The oldest proverbs in history

About 150 years ago, in 1877, what is considered the first great civilization in history, the Sumerian, was discovered. From their writings, their culture and their first customs we still preserve some of the oldest proverbs in history.

Be that as it may, talking here about the oldest proverbs in history is complex. We know the first ages of the human being through remains found, such as paintings in caves, studies of bones and skeletons, etc.

However, Proverbs, like sayings, have reached our time through oral traditionbut all of them belong to cultures that already used writing, such as the Sumerians themselves, the Chinese or the Arabs.

The Sumerians expanded their powerful society at the end of the 4th Millennium BC and the beginning of the 3rd Millennium BC That is, about 5000 years ago. If there was any previous civilization, one detail is evident, we have not found it yet.

The Sumerians

The Sumerians were a people who, as we have said, lived in the area of ​​Mesopotamia about 5000 years ago. The region was known as Sumer, hence the name by which they have gone down in history.

The language used by the people of Sumer is considered an agglutinative. They invented cuneiform writing and gave rise to the first polytheistic religions, with gods such as the powerful Uruk, Umma or Nippur.

It was a society very advanced for its time. Its mythology, its science and its organization, seen from a current perspective, may seem archaic, but it demonstrates great wisdom, given the antiquity of its civilization.

Discover the oldest proverbs in history

Next, we begin to unravel some of the Sumerian proverbs that demonstrate the wisdom of this people. Let’s not forget that They were originally from myths, such as creation or the Universal Floodwhich have been so important throughout history.

Don’t spend more than you have

There are proverbs that, no matter how many years pass, will always be real and true. This is a clear example. 5000 years ago they thought the same as they do now, it doesn’t matter that we are not like that civilization. If you spend more than you have or think you will have, it is likely that you will end up being a slave to debt.

The worry of having too much

This is one of the Sumerian proverbs that attracts the most attention. Apparently, even then they believed that a person who lives with a lot of money and possessions may end up being more concerned about not losing what he has than about enjoying it. Meanwhile, He who has nothing, fears nothing, can sleep better every night.

Appearance counts

More than 5,000 years ago they were already concerned about appearance. It is true that, generally, The person who dresses elegantly usually arouses more sympathy and confidence than those who do not, something that, as we see, the Sumerians were already very clear about.

The male chauvinism

This proverb shows us that machismo does not understand borders, of times and cultures. In this case, the man complains that neither his wife nor his mother are there to feed him.

We can see that this problem is circumstantial to almost any society in history. In fact, more than 5,000 years later, we still haven’t found a way to fix it.

The family

We do observe that the first societies already gave great value to the family. Blood ties have always been very important for the human racesomething that happened 5000 years ago and happens now in almost all known cultures.

If anything can be extracted from the oldest proverbs in history, it is that our dilemmas and concerns continue to be, although in different settings and with different technology, similar to those of then.

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