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Mass Sacrifice Found Near Aztec Temple
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ancientpeoples: Ivory Furniture Plaque Iraq, 900-801...
Ivory Furniture Plaque
Iraq, 900-801 BCE
15 cm
Ivory plaque of a griffin that would have been used to decorate furniture.
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thesherd: Good photo collection of more terracotta warriors...
Good photo collection of more terracotta warriors excavated in China. (via More terracotta warriors unearthed in China - UPI.com)
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Historacle™: Ancient Egyptians: Mariners of the High Seas
Historacle™: Ancient Egyptians: Mariners of the High Seas:
“A flotilla of ships set sail from Egypt around 232 B.C., during the reign of Ptolemy III, on a mission to circumnavigate the globe. The six ships sailed under the direction of Captain Rata and Navigator Maui, a friend of the astronomer Eratosthenes, who was head of theAlexandria library…” - Marjorie Mazel Hecht
Many now acknowledge that the Egyptians had such advanced ship building technology, seafaring abilities and highly advanced knowledge that they regularly crossed the Red Sea, the Mediterranean and even the Atlantic Ocean. The Ancient Egyptians were people of the sand and water.
Not only that, but scholars believe that the recently discovered Egyptian ships are the oldest in the world. Previously, the world’s oldest known seafaring ship dated from 1300 B.C.
Above: 4,000 year Egyptian ship plank
In recent years, archaeologists have discovered that Ancient Egyptian mariners set sail on ocean waters as long as 4,000 years ago on voyages that spanned about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) each way.
Above: the “Khufu ship”, a 43.6 m long vessel that was found sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex.
Ancient Egyptians mainly sailed up and down the Nile River — however, scholars now maintain that from time to time, Pharoahs would send thousands of men east, across the desert to reach an ancient harbor on the Red Sea called Wadi Gawasis. From there, the Ancient Egyptians hit the high seas.
A relief at the temple of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt, carved ca. 1480 B.C. shows a merchant ship on a trading expedition. Vessel artifacts match this depiction.
How did they do it?
Their ship building technology was so advanced and precise that they would assemble and dissassemble the ships, snapping and unsnapping them together like building blocks. They would then carry the ships in pieces across miles upon miles of desert to Madi Gawasis, where they would fit the pieces back together. Ship builders today are still completely stumped as to how the Egyptians were successful, primarily because the Egyptians built and sailed the ships without a keel and used no bonding agent to seal the wood.
The Egyptians regularly traveled to the mythical land of Punt - the exact location of the legendary and mysterious land is still debated today. At times, the ancient Egyptians called Punt Ta netjer, meaning “God’s Land”.
As in our previous posts on discovering prehistory, understanding the ancient Egyptians as a global, ocean-faring civilization is further proof that the ancient world was much, much older and much more advanced than what conventional history tells us.
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ancientpeoples: A History of Carthage In the ninth century BCE,...
Trireme mosaic from Carthage
Mediterranean Sea nations in 323 BC
A History of Carthage
In the ninth century BCE, the city of Qart-ḥadašt was founded on the Gulf of Tunis, North Africa, as a dependency of the Phoenician state Tyre. This Carthage was originally a trade colony, trading goods such as bronze objects, ceramics and wine with the West- and Middle-European inlands, for silver, tin and slaves. It became independent of Tyre in 650 BCE, and began to expand its influence via trading.
Where the Phoenicians had been the most successful traders in the Levant, Carthage quickly took over that position in the West. The city-state was ruled as an aristocratic republic, in contrast to the absolute monarchies of West Asia and Egypt. The aristocratic council strove to turn most of the West into monopoly areas for its own traders, and attempted to maintain these areas by military force. After some struggles with the Greeks in the sixth century BC, the Carthaginians, with the help of their Etruscan allies, were able to take control of the Spanish and Corsican coastlines.
The main battleground for these struggles was Sicily, where they eventually founded a Carthaginian colony. Other colonies were established on Sardinia, some of the smaller islands in the area, and the north coast of Africa. On Sicily, main enemy of Carthage was still the Greek city of Syracuse. In 480 BCE it came to a full-on war between the two, this time with a distinctly less positive outcome for the Carthaginians. A peace with Syracuse was negotiated.
This First Sicilian War was followed by a Second in 409 BCE, spurred on by a desire to reclaim Sicily after the Iberian colonies seceded. Carthage successfully captured the smaller cities of Selinus and Himera, yet Syracuse remained undisturbed. After a war that would drag out for almost seventy years in which they achieved initial victories, the Carthaginians were finally pushed back to a south-western corner of the island, and peace reigned afterward – albeit an uneasy one. In 315 BCE, Syracuse seized the city of Messene and attempted to capture various other Carthaginian strongholds, which led to the Third and final Sicilian War. Like the others, this one didn’t end well for Carthage either, when in 307 BCE Syracuse led a counter strike on Carthage itself, forcing the Carthaginian army to retreat from Sicily to protect their city. Once again, a truce was negotiated.
In the third century, Carthage adopted the airs of a Greek city-state, basing their coin system on the Greek and building their army of mercenaries after the Greek example. In the meanwhile, the cultivation of the African hinterland expanded and eventually gave rise to a new type of agriculture: plantations cultured by slaves. Native Berber-peoples were starting to be recruited for the army. This would suit them well, as the Pyrrhic war broke out in 280 BCE, directed at both Carthage and the early Roman Republic. After its instigator, Pyrrhus, had been defeated by the Romans, Carthage returned to its status quo.
After the Pyrrhic war, Rome and Carthage had established a treaty of friendship. Despite this, when the Italic former mercenaries in Messene requested protection from Carthage and Syracuse, Rome rose to the occasion and the First Punic War was a fact. Carthage’s fleet was the stronger, but Rome quickly scrambled to build its own, and after many undecided battles the Republic finally achieved victory over Carthage. A treaty was drawn up, and Carthage was made to relinquish the Carthaginian part of Sicily as well as pay a compensation in ten yearly terms.
Faced with this loss, general Hamilcar Barca turned to Spain to build Carthage a territorial empire there. He succeeded in subduing the Iberian tribes and established a number of strongholds in the area. When in 218 BCE a Spanish city requested Roman help from the Carthaginian threat and got it, the aristocratic council at first wished to retreat to avoid conflict, but the young general Hannibal Barca saw the opportunity to avenge the defeat of his father Hamilcar on Sicily. This debouched into the Second Punic War, arguably the most famous war of the Carthaginians.
In what would almost become standard for any war Carthage took part in, they achieved some early and decisive-looking victories, especially in Cannae. In 215 BCE Rome changed its tactics and led the Carthaginian army across Italy for 13 years without ever allowing a battle. Hannibal’s auxiliaries would either not reach him, or be intercepted by the Romans and disposed of separately. Syracuse, who’d taken Carthage’s side for once, was forcibly subdued, and after Scipio Africanus had conquered all of Carthaginian Spain in 204, Hannibal was called back to defend the homeland. In 201 BC Carthage met its decisive defeat. The city ceded its Spanish and African empires, and agreed to a compensation to be paid in fifty yearly terms.
The Third Punic War in 149 BCE was the last battle of independent Carthage. It was a small affair that consisted mainly of the Battle of Carthage, and ended in the utter destruction of the city in 146 BC. All remaining Carthaginian territory was assimilated into the Roman territory and its population either put to the sword or enslaved.
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rileyyredd: The above stone was discovered by archaeologists...
The above stone was discovered by archaeologists excavating the Temple Mount area. It is inscribed with the words “To the place of trumpeting.”
Jerusalem.
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archaeology: BBC History - How Romans made marble statues...
BBC History - How Romans made marble statues ‘real’
The Romans have a reputation for being brilliant engineers and soldiers, but what isn’t as well known is that they also gave us wonderful artistic treasures.
The latest scientific techniques suggest that marble statues in the ancient world were not as monochromatic as we may imagine.
Alastair Sooke looks at the Treu Head in the British Museum, an important and rare marble head from the mid-second century AD, which would have been painted to make her look “like a real person”.
see the BBC site for video
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Archaeological News: Senegal floods uncover ancient artefacts in Dakar
Archaeological News: Senegal floods uncover ancient artefacts in Dakar:
Pieces of jewellery, pottery and iron tools dating back thousands of years have been discovered in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, following recent floods, researchers say.
The discovery was made at a construction site, local academic Alioune Deme told the BBC.
A colleague, Moustapha Sall, stumbled across the items after the rains washed away sand, he said.
The objects could date back between 2,000 and 7,000 BC, Mr Deme said.
“The exact date will only be known after tests are carried out,” he told the BBC French Service.
Mr Deme said he hoped the construction site where the discovery was made could be secured, as he wants to carry out more excavations.
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Dino-Biologist: Archaeologists unearth 5,000-year-old 'third-gender' caveman
Dino-Biologist: Archaeologists unearth 5,000-year-old 'third-gender' caveman:
Archaeologists investigating a 5,000-year-old Copper Age grave in the Czech Republic believe they may have unearthed the first known remains of a gay or transvestite caveman, reports the Telegraph.The man was apparently buried as if he were a woman, an aberrant practice for an ancientculture known for its strict burial procedures. Since the grave dates to between 2900 and 2500 BC, the man would have been a member of the Corded Ware culture, a late Stone Age and Copper Age people named after the unique kind of pottery they produced. Men in this culture were traditionally buried lying on their right side with their heads pointing west, but this man was instead buried on his left side with his head pointing east, which is how women were typically buried. “From history and ethnology, we know that people from this period took funeral rites very seriously so it is highly unlikely that this positioning was a mistake,” said lead archaeologist Kamila Remisova Vesinova. “Far more likely is that he was a man with a different sexual orientation, homosexual or transsexual.” Another clue is that Corded Ware men would typically be buried alongside weapons, hammers and flint knives, as well as food and drink to prepare them for their journey to the other side. But this man’s grave instead contained only a traditional egg-shaped pot, which was what women were typically buried with. With all the evidence taken together, archaeologists are confident that the best explanation for the strange burial is that the man was effeminate, perhaps a homosexual, and possibly a transvestite. “We believe this is one of the earliest cases of what could be described as a ‘transsexual’ or ‘third gender grave’ in the Czech Republic,” reiterated cooperating archaeologist Katerina Semradova. Semradova also noted that archaeologists from a previous dig had uncovered a grave from the Mesolithic period where a female warrior was buried as a man, so mixed gender burials, though rare, were not unprecedented.
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ancientart: The Ancient Roman Temple of Bacchus, commissioned...
The Ancient Roman Temple of Bacchus, commissioned by Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius and designed by an unknown architect c. 150 CE
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myhistoryblog: Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, Mexico. View...
Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, Mexico. View from the Pyramid of the Moon. by Dmitry Rukhlenko Travel Photography on Flickr.
Via Flickr:
Pyramid of the Sun. Teotihuacan. Mexico. View from the Pyramid of the Moon.
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King Richard III's grave possibly found underneath a parking lot
King Richard III of England died in 1485, but the exact location of his burial was lost over time. Archaeologists in the UK now think they’re confident they’ve found the resting place of the king, located in an old friary now under the parking lot of the Leicester City Council offices.
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Archaeological News: Israeli archaeologists uncover 3,000-year-old cistern in Jerusalem
Archaeological News: Israeli archaeologists uncover 3,000-year-old cistern in Jerusalem:
“A large public water cistern, dating back to the period of the First Temple, was recently discovered in archaeological excavations conducted in Jerusalem. The cistern is the first of its kind to be uncovered in Jerusalem.
The excavations, conducted at a site in the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden not far from the Western Wall, are being carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority and funded by the Elad foundation.
In recent years, archaeologists with the Antiquities Authority have been excavating a large channel running from the Temple Mount area to around the Siloam Pool. Today, visitors can already tour a part of the channel which is located near the Western Wall.”
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deepredroom: Some of my photos from the Egyptian wing of the...
Cutlery
A sphynx
TINY frog ornaments
A statues of a man writing a scroll, and some actual writing tools beside him
Knives/short swords
Part of a big tablet with two Horus eyes and a little slot that makes it look like a face
Hand mirrors and a tablet depicting a woman getting read for a night on the town
Loadsajewelery
I wanted one of the rings
I'd look pretty pimp with a jade scarab on around my pinky finger
Some of my photos from the Egyptian wing of the Louvre. I’ve never seen such a big collection of Egyptian stuff before.
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omgthatartifact: Statue Neo Assyrian, 811-792 BCE The British...
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studentreader: Clay guardian dog with traces of blue paint....
Clay guardian dog with traces of blue paint. From Nineveh’s North Palace. Circa 645 BCE.
“Don’t stop to think, bite!”
In the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods, magically protective dog figurines were buried next to gateways. They were inscribed with commands such as the one above.
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theatlantic: The Mesmerizing Beauty of Nature’s...
The Mesmerizing Beauty of Nature’s Fractals
Google Earth: source of information, source of wonder, source of art. In 2010, Paul Bourke, a research associate professor at the University of Western Australia, began using the service to capture images for his ongoing Google Earth Fractals series. Since then, he’s amassed an amazing collection of space-based photographs that are equal parts science and beauty: Each intoxicating image on the project’s website is accompanied by a KMZ file that lets users pinpoint the photos’ locations on their own Google Earth viewers, putting them in geographic as well as aesthetic context.
See more. [Images: Google Earth]
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ancientart: Sumerian Temple Hymn, baked clay, circa between...
Sumerian Temple Hymn, baked clay, circa between 1800 and 1600 BCE (Old Babylonian), currently located at the Walters Art Museum.
This tablet, inscribed on all four sides, is one of the best preserved copies of the Sumerian hymn to the temple at Kesh.
The popular hymn, written in praise of the temple built for the mother-goddess Nintu in the city of Kesh in southern Mesopotamia, describes the temple in both physical and heavenly terms.
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collective-history: Disk from a Reel ca. 800 BCE Ireland...
Disk from a Reel ca. 800 BCE
Ireland experienced a period of resurgence in the production of goldwork during the late Bronze Age.
Numerous objects noteworthy for their gold content, innovative forms, and sophisticated decoration still survive. Alongside such objects of personal adornment as gold collars, craftsmen produced rings, cylindrical boxes, and spools or bobbins, which were probably created for purely votive or ritual purposes.
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religiousragings: deconversionmovement: Science &...
Science & Archaeology Overcome Creationism in South Korea
The government has asked publishers to retain examples of evolution in biology textbooks.
From Nature magazine
South Korea’s government has urged textbook publishers to ignore calls to remove two examples of evolution from high-school textbooks.
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