Archive for the ‘Ancient Mesopotamia’ Category
By: The Scribe on September, 2007
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?!
By: The Scribe on July, 2007
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!
By: The Scribe on May, 2007
The ancient Babylonians were very keen on learning about the sky above them, and in fact, many modern astrological traditions actually stem from early Babylonian observations about the night sky.
Although undoubtedly limited by the lack of technological advancement available to today’s astronomers, the Babylonians made some remarkable deductions using their own scientific knowledge, and they would pass this on to many other ancient civilizations as the centuries moved onward.
For the Babylonians, it should first be noted that astronomy and astrology were intricately intertwined, since science was primarily concerned with the religious revelations it would bring. The physical world was understood within the context of their religious knowledge, and unlike many people might suppose to be the case for modern science and religion, this did not seem to present any sort of barriers or contradictions in understanding.
To begin, the Babylonians were the first people to develop a theory of the ecliptic: that is, the path of the sun in relation to the stars and its planetary alignment throughout a calendar year. The Babylonians recognized that this area was divided into twelve sections at 30 degrees longitude – this is where the twelve signs of the zodiac originated, when the Babylonians gave names to the twelve sections. Notably, this ecliptic division was proven to be correct, and the ecliptic theory is still used in modern astronomical study.
The Babylonian calendar was actually divided up according to the lunar year, with twelve months, but because the months were somewhat shorter than the modern calendar – which is based on the solar year – on occasion, an extra month would be added into the year to ensure the agricultural seasons stayed on track. Weeks were divided into seven days.
In terms of astrological observations, the Babylonians were very interested in the possibility of knowing the future, and believed that the movements of the sun, moon, and the five planets they identified could be interpreted to know what the gods were planning to do. The planets they knew, though given different names than what they are currently called, were: Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mercury, and Mars. The planets were each associated with a particular Babylonian god, and specific priests were assigned to astrological divination – not only attempting to interpret the signs in the sky, but also constantly striving to perfect their understanding of the heavens.
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Tomorrow: City of the bird men
By: The Scribe on May, 2007
From the slopes of Mount Carmel in Israel and the site of Oued Djebbana in Algeria, it appears that archaeologists have discovered the oldest examples of jewelry in the world. The three shell beads date to between 90,000 and 100,000 years old, predating other ancient jewelry finds by 25,000 years.
The shells are all very small, and come from a genus of marine mollusk similar to the Nassarius, and it is believed that they were selected because of their small size and thin fabric that can be easily pierced by a sharp tool. These three shells each have one hole, made by a sharp flint tool, which would have allowed them to be strung together as a bracelet or necklace.
Speculation is that these pieces of shell jewelry had some sort of social meaning, possibly representative of some symbolic behavior or assertion of status. It may be one of the earliest examples of modern behavior by humans of the ancient past, since previous evidences have not been identified as earlier than 50,000 years ago. Something like creating and wearing jewelry is an example of thoughtful creativity, and in the case of these shell pieces, there is no doubt that some forethought went into creating the items.
Namely, the sea isn’t anywhere near Mount Carmel – and in Algeria, the closest shoreline to Oued Djebbana is 200 kilometers away. The shells would have had to be located, gathered, and transported here by people either migrating into the area or perhaps simply brought as items gathered on a seasonal expedition. Either way, the minute size of the shells and the precision of the holes indicate a significant leap in human creativity for which scientists have had no previous evidence.
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Tomorrow: A coal miner’s rain forest
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