As stated before, love remains unchanged no matter the time or place. This powerful, beautiful emotion is as old as time, yet is as timeless as Nature's beauty. It is one of the driving forces of humankind, has been and is a popular topic for poems, songs and movies and is the source for many a beautiful and touching note or letter to a loved one.

Even as early as circa 3200 B.C.E., the dawn of writing, love was deemed important enough to be written about in poems and songs used in ritual ceremonies. Records on clay slabs have been found in Mesopotamia for all sorts of things, including these poems and songs, written in Sumerian cuneiform.

This Mesopotamian culture is generally thought to be the first culture to produce written texts. In the example above the Sumerians used a stylus and wet clay to record the ingredients for beer.
As with all ancient cultures of that period, the people of Sumer (modern day Southern Iraq) were steeped in centuries of oral tradition. They were subject to their climate and closely tied to the land as well, believing themselves to be conduits and fulfillers of their deities' doings. Most everything they did was on behalf or in the name of their gods and goddesses.

The records left behind help give us glimpses into the language and lives of the Sumerians. Because oral tradition was so much a part of their lives their language was formal and very repetitious. We see this in the example of the love poem below:

Erect for Me My Flowered Bed
Let them erect for me my flowered bed.
Let them spread it for me
���with herbs like translucent lapis lazuli.
For me let them bring in the man of my heart.
Let them bring in to me my Ama-ucumgal-ana.
Let them put his hand in my hand,
���let them put his heart by my heart.
As hand is put to head, the sleep is so pleasant.
As heart is pressed to heart, the pleasure is so sweet.

Before the written word (or the use of the heiroglyphic system in this case) people naturally passed down history, stories and news by word of mouth. Repetition made this much easier for memorization. And formality brought a sense of the sacred to a ceremonial rite. Remember, the Sumerians acted on behalf or in the name of their deities. Almost every love song or poem was written and possibly sung as a conversation between Dimuzi, a human shepherd later turned vegetation god and his goddess wife or lover, Inanna, a deity over love, war, beauty, the heavens and childbirth.

Though they acted for the gods, it is apparent from this poem the very real, human emotions of lovers shine through. On a bed strewn with sweet-smelling herbs and flowers she lies with the man of her heart. Hand in hand and heart to heart the pleasure is so sweet as their bodies touch. Flowers and herbs, soft and fragrant lend an added air of romance to the tryst. Even today, lovers hold hands and heart to heart they talk and lay, taking sweet pleasure in the uniting of their bodies and souls. Flowers are also used in telling our special someones how we feel. Looking at it this way, love and its expressions aren't so very different now from thousands of years ago.

..:: Remembered�����E�����Occuring ::..

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