. A single word

often has multiple sounds and meanings that full translation would require

extracting from each character not a single meaning as in modern languages,

but all of the meanings that apply. This may be termed iterative translation

(meaning that multiple meanings are extracted from a single compound) and no

modern language has iterative features including the classical languages of

Greek and Latin.

The iterative features of Sumerian is the main reason why we failed to

appreciate the actual pun in the Garden of Eden not minding that we are still

very much naked in that garden - eating that same forbidden fruit without

knowing it. Do we have to eat the fruit to become? What is the relationship

between eating a common fruit and covering one’s nakedness afterwards? If

you look at the geometry of that garden, that fruit is still where it was from very

beginning even after it was covered.

Cranach the Elder, Adam and Eve, 1531.Staatliche Museum, Berlin.

The only way to appreciate what the Gods had planted in our garden is to look

carefully into the linguistic field of Eden to know exactly what happened under

that tree and then our eyes will open. Could the tree in the Garden have been the

Ugaritic tuppah meaning apples?

Several linguists have often deserted this minefield of language where there are

several homophones and homonyms competing for context but this book

addresses this problem by showing how several look-alikes can be denoted

through contextual analysis. We get to learn exactly whether the Walls of Babel

was raised through the process of Ido and if the tower was actually an UNU or

UNO. For all those who left Ancient Eriaka (sounds very much like Iraq), they

will get to learn if the process of “leading out” as shown below (which is also

attested in Egyptian and several other languages) was denoted by Idu or Ido and

if it was possible to have referred to the people as UNU or UNO.

Several Sumerian words had been restored in fragments but this book provides

and demonstrates how to apply the novel “Affixation and Reconstruction

Technique” (ART) in reconstructing those fragmented words – thus, solving the

problem of ambiguity. Thus, you will appreciate why it is vital to restore the

CV-word Mu, into a its whole VCV form since it could have meant any of the

following: omu (queen mother), imu (to give birth), amu (penis), umu

(children), imu (to laugh), amu (laughter, laughing), imu (to learn), imu (to

kindle), imu (to sharpen), amu (shining), etc.

Such novel techniques like the “Extrapolation and Replacement

Technique”(ERT), shows the reader how to extrapolate as well as recreate a

Sumerian word from another cognate; thus enabling the reader to evaluate the

authenticity of the commonly held notion of Sumerian being unrelated to any

other language – another problem that the book addresses scrupulously. At least

you will know how to use the language square to create your first 64 Sumerian

monosyllabic (VCV words) using the alphabets in your language. Sounds like a

puzzle? More are coming.

Before now, this adventure would have been difficult since everyone was just

looking without realizing if what they were searching for is still alive but hidden

elsewhere; alive but forgotten or even if dead was buried in a different field.

Somehow, the reasoning has always been that since we cannot find it, it was

dead and buried, forgotten or as such, lost. How could we have established that

any of these was the case?

Now, let it be known that quite a lot of descendant languages around the world

share a meaning-bearing fragment or as such some ancestral monogenes (the

basic unit of letter and/or sound which codes for meaning in a word) that have

existed from the very beginning and now we can retrace our steps linguistically.

Someday we may have to look at that language classification based on the

concept markers that languages share among themselves.

Here comes a new method for solving all those paternity cases with respect to

Ancestors and their daughters. The book also demonstrates the “Monogenetic

technique” for establishing relationship between languages – a key method that

is essential for philological studies. Now that the original language has been

established, we can do serious comparative linguistics knowing what we have

and what we are looking for.

This book contains quite a lot of vocabulary to give you a start. Become one of

first 72 people who will show exactly how the first, the Adamic language

became confused into the presumed 72 languages. I must warn against being

confused the second time. That you find two people on the way having the same

face and answering the same name does not mean that they are related. Well,

you never know – it could be that they are since no one knows where their

parent had been at some point in time. The beauty of the monogenetic technique

is that it looks beyond the idea of classifying languages geographically rather

choosing to look at the common meaning-bearing fragment that they share.

Your best friend could be your worst enemy likewise your worst enemy could

be your best friend. That is why the monogenetic technique (Mtech), is vital to

resolving several paternity cases. You could only establish relationship through

the common monogene that they share if you could extract it from their cells. In

making such cognacy decisions, be warned of false friends and look-alikes.

Perhaps, some false friends may end up coming from the same family likewise

some look-alikes may have nothing whatsoever in common. BEWARE!

Certain key words in Sumerian are essential to unraveling and appreciating the

culture in which the language developed; as well as the people that spoke the

language or practised the culture – a key tool for developing a prosopography.

The book employs the basic vocabulary of Sumerians to explore every aspect of

their civilization (as well as their prosopography) including their kingship,

kinship, anthropology, ethnology, economy, religion, astronomy, mathematics,

etc; thereby engaging the reader with stunning facts about Sumerian

civilization, which had not been understood before now. Know why those who

handed down the Mes were the Nnanna shown below and not some Gods

coming down from Sirius.

Deciphering the pictographs and matching it with the corresponding words

helps you appreciate key aspects of the Sumerian civilization - for example, the

kur pictograph looks like a mountain although it is not a mountain. If you had

thought that it was standing for a mountain in ancient Near East; then it could as

well be interpreted as standing for mountain in another geographical region. The

mystery of the Kur is finally revealed and remarkably enough, it is the most

important relic to unraveling some other ancient concepts that have not been

substantiated like the mysteries of the Babylonian Hanging Gardens as well as

the Biblical mountain flooding, which all had to do with this ancient symbolism.

I tell you one mystery – King Nebuchadnezzar did not build any hanging

gardens. Now, we are left with six mysteries of the ancient world and by the

time you know what Babel actually made, you can go on to make that hanging

garden a reality! We now have the technology to create something like that and

you can become our King Nebo.

The book also provides the concrete idea underlying some of the controversial

Sumerian pictographs, like the arrow pictograph, which had not been

deciphered and understood before now. For the very first time, you will learn

about the linguistic significance of the arrow pictograph. It is time to make life

but know that the Annunaki may not be extracting some pluripotent stems cells

from your ribs.

Before now, Sumerian was very much a closed or as such forgotten chapter with

respect to establishing where they came from and who they were really but this

book opens up the field to every interested party who wants to learn the

rudiments of the first classical civilization located east of the River Niger and

how its fingerprints of language and other cultural relics dispersed to all parts of

the world. Where exactly was Plato referring to when he talked about marriage

based in sixty? Was it Middle East?

Considering the amount of scholarly and fresh ideas that this book presents with

ample evidences, you can read it as a novel or even as a textbook. For all those

keen researchers, be rest assured that the exact rendering for Sumerian has

finally arrived and that you can employ this book as a monograph.

One of the greatest assyriologist, late Prof Samuel Kramer had predicted that

someday, someone somewhere will arrive at the exact rendering of Sumerian

and here is that simple book with a very deep insight providing fresh,

convincing and liberating ideas, which challenges as well as agrees with the

established paradigm. Specialists in the field of Near Eastern Studies will find it

particularly useful as it contributes vital information to understanding and

advancing their field. The Sumerian language, which is actually Igbo language,

is very important in the study of assyriology.

You cannot appreciate these tablets without its rosetta language. Just like Latin

is essential to appreciating the Romance languages, is how Igbo is that very

important for appreciating Ancient Near Eastern thought. It is as simple as that.

Now that this previously impenetrable subject is finally resolved, we can begin

to fill all those knowledge gaps, with the objective of expanding our historical

knowledge. It is high time we move on to other important comparative studies.

At least, I will like Japanese scholars to tell us what they feel about their

language being classified as an isolate when they are roasting with the same

word - iru, and giving birth with the same word - umu as we’ve been doing over

here on the Niger.

This is a book that will be of great benefit to a wide field of specializations and

audiences. Many universities around the world are running “Sumerian

dictionary projects” and this is a great reference material for numerous libraries

around the world. No doubt that opening these forgotten chapters of history– the

untold story of humankind, from the very beginning, will expand the realm of

our consciousness. Good luck in your forthcoming comparative studies but

beware of look-alikes!