Olympic Games (interesting, actually)

[SigniferOne]

I could discuss Sennacherib's water screw pump

Sure you could, but no modern scholar accepts it.

I could show that military tactics, such as the Phalanx were depicted on the Stele of Vultures

You could, but again no modern scholar believes it.

that siege engines and military engineers, sappers and even hoplite armour and shields all have their antecedents in the Middle East.

Hoplite shields and armor were not a technological innovation, so I don't know why you would try to find their Eastern antecedents as a proof of anything.

Meanwhile your walking analogy is clearly demeaning as it shows that you have not even bothered to read the article or consider the parallels set out in the table below:

http://www.gilgameshgames.org/ggamestable.html

I have looked at the list, and considered it at great length. What's shocking is that 90% of the items on that list are completely irrelevant to the spirit of the games; it is a a careful compilation of Olympic aspects that are utterly incidental: the "banquet", the "votive offerings", the "guardian". Who cares if there was a statue of Zeus there? Does it really matter? All of the supposed parallels you listed were irrelevant to the nature of the Olympics, which was the hero-worship of the human body. But the aspects of the Olympics that were actually distinctive, you wrapped up and mentioned in just one lonely category out of eleven: "athletic events". Did they have some sort of athletic events? Yes. Did Babylonians have some sort of athletic events? Yes. Then we have a match, Babylonian Olympics!

This would be a bit like comparing modern Sports to what went on in the Roman Colosseum: Do our stadiums have the Colosseum shape? yep! The exactly same proportions? check! Did both have team activities? check! Both had spectators? check. Then let me rush to the presses with my article, "Soccer in the Roman Colosseum". Or, maybe a parallel article: "Bloody Spectator Sports in a French Sports Stadium." Why not? All of my comparison points seem to match right?

This is a sleight of hand scholarship, not the real thing.

Also, I am stunned that anybody would try to defend the Assyrian pyramids made out of skulls. I think this may just dissuade me from further responses.