Archaeologists discovered another similar piece of inscription on Mount Behistun in Iran. Unlike the Rosetta Stone, where the author is unknown, it was very clear that the author of the Behistun Inscription was none other than Darius the Great, the man who ruled the Achaemenid Empire. The empire included Egypt, Balochistan and even parts of Greece. The inscription was one of the many massive projects that Darius undertook. Many of his other projects were architectural in nature. During his reign, Darius constructed palaces in Persepolis and Susa and also linked the Red Sea to the Nile river by means of a canal. This was completed and opened in 497 BCE. While the piece was first discovered in the mid 10^th century, it was not until 1598 that it was mentioned to Western scholars.

The inscription was written in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian. Translating it would prove to be very difficult for several reasons. One was the obscure nature of some of the languages that made up the inscription. The second was the positioning of the inscription itself. While it is quite large (the entire piece measures 15 meters high by 25 meters wide) it is located 100 meters above the ground. There is a ledge that runs below the inscription but the area is hard to get to as individuals who want to study the inscription need to deal with a limestone cliff that makes it difficult to reach the inscription. Some areas of the inscription are difficult to reach because of the presence of chasms, but scientists have constructed bridges in order to reach the areas that could not be recorded in the past.

While the majority of the inscription is text, there are some illustrations as well. The piece features several bas-reliefs. One is of Darius I, the Great. In the piece, he is shown with a bow in his hands, an ancient symbol or sign of kingship. He has his left foot resting on the chest of a figure who is lying before him. This is believed to represent Gautama (a magus who was believed to have impersonated a relative of two ancient Persian kings).

The inscription has had to withstand more than just weather and time. Like many of the monuments in ancient Egypt, the inscription also sustained damage after being used for target practice during World War II. Starting in 1999, archaeologists began to document the inscription and the damages it suffered. They are using photographic methods to record the inscription and preserve it in case the site became damaged further in the future. They are also attempting to conserve it and have turned the site into a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Discovered in a palace from the ancient city of Caesarea, a 1,400-year-old glass mosaic is thought to be the only one of its kind to exist in the current archaeological record.

The city of Caesarea was located on the western coast of the Sea of Galilee, and had successive occupations during the Roman period and the Byzantine era, and it also contains some ruins from the Crusades. The history of the palace that was being excavated, where the mosaic was found, is relatively unknown – the owner of the palace has yet to be discovered, and the time of the building’s original construction remains to be seen. However, judging by the history of the surrounding area, the occupants were likely Christian.

The gleaming glass mosaic found here is unique because of the style of tiling used in its construction: there were two motifs used, both crosses and eight-petal rosettes, while some tiling was done with gold glass and other portions were done using the traditional, multicolored & opaque glass tiles.

The mosaic’s preservation over the centuries was incredible, likely due to the way the panel fell: face down onto the earth, which protected the blue, green, and gold shades from damage and fading.

What the panel was originally used for is unknown – and whether it belonged to a window, or was simply a decorative piece, was unclear from the excavation context. Regardless, the mosaic is a one-of-a-kind discovery, and a clear testament to the high quality of craftsmanship at the time.

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Tomorrow: More Ancient Standard

Amongst the ruins of the ancient Syrian site of Palmyra, archaeologists came across an ancient glass jar which held some rather curious contents: the ashes of a baby. This kind of item had never been found before, and the discovery indicates that there were different funerary practices at this important city than had been previously assumed.

The jar was found in an ancient cemetery inside of the city, and the diameter measured approximately 24cm x 18cm (9.5in x 7in) – with the cremated remains resting inside. Other items found within the cemetery were things like small pieces of furniture, lamps, pottery, and even small, glass vials that mourners could place their tears inside and then leave the vials at the gravesite.

While further studies on the baby’s remains are pending, it would be very important to learn about new funerary practices at Palmyra. The city is located about 240 kilometers away from the Syrian capital, Damascus, and rose to prominence through its location along the primary caravan route through Mesopotamia. Traders and travelers from all across the world came through Palmyra, and the city later became the center of an Arab client state to the Roman Empire.

Since cremation of infant remains had not otherwise been known to exist as a regular funerary practice in Palmyra, it is possible that the child belonged to someone moving through the city and who simply felt the need to conform to their own traditions – or perhaps this new method of burial developed under Roman rule, which means that other jars of baby ashes might turn up once the cemetery is more fully excavated.

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Tomorrow: Ancient Blood Sculptures

The book of Nehemiah in the Bible describes in detail the construction of a city wall in Jerusalem, located in the ‘City of David’ , as a replacement for the wall which had been previously destroyed by the Babylonians. Although many historians and scholars have claimed for years that this wall would never be identified or found, a team of archaeologists working on a rescue excavation for a collapsing tower have done just the opposite.

According to Eilat Mazar, director of a Jerusalem-based research organization’s Institute of Archaeology, the team found shards of pottery and a number of arrowheads under the tower, which indicate that both the tower and the nearby wall date back to the 5th century BC. Earlier estimates had placed the wall’s construction to sometime during the Hasmonean Period (142 – 37 BC), but the items found there date to the Persian Period, when Nehemiah lived.

The section of the wall that has been dated to Nehemiah’s time is about 30 meters long, and a portion of the tower that measures about 6 x 3 meters has also been dated to the 5th century. Nehemiah’s role in Jerusalem’s history was in his determination to rebuild the city, a century after the city had sat desolate due to the Babylonians’ destruction of the First Temple. Despite the hostility of neighboring people, Nehemiah incited the Jews of the city to action, and the Bible relates how the entire city wall was completed in an incredibly fast 52-day timeframe.

Naturally, skeptics are calling the announced find ‘interesting’, but point out that since the debris and artifacts were not found connected to a piece of the wall structure, the wall could have theoretically have been built later.

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Tomorrow: Seat of the Roman Empire

According to the production notes at the end of the book, the Cairo Codex of the Prophets – also referred to as the Codex Cairensis or the Codex Prophetarum Cairensis – was composed by a man named Moses ben Asher from Tiberias, “at the end of the year 827, after the destruction of the second temple.” This would place the manuscript’s creation at 895 AD.

The Codex is important for one single reason: it is believed to be the oldest known surviving Hebrew manuscript which contains the entire text of the Nevi’im, or prophets, from the Old Testament. Notably, the Codex contains only those books which belong to the Old Testament prophets according to Jewish tradition and terminology – including Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and most minor prophets with the exception of Daniel; also Judges, Joshua, Kings and Samuel are included as they were considered to be the ‘earlier prophets’.

In addition, there are 13 ‘carpet pages’ – these were an early Medieval version of illuminated manuscript decoration which was often found at the beginning of New Testament collections.

According to tradition, Moses ben Asher put together the Codex Cairensis with punctuation included, though according to some studies done on the manuscript, it turns out that it may actually have been written by a completely different person – for that matter, arguments against its authorship have actually resulted in doubts from the scholarly community as to its authenticity in terms of when it was written!

As for finding the Codex, the pieces of text were located inside of an old synagogue’s Gezina room, which functioned as a kind of storage space where faulty or worn out manuscripts could be placed and later disposed of formally, in order to not profane any sacred documents. Fortunately, as time passed, the Geniza room was walled over and forgotten, sealing the manuscript fragments safely for over a thousand years.

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Tomorrow: Horus of Hierakonpolis

In chapters 4 and 5 of Judges in the Hebrew scriptures, a story is told of a woman named Deborah. Deborah lived during pre-monarchic Israel, and held a position as both prophetess and judge – in fact, she was the fourth Judge and the only female to have had this position during the Israelite period.

During this time period, Israel’s judges were regarded more as kings than simply people who tried court cases… and although it is unknown as to how a woman came to be in this position, it is evident by the literature that she was greatly respected and honored by the Israelites. Not only that, but as Judge, she also was the official leader of the army – which means that thousands of men had to follow a woman’s orders in battle, something completely unheard of in this patriarchal society.

Although very little is known about Deborah herself, the text explains that she was married to a man by the name of Lapidoth, and that she sat under a palm tree to give her judgments. She was a poet – which was not an unusual hobby, as there are plenty of examples of Hebrew poetry still remaining today – and her eventual legacy was that she became a ‘mother in Israel’, although whether the title is literal or metaphorical is up for debate.

When Deborah came into power as Judge, the nation of Israel had been suffering at the hands of the Canaanites for the past 20 years. The Canaanites had made sure that the Israelites knew their place in society – taking some as slaves, forcing others to work at backbreaking labor, oppressing their religious beliefs, and even taking their women to marry.

Unlike the Judges before her, Deborah was unwilling to allow these atrocities to continue any further, but there was one problem: the Israelites were at a severe disadvantage. Their army consisted of only 10,000 men, whereas the Canaanites had at least 900 iron chariots and tens of thousands more warriors than Israel. However, since she was a prophetess, Deborah was in a better position than the previous Judges – so, she received instructions from God, telling her to instruct the Israelite general Barak to take his soldiers up to the River Kishon on Mount Tabor.

Deborah’s prophesy was that God planned to send the Canaanite general Sisera and his army up to the same place, but that the Israelites would win the battle. According to the text, Deborah relayed this information to Barak, who agreed to trust her instructions – but only if Deborah would go with him into battle! Instead of trusting the prophesy from God that his army would win, he would only trust this woman – something quite unheard of in ancient Mesopotamia.

In retaliation for his mistrust in God, she prophesied that Barak would not achieve the final victory over the Canaanite general, but this would instead go to a woman. As it turns out, Deborah helped Barak lead the troops into battle, which the Israelites won…with the exception of one small thing: they didn’t manage to kill the Canaanite general Sisera. What happened to Sisera is a tale for another day…

The end of the text on Deborah recalls how she gave thanks to God for the Israelite victory, instead of claiming honor for herself. The book of Judges 5 even includes a poem that she wrote, entitled the ‘Song of Deborah’ , which commemorates the Israelite victory on that day.

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At the site of Tell Brak in Syria, several mass graves from approximately 5,800 years ago have revealed the remains of over 60 young adults… and the density of additional bones inside the graves suggest that the final body count will reach well into the hundreds.

During the time when these people died, the city of Brak was expanding at a rapid rate, and with population growth came the development of better technology and more lucrative trade. Naturally, external enemies would have seen Brak as a very appealing target for attack and control. Also, since Brak was one of the earliest urban centers to develop in the ancient Near East, it is entirely possible that there were several warring internal factions – what might be called “growing pains” brought about by urbanization, since it was an entirely new process at this time.

Most of the bodies found represent individuals from their late teens to mid-30s, which would have been the healthiest portion of the population – and it appeared as though the bodies were partially decomposed at the time of burial. Many of the skeleton’s hands and feet had also been removed, and their limb bones piled up inside the mass graves. Most of the bodies’ skulls were also detached.

Since no weapons or goods were found with the bodies, it looks as though whoever killed these people went through the battle area afterward and removed any valuable items – all that remains is a large quantity of broken pottery, over 200 cattle skeletons, and plenty of sheep and goat bones. This evidence suggests that someone had a feast at the time of burial, but whether it was the victors of the massacre or a group of people mourning or commemorating the battle, is as of yet unknown.

Regardless of whether the slaughter happened as a result of internal or external conflict, the battle at Brak was obviously a very serious blow to the local population, and is a clear example of the type of issues people in the ancient Near East faced as urbanization developed.

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Tomorrow: Colombian Quimbaya

Fishing gear found in a shipwreck from the 7th century AD, off the coast of Dor in Israel – a location west of Galilee – suggests that fishermen in this area tended to work the night shift… and did so far more often than anyone had previously believed.

Among other things, the shipwreck yielded something called a ‘fire basket’, which is the first evidence in the ancient eastern Mediterranean for a practice known as fire fishing. Although several ancient images and writings had suggested that people in this area practiced fire fishing, there had previously been no evidence for its actual use.

Fire baskets were mounted onto the end of fishing boats by being placed on the end of giant lantern-like devices, which kept the fire suspended overtop the water. The light from the fire would then attract fish to the boat, and the fishermen would be able to see the fish in the water far more easily than they could without a fire illuminating the surface.

The fishermen would then be able to easily spear the fish or other creatures that swam near the boat, or they could throw their nets into a spot in the water where the most fish congregated. In fact, this practice may date back to around 400 BC, when the ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote about a similar practice that involved striking at fish from above the water.

This evidence, combined with some pieces of ancient art and Plato’s writings, suggest that fire fishing was very important in the ancient Mediterranean, and was likely practiced throughout New Testament times and well into the Byzantine era.

Other finds from the 7th C shipwreck included: an iron five-pronged fishing spear; a pile of rectangular, lead fishing net sinkers that would have been used to weight down nets; a bronze weight in the shape of a woman; and a tubular, iron “sounding lead”. The sounding lead was perhaps the most intriguing of the additional finds, since these were actually metal bobs used to measure water depth.

What the ancient fishermen would have done with the sounding lead was: fill the hollow middle of the lead with tallow, attach the lead bob to a sounding line, and then throw the line and lead over the side of their boat. The length of the line, combined with the amount of debris stuck to the tallow, would then indicate a depth measurement to the fishermen. This information could then be used to return to a specific fishing ground – particularly at night or during low visibility, when a sounding lead functioned as a vital navigational aid.

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Tomorrow: 3500 year old baby!

It turns out that the Biblical “land of milk and honey” may be just that after all… and lots of honey, for that matter. It turns out that the inhabitants of northern Israel developed their own beekeeping industry about 3,000 years ago – and the beehives are still intact today. Thirty beehives found in the city of Rehov date to around 900 BC, and give all indications that a healthy, thriving honey industry was well established during the Biblical timeframe.

Although beekeeping in the ancient world wasn’t an unusual practice in itself – beeswax was often used to create molds for metal casting and to create writing surfaces, while honey made an excellent medicinal substance, was added to food, and could often be used for religious purposes – nothing like the intact hives at Rehov in Israel have ever been found. Next to the hives were also remnants of ancient honeycomb and pieces of beeswax!

The beehives were made of straw and unbaked clay, and each one had a hole at the end where bees could move in and out of the hive. There was also a lid at the opposing end, allowing beekeepers to easily access the honeycombs inside. All 30 hives were discovered sitting in an orderly fashion: they sat in rows of three hives high, inside a room that could have comfortably held 100 hives. Clearly, beekeeping was an organized industry – after all, the population of the city at the time these hives were in use was probably about 2,000 people, and was made up of Israelites, Canaanites, and other individuals from the surrounding tribes.

While it may seem unusual to have a beekeeping industry located right in the center of the city, a consideration must be made of the religious use of honey – next to the hives, archaeologists located an altar that was decorated with fertility figurines, which likely links this hive collection to religious practices. Also, it’s entirely possible that the ruler of this city simply preferred to have such a lucrative industry under his control – namely, in a location where he could keep an eye on things.

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Tomorrow: Greco-Roman… nanotechnology?!

The Saluki is possibly the oldest known breed of domesticated dog, and its origins are traceable back to the time of the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt… and even further back than that. They seem to have originated in the Fertile Crescent area of Mesopotamia, and carvings from the Sumerian period around 7000-6000 BC have produced what appear to be images of Saluki dogs working alongside humans.

Saluki are ‘sighthound’ dogs, meaning that they hunt by sight instead of scent. With a powerful build and the modern nickname ‘Persian Greyhound’, the Saluki may actually be ancestors to today’s greyhound breeds. Another very early instance of sighthounds in ancient art comes from around 3000 BC, where the image of a dog resembling a Saluki was found on a stamp seal near Nineveh.

Egyptian tombs as early as 2100 BC have revealed paintings of Saluki dogs, including the tomb of an Egyptian governor named Rekh-ma-re, whose tomb images show a procession of people bringing him offerings. Among the offerings are three Saluki dogs of different colors: red, white, and golden. On the wall of a tomb for an Egyptian named Nebamun, dating around 1490 BC, there is an image of a multi-colored Saluki wearing a broad collar. Many other tomb carvings – such as the images of the young Tutankhamun riding in his chariot on a hunt – include depictions of dogs accompanying the Pharaohs as they hunted for sport or went into battle, and it is widely believed that these dogs were the domesticated Saluki.

Due to the great respect and reverence for this breed, the breeding line continued for thousands of years, stringently kept pure by royal dog breeders and even the nomadic Bedouin! Bedouin tribes often owned Salukis and kept them apart from their other dogs, not only to preserve their genetic purity, but also to ensure their behavior and effectiveness in hunting was not tainted. Later during the Roman period, it is suspected that the Romans brought back Saluki from their conquests in Egypt – and then proceeded to crossbreed the dogs into today’s modern greyhounds.

Evidence for the continual respect held for Salukis since ancient times also survives in the form of a poem, written by an Umayyad poet sometime between 661-750 AD: “They have with them their hounds of Saluq, like horses wheeling in battle, dragging on their halters.” Pretty intense for a dog now kept as a typical household pet…

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Tomorrow: More viking goodness!