1.
Hittite language
–
Hittite, also known as Nesite and Neshite, is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, an Indo-European-speaking people who created an empire centred on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia. By the Late Bronze Age, Hittite had started losing ground to its close relative Luwian and it appears that in the 13th century BC, Luwian was the most widely spoken language in the Hittite capital of Hattusa. Hittite is the earliest-attested of the Indo-European languages and is the best-known of the Anatolian languages, Hittite is the modern name for the language, chosen after the identification of the Hatti kingdom with the Hittites mentioned in the Bible, although this identification was subsequently challenged. The terms Hattian or Hattic, by contrast, are used to refer to the people who preceded them. In multi-lingual texts found in Hittite locations, passages written in the Hittite language are preceded by the adverb nesili, in the of Neša, in one case, the label is Kanisumnili, in the of the people of Kaneš. Although the Hittite empire was composed of people from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. In spite of arguments over the appropriateness of the term, Hittite remains the most current term by convention. Knudtzon argued that Hittite was Indo-European, largely on the basis of the morphology, although he had no bilingual texts, he was able to give a partial interpretation to the two letters because of the formulaic nature of the diplomatic correspondence of the period. Based on a study of this material, Bedřich Hrozný succeeded in analyzing the language. He presented his argument that the language is Indo-European in a paper published in 1915, hroznýs argument for the Indo-European affiliation of Hittite was thoroughly modern, though poorly substantiated. He focused on the similarities in idiosyncratic aspects of the morphology, unlikely to occur independently by chance. These included the r/n alternation in some noun stems and vocalic ablaut and he also presented a set of regular sound correspondences. Sturtevant who authored the first scientifically acceptable Hittite grammar with a chrestomathy, the most up-to-date grammar of the Hittite language is currently Hoffner and Melchert 2008. Hittite is one of the Anatolian languages and it is known from cuneiform tablets and inscriptions erected by the Hittite kings. The script formerly known as Hieroglyphic Hittite is now termed Hieroglyphic Luwian, the Anatolian branch also includes Cuneiform Luwian, Hieroglyphic Luwian, Palaic, Lycian, Milyan, Lydian, Carian, Pisidian, and Sidetic. Hittite lacks some features of the other Indo-European languages, such as a distinction between masculine and feminine gender, subjunctive and optative moods, and aspect. Various hypotheses have been formulated to explain these contrasts, the parent, Indo-Hittite, lacked the features not present in Hittite, which Proto-Indo-European innovated. Other linguists, however, have taken the point of view, the Schwund Hypothesis, that Hittite came from a Proto-Indo-European possessing the full range of features
Hittite language
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Hittite
Hittite language
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Geography
2.
Hittite mythology
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Hittite mythology and Hittite religion were the religious beliefs and practices of the Hittites, who created an empire centered in what is now Turkey from c.1,600 BC to 1,180 BC. Thus, there are no canonical scriptures, no theological disquisitions or discourses, some religious documents formed part of the corpus with which young scribes were trained, and have survived, most of them dating from the last several decades before the final burning of the sites. Gods were often depicted standing on the backs of their respective beasts, though drawing on ancient Mesopotamian religion, the religion of the Hittites and Luwians retains noticeable elements of reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion. His consort is the Hattic solar deity and this divine couple were presumably worshipped in the twin cellas of the largest temple at Hattusa. The city of Arinna, a march from Hattusa, was perhaps the major cult center of the Hittites. The Hittites referred to their own gods, of whom a staggering number appear in inscriptions. The multiplicity is doubtless an artifact of a level of social-political localization within the Hittite empire not easily reconstructed, the weather god was identified there with Mount Zaliyanu near Nerik, responsible for assigning rain to the citys croplands. Among the crowd a few stand out as more local, Tarhun has a son, Telipinu. Inara is a deity involved with the Puruli spring festival. Ishara is a goddess of the oath, lists of witnesses to treaties seem to represent the Hittite pantheon most clearly. In the 13th century some explicit gestures toward syncretism appear in inscriptions, puduhepa, queen and a priestess, worked on organizing and rationalizing her peoples religion. In an inscription she invokes, Sun-Goddes of Arinna, my lady, in the land of Hatti you have assumed the name of Sun-Goddess of Arinna, but in respect to the land which you made of cedars, you have assumed the name Hebat. Kumarbi is the father of Tarhun, his role in the Song of Kumarbi is reminiscent of that of Cronus in the Theogony of Hesiod, ullikummi is a stone monster fathered by Kumarbi, reminiscent of Hesiods Typhon. The Luwian god of weather and lightning, Pihassassa, may be at the origin of Greek Pegasus, depictions of hybrid animals are typical for the Anatolian art of the period. In the Telipinu myth, the disappearance of Telipinu, god of agriculture and fertility causes all fertility to fail and this results in devastation and despair among gods and humans alike. In order to stop the havoc and devastation, the gods seek Telipinu, only a bee sent by the goddess Hannahannah finds Telipinu, and stings him in order to wake him up. However this infuriates Telipinu further and he diverts the flow of rivers and shatters the houses, in the end, the goddess Kamrusepa uses healing and magic to calm Telipinu after which he returns home and restores the vegetation and fertility. In other references it is a mortal priest who prays for all of Telipinus anger to be sent to bronze containers in the underworld, of which nothing escapes
Hittite mythology
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Seated deity, late Hittite Empire (13th century BC)
Hittite mythology
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Mythological creatures, Lion-headed man and Bull-legged man
Hittite mythology
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Relief from Yazılıkaya, a sanctuary at Hattusa, depicting twelve gods of the underworld.
3.
Monarchy
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The actual power of the monarch may vary from purely symbolic, to partial and restricted, to completely autocratic. Traditionally and in most cases, the monarchs post is inherited and lasts until death or abdication, occasionally this might create a situation of rival claimants whose legitimacy is subject to effective election. Finally, there have been cases where the term of a reign is either fixed in years or continues until certain goals are achieved. Thus there are widely divergent structures and traditions defining monarchy, Monarchy was the most common form of government until the 19th century, but it is no longer prevalent. Currently,47 sovereign nations in the world have monarchs acting as heads of state,19 of which are Commonwealth realms that recognise Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. The monarchs of Cambodia, Japan, and Malaysia reign, the word monarch comes from the Greek language word μονάρχης, monárkhēs which referred to a single, at least nominally absolute ruler. In current usage the word usually refers to a traditional system of hereditary rule. Depending on the held by the monarch, a monarchy may be known as a kingdom, principality, duchy, grand duchy, empire, tsardom, emirate, sultanate, khaganate. The form of societal hierarchy known as chiefdom or tribal kingship is prehistoric, the Greek term monarchia is classical, used by Herodotus. The monarch in classical antiquity is often identified as king, the Chinese, Japanese and Nepalese monarchs continued to be considered living Gods into the modern period. Since antiquity, monarchy has contrasted with forms of democracy, where power is wielded by assemblies of free citizens. In antiquity, monarchies were abolished in favour of such assemblies in Rome, much of 19th century politics was characterised by the division between anti-monarchist Radicalism and monarchist Conservativism. Many countries abolished the monarchy in the 20th century and became republics, advocacy of republics is called republicanism, while advocacy of monarchies is called monarchism. In the modern era, monarchies are more prevalent in small states than in large ones, most monarchs, both historically and in the modern day, have been born and brought up within a royal family, the centre of the royal household and court. Growing up in a family, future monarchs are often trained for the responsibilities of expected future rule. Different systems of succession have been used, such as proximity of blood, primogeniture, and agnatic seniority. While most monarchs have been male, many female monarchs also have reigned in history, rule may be hereditary in practice without being considered a monarchy, such as that of family dictatorships or political families in many democracies. The principal advantage of hereditary monarchy is the continuity of leadership
Monarchy
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Richard I of England being anointed during his coronation in
Westminster Abbey, from a 13th-century chronicle.
Monarchy
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Thutmose I, the third
Pharaoh of the
Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt.
Monarchy
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King George III of the United Kingdom, Portrait by
Allan Ramsay, 1762
Monarchy
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King
Salman of Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarch.
4.
Bronze Age
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The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
Bronze Age
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Chalcolithic copper mine in
Timna Valley,
Negev Desert,
Israel.
Bronze Age
–
Diffusion of metallurgy in
Europe and
Asia Minor. The darkest areas are the oldest.
Bronze Age
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A
Shang Dynasty two-handled bronze gefuding gui (1600–1046 BC).
Bronze Age
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Spring and Autumn Period pu bronze vessel with interlaced
dragon design (722–481 BC)
5.
Iron Age
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The Iron Age is an archaeological era, referring to a period of time in the prehistory and protohistory of the Old World when the dominant toolmaking material was iron. It is commonly preceded by the Bronze Age in Europe and Asia with exceptions, meteoric iron has been used by humans since at least 3200 BC. Ancient iron production did not become widespread until the ability to smelt ore, remove impurities. The start of the Iron Age proper is considered by many to fall between around 1200 BC and 600 BC, depending on the region, the earliest known iron artifacts are nine small beads dated to 3200 BC, which were found in burials at Gerzeh, Lower Egypt. They have been identified as meteoric iron shaped by careful hammering, meteoric iron, a characteristic iron–nickel alloy, was used by various ancient peoples thousands of years before the Iron Age. Such iron, being in its metallic state, required no smelting of ores. Smelted iron appears sporadically in the record from the middle Bronze Age. While terrestrial iron is abundant, its high melting point of 1,538 °C placed it out of reach of common use until the end of the second millennium BC. Tins low melting point of 231, similarly, recent archaeological remains of iron working in the Ganges Valley in India have been tentatively dated to 1800 BC. By the Middle Bronze Age, increasing numbers of smelted iron objects appeared in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, African sites are turning up dates as early as 1200 BC. Modern archaeological evidence identifies the start of iron production in around 1200 BC. Between 1200 BC and 1000 BC, diffusion in the understanding of iron metallurgy and use of objects was fast. As evidence, many bronze implements were recycled into weapons during this time, more widespread use of iron led to improved steel-making technology at lower cost. Thus, even when tin became available again, iron was cheaper, stronger, and lighter, and forged iron implements superseded cast bronze tools permanently. Increasingly, the Iron Age in Europe is being seen as a part of the Bronze Age collapse in the ancient Near East, in ancient India, ancient Iran, and ancient Greece. In other regions of Europe, the Iron Age began in the 8th century BC in Central Europe, the Near Eastern Iron Age is divided into two subsections, Iron I and Iron II. Iron I illustrates both continuity and discontinuity with the previous Late Bronze Age, during the Iron Age, the best tools and weapons were made from steel, particularly alloys which were produced with a carbon content between approximately 0. 30% and 1. 2% by weight. Steel weapons and tools were nearly the same weight as those of bronze, however, steel was difficult to produce with the methods available, and alloys that were easier to make, such as wrought iron, were more common in lower-priced goods
Iron Age
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Archaeological artifact from the work developed in the area of
Citânia de Briteiros
Iron Age
Iron Age
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Cross or cruzado in Citânia de Breteiros
Iron Age
–
A pedra formosa
6.
Mitanni
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Mitanni, also called Hanigalbat in Assyrian or Naharin in Egyptian texts, was a Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and southeast Anatolia from ca.1500 BC–1300 BC. Mitanni came to be a regional power after the Hittite destruction of Amorite Babylon, at the beginning of its history, Mitannis major rival was Egypt under the Thutmosids. However, with the ascent of the Hittite empire, Mitanni, the Mitanni dynasty ruled over the northern Euphrates-Tigris region between c.1475 and c.1275 BC. Eventually, Mitanni succumbed to Hittite and later Assyrian attacks, and was reduced to the status of a province of the Middle Assyrian Empire. While the Mitanni kings were Indo-Iranians, they used the language of the people which was at that time a non Indo-Iranian language. Their sphere of influence is shown in Hurrian place names, personal names and the spread through Syria, the Mitanni controlled trade routes down the Khabur to Mari and up the Euphrates from there to Charchamesh. For a time also controlled the Assyrian territories of the upper Tigris and its headwaters at Nineveh, Arbil, Assur. To the east, they had relations with the Kassites. The land of Mitanni in northern Syria extended from the Taurus mountains to its west and as far east as Nuzi, in the south, it extended from Aleppo across to Mari on the Euphrates in the east. Its centre was in the Khabur River valley, with two capitals, Taite and Washshukanni called Taidu and Ushshukana respectively in Assyrian sources, the whole area allows agriculture without artificial irrigation, cattle, sheep and goats were raised. It is very similar to Assyria in climate, and was settled by both indigenous Hurrian and Amoritic-speaking populations, the Mitanni kingdom was referred to as the Maryannu, Nahrin or Mitanni by the Egyptians, the Hurri by the Hittites, and the Hanigalbat by the Assyrians. The different names seem to have referred to the kingdom and were used interchangeably. Hittite annals mention a people called Hurri, located in northeastern Syria, a Hittite fragment, probably from the time of Mursili I, mentions a King of the Hurri. The Assyro-Akkadian version of the text renders Hurri as Hanigalbat, Tushratta, who styles himself king of Mitanni in his Akkadian Amarna letters, refers to his kingdom as Hanigalbat. Egyptian sources call Mitanni nhrn, which is pronounced as Naharin/Naharina from the Assyro-Akkadian word for river. The name Mitanni is first found in the memoirs of the Syrian wars of the astronomer and clockmaker Amenemhet. The ethnicity of the people of Mitanni is difficult to ascertain, a treatise on the training of chariot horses by Kikkuli contains a number of Indo-Aryan glosses. Kammenhuber suggested that this vocabulary was derived from the still undivided Indo-Iranian language, the common peoples language, the Hurrian language, is neither Indo-European nor Semitic
Mitanni
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Cuneiform tablet containing a letter from Tushratta of Mitanni to Amenhotep III (of 13 letters of King Tushratta).
Mitanni
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Map of the Near East ca. 1400 BC showing the Kingdom of Mitanni at its greatest extent
Mitanni
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Geography
7.
Neo-Assyrian Empire
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The Neo-Assyrian Empire was an Iron Age Mesopotamian empire, in existence between 911 and 612 BC. The Assyrians perfected early techniques of imperial rule, many of which became standard in later empires, the Neo-Assyrian Empire succeeded the Old Assyrian Empire, and the Middle Assyrian Empire of the Late Bronze Age. During this period, Aramaic was also made a language of the empire. Upon the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BC, the empire began to due to a brutal. In 616 BC, Cyaxares king of the Medes and Persians made alliances with Nabopolassar ruler of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, Assyria was originally an Akkadian kingdom which evolved in the 25th to 24th centuries BC. The urbanised Akkadian speaking nation of Assyria emerged in the mid 21st century BC, during the 20th century BC, it established colonies in Asia Minor, and under the 20th century BC King Ilushuma, Assyria conducted many successful raids against the states of the south. Ashur-uballit extended Assyrian control over the farming lands of Nineveh. Tiglath-Pileser controlled the caravan routes that crossed the fertile crescent from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. Much campaigning by Tiglath-Pileser and succeeding kings was directed against Aramaean pastoralist groups in Syria, by the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the Aramaean expansion had resulted in the loss of much Assyrian territory in Upper Mesopotamia. After the death of Tiglath-Pileser I in 1076 BC, Assyria was in decline for the next 150 years. The period from 1200 BC to 900 BC was an age for the entire Near East, North Africa, Caucasus, Mediterranean and Balkan regions, with great upheavals. Adad-nirari II and his successors campaigned on a basis for part of every year with an exceptionally well-organized army. He subjugated the areas previously under only nominal Assyrian vassalage, conquering and deporting Aramean and Hurrian populations in the north to far-off places. Adadinirari II then twice attacked and defeated Shamash-mudammiq of Babylonia, annexing an area of land north of the Diyala river. He made further gains over Babylonia under Nabu-shuma-ukin I later in his reign and he was succeeded by Tukulti-Ninurta II in 891 BC, who further consolidated Assyrias position and expanded northwards into Asia Minor and the Zagros Mountains during his short reign. The next king, Ashurnasirpal II, embarked on a vast program of expansion, during his rule, Assyria recovered much of the territory that it had lost around 1100 BC at the end of the Middle Assyrian period. Ashurnasirpal II also campaigned in the Zagros Mountains in modern Iran, repressing a revolt against Assyrian rule by the Lullubi, the Assyrians began boasting in their ruthlessness around this time. Ashurnasirpal II also moved his capital to the city of Kalhu, the palaces, temples and other buildings raised by him bear witness to a considerable development of wealth and art
Neo-Assyrian Empire
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Map of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and its expansions.
Neo-Assyrian Empire
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An Assyrian winged bull, or
lamassu, from Sargon's palace at
Dur-Sharrukin.
Neo-Assyrian Empire
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Assyrian warship, a
bireme with pointed bow, 700 BC
8.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
Turkey
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Some
henges at
Göbekli Tepe were erected as far back as 12,000 BC, predating those of
Stonehenge,
England by almost ten millennia.
Turkey
–
Flag
Turkey
–
The Lion Gate in
Hattusa, capital of the
Hittite Empire. The city's history dates back to the 6th millennium BC.
Turkey
–
The
Library of Celsus in
Ephesus was built by the
Romans in 135 AD. The
Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, built by king
Croesus of
Lydia in the 6th century BC, was one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
9.
Syria
–
Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
Syria
–
Female figurine, 5000 BC.
Ancient Orient Museum.
Syria
–
Flag
Syria
–
God head, the kingdom of
Yamhad (c. 1600 BC)
Syria
–
Ebla royal palace c. 2400 BC
10.
Turkish language
–
Outside of Turkey, significant smaller groups of speakers exist in Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Europe and Central Asia. Cyprus has requested that the European Union add Turkish as an official EU language, in 1928, as one of Atatürks Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a Latin alphabet. The distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination, the basic word order of Turkish is subject–object–verb. Turkish has no classes or grammatical gender. Turkish has a strong T–V distinction and usage of honorifics, Turkish uses second-person pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a person out of respect. Turkic languages belong to the Altaic language group, the Turkic family comprises some 30 living languages spoken across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Siberia. Turkish is a member of the Oghuz group of languages, a subgroup of the Turkic language family, there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Turkish and the other Oghuz Turkic languages, including Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, and Balkan Gagauz Turkish. The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia, erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan, these date back to the second Turk Kaghanate. The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks, in particular, brought their language, following the adoption of Islam c. Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry, was influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a reform to replace loanwords of Arabic. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the terms of Arabic or Persian origin. The past few decades have seen the work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance, however, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka, political party—also failed to meet with popular approval, some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings, for example betik is now used to mean script in computer science
Turkish language
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Old Turkic inscription with the
Orkhon script (c. 8th century).
Kyzyl, Russia
Turkish language
–
Countries where Turkish is an official language
Turkish language
–
Road signs in
Prizren,
Republic of Kosovo. Official languages are:
Albanian (top),
Serbian (middle) and Turkish (bottom).
Turkish language
–
Map of the main subgroups of
Turkish dialects.
11.
Ancient Greek
–
Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
Ancient Greek
–
Inscription about the construction of the statue of
Athena Parthenos in the
Parthenon, 440/439 BC
Ancient Greek
–
Ostracon bearing the name of
Cimon,
Stoa of Attalos
Ancient Greek
–
The words ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ as they are inscribed on the marble of the 1955
Leonidas Monument at
Thermopylae
12.
Latin
–
Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
Latin
–
Latin inscription, in the
Colosseum
Latin
–
Julius Caesar 's
Commentarii de Bello Gallico is one of the most famous classical Latin texts of the Golden Age of Latin. The unvarnished, journalistic style of this
patrician general has long been taught as a model of the urbane Latin officially spoken and written in the floruit of the
Roman republic.
Latin
–
A multi-volume Latin dictionary in the
University Library of Graz
Latin
–
Latin and Ancient Greek Language - Culture - Linguistics at
Duke University in 2014.
13.
Syria (region)
–
The historic region of Syria is an area located east of the Mediterranean sea. The oldest attestation of the name Syria is from the 8th century BC in an inscription in Hieroglyphic Luwian and Phoenician. In this inscription the Luwian word Sura/i was translated to Phoenician ʔšr Assyria, for Herodotus in the 5th century BC, Syria extended as far north as the Halys river and as far south as Arabia and Egypt. For Pliny the Elder and Pomponius Mela, Syria covered the entire Fertile Crescent and this late definition is equivalent to the region known in Classical Arabic by the name ash-Shām الشام /ʔaʃ-ʃaːm/, which means the north. After World War I, the name Syria was applied to the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, the area was passed to French and British Mandates following World War I and divided into Greater Lebanon, various Syrian-mandate states, Mandatory Palestine and Transjordan. The Syrian-mandate states were unified as the State of Syria. Throughout this period, pan-Syrian nationalists advocated for the creation of a Greater Syria, the name Syria derives from the ancient Greek name for Syrians, Σύριοι Syrioi, which the Greeks applied without distinction to various Near Eastern peoples living under the rule of Assyria. Modern scholarship confirms the Greek word traces back to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, the classical Arabic pronunciation of Syria is Sūriyya. This name was not widely used among Muslims before about 1870, according to the Syrian Orthodox Church, Syrian used to mean Christian in early Christianity. In English, Syrian historically meant a Syrian Christian, following the declaration of Syria in 1936, the term Syrian became to designate citizens of that state regardless of ethnicity. The adjective Syriac has come into use since as a demonym to avoid the ambiguity of Syrian. To some opinions, the origin of the Hellenistic term Syria is bound in the etymology of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Syria in this wider sense could correspond to Greater Assyria and include all of the Levant and Mesopotamia. Currently, the Arabic term Suriyya refers to the state of Syria. The term etymologically means land of the hand, referring to the fact that for someone in the Hejaz facing east. Sham comes from the Arabic consonantal root shin-hamza-mim ش ء م, as seen in alternative Arabic spellings such as شأم, there is no connection with the name of Shem son of Noah, as is sometimes assumed. Herodotus uses Συρία to refer to the stretch of land from the Halys river, including Cappadocia in todays Turkey to the Mount Casius, which Herodotus says is located just south of Lake Serbonis. According to Herodotus various remarks in different locations, he describes Syria to include the stretch of Phoenician coastal line as well as cities such Cadytis. In Greek usage, Syria and Assyria were used almost interchangeably, various writers used the term to describe the entire Levant region during this period, the New Testament used the name in this sense on numerous occasions
Syria (region)
–
An 1810 map of the Ottoman Empire in Asia, showing the region of
Ottoman Syria
14.
Hittites
–
The Hittites were an Ancient Anatolian people who established an empire centered on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia around 1600 BC. Between the 15th and 13th centuries BC the Hittite Empire came into conflict with the Egyptian Empire, Middle Assyrian Empire, the Assyrians eventually emerged as the dominant power and annexed much of the Hittite empire, while the remainder was sacked by Phrygian newcomers to the region. They referred to their land as Hatti. The conventional name Hittites is due to their identification with the Biblical Hittites in 19th century archaeology. Before the discoveries, the source of information about Hittites had been the Old Testament. Francis William Newman expressed the view, common in the early 19th century. Uriah was a captain in King Davids army and counted among one of his mighty men in 1 Chronicles 11, french scholar Félix Marie Charles Texier discovered the first Hittite ruins in 1834, but did not identify them as Hittite. The first archaeological evidence for the Hittites appeared in tablets found at the Assyrian colony of Kültepe, some names in the tablets were neither Hattic nor Assyrian, but clearly Indo-European. The script on a monument at Boğazköy by a People of Hattusas discovered by William Wright in 1884 was found to match peculiar hieroglyphic scripts from Aleppo, in 1887, excavations at Tell El-Amarna in Egypt uncovered the diplomatic correspondence of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaton. Shortly after this, Archibald Sayce proposed that Hatti or Khatti in Anatolia was identical with the kingdom of Kheta mentioned in these Egyptian texts, as well as with the biblical Hittites. Others, such as Max Müller, agreed that Khatti was probably Kheta, sayces identification came to be widely accepted over the course of the early 20th century, and the name Hittite has become attached to the civilization uncovered at Boğazköy. He also proved that the ruins at Boğazköy were the remains of the capital of an empire that, at one point, under the direction of the German Archaeological Institute, excavations at Hattusa have been under way since 1907, with interruptions during the world wars. Kültepe was successfully excavated by Professor Tahsin Özgüç from 1948 until his death in 2005, the Hittites used Mesopotamian Cuneiform script. The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, Turkey houses the richest collection of Hittite, the Hittite kingdom was centred on the lands surrounding Hattusa and Neša, known as the land Hatti. For example, the reward for the capture of a slave after he managed to flee beyond the Halys is higher than that for a slave caught before he could reach the river. To the west and south of the core territory lay the region known as Luwiya in the earliest Hittite texts and this terminology was replaced by the names Arzawa and Kizzuwatna with the rise of those kingdoms. Nevertheless, the Hittites continued to refer to the language originated in these areas as Luwian. Prior to the rise of Kizzuwatna, the heart of territory in Cilicia was first referred to by the Hittites as Adaniya
Hittites
–
Bronze religious standard from a pre-Hittite tomb at
Alacahöyük, dating to the third millennium B.C., from the
Museum of Anatolian Civilizations,
Ankara.
Hittites
–
The Hittite Empire, ca. 1300 BC (shown in Blue).
Hittites
–
Jewelry from
Museum of Anatolian Civilizations.
Hittites
–
Hittite chariot, from an Egyptian relief
15.
Babylon
–
Babylon was a major city of ancient Mesopotamia in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city was built upon the Euphrates and divided in parts along its left and right banks. Babylon was originally a small Semitic Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c.2300 BC, the town attained independence as part of a small city-state with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BC. Babylon grew and South Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia, the empire quickly dissolved after Hammurabis death and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rule of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, and Sassanid empires. It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from c.1770 to 1670 BC and it was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000. Estimates for the extent of its area range from 890 to 900 hectares. The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometres south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings, the English Babylon comes from Greek Babylṓn, a transliteration of the Akkadian Babili. The Babylonian name in the early 2nd millennium BC had been Babilli or Babilla, by the 1st millennium BC, it had changed to Babili under the influence of the folk etymology which traced it to bāb-ili. The Gate of God or Gate of El being from the Aramaic Hebrew Bab for Gate and El for God and this being similar to the Hebrew word for confusion Balal. In the Bible, the name appears as Babel, interpreted in the Hebrew Scriptures Book of Genesis to mean confusion, the modern English verb, to babble, or to speak meaningless words, is popularly thought to derive from this name, but there is no direct connection. The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and debris. The site at Babylon consists of a number of mounds covering an area of about 2 by 1 kilometer, oriented north to south, along the Euphrates to the west. Originally, the river roughly bisected the city, but the course of the river has since shifted so that most of the remains of the western part of the city are now inundated. Some portions of the city wall to the west of the river also remain, remains of the city include, Kasr—also called Palace or Castle, it is the location of the Neo-Babylonian ziggurat Etemenanki and lies in the center of the site. Amran Ibn Ali—the highest of the mounds at 25 meters, to the south and it is the site of Esagila, a temple of Marduk which also contained shrines to Ea and Nabu. Homera—a reddish colored mound on the west side, most of the Hellenistic remains are here
Babylon
–
A partial view of the ruins of Babylon from
Saddam Hussein 's Summer Palace
Babylon
–
Plan of Ruins of Babylon, 1905
Babylon
–
Babylon in 1932
Babylon
–
The
Queen of the Night relief. The figure could be an aspect of the goddess
Ishtar, Babylonian goddess of sex and love.
16.
Egypt
–
Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
Egypt
–
The
Giza Necropolis is the oldest of the
ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence.
Egypt
–
Flag
Egypt
–
The Greek Ptolemaic queen
Cleopatra VII and her son by Julius Caesar,
Caesarion at the
Temple of Dendera.
Egypt
–
The 1803
Cedid Atlas, showing
Ottoman Egypt.
17.
Bible
–
The Bible is a collection of sacred texts or scriptures that Jews and Christians consider to be a product of divine inspiration and a record of the relationship between God and humans. Many different authors contributed to the Bible, what is regarded as canonical text differs depending on traditions and groups, a number of Bible canons have evolved, with overlapping and diverging contents. The Christian Old Testament overlaps with the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Septuagint, the New Testament is a collection of writings by early Christians, believed to be mostly Jewish disciples of Christ, written in first-century Koine Greek. These early Christian Greek writings consist of narratives, letters, among Christian denominations there is some disagreement about the contents of the canon, primarily the Apocrypha, a list of works that are regarded with varying levels of respect. Attitudes towards the Bible also differ amongst Christian groups and this concept arose during the Protestant Reformation, and many denominations today support the use of the Bible as the only source of Christian teaching. With estimated total sales of over 5 billion copies, the Bible is widely considered to be the book of all time. It has estimated sales of 100 million copies, and has been a major influence on literature and history, especially in the West. The English word Bible is from the Latin biblia, from the word in Medieval Latin and Late Latin. Medieval Latin biblia is short for biblia sacra holy book, while biblia in Greek and it gradually came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun in medieval Latin, and so the word was loaned as a singular into the vernaculars of Western Europe. Latin biblia sacra holy books translates Greek τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια ta biblia ta hagia, the word βιβλίον itself had the literal meaning of paper or scroll and came to be used as the ordinary word for book. It is the diminutive of βύβλος byblos, Egyptian papyrus, possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician sea port Byblos from whence Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece, the Greek ta biblia was an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books. Christian use of the term can be traced to c.223 CE, bruce notes that Chrysostom appears to be the first writer to use the Greek phrase ta biblia to describe both the Old and New Testaments together. The division of the Hebrew Bible into verses is based on the sof passuk cantillation mark used by the 10th-century Masoretes to record the verse divisions used in oral traditions. The oldest extant copy of a complete Bible is an early 4th-century parchment book preserved in the Vatican Library, the oldest copy of the Tanakh in Hebrew and Aramaic dates from the 10th century CE. The oldest copy of a complete Latin Bible is the Codex Amiatinus and he states that it is not a magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind. In Christian Bibles, the New Testament Gospels were derived from traditions in the second half of the first century CE. Riches says that, Scholars have attempted to reconstruct something of the history of the oral traditions behind the Gospels, the period of transmission is short, less than 40 years passed between the death of Jesus and the writing of Marks Gospel. This means that there was time for oral traditions to assume fixed form
Bible
–
The
Gutenberg Bible, the first printed Bible
Bible
–
The Kennicott Bible, by
Benjamin Kennicott, with illustration, Jonah being swallowed by the fish, 1476
Bible
–
Tanakh
18.
Euphrates River
–
The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia, originating in eastern Turkey, the Euphrates flows through Syria and Iraq to join the Tigris in the Shatt al-Arab, which empties into the Persian Gulf. The Ancient Greek form Euphrátēs was borrowed from Old Persian Ufrātu, the Elamite name is ultimately derived from the Sumerian Buranuna, possibly through the Akkadian name. In Akkadian the river was similarly called Purattu, which has been perpetuated in Semitic languages, the Elamite, Akkadian, and possibly Sumerian forms are suggested to be from an unrecorded substrate language. The earliest references to the Euphrates come from texts found in Shuruppak and pre-Sargonic Nippur in southern Iraq. In these texts, written in Sumerian, the Euphrates is called Buranuna, the name could also be written KIB. NUN. or dKIB. NUN, with the prefix d indicating that the river was a divinity. In Sumerian, the name of the city of Sippar in modern-day Iraq was also a written UD. KIB. NUN, the Euphrates is the longest river of Western Asia. It emerges from the confluence of the Kara Su or Western Euphrates, the same figures are given by Isaev and Mikhailova. The length of the Shatt al-Arab, which connects the Euphrates, both the Kara Su and the Murat Su rise northwest from Lake Van at elevations of 3,290 metres and 3,520 metres amsl, respectively. At the location of the Keban Dam, the two rivers, now combined into the Euphrates, have dropped to an elevation of 693 metres amsl, from Keban to the Syrian–Turkish border, the river drops another 368 metres over a distance of less than 600 kilometres. The Euphrates receives most of its water in the form of rainfall and melting snow, discharge in these two months accounts for 36 percent of the total annual discharge of the Euphrates, or even 60–70 percent according to one source, while low runoff occurs in summer and autumn. The discharge regime of the Euphrates has changed dramatically since the construction of the first dams in the 1970s, data on Euphrates discharge collected after 1990 show the impact of the construction of the numerous dams in the Euphrates and of the increased withdrawal of water for irrigation. Average discharge at Hīt after 1990 has dropped to 356 cubic metres per second, the seasonal variability has equally changed. The pre-1990 peak volume recorded at Hīt was 7,510 cubic metres per second, the minimum volume at Hīt remained relatively unchanged, rising from 55 cubic metres per second before 1990 to 58 cubic metres per second afterward. In Syria, three rivers add their water to the Euphrates, the Sajur, the Balikh and the Khabur and these rivers rise in the foothills of the Taurus Mountains along the Syro–Turkish border and add comparatively little water to the Euphrates. The Sajur is the smallest of these tributaries, emerging from two streams near Gaziantep and draining the plain around Manbij before emptying into the reservoir of the Tishrin Dam. The Balikh receives most of its water from a spring near Ayn al-Arus. In terms of length, drainage basin and discharge, the Khabur is the largest of these three and its main karstic springs are located around Ras al-Ayn, from where the Khabur flows southeast past Al-Hasakah, where the river turns south and drains into the Euphrates near Busayrah
Euphrates River
–
The Euphrates near
Halabiye (
Syria); the site can be seen in the background on the left bank
Euphrates River
–
View of the
Murat River
Euphrates River
–
Ferry across the Euphrates River to
Kahta, Turkey
Euphrates River
–
Crossing the Euphrates River
19.
Gaziantep
–
The city has two urban districts under its administration, Şahinbey and Şehitkamil. It is the sixth most populous city in Turkey and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in 2014 the city of Gaziantep had a population of 1,465,019. Gaziantep was formerly called Antep or Aïntab in Ottoman Turkish, ˁAīntāb in Arabic, there are several theories for the origin of the name, Aïntap may be derived from Khantap, meaning kings land in the Hittite language. Aïn, an Arabic meaning spring, and tap word of praise, there are traces of settlement going back to the 4th millennium BC. The archaeological site of Tell Tülük, which gives its name to the Neolithic Dulicien culture, is situated a few kilometers to the north of the city center, Gaziantep is the probable site of the Hellenistic city of Antiochia ad Taurum. In the center of the city stands the Gaziantep Fortress and the Ravanda citadel, following the Muslim conquest of the Levant, the city passed to the Umayyads in 661 and the Abbasids in 750. It was ravaged several times during the Arab–Byzantine wars, after the disintegration of the Abbasid dynasty, the city was ruled successively by the Tulunids, the Ikhshidids and the Hamdanids. In 962, it was recaptured by the Byzantines, the Anatolian Seljuks took Aintab in 1067. They gave way to the Syrian Seljuks in 1086, tutush I appointed Thoros of Edessa as governor of the region. It was captured by the Crusaders and united to the Maras Seigneurship in the County of Edessa in 1098. It reverted to the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm in 1150, was controlled by the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia between 1155–1157 and 1204–1206 and captured by the Zengids in 1172 and the Ayyubids in 1181 and it was retaken by the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm in 1218. It was ruled by the Ilkhanate between 1260–1261, 1271–1272, 1280–1281 and 1299–1317 and by the Mamluks between 1261–1271, 1272–1280, 1281–1299, 1317–1341, 1353–1378, 1381–1389 and 1395–1516 and it was also governed by the Dulkadirids, which was a Turkish vassal state of the Mamluks. The Ottoman Empire captured Gaziantep after the Battle of Marj Dabiq in 1516, in the Ottoman period, Aintab was a sanjak centered initially in the Dulkadir Eyalet, and later in the Aleppo vilayet. It was also a kaza in the Aleppo vilayet, the city established itself as a centre for commerce due to its location straddling trade routes. The 17th century Turkish traveler Evliya Celebi noted that there were 3900 shops and 2 bedesten, by the end of the 19th century, Aintab had a population of about 45,000, ⅔ of which was Muslim, largely Turkish, but also Arabs and Kurdish. Of the Christians, there was a large Armenian community, in the 19th century, there was considerable American Protestant Christian missionary activity in Aintab. In particular, Central Turkey College was founded in 1874 by the American Mission Board, the Armenians were systemically slaughtered during the Hamidian massacres in 1895 and later the Armenian Genocide in 1915. Consequently, the Central Turkey College was transferred to Aleppo in 1916, in any case, in 2004, AKP obtained 55. 11% and CHP21. 57%, and all other parties below 6% at the Provincial General Assembly elections
Gaziantep
–
Clockwise from top left: Gaziantep
zoo; a view of the city center;
Kamil Ocak Stadium; Uğur Plaza Hotel.
Gaziantep
–
View of a courtyard through an arched alley in Antep's historic city center.
Gaziantep
–
Bronze parade mask found in a Roman tomb in Gaziantep dating from c. 100 AD (
British Museum)
Gaziantep
–
100th Anniversary Atatürk Culture Park with the Grand Mosque (Ulu Cami) of Gaziantep in the background.
20.
Aleppo
–
Aleppo is a city in Syria, serving as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,132,100, Aleppo was the largest Syrian city before the Syrian Civil War, however, now Aleppo is likely the second-largest city in Syria after the capital Damascus. Aleppo is an ancient city, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, such a long history is attributed to its strategic location as a trading center midway between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia. For centuries, Aleppo was the largest city in the Syrian region, and it was also one of the largest cities in the Levant before the advent of the Syrian Civil War. The citys significance in history has been its location at one end of the Silk Road, when the Suez Canal was inaugurated in 1869, trade was diverted to sea and Aleppo began its slow decline. At the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Aleppo ceded its northern hinterland to modern Turkey, in the 1940s, it lost its main access to the sea, Antakya and İskenderun, also to Turkey. Finally, the isolation of Syria in the past few decades further exacerbated the situation and this decline may have helped to preserve the old city of Aleppo, its medieval architecture and traditional heritage. It won the title of the Islamic Capital of Culture 2006, during the Battle of Aleppo the city suffered massive destruction, and has been the worst-hit city in the Syrian Civil War. In December 2016, the Syrian government achieved full control of Aleppo following a successful offensive, modern-day English-speakers commonly refer to the city as Aleppo. It was known in antiquity as Khalpe, Khalibon, and to the Greeks, during the Crusades, and again during the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon of 1923–1946, the name Alep was used. Aleppo represents the Italianised version of this, the original ancient name, Halab, has survived as the current Arabic name of the city. Some have proposed that halab means iron or copper in Amorite languages, the modern-day Arabic nickname of the city, ash-Shahbaa, which means the white-colored, also allegedly derives from the famous white marble of Aleppo. From the 11th century it was common usage to apply the term Aram-Zobah to the area of Aleppo. Aleppo has scarcely been touched by archaeologists, since the city occupies its ancient site. The site has been occupied from around 5000 BC, as shown by excavations in Tallet Alsauda, Aleppo appears in historical records as an important city much earlier than Damascus. The first record of Aleppo comes from the third millennium BC, some historians, such as Wayne Horowitz, identify Aleppo with the capital of an independent kingdom closely related to Ebla, known as Armi, although this identification is contested. The main temple of the storm god Hadad was located on the hill in the center of the city. In the Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian Empire period, Aleppos name appears in its form as Ḥalab for the first time
Aleppo
–
Ancient City of Aleppo Aleppo Citadel • The entrance to
al-Madina Souq Great Mosque of Aleppo •
Baron Hotel Saint Elias Cathedral •
Queiq River Panorama of Aleppo at night
Aleppo
–
Queiq River
Aleppo
–
Ancient Aleppo
21.
Baghdad Railway
–
Completion of the project took several decades and by the outbreak of World War I, the railway was still 960 km away from its intended objective. The last stretch to Baghdad was built in the late 1930s, if the railway had been completed, the Germans would have gained access to suspected oil fields in Mesopotamia, as well as a connection to the port of Basra on the Persian Gulf. The latter would have provided access to the parts of the German colonial empire, and avoided the Suez Canal. The railway became a source of international disputes during the immediately preceding World War I. Although it has argued that they were resolved in 1914 before the war began. Construction resumed in the 1930s and was completed in 1940, the journey home to Germany would have given German industry direct supply of oil. The Europeans saw great potential to exploit the resources of the empire, irrigation could transform agriculture, there were chrome, antimony, lead and zinc mines. Not least there were potentially vast amounts of oil, during 1901 a German report announced the region had a veritable lake of petroleum of almost inexhaustible supply. In 1872 German railway engineer Wilhelm von Pressel was retained by the Ottoman government to develop plans for railways in Turkey, thus came into existence the Anatolian Railway Company. The two lines were the first two sections of the Baghdad Railway, another railway built at the same time by German engineers was the Hejaz railway, commissioned by Sultan Hamid II. The Ottoman Empire chose to place the line outside the range of the British Navy guns, therefore, the coastal way from Alexandretta to Aleppo was avoided. The line had to cross the Amanus Mountains inland at the cost of engineering including an 8 km tunnel between Ayran station and Fevzipaşa. A Russian plan was rejected for fear of it extending Russian influence in Constantinople, a well-financed British plan collapsed due to the outbreak of the Boer War. A well-financed French proposal titled the Imperial Ottoman Railway enabled them to become financiers of the winning Deutsche Bank plan and this Baghdad Railway Company was controlled by a few German banks. McMurray rejects the theory that the railway tied Turkey to Germany, there was concern in Russia, France, and Britain after 1903 as the implications of the German scheme to construct a great Berlin-Baghdad railway became apparent. A railway that would link Berlin to the Persian Gulf would provide Germany with a connection to its southernmost colonies in Africa, i. e. with German East Africa and German South-West Africa. The railway might eventually have strengthened the Ottoman Empire and its ties to Germany, despite obstructions at the diplomatic level, work slowly began on the railway. Both geographical and political obstacles prevented the completion of the Baghdad Railway before World War I commenced in 1914, much of the construction work was undertaken by Philipp Holzmann
Baghdad Railway
–
Baghdad railway circa 1900–10
Baghdad Railway
–
CIOB in red (CFOA route to Constantinople in blue)
Baghdad Railway
–
Central Station in
Adana,
Turkey, 1913.
Baghdad Railway
–
Railway Station,
Aleppo,
Syria.
22.
Acropolis
–
An acropolis is a settlement, especially a citadel, built upon an area of elevated ground—frequently a hill with precipitous sides, chosen for purposes of defense. An example in Ireland is the Rock of Cashel, Acropolis is also the term used by archaeologists and historians for the urban Castro culture settlements located in Northwestern Iberian hilltops. The most famous example is the Acropolis of Athens, which, by reason of its historical associations, although originating in the mainland of Greece, use of the acropolis model quickly spread to Greek colonies such as the Dorian Lato on Crete during the Archaic Period. Because of its classical Hellenistic style, the ruins of Mission San Juan Capistranos Great Stone Church in California, other parts of the world developed other names for the high citadel or alcázar, which often reinforced a naturally strong site. In Central Italy, many small rural communes still cluster at the base of a fortified habitation known as La Rocca of the commune. The term acropolis is also used to describe the complex of overlapping structures, such as plazas and pyramids, in many Maya cities, including Tikal
Acropolis
–
View of the Acropolis of
Pergamon in the background, as seen from Via Tecta at the entrance to the
Asclepeion.
Acropolis
–
Acropolis of
Assos
Acropolis
–
The
Acropolis of Athens as seen from
Mount Lycabettus (to its northeast). The wooded
Hill of the Nymphs is half-visible on its right, and Philopappos Hill on the left, immediately behind. The
Philopappos Monument stands where, in the distant background, the coast of
Peloponnese meet the waters of the
Saronic Gulf.
23.
T. E. Lawrence
–
Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO was a British archaeologist, military officer, diplomat, and writer. He was renowned for his role during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. Chapman had left his wife and first family in Ireland to live with Junner, in 1896, the Lawrences moved to Oxford, where Lawrence attended high school, then in 1907–1910 studied History at Jesus College. Between 1910 and 1914 he worked as an archaeologist, chiefly at Carchemish, soon after the outbreak of war he joined the British Army and was stationed in Egypt. In 1916, he was sent to Arabia on a mission and quickly became involved with the Arab Revolt, serving, along with other British officers. After the war, Lawrence served until 1922 as a diplomat, in 1922, he retreated from public life and spent the years until 1935 serving as an enlisted man, mostly in the Royal Air Force, with a brief stint in the Army. During this time, he wrote and published his work, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. He also translated books into English and completed The Mint, which was published posthumously and he corresponded extensively and was friendly with well-known artists, writers, and politicians. For the RAF, he participated in the design of rescue motorboats, Lawrences public image resulted in part from the sensationalised reporting of the Arab revolt by American journalist Lowell Thomas, as well as from Seven Pillars of Wisdom. In 1935, Lawrence was fatally injured in a accident in Dorset. Lawrence was born on 16 August 1888 in Tremadog, Carnarvonshire, Wales in a house named Gorphwysfa, now known as Snowdon Lodge. His Anglo-Irish father Thomas Chapman had left his wife Edith after he fell in love and had a son with Sarah Junner, a young Scotswoman who had been engaged as governess to his daughters. Sarah was the daughter of Elizabeth Junner and John Lawrence, who worked as a carpenter and was a son of the household in which Elizabeth had been a servant. She was dismissed four months before Sarah was born, Sarah and Thomas did not marry, but lived together under the name Lawrence. In 1914, Sir Thomas inherited the Chapman baronetcy based at Killua Castle, the family home in County Westmeath, Ireland. They had five sons, Thomas Edward was the second eldest, from Wales the family moved to Kirkcudbright, Galloway in southwestern Scotland, then Dinard in Brittany, then to Jersey. In 1894–96, the family lived at Langley Lodge, set in woods between the eastern borders of the New Forest and Southampton Water in Hampshire. The residence was isolated, and young Ned Lawrence had many opportunities for outdoor activities, in the summer of 1896, the Lawrences moved to 2, Polstead Road in Oxford, where they lived under the names of Mr and Mrs Lawrence until 1921
T. E. Lawrence
–
Lawrence in 1919
T. E. Lawrence
–
Lawrence's birthplace, Gorphwysfa, now known as Snowdon Lodge.
T. E. Lawrence
–
Woolley (left) and Lawrence in their excavation house at Carchemish, c. 1912
T. E. Lawrence
–
Lawrence and Woolley (right) at
Carchemish, spring 1913
24.
George Smith (Assyriologist)
–
George Smith, was a pioneering English Assyriologist who first discovered and translated the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest-known written works of literature. As the son of a family in Victorian England, Smith was limited in his ability to acquire a formal education. At age fourteen, he was apprenticed to the London-based publishing house of Bradbury and Evans to learn banknote engraving, from his youth, he was fascinated with Assyrian culture and history. In his spare time, he read everything that was available to him on the subject, in 1863 Smith married Mary Clifton, and they had six children. As early as 1861, he was working evenings sorting and cleaning the mass of friable fragments of clay cylinders, in 1866 Smith made his first important discovery, the date of the payment of the tribute by Jehu, king of Israel, to Shalmaneser III. Sir Henry suggested to the Trustees of the Museum that Smith should join him in the preparation of the third, Smiths earliest successes were the discoveries of two unique inscriptions early in 1867. This discovery is the cornerstone of ancient Near Eastern chronology, the other was the date of an invasion of Babylonia by the Elamites in 2280 BC. This work is known today as the eleventh tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh. This journey resulted not only in the discovery of some missing tablets, in November 1873 Smith again left England for Nineveh for a second expedition, this time at the expense of the Museum, and continued his excavations at the tell of Kouyunjik. An account of his work is given in Assyrian Discoveries, published early in 1875, the rest of the year was spent in fixing together and translating the fragments relating to the creation, the results of which were published in The Chaldaean Account of Genesis. In March 1876, the trustees of the British Museum sent Smith once more to excavate the rest of Assurbanipals library, at Ikisji, a small village about sixty miles northeast of Aleppo, he fell ill with dysentery. He died in Aleppo on 19 August and he left a wife and several children to whom an annuity of 150 pounds was granted by the Queen. Smith wrote about eight important works, including studies, historical works. Assyrian Discoveries, An Account of Explorations and Discoveries on the Site of Nineveh, the Chaldean Account of Genesis George Smith. New York, Scribner, Armstrong & Co.1876, New York, Scribner, Armstrong & Co.1876. London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, New York, E. & J. B, the Buried Book, The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh. Ch 1–2 of Smiths life, includes new-found evidence about Smiths death, C. W. Ceram, Gods, Graves and Scholars, The Story of Archeology, trans. Garside and Sophie Wilkins, 2nd ed, the great good luck of Mister Smith, in Saudi Aramco World, Volume 22, Number 1, January/February 1971
George Smith (Assyriologist)
–
George Smith
25.
Manbij
–
Manbij is a city in the Aleppo Governorate, Syria,30 kilometers west of the Euphrates. In the 2004 census by the Central Bureau of Statistics, Manbij had a population of nearly 100,000, the residents of Manbij are ethnically diverse, including Kurds, Arabs, Circassians and Chechens, and many practice Naqshbandi Sufism. As a preliminary result of the ongoing Syrian Civil War, Manbij is currently situated in Shahba region within the de facto autonomous Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava framework, coins struck at the city before Alexanders conquest record the Aramean name of the city as Mnbg. For the Assyrians it was known as Nappigu, the place appears in Greek as Bambyce and Pliny tells us its Syrian name was Mabog. As a center of the worship of the Syrian goddess Atargatis, it known to the Greeks as the Ἱερόπολις city of the sanctuary. According to the De Dea Syria, the worship was of a character, votaries offering little male figures of wood. There were also huge phalli set up like obelisks before the temple, the temple contained a holy chamber into which only priests were allowed to enter. A great bronze altar stood in front, set about with statues, some three hundred priests served the shrine and there were numerous minor ministrants. The lake was the centre of sacred festivities and it was customary for votaries to swim out, self-mutilation and other orgies went on in the temple precinct, and there was an elaborate ritual on entering the city and first visiting the shrine. The Arameans called the city Mnbg, Manbij was part of the kingdom of Bit Adini and was annexed by the Assyrians in 856 BC. The Assyrian king Shalmaneser III renamed it Lita-Ashur and built a royal palace, the city was reconquered by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III in 738 BC. The temple was sacked by Crassus on his way to meet the Parthians, the coinage of the city begins in the 4th century BC with the coins of the priest-kings followed by the Aramaic series of the Macedonian and Seleucid monarchs. They show Atargatis either as a bust with mural crown or as riding on a lion and she continues to supply the chief type even during imperial Roman times, being generally shown seated with the tympanum in her hand. Other coins substitute the legend Θεᾶς Συρίας Ἱεροπολιτῶν within a wreath, in the 3rd century, the city was the capital of Euphratensis province and one of the great cities of Syria. Procopius called it the greatest in that part of the world and it was, however, in ruinous state when Julian gathered his troops there before marching to his defeat and death in Mesopotamia. Sassanid Emperor Khosrau I held it to ransom after Byzantine Emperor Justinian I had failed to defend it, the town appears on the 4th century Roman Peutinger Map as a larger town. The Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid restored Manbij at the end of the 8th century, afterward, the city became a point of contention between the Byzantines, Arabs and Turkic groups. The Arab chieftain Salih ibn Mirdas captured it circa 1022, making Manbij, along with Balis and al-Rahba, at the time, Manbij was one of the most important fortresses in northern Syria
Manbij
–
Abd-Hadad's coin
26.
British Museum
–
The British Museum is dedicated to human history, art and culture, and is located in the Bloomsbury area of London. The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician, the museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building. Although today principally a museum of art objects and antiquities. Its foundations lie in the will of the Irish-born British physician, on 7 June 1753, King George II gave his formal assent to the Act of Parliament which established the British Museum. They were joined in 1757 by the Old Royal Library, now the Royal manuscripts, together these four foundation collections included many of the most treasured books now in the British Library including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the sole surviving copy of Beowulf. The British Museum was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public, sloanes collection, while including a vast miscellany of objects, tended to reflect his scientific interests. The addition of the Cotton and Harley manuscripts introduced a literary, the body of trustees decided on a converted 17th-century mansion, Montagu House, as a location for the museum, which it bought from the Montagu family for £20,000. The Trustees rejected Buckingham House, on the now occupied by Buckingham Palace, on the grounds of cost. With the acquisition of Montagu House the first exhibition galleries and reading room for scholars opened on 15 January 1759. During the few years after its foundation the British Museum received several gifts, including the Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts. A list of donations to the Museum, dated 31 January 1784, in the early 19th century the foundations for the extensive collection of sculpture began to be laid and Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts dominated the antiquities displays. Gifts and purchases from Henry Salt, British consul general in Egypt, beginning with the Colossal bust of Ramesses II in 1818, many Greek sculptures followed, notably the first purpose-built exhibition space, the Charles Towneley collection, much of it Roman Sculpture, in 1805. In 1816 these masterpieces of art, were acquired by The British Museum by Act of Parliament. The collections were supplemented by the Bassae frieze from Phigaleia, Greece in 1815, the Ancient Near Eastern collection also had its beginnings in 1825 with the purchase of Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities from the widow of Claudius James Rich. The neoclassical architect, Sir Robert Smirke, was asked to draw up plans for an extension to the Museum. For the reception of the Royal Library, and a Picture Gallery over it, and put forward plans for todays quadrangular building, much of which can be seen today. The dilapidated Old Montagu House was demolished and work on the Kings Library Gallery began in 1823, the extension, the East Wing, was completed by 1831. The Museum became a site as Sir Robert Smirkes grand neo-classical building gradually arose
British Museum
–
British Museum
British Museum
–
The centre of the museum was redeveloped in 2001 to become the
Great Court, surrounding the original
Reading Room.
British Museum
–
Sir
Hans Sloane
British Museum
–
Montagu House, c. 1715
27.
David George Hogarth
–
David George Hogarth CMG was a British archaeologist and scholar associated with T. E. Lawrence and Arthur Evans. D. G. Hogarth was the son of Reverend George Hogarth, Vicar of Barton-upon-Humber and he had a sister three years younger, Janet E. Courtney, an author and feminist. In one of his works, Hogarth claimed to be an antiquary who was made so. He said, nothing disposed me to my trade in early years and those years included a secondary education, 1876–1880, at Winchester College, which claims to be, and was labelled by Hogarth as, our oldest Public School. Between 1887 and 1907, Hogarth travelled to excavations in Cyprus, Crete, Egypt, Syria, Melos, on the island of Crete, he excavated Zakros and Psychro Cave. Hogarth was named director of the British School at Athens in 1897 and he was the keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford from 1909 until his death in 1927. Professor Hogarth was appointed the director of the Arab Bureau. Hogarth was close with T. E. Lawrence and worked with Lawrence to plan the Arab Revolt and he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1918 New Year Honours for his efforts during the First World War. The Arabists rejected this proposal vehemently, Sykes taking Hogarths research as evidence of the different situation in the protectorate. The archaeologists knew it was clear that the Raj had no understanding of the different conditions, from 1925 to 1927 he was President of the Royal Geographical Society. On 7 November 1894, Hogarth married Laura Violet Uppleby, daughter of George Charles Uppleby and his wife and mother shared a common great great grandfather, one John Uppleby of Wootton, Lincolnshire. Laura Violet was 26 at the time, David George,32 and they had one son, William David Hogarth. Gertrude Bell Mr. Dryden Hogarth, David George, devia Cypria, notes of an archaeological journey in Cyprus in 1888. The wandering scholar in the Levant, philip and Alexander of Macedon, two essays in biography. The penetration of Arabia, a record of the development of Western knowledge concerning the Arabian peninsula, the Archaic Artemisia of Ephesus ——. Ionia and the East, six lectures delivered before the University of London, the Ancient East The Balkans ——. Hittite seals, with reference to the Ashmolean collection. Arabia Kings of the Hittites The Life of Charles M. Doughty Authority and Archaeology – Sacred and Profane – Essays on the relation of monuments to Biblical and Classical Literature Graves, Robert
David George Hogarth
–
David George Hogarth
28.
Reginald Campbell Thompson
–
Reginald Campbell Thompson was a British archaeologist, assyriologist, and cuneiformist. He excavated at Nineveh, Ur, Nebo and Carchemish among many other sites and he was born in Kensington, and educated at Colet Court, St. Pauls School and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read oriental languages. In 1918 Mesopotamia fell into British hands, and the trustees of the British Museum applied to have an archaeologist attached to the army in the field to protect antiquities from injury. As a captain in the Intelligence Service serving in the region, after a short investigation of Ur, he dug at Shahrain and the mounds at Tell al-Lahm. After the First World War he held a fellowship at Merton College, the writer Agatha Christie was invited by Thompson, along with her husband the archaeologist Max Mallowan, to the excavation site at Nineveh in 1931. She dedicated her story Lord Edgware Dies to Dr. and Mrs. Campbell Thompson and he died in 1941 aged 64 while serving in the Home Guard River Patrol on the River Thames. R. Campbell Thompson The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia 2 vols, semitic Magic, its Origins and Development. British Museum biography Short biography by K. Kris Hirst
Reginald Campbell Thompson
–
Bronze head of an
Akkadian king unearthed in
Nineveh by Campbell Thompson's team
29.
World War I
–
World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
World War I
–
Clockwise from the top: The aftermath of shelling during the
Battle of the Somme,
Mark V tanks cross the
Hindenburg Line,
HMS Irresistible sinks after hitting a
mine in the
Dardanelles, a British
Vickers machine gun crew wears
gas masks during the Battle of the Somme,
Albatros D.III fighters of
Jagdstaffel 11
World War I
–
Sarajevo citizens reading a poster with the proclamation of the
Austrian annexation in 1908.
World War I
–
This picture is usually associated with the arrest of
Gavrilo Princip, although some believe it depicts Ferdinand Behr, a bystander.
World War I
–
Serbian Army
Blériot XI "Oluj", 1915.
30.
Turkish War of Independence
–
Few of the occupying British, French, and Italian troops had been deployed or engaged in combat. The Turkish National Movement in Anatolia culminated in the formation of a new Grand National Assembly by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, after the end of the Turkish-Armenian, Franco-Turkish, Greco-Turkish fronts, the Treaty of Sèvres was abandoned and the Treaties of Kars and Lausanne were signed. The Allies left Anatolia and Eastern Thrace, and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey decided on the establishment of a Republic in Turkey, on 3 March 1924, the Ottoman Caliphate was officially abolished and the last Caliph was exiled. On October 30,1918, the Armistice of Mudros was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies of World War I, bringing hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I to a close. However, dismantling the Ottoman government and partitioning the Ottoman Empire among the Allied nations had been an objective of the Entente since the start of the war, a wave of seizures took place in the following months by the Allies. On December 1, British troops based in Syria occupied Kilis, beginning in December, French troops began successive seizures of Ottoman territory, including the towns of Antakya, Mersin, Tarsus, Ceyhan, Adana, Osmaniye and Islahiye. The first bullet was fired by Mehmet Çavuş in Dörtyol against the French on December 19,1918, on January 19,1919, the Paris Peace Conference opened, a meeting of Allied nations that set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers, including the Ottoman Empire. As a special body of the Paris Conference, The Inter-Allied Commission on Mandates in Turkey was established to pursue the secret treaties they had signed between 1915 and 1917, among the objectives was a new Hellenic Empire based on the Megali Idea. This was promised by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George to Greece, Italy sought control over the southern part of Anatolia under the Agreement of St. -Jean-de-Maurienne. France expected to control over Hatay, Lebanon and Syria. France signed the French-Armenian Agreement and promised the realization of an Armenian state in the Mediterranean region in exchange to the French Armenian Legion, meanwhile, Allied countries continued to lay claim to portions of the quickly crumbling Ottoman Empire. On April 30, Italy responded to the idea of Greek incorporation of Western Anatolia by also sending a warship to Smyrna as a show of force against the Greek campaign. A large Italian force also landed in Antalya, the Greek campaign of Western Anatolia began on May 15,1919, as Greek troops began landing in Smyrna. He and his carefully selected staff left Constantinople aboard the old steamer SS Bandirma for Samsun on the evening of May 16,1919, resistance to Allied demands began at the very onset of the Ottoman Empire′s defeat in World War I. Many Ottoman officials organized the secret Sentinel Association in reaction to the policies of the Allies, the objective of the Sentinel Association was to thwart Allied demands through passive and active resistance. Many Ottoman officials participated in efforts to conceal from the occupying authorities details of the independence movement spreading throughout Anatolia. Munitions initially seized by the Allies were secretly smuggled out of Constantinople into Central Anatolia, mirliva Ali Fuad Paşa in the meantime had moved his XX Corps from Ereğli to Ankara and started organizing resistance groups, including Circassian immigrants under Çerkes Ethem. The most prominent idea given for the Sultan’s decision was by assigning these officers out of the capital, Mustafa Kemal Paşa and his colleagues stepped ashore on May 19 and set up their first quarters in the Mintika Palace Hotel
Turkish War of Independence
–
Clockwise: Delegation gathered in
Sivas Congress to determine the objectives of the National Struggle of Representative; Turkish people carrying ammunition to the front in the war; In front of the last troops to join the war in Ankara Ulus Square uğurlanış;
Kuva-yi Nationalists attached infantry; The introduction of the
Turkish army to Izmir; Turkish horse cavalry.
Turkish War of Independence
–
Greek troops marching on Izmir's coastal street, May 1919.
Turkish War of Independence
–
The
Turkish Army 's entry into
Izmir (known as the
Liberation of Smyrna) on September 9, 1922, following the successful
Great Smyrna Offensive, effectively sealed the Turkish victory and ended the war. Izmir was the location where
Turkish civilian armed resistance against the
occupation of Anatolia by the
Allies first began on
May 15, 1919.
Turkish War of Independence
–
Map showing the
Western,
Eastern and
Southern fronts during the Turkish War of Independence.
31.
Luwian
–
Luwian is an ancient language or group of languages of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The two varieties of Luwian are named for the scripts that they were written in, Cuneiform Luwian, as to whether these were one language or two, there is no consensus. Several other languages in Anatolia have been identified as being most similar to Luwian, some linguists name the branch the Luwian Group or just Luwian and, in that sense, Luwian means all of the Luwian languages. Other linguists, following Melchert, prefer to use Luwic for the branch, the name Luwian comes from the name of the land, Luwiya, where the speakers lived. It is mentioned in the Hittite laws, the region was later called Lydia. Luwian is closely related to Hittite, Luwian has been deduced as one of the likely candidates for the language spoken by the Trojans. Some fringe hypotheses rejected by historical linguistics are a relationship with Lemnian, a Thracian connection. According to James Mellaart, the earliest Indo-Europeans in northwest Anatolia were the horse-riders who came to this region from the north and they were ancestors of the Luwians who inhabited Troy II, and spread widely in the Anatolian peninsula. He cited the distribution of a new type of pottery, Red Slip Wares. According to Mellaart, the migrations to Anatolia came in several distinct waves over many centuries. The current trend is to see such migrations as mostly peaceful, Luwian was among the languages spoken during the 2nd and 1st millennia BC by groups in central and western Anatolia and northern Syria. In the Old Hittite version of the Hittite Code, some, if not all, widmer has argued that the Mycenaean term ru-wa-ni-jo, attested in Linear B, refers to the same area. In the post-Hittite era, the region of Arzawa came to be known as Lydia, the name Lydia has been derived from the name Luwiya, which further argues in favour of the location of Luwiya in the west. Beginning in the 14th century BC, Luwian-speakers came to constitute the majority in the Hittite capital Hattusa and it appears that by the time of the collapse of the Hittite Empire ca.1180 BC, the Hittite king and royal family were fully bilingual in Luwian. Cuneiform Luwian is a term refers to the corpus of Luwian texts attested in the tablet archives of Hattusa. In Laroches Catalog of Hittite Texts, the corpus of Hittite cuneiform texts with Luwian insertions runs from CTH 757–773, Cuneiform Luwian texts are written in several dialects, of which the most easily identifiable are Kizzuwatna Luwian, Istanuwa Luwian, and Empire Luwian. The last dialect represents the vernacular of Hattusan scribes of the 14th–13th centuries BC and is attested through Glossenkeil words in Hittite texts. Hieroglyphic Luwian is a term refers to the corpus of Luwian texts written in a native script
Luwian
–
Luwian hieroglyph
Luwian
–
Stele of Sultanhan,
Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara, Turkey.
Luwian
–
Geography
Luwian
–
Peoples
32.
Bologna
–
Bologna is the largest city of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy, located in the heart of an area of about one million. The first settlements back to at least 1000 BC. The city has been a centre, first under the Etruscans. Home to the oldest university in the world, University of Bologna, founded in 1088, Bologna is also an important transportation crossroad for the roads and trains of Northern Italy, where many important mechanical, electronic and nutritional industries have their headquarters. According to the most recent data gathered by the European Regional Economic Growth Index of 2009, Bologna is the first Italian city, Bologna is home to numerous prestigious cultural, economic and political institutions as well as one of the most impressive trade fair districts in Europe. In 2000 it was declared European capital of culture and in 2006, the city of Bologna was selected to participate in the Universal Exposition of Shanghai 2010 together with 45 other cities from around the world. Bologna is also one of the wealthiest cities in Italy, often ranking as one of the top cities in terms of quality of life in the country, after a long decline, Bologna was reborn in the 5th century under Bishop Petronius. According to legend, St. Petronius built the church of S. Stefano. After the fall of Rome, Bologna was a stronghold of the Exarchate of Ravenna in the Po plain. In 728, the city was captured by the Lombard king Liutprand, the Germanic conquerors formed a district called addizione longobarda near the complex of S. Stefano. Charlemagne stayed in this district in 786, traditionally said to be founded in 1088, the University of Bologna is widely considered to be the first university. The university originated as a centre of study of medieval Roman law under major glossators. It numbered Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarca among its students, the medical school is especially famous. In the 12th century, the families engaged in continual internecine fighting. Troops of Pope Julius II besieged Bologna and sacked the artistic treasures of his palace, in 1530, in front of Saint Petronio Church, Charles V was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement VII. Then a plague at the end of the 16th century reduced the population from 72,000 to 59,000, the population later recovered to a stable 60, 000–65,000. However, there was also great progress during this era, in 1564, the Piazza del Nettuno and the Palazzo dei Banchi were built, along with the Archiginnasio, the centre of the University
Bologna
–
A collage of the city, showing
Fountain of Neptune,
Piazza Maggiore,
Basilica of San Petronio,
Two towers (Due Torri),
Tagliatelle al
ragù bolognese (dish of Bologna origin), and endless city arcades typical for Bologna
Bologna
–
Porta Maggiore, one of the twelve medieval city gates of Bologna.
Bologna
–
Depiction of a 14th-century fight between the militias of the Guelf and Ghibelline factions in Bologna, from the Croniche of Giovanni Sercambi of Lucca.
Bologna
–
Bologna in 1640.
33.
British Academy
–
The British Academy is the United Kingdoms national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It receives a grant from the Department for Business, Innovation. In 2014/15 the British Academys total income was £33,100,000, including £27,000,000 from BIS. £32,900,000 was distributed during the year in grants, awards. The British Academy was established in 1902 and received its Royal Charter in the same year and it is now a fellowship of more than 900 leading scholars spanning all disciplines across the humanities and social sciences. The Academy is a self-governing and independent registered charity, based at 10–11 Carlton House Terrace in London, as a learned society, it seeks to foster and promote the full range of work that makes up the humanities and social sciences, including inter- and multi-disciplinary work. Until 1927–28 the Academy had no premises, then it moved to some rooms in No.6 Burlington Gardens. In 1968 it moved the short distance to Burlington House and it subsequently moved to headquarters near Regents Park. Then in 1998 the Academy moved to its present headquarters in Carlton House Terrace, overlooking St Jamess Park, the Terrace was designed by John Nash and built in the 1820s and 1830s. Number 10 was formerly the London residence of the Ridley family, in March 2010, the Academy embarked on a £2. 75m project to renovate and restore the public rooms in No. 11, following the departure of former tenant the Foreign Press Association, the work was completed in January 2011 and the new spaces include a new 150-seat Wolfson Auditorium are available for public hire. The history, problems and achievements of the Academy have been recorded in works by two of its Secretaries, Sir Frederic Kenyon’s volume of 37 pages covers the years up to 1951, Sir Mortimer Wheeler’s volume covers the years 1949 to 1968. Election as a Fellow of the British Academy recognises high scholarly distinction in the humanities or social sciences, fellows may use the letters FBA after their names. The British Academy channels substantial public funding support for individuals and organisations pursuing humanities and social sciences research and scholarship in the UK. In 2014/15, the Academy received around £30m to support research and researchers across the humanities, funds available to the Academy were invested in the following main areas, research career development, a portfolio of research grant opportunities, and international engagement. The demand and quality of applications submitted for Academy funding remains high and this year the Academy received around 3,600 applications and made 588 awards to scholars based in around 100 different universities across the UK – a success rate of 16%. The Academy also funds and coordinates a network of overseas institutes which provide local expertise, logistical support, as the UKs national voice for the humanities and social sciences, the British Academy seeks to promote and protect the interests and health of these disciplines and their research base. The Centre was established in October 2009 initially funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and it oversees a programme of activity engaging the expertise within the humanities and social sciences to shed light on policy issues. It produces substantive reports making recommendations on policy and practice
British Academy
–
The British Academy's premises at 10–11
Carlton House Terrace
British Academy
–
The British Academy's royal seal depicts the Greek muse
Clio. She was redrawn by designer and illustrator Debbie Cook in 2008.
British Academy
–
Professor
Mary Beard, Fellow of the British Academy, filming in
Rome, Italy
British Academy
–
Rowan Williams, Fellow of the British Academy
34.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
35.
Cist
–
A cist is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle East, a cist may have been associated with other monuments, perhaps under a cairn or long barrow. Several cists are sometimes found close together within the cairn or barrow. Often ornaments have been found within an excavated cist, indicating the wealth or prominence of the interred individual
Cist
–
Kistvaen on the southern edge of
Dartmoor in
Drizzlecombe (England) showing the capstone and the inner cist structure.
Cist
–
Cist
36.
Ebla
–
Ebla, was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about 55 km southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh, Ebla was an important center throughout the third millennium BC and in the first half of the second millennium BC. Karl Moore described the first Eblaite kingdom as the first recorded world power, starting as a small settlement in the early Bronze Age, Ebla developed into a trading empire and later into an expansionist power that imposed its hegemony over much of northern and eastern Syria. Ebla was destroyed during the 23rd century BC, it was rebuilt and was mentioned in the records of the Third Dynasty of Ur. The second Ebla was a continuation of the first, ruled by a new royal dynasty and it was destroyed at the end of the third millennium BC, which paved the way for the Amorite tribes to settle in the city, forming the third Ebla. The third kingdom also flourished as a center, it became a subject. Ebla maintained its prosperity through a vast trading network, artifacts from Sumer, Cyprus, Egypt and as far as Afghanistan were recovered from the citys palaces. The kingdom had its own language, Eblaite and the organization of Ebla had features different from the Sumerian model. Women enjoyed a status and the queen had major influence in the state. The pantheon of gods was mainly north Semitic and included deities exclusive to Ebla, the city was excavated starting in 1964, and became famous for the Ebla tablets, an archive of about 20,000 cuneiform tablets found there, dated to around 2350 BC. A possible meaning of the word Ebla is white rock, referring to the outcrop on which the city was built. Ebla was first settled around 3500 BC, its growth was supported by many agricultural settlements. The city benefited from its role as an entrepôt of growing international trade, archaeologists designate this early habitation period Mardikh I, it ended around 3000 BC. Mardikh I is followed by the first and second kingdoms era between about 3000 and 2000 BC, designated Mardikh II. I. J. Gelb consider Ebla as part of the Kish civilization, the early period between 3000 and 2400 BC is designated Mardikh IIA. General knowledge about the history prior to the written archives is obtained through excavations. The first stages of Mardikh IIA is identified with building CC, and structures form a part of building G2. Toward the end of period, a hundred years war with Mari started
Ebla
–
Ruins of the outer wall and the "Damascus Gate"
Ebla
–
Royal palace "G"
Ebla
–
Palace "P5"
Ebla
–
Ebla's landmarks
37.
Mari, Syria
–
Mari, was an ancient Semitic city in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located 11 kilometers north-west of Abu Kamal on the Euphrates river western bank and it flourished as a trade center and hegemonic state between 2900 BC and 1759 BC. Mari was first abandoned in the middle of the 26th century BC but was rebuilt and this second Mari engaged in a long war with its rival Ebla, and is known for its strong affinity with the Sumerian culture. It was destroyed in the 23rd century BC by the Akkadians who allowed the city to be rebuilt, the governors later became independent with the rapid disintegration of the Akkadian empire and rebuilt the city as a regional center in the middle Euphrates valley. The Shakkanakkus ruled Mari until the half of the 19th century BC when the dynasty collapsed for unknown reasons. A short time after the Shakkanakku collapse, Mari became the capital of the Amorite Lim dynasty, the Mariotes worshiped both Semitic and Sumerian deities and established their city as a center of old trade. The Amorites were West-Semites who began to settle the area before the 21st century BC, by the Lim dynastys era and they also revealed the wide trading networks of the 18th century BC, which connected areas as far as Afghanistan in Southern Asia and Crete in the Mediterranean region. The city is difficult to excavate, as it is buried deep under the layers of habitation. A defensive system against floods, composed of an embankment was unearthed. Other findings include one of the city gates, a beginning at the center and ending at the gate. The city was abandoned at the end of the Early Dynastic period II c.2550 BC for unknown reasons, around the beginning of the Early Dynastic period III, Mari was rebuilt and populated again. The new city kept many of the first city exterior features, including the internal rampart and gate. Also kept was the outer circular embankment measuring 1.9 km in diameter, at the heart of the city, a royal palace was built which also served as a temple. Four successive architectural levels from the second kingdoms palace have been unearthed, the first two levels were excavated, the findings include a temple named Enceinte Sacrée, which was the largest in the city but it is unknown for whom it was dedicated. Also unearthed were a pillared throne room and a hall that have three double wood pillars leading to the temple, six more temples were discovered in the city, including the temple called the Massif Rouge, and temples dedicated for Ninni-Zaza, Ishtarat, Ishtar, Ninhursag and Shamash. 2350 BC, which was sent to Irkab-Damu of Ebla, and in it, however, the reading of this letter is still problematic and many interpretations have been presented by scholars. The next king mentioned in the letter is Saʿumu, who conquered the lands of Raak and Nirum, the war continued with Išhtup-Išar of Mari conquest of Emar, at a time of Eblaite weakness in the mid-24th century BC. King Igrish-Halam of Ebla had to pay tribute to Iblul-Il of Mari, Enna-Dagan also received tribute, and his reign fell entirely within the reign of Irkab-Damu of Ebla, who managed to defeat Mari and end the tribute
Mari, Syria
–
Ziggurat at Mari
Mari, Syria
–
Statue of Ebih-Il. (25th century BC)
Mari, Syria
–
Cylinder seal from the second kingdom's era. (25th century BC)
Mari, Syria
–
The lion of Mari. (22nd century BC)
38.
Alalakh
–
Alalakh was an ancient city-state, a late Bronze Age capital in the Amuq River valley of Turkeys Hatay Province. It was occupied from before 2000 BC, when the first palace was built, the city contained palaces, temples, private houses and fortifications. Modern Antakya has developed near the site, the remains of Alalakh have formed an extensive mound, the modern archaeological site is known as Tell Atchana. It was first excavated in the 1930s and 1940s by a British team, a team sponsored by the University of Chicago started surveys in the late 20th century, and has conducted excavations led by K. Aslihan Yener in the early 21st century. She is now leading work sponsored by Mustafa Kemal University and the Turkish government, Alalakh was founded by the Amorites during the Middle Bronze Age in the 2nd millennium BC. The first palace was built c.2000 BC, contemporary with the Third Dynasty of Ur, the written history of the site may begin under the name Alakhtum, with tablets from Mari in the 18th century BC, when the city was part of the kingdom of Yamhad. A dossier of tablets records that King Sumu-Epuh sold the territory of Alakhtum to his son-in-law Zimri-Lim, king of Mari, after the fall of Mari in 1765 BC, Alalakh seems to have come under the rule of Yamhad again. King Abba-El I of Aleppo bestowed it upon his brother Yarim-Lim, Abba-El had destroyed the latter after it revolted against his brother Yarim-Lim. A dynasty of Yarim-Lims descendents was founded, under the hegemony of Aleppo, according to the short chronology found at Mari, at that time Alalakh was destroyed, most likely by Hittite king Hattusili I, in the second year of his campaigns. After a hiatus of less than a century, written records for Alalakh resume, at this time, it was again the seat of a local dynasty. Most of the information about the founding of this dynasty comes from a statue inscribed with what seems to be an autobiography of the founding king. The inscription records Idrimis vicissitudes, after his family had forced to flee to Emar, he left them. However, according to the archeological site report, this statue was discovered in a level of occupation dating several centuries after the time that Idrimi lived, there has been much scholarly debate as to its historicity. Archeologically-dated tablets recount that Idrimis son Niqmepuh was contemporaneous with the Mitanni king Saushtatar and this seems to support the inscription on the statue claiming that Idrimi was contemporaneous with Barattarna, Saushtatars predecessor. The socio-economic history of Alalakh during the reign of Idrimis son and grandson, Niqmepuh, Idrimi is referred to rarely in these tablets. In the mid-14th century BC, the Hittite Suppiluliuma I defeated king Tushratta of Mitanni and assumed control of northern Syria, then including Alalakh, which he incorporated into the Hittite Empire. A tablet records his grant of much of Mukishs land to Ugarit, after the king of Ugarit alerted the Hittite king to a revolt by the kingdoms of Mukish, Nuhassa, and Niye. Alalakh was probably destroyed by the Sea People in the 12th century BC, as were other cities of coastal Anatolia
Alalakh
–
Archaeological site of Alalakh (Tell Açana)
Alalakh
–
Fugitive slave treaty between Idrimi of Alalakh (now Tell Atchana) and Pillia of
Kizzuwatna (now
Cilicia)
Alalakh
–
Statue of Idrimi in the
British Museum
39.
Ugarit
–
Ugarit was an ancient port city, the ruins of which are located at what is now called Ras Shamra, a headland in northern Syria. The polity was at its height from c.1450 BC until 1200 BC, Ras Shamra lies on the Mediterranean coast, some 11 kilometres north of Latakia, near modern Burj al-Qasab. Neolithic Ugarit was important enough to be fortified with an early on, perhaps by 6000 BC. Ugarit was important perhaps because it was both a port and at the entrance of the trade route to the Euphrates and Tigris lands. The city reached its heyday between 1800 and 1200 BC, when it ruled a trade-based coastal kingdom, trading with Egypt, Cyprus, the Aegean, Syria, the Hittites, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. The first written evidence mentioning the city comes from the city of Ebla. Ugarit passed into the sphere of influence of Egypt, which influenced its art. Evidence of the earliest Ugaritic contact with Egypt comes from a carnelian bead identified with the Middle Kingdom pharaoh Senusret I, a stela and a statuette from the Egyptian pharaohs Senusret III and Amenemhet III have also been found. However, it is unclear at what time these monuments were brought to Ugarit, amarna letters from Ugarit c.1350 BC record one letter each from Ammittamru I, Niqmaddu II, and his queen. From the 16th to the 13th century BC, Ugarit remained in contact with Egypt. In the second millennium BC, Ugarits population was Amorite, the kingdom of Ugarit may have controlled about 2,000 km2 on average. During some of its history it would have been in close proximity to, the last Bronze Age king of Ugarit, Ammurapi, was a contemporary of the Hittite king Suppiluliuma II. The exact dates of his reign are unknown, however, a letter by the king is preserved, in which Ammurapi stresses the seriousness of the crisis faced by many Near Eastern states from invasion by the advancing Sea Peoples. Does not my father know that all my troops and chariots are in the Land of Hatti, thus, the country is abandoned to itself. May my father know it, the seven ships of the enemy that came here inflicted much damage upon us, however, no help arrived, and the city was burned to the ground at the end of the Bronze Age. Ugarit also contained many caches of cuneiform tablets, actual libraries that contained a wealth of information, the destruction levels of the ruin contained Late Helladic IIIB pottery ware, but no LH IIIC. Therefore, the date of the destruction of Ugarit is important for the dating of the LH IIIC phase in mainland Greece. Since an Egyptian sword bearing the name of pharaoh Merneptah was found in the levels,1190 BC was taken as the date for the beginning of the LH IIIC
Ugarit
–
Entrance to the
Royal Palace of Ugarit
Ugarit
–
Excavated ruins at Ras Shamra
Ugarit
–
Boar
rhyton, Mycenaean ceramic imported to Ugarit, 14th–13th century BC (
Louvre)
Ugarit
–
Ugarit
40.
Hanilgalbat
–
Mitanni, also called Hanigalbat in Assyrian or Naharin in Egyptian texts, was a Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and southeast Anatolia from ca.1500 BC–1300 BC. Mitanni came to be a regional power after the Hittite destruction of Amorite Babylon, at the beginning of its history, Mitannis major rival was Egypt under the Thutmosids. However, with the ascent of the Hittite empire, Mitanni, the Mitanni dynasty ruled over the northern Euphrates-Tigris region between c.1475 and c.1275 BC. Eventually, Mitanni succumbed to Hittite and later Assyrian attacks, and was reduced to the status of a province of the Middle Assyrian Empire. While the Mitanni kings were Indo-Iranians, they used the language of the people which was at that time a non Indo-Iranian language. Their sphere of influence is shown in Hurrian place names, personal names and the spread through Syria, the Mitanni controlled trade routes down the Khabur to Mari and up the Euphrates from there to Charchamesh. For a time also controlled the Assyrian territories of the upper Tigris and its headwaters at Nineveh, Arbil, Assur. To the east, they had relations with the Kassites. The land of Mitanni in northern Syria extended from the Taurus mountains to its west and as far east as Nuzi, in the south, it extended from Aleppo across to Mari on the Euphrates in the east. Its centre was in the Khabur River valley, with two capitals, Taite and Washshukanni called Taidu and Ushshukana respectively in Assyrian sources, the whole area allows agriculture without artificial irrigation, cattle, sheep and goats were raised. It is very similar to Assyria in climate, and was settled by both indigenous Hurrian and Amoritic-speaking populations, the Mitanni kingdom was referred to as the Maryannu, Nahrin or Mitanni by the Egyptians, the Hurri by the Hittites, and the Hanigalbat by the Assyrians. The different names seem to have referred to the kingdom and were used interchangeably. Hittite annals mention a people called Hurri, located in northeastern Syria, a Hittite fragment, probably from the time of Mursili I, mentions a King of the Hurri. The Assyro-Akkadian version of the text renders Hurri as Hanigalbat, Tushratta, who styles himself king of Mitanni in his Akkadian Amarna letters, refers to his kingdom as Hanigalbat. Egyptian sources call Mitanni nhrn, which is pronounced as Naharin/Naharina from the Assyro-Akkadian word for river. The name Mitanni is first found in the memoirs of the Syrian wars of the astronomer and clockmaker Amenemhet. The ethnicity of the people of Mitanni is difficult to ascertain, a treatise on the training of chariot horses by Kikkuli contains a number of Indo-Aryan glosses. Kammenhuber suggested that this vocabulary was derived from the still undivided Indo-Iranian language, the common peoples language, the Hurrian language, is neither Indo-European nor Semitic
Hanilgalbat
–
Cuneiform tablet containing a letter from Tushratta of Mitanni to Amenhotep III (of 13 letters of King Tushratta).
Hanilgalbat
–
Map of the Near East ca. 1400 BC showing the Kingdom of Mitanni at its greatest extent
Hanilgalbat
–
Geography
41.
Euphrates
–
The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia, originating in eastern Turkey, the Euphrates flows through Syria and Iraq to join the Tigris in the Shatt al-Arab, which empties into the Persian Gulf. The Ancient Greek form Euphrátēs was borrowed from Old Persian Ufrātu, the Elamite name is ultimately derived from the Sumerian Buranuna, possibly through the Akkadian name. In Akkadian the river was similarly called Purattu, which has been perpetuated in Semitic languages, the Elamite, Akkadian, and possibly Sumerian forms are suggested to be from an unrecorded substrate language. The earliest references to the Euphrates come from texts found in Shuruppak and pre-Sargonic Nippur in southern Iraq. In these texts, written in Sumerian, the Euphrates is called Buranuna, the name could also be written KIB. NUN. or dKIB. NUN, with the prefix d indicating that the river was a divinity. In Sumerian, the name of the city of Sippar in modern-day Iraq was also a written UD. KIB. NUN, the Euphrates is the longest river of Western Asia. It emerges from the confluence of the Kara Su or Western Euphrates, the same figures are given by Isaev and Mikhailova. The length of the Shatt al-Arab, which connects the Euphrates, both the Kara Su and the Murat Su rise northwest from Lake Van at elevations of 3,290 metres and 3,520 metres amsl, respectively. At the location of the Keban Dam, the two rivers, now combined into the Euphrates, have dropped to an elevation of 693 metres amsl, from Keban to the Syrian–Turkish border, the river drops another 368 metres over a distance of less than 600 kilometres. The Euphrates receives most of its water in the form of rainfall and melting snow, discharge in these two months accounts for 36 percent of the total annual discharge of the Euphrates, or even 60–70 percent according to one source, while low runoff occurs in summer and autumn. The discharge regime of the Euphrates has changed dramatically since the construction of the first dams in the 1970s, data on Euphrates discharge collected after 1990 show the impact of the construction of the numerous dams in the Euphrates and of the increased withdrawal of water for irrigation. Average discharge at Hīt after 1990 has dropped to 356 cubic metres per second, the seasonal variability has equally changed. The pre-1990 peak volume recorded at Hīt was 7,510 cubic metres per second, the minimum volume at Hīt remained relatively unchanged, rising from 55 cubic metres per second before 1990 to 58 cubic metres per second afterward. In Syria, three rivers add their water to the Euphrates, the Sajur, the Balikh and the Khabur and these rivers rise in the foothills of the Taurus Mountains along the Syro–Turkish border and add comparatively little water to the Euphrates. The Sajur is the smallest of these tributaries, emerging from two streams near Gaziantep and draining the plain around Manbij before emptying into the reservoir of the Tishrin Dam. The Balikh receives most of its water from a spring near Ayn al-Arus. In terms of length, drainage basin and discharge, the Khabur is the largest of these three and its main karstic springs are located around Ras al-Ayn, from where the Khabur flows southeast past Al-Hasakah, where the river turns south and drains into the Euphrates near Busayrah
Euphrates
–
The Euphrates near
Halabiye (
Syria); the site can be seen in the background on the left bank
Euphrates
–
View of the
Murat River
Euphrates
–
Ferry across the Euphrates River to
Kahta, Turkey
Euphrates
–
Crossing the Euphrates River
42.
Pharaoh
–
The word pharaoh ultimately derive from the Egyptian compound pr-ˤ3 great house, written with the two biliteral hieroglyphs pr house and ˤ3 column, here meaning great or high. It was used only in larger phrases such as smr pr-ˤ3 Courtier of the High House, with specific reference to the buildings of the court or palace. From the twelfth dynasty onward, the word appears in a wish formula Great House, may it live, prosper, and be in health, but again only with reference to the royal palace and not the person. During the reign of Thutmose III in the New Kingdom, after the rule of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period. During the eighteenth dynasty the title pharaoh was employed as a designation of the ruler. From the nineteenth dynasty onward pr-ˤ3 on its own was used as regularly as hm. f, the term, therefore, evolved from a word specifically referring to a building to a respectful designation for the ruler, particularly by the twenty-second dynasty and twenty-third dynasty. For instance, the first dated appearance of the pharaoh being attached to a rulers name occurs in Year 17 of Siamun on a fragment from the Karnak Priestly Annals. Here, an induction of an individual to the Amun priesthood is dated specifically to the reign of Pharaoh Siamun and this new practice was continued under his successor Psusennes II and the twenty-second dynasty kings. Shoshenq I was the successor of Siamun. Meanwhile, the old custom of referring to the sovereign simply as pr-ˤ3 continued in traditional Egyptian narratives, by this time, the Late Egyptian word is reconstructed to have been pronounced *par-ʕoʔ whence Herodotus derived the name of one of the Egyptian kings, Φερων. In the Bible, the title also occurs as פרעה, from that, Septuagint φαραώ pharaō and then Late Latin pharaō, both -n stem nouns. The Quran likewise spells it فرعون firawn with n, interestingly, the Arabic combines the original pharyngeal ayin sound from Egyptian, along with the -n ending from Greek. English at first spelt it Pharao, but the King James Bible revived Pharaoh with h from the Hebrew, meanwhile in Egypt itself, *par-ʕoʔ evolved into Sahidic Coptic ⲡⲣ̅ⲣⲟ prro and then rro. Scepters and staves were a sign of authority in ancient Egypt. One of the earliest royal scepters was discovered in the tomb of Khasekhemwy in Abydos, kings were also known to carry a staff, and Pharaoh Anedjib is shown on stone vessels carrying a so-called mks-staff. The scepter with the longest history seems to be the heqa-scepter, the earliest examples of this piece of regalia dates to pre-dynastic times. A scepter was found in a tomb at Abydos that dates to the late Naqada period, another scepter associated with the king is the was-scepter. This is a long staff mounted with an animal head, the earliest known depictions of the was-scepter date to the first dynasty
Pharaoh
–
Den
Pharaoh
–
Narmer Palette
Pharaoh
–
Nomen and prenomen of
Ramesses III
Pharaoh
–
Royal titulary
43.
Thutmose I
–
Thutmose I was the third pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt. He received the throne after the death of the previous king, during his reign, he campaigned deep into the Levant and Nubia, pushing the borders of Egypt farther than ever before. He also built temples in Egypt, and a tomb for himself in the Valley of the Kings. He was succeeded by his son Thutmose II, who in turn was succeeded by Thutmose IIs sister and it has been speculated Thutmoses father was Amenhotep I. His mother, Senseneb, was of non-royal parentage and may have been a wife or concubine. Assuming she was related to Amenhotep, it could be thought that she was married to Thutmose in order to guarantee succession, however, this is known not to be the case for two reasons. Firstly, Amenhoteps alabaster bark built at Karnak associates Amenhoteps name with Thutmoses name well before Amenhoteps death, secondly, Thutmoses first-born son with Ahmose, Amenmose, was apparently born long before Thutmoses coronation. Thutmose had another son, Wadjmose, and two daughters, Hatshepsut and Nefrubity, by Ahmose, Wadjmose died before his father, and Nefrubity died as an infant. Thutmose had one son by another wife, Mutnofret and this son succeeded him as Thutmose II, whom Thutmose I married to his daughter, Hatshepsut. It was later recorded by Hatshepsut that Thutmose willed the kingship to both Thutmose II and Hatshepsut, however, this is considered to be propaganda by Hatshepsuts supporters to legitimise her claim to the throne when she later assumed power. A heliacal rising of Sothis was recorded in the reign of Thutmoses predecessor, Amenhotep I, the year of Amenhoteps death and Thutmoses subsequent coronation can be accordingly derived, and is dated to 1506 BC by most modern scholars. However, if the observation were made at either Heliopolis or Memphis, as a minority of scholars promote, manetho records that Thutmose Is reign lasted 12 Years and 9 Months as a certain Mephres in his Epitome. This data is supported by two dated inscriptions from Years 8 and 9 of his reign bearing his cartouche found inscribed on a block in Karnak. According to the autobiography of Ahmose, son of Ebana, Thutmose traveled up the Nile and fought in the battle. Upon victory, he had the Nubian kings body hung from the prow of his ship and this helped integrate Nubia into the Egyptian empire. His Majesty commanded to dig this canal after he found it stopped up with no, Year 3, first month of the third season. His Majesty sailed this canal in victory and in the power of his return from overthrowing the wretched Kush and this indicates that he already fought a campaign in Syria, hence, his Syrian campaign may be placed at the beginning of his second regnal year. This second campaign was the farthest north any Egyptian ruler had ever campaigned, although it has not been found in modern times, he apparently set up a stele when he crossed the Euphrates River
Thutmose I
–
A stone head, most likely depicting Thutmose I, at the
British Museum
Thutmose I
–
Stela of Thutmose I in the Cairo Museum
Thutmose I
–
Court of the 4th pylon: obelisk of Thutmose I at Karnak
Thutmose I
–
Hatshepsut donated this quartzite sarcophagus which was made in her reign for the reburial of her father, Thutmose I, in
KV20 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
44.
Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt
–
The eighteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt is the best known ancient Egyptian dynasty. It boasts several of Egypts most famous pharaohs, including Tutankhamun, the dynasty is also known as the Thutmosid Dynasty for the four pharaohs named Thutmosis. Famous pharaohs of Dynasty XVIII include Hatshepsut, longest-reigning woman-pharaoh of a dynasty, and Akhenaten. Dynasty XVIII is the first of the three dynasties of the Egyptian New Kingdom, the period in which ancient Egypt reached the peak of its power, radiocarbon dating suggests that Dynasty XVIII may have started a few years earlier than the conventional date of 1550 BC. The radiocarbon date range for its beginning is 1570–1544 BC, the point of which is 1557 BC. The pharaohs of Dynasty XVIII ruled for two hundred and fifty years. The dates and names in the table are taken from Dodson and Hilton, many of the pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings in Thebes. More information can be found on the Theban Mapping Project website, several diplomatic marriages are known for the New Kingdom. These daughters of kings are often only mentioned in cuneiform texts and are not known from other sources. The marriages were likely a way to confirm good relations between these states, Dynasty XVIII was founded by Ahmose I, the brother or son of Kamose, the last ruler of the Dynasty XVII. Ahmose finished the campaign to expel the Hyksos rulers and his reign is seen as the end of the Second Intermediate Period and the start of the New Kingdom. Ahmose was succeeded by his son, Amenhotep I, whose reign was relatively uneventful, Amenhotep I probably left no male heir and the next pharaoh, Thutmose I, seems to have been related to the royal family through marriage. During his reign the borders of Egypts empire reached their greatest expanse, extending in the north to Carchemish on the Euphrates, Thutmose I was succeeded by Thutmose II and his queen, Hatshepsut. Thutmose III who later became known as the greatest military pharaoh ever and he had a second co-regency in his old age with his son Amenhotep II. Amenhotep II was succeeded by Thutmose IV, who in his turn was followed by his son Amenhotep III, the reign of Amenhotep III is seen as a high point in this dynasty. Amenhotep III undertook large scale building programmes, the extent of which can only be compared with those of the much longer reign of Ramesses II during Dynasty XIX. Amenhotep III may have shared the throne for up to twelve years with his son Amenhotep IV, there is much debate about this proposed co-regency. Some experts believe there was a lengthy co-regency, while others prefer to see a short one, there are also many experts who believe no such co-regency existed at all
Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt
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Head of an Early Eighteenth Dynasty King, ca. 1539-1493 B.C.,37.38E,
Brooklyn Museum
Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt
–
Block Statue of Ay, ca. 1336-1327 B.C.E. 66.174.1,
Brooklyn Museum
Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt
–
Ahmose-Nefertari.
Ahmose-Nefertari was the daughter of
Seqenenre Tao II, a 17th dynasty king who rose up against the
Hyksos. Her brother Ahmose, expelled the Hyksos, and she became queen of a united Egypt. She was deified after she died.
Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt
–
Amenhotep I gained the throne after his two elder brothers had died. He was the son of Ahmose and Ahmose-Nefertari. He was succeeded by Thutmose I who married his daughter, Ahmose.
45.
Stele
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A stele is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in ancient Western culture as a monument. Grave steles were often used for funerary or commemorative purposes, Stelae as slabs of stone would also be used as ancient Greek and Roman government notices or as boundary markers to mark borders or property lines. The surface of the stele usually has text, ornamentation, or both, the ornamentation may be inscribed, carved in relief, or painted. Traditional Western gravestones may technically be considered the equivalent of ancient stelae. The most famous example of an inscribed stela leading to increased understanding is the Rosetta Stone, an informative stele of Tiglath-Pileser III is preserved in the British Museum. Two steles built into the walls of a church are major documents relating to the Etruscan language, unfinished standing stones, set up without inscriptions from Libya in North Africa to Scotland were monuments of pre-literate Megalithic cultures in the Late Stone Age. The Pictish stones of Scotland, often carved, date from between the 6th and 9th centuries. An obelisk is a kind of stele. The Insular high crosses of Ireland and Britain are specialized steles, totem poles of North and South America that are made out of stone may also be considered a specialized type of stele. Gravestones, typically with inscribed name and often with inscribed epitaph, are among the most common types of stele seen in Western culture. Most recently, in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, the memorial is meant to be read not only as the field, but also as an erasure of data that refer to memory of the Holocaust. Steles have been the medium of stone inscription in China since the Tang dynasty. Chinese steles are generally rectangular stone tablets upon which Chinese characters are carved intaglio with a funerary, commemorative and they can commemorate talented writers and officials, inscribe poems, portraits, or maps, and frequently contain the calligraphy of famous historical figures. During the Han dynasty, tomb inscriptions containing biographical information on deceased people began to be written on stone tablets rather than wooden ones, erecting steles at tombs or temples eventually became a widespread social and religious phenomenon. Emperors found it necessary to promulgate laws, regulating the use of funerary steles by the population, Steles are found at nearly every significant mountain and historical site in China. The First Emperor made five tours of his domain in the 3rd century BC and had Li Si make seven stone inscriptions commemorating and praising his work, of which fragments of two survive. One of the most famous mountain steles is the 13 m high stele at Mount Tai with the calligraphy of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang commemorating his imperial sacrifices there in 725. A number of stone monuments have preserved the origin and history of Chinas minority religious communities
Stele
–
Stele N from
Copán,
Honduras, depicting King K'ac Yipyaj Chan K'awiil ("Smoke Shell"), as drawn by
Frederick Catherwood in 1839
Stele
–
The
funerary stele of Thrasea and Euandria, c. 365 BC
Stele
–
Chinese ink rubbings of the 1489 (left) and 1512 (right) steles left by the
Kaifeng Jews.
Stele
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Grave Stela of Nehemes-Ra-tawy, ca. 760-656 B.C.E.,37.588E,
Brooklyn Museum
46.
Akhenaten
–
Akhenaten known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV, was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC. An early inscription likens the Aten to the sun as compared to stars, Akhenaten tried to bring about a departure from traditional religion, yet in the end it would not be accepted. After his death, his monuments were dismantled and hidden, his statues were terminated and he was all but lost from history until the discovery during the 19th century of the site of Akhetaten, the city he built and designed for the worship of Aten, at Amarna. DNA analysis has determined that the man buried in KV55 is the father of King Tutankhamun, the future Akhenaten was a younger son of Amenhotep III and Chief Queen Tiye. The eldest son Crown Prince Thutmose was recognized as the heir of Amenhotep III but he died relatively young, there is much controversy around whether Amenhotep IV succeeded to the throne on the death of his father Amenhotep III or whether there was a coregency. Other literature by Donald Redford, William Murnane, Alan Gardiner, in February 2014, the Egyptian Ministry for Antiquities announced what it called conclusive evidence that Akhenaten shared power with his father for at least 8 years. The evidence came from the found in the Luxor tomb of Vizier Amenhotep-Huy. A team of Spanish archeologists have been working at this tomb, Amenhotep IV was crowned in Thebes and there he started a building program. He decorated the entrance to the precincts of the temple of Amun-Re with scenes of his worshiping Re-Harakhti. He soon decreed the construction of a dedicated to the Aten in Eastern Karnak. This Temple of Amenhotep IV was called the Gempaaten, the Gempaaten consisted of a series of buildings, including a palace and a structure called the Hwt Benben which was dedicated to Queen Nefertiti. Other Aten temples constructed at Karnak during this time include the Rud-menu, during this time he did not repress the worship of Amun, and the High Priest of Amun was still active in the fourth year of his reign. The king appears as Amenhotep IV in the tombs of some of the nobles in Thebes, Kheruef, Ramose, in the tomb of Ramose, Amenhotep IV appears on the west wall in the traditional style, seated on a throne with Ramose appearing before the king. On the other side of the doorway, Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti are shown in the window of appearance with the Aten depicted as the sun disc. In the Theban tomb of Parennefer, Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti are seated on a throne with the sun disk depicted over the king, among the latter-known documents referring to Amenhotep IV are two copies of a letter from the Steward Of Memphis Apy to the pharaoh. The documents were found in Gurob and are dated to regnal year 5, third month of the Growing Season, on day 13, Month 8, in the fifth year of his reign, the king arrived at the site of the new city Akhetaten. A month before that Amenhotep IV had officially changed his name to Akhenaten, Amenhotep IV changed most of his 5 fold titulary in year 5 of his reign. The only name he kept was his prenomen or throne name of Neferkheperure, some recent debate has focused on the extent to which Akhenaten forced his religious reforms on his people
Akhenaten
–
Statue of Akhenaten in the early
Amarna style.
Akhenaten
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Relief representing Amenhotep IV before he changed his name to Akhenaten,
Neues Museum, Berlin
Akhenaten
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Bronze plate with the titulary of Amenhotep IV before he changed his name to Akhenaten,
British Museum.
Akhenaten
–
Pharaoh Akhenaten (center) and his family worshiping the
Aten, with characteristic rays seen emanating from the solar disk.
47.
Suppiluliuma I
–
Suppiluliuma I or Suppiluliumas I was king of the Hittites. He achieved fame as a warrior and statesman, successfully challenging the then-dominant Egyptian empire for control of the lands between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates. Suppiluliuma was the son of Tudhaliya II and Queen Daduhepa and he began his career as the chief advisor and general to Tudhaliya II, then based at Samuha. In this capacity, he defeated the Hittites enemies among the Azzi-Hayasa, both enemies then united around charismatic leaders to counter him, of these Karanni founded a semblance of a royal court in Hayasa, and Piyapili failed to do likewise for the Kaska. Suppiluliuma and Tudhaliya defeated these threats in turn, to the extent that the Hittite court could settle in Hattusa again, when Tudhaliya II died, Tudhaliya III succeeded to the throne. Soon after his accession, however, he was overthrown and succeeded by his younger brother Suppiluliuma, some of the Hittite priests later reported this to Suppiluliumass son, successor, and biographer Mursili II, holding it out as an outstanding crime of the whole dynasty. Suppiluliuma married a sister to the Hayasan king Hukkana, and his daughter Muwatti to Maskhuiluwa of the Arzawan state Mira and he also married a Babylonian princess and retook Arzawan territory as far as Hapalla. His most permanent victory was against the Mitanni kingdom, which he reduced to a client state under his son-in-law Shattiwazza and he was also a master builder of large stone structures decorated with stone reliefs. It was during his reign that concepts of the nature of royal leaders developed. Suppiluliuma then took advantage of the reign of the Pharaoh Akhenaten. Angry letters were exchanged between Suppiluliuma and the Pharaoh Ay, who had assumed the Egyptian throne, over the circumstances of Zannanzas death, suppililiuma was furious at this turn of events and unleashed his armies against Egypts vassal states in Canaan and Northern Syria, capturing much territory. Unfortunately, many of the Egyptian prisoners carried a plague which would eventually ravage the Hittite heartland, the first wife who served as his queen was a woman named Henti. A badly damaged text from the reign of her son Mursili II implies that Queen Henti may have been banished by her husband to the land of Ahhiyawa, an advantageous marriage with a Babylonian Princess might have resulted in her banishment. She is likely the mother of all of Suppiluliumas sons, Arnuwanda II a king of the Hittite Empire ca. 1322–1321 BC Telipinu, who is known from a decree appointing him as a priest of Kizzuwadna, piyassili, later known as Sarri-Kusuh and governor of the former territory of Hanigabat west of the Euphrates Mursili II a king of the Hittite Empire ca. 1321–1295 BC Zannanza, the Hittite Prince who was sent to Egypt in response to the Dakhamunzu letter, after Hentis disappearance the next queen is a Babylonian princess named Malignal. She is the daughter of King Burna-Buriash II, Malignal adopts the title Tawananna as her personal name. Suppiluliuma is known to have had at least one daughter, the Deeds of Suppiluliuma, compiled after his death by his son Mursili, is an important primary source for the kings reign
Suppiluliuma I
–
The Hittite Empire at its greatest extent under Suppiluliuma I (ca. 1350–1322 BC)
48.
Sea Peoples
–
The Sea Peoples were a purported seafaring confederation of groups known to have attacked ancient Egypt prior to the Late Bronze Age collapse. The various Sea Peoples have been proposed to have originated either from western Anatolia or from Southern Europe. French Egyptologist Emmanuel de Rougé first used the term peuples de la mer in 1855 in a description of reliefs on the Second Pylon at Medinet Habu documenting Year 8 of Ramesses III. Gaston Maspero, de Rougés successor at the Collège de France, since the early 1990s, the theory has been brought into question by a number of scholars. Hypotheses regarding the origin of the groups identified as Sea Peoples remains the source of much speculation. De Rougé later became chair of Egyptology at the Collège de France, the theory was taken up by other scholars such as Eduard Meyer, and became the generally accepted theory amongst Egyptologists and orientalists. Since the early 1990s, the theory has been brought into question by a number of scholars, the years of this long-lived pharaohs reign are not known exactly, but they must have comprised nearly all of the first half of the 13th century BCE. In his Second Year, an attack of the Sherden, or Shardana, on the Nile Delta was repulsed and defeated by Ramesses, the event is recorded on Tanis Stele II. The Sherden prisoners were incorporated into the Egyptian army for service on the Hittite frontier by Ramesses. Another stele usually cited in conjunction with one is the Aswan Stele. It is plausible to assume that the Tanis and Aswan Stelae refer to the same event, the Battle of Kadesh was the outcome of a campaign against the Hittites and allies in the Levant in the pharaohs Year 5. The imminent collision of the Egyptian and Hittite empires became obvious to both, and they both prepared campaigns against the strategic midpoint of Kadesh for the next year, Ramesses divided his Egyptian forces, which were then ambushed piecemeal by the Hittite army and nearly defeated. At home, Ramesses had his scribes formulate an official description, ten copies survive today on the temples at Abydos, Karnak, Luxor and Abu Simbel, with reliefs depicting the battle. The Poem of Pentaur, describing the battle survived also, there is no evidence of any collaboration with the Hittites or malicious intent on their part, and if Ramesses considered it, he never left any record of that consideration. The poem lists the peoples which went to Kadesh as allies of the Hittites, depredations of this confederacy had been so severe that the region was forsaken as pasturage for cattle, it was left waste from the time of the ancestors. The pharaohs action against them is attested in a narrative found in three sources. The Athribis stela is a stela found in Athribis and inscribed on both sides, which, like the Cairo column was first published by Maspero, two years later in 1883. The Merneptah Stele from Thebes describes the reign of peace resulting from the victory, the Nine Bows were acting under the leadership of the king of Libya and an associated near-concurrent revolt in Canaan involving Gaza, Ashkelon, Yenoam and the people of Israel
Sea Peoples
–
Emmanuel de Rougé's translation of the North wall of the mortuary temple of
Ramesses III at
Medinet Habu led him to coin the term "Sea Peoples". This famous scene shows what has come to be known as the
Battle of the Delta.
Sea Peoples
–
Athribis Stele, garden of Cairo Museum.
Sea Peoples
–
Temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu
Sea Peoples
–
The Nile Delta today
49.
Bronze Age collapse
–
The palace economy of the Aegean Region and Anatolia that characterised the Late Bronze Age broke down to the isolated village cultures of the Greek Dark Ages. In the first phase of period, almost every city between Pylos and Gaza was violently destroyed, and many abandoned, examples include Hattusa, Mycenae. A very few states, particularly Assyria and Elam, were largely unaffected by the Bronze Age collapse. Before the Bronze Age collapse, Anatolia was dominated by a number of Indo-European peoples, Luwians, Hittites, Mitanni, and Mycenaean Greeks, together with the Semitic Assyrians, and Hurrians. From the 17th century BC, the Mitanni formed a ruling class over the Hurrians, similarly, the Hittites absorbed the Hattians, a people speaking a language that may have been of the North Caucasian group or a Language Isolate. Hattusas, the Hittite capital, was burned, abandoned, karaoğlan, near the present day city of Ankara, was burned and the corpses left unburied. Many other sites that were not destroyed were abandoned, the Hittite Empire was destroyed by the Indo-European-speaking Phrygians and by the Semitic-speaking Aramaeans. Troy was destroyed at least twice, before being abandoned until Roman times, other groups of Indo-European warriors followed into the region, most prominently the Lydians, the Cimmerians, and Scythians. The Semitic Arameans, Kartvelian-speaking Colchians, and Hurro-Urartuans also made an appearance in parts of the region, during the reign of the Hittite king Tudhaliya IV, the island was briefly invaded by the Hittites, either to secure the copper resource or as a way of preventing piracy. Shortly afterwards, the island was reconquered by his son around 1200 BC, some towns show traces of destruction at the end of LCII. Whether or not this is really an indication of a Mycenean invasion is contested, originally, two waves of destruction in c.1230 BC by the Sea Peoples and c.1190 BC by Aegean refugees have been proposed. The smaller settlements of Ayios Dhimitrios and Kokkinokremnos, as well as a number of sites, were abandoned. Kokkinokremos was a settlement, where various caches concealed by smiths have been found. That no one returned to reclaim the treasures suggests that they were killed or enslaved. Recovery occurred only in the Early Iron Age with Phoenician and Greek settlement and these sites in Cyprus show evidence of the collapse, Palaeokastro Kition Sinda Enkomi Ancient Syria had been initially dominated by a number of indigenous Semitic-speaking peoples. The East Semitic speaking Eblaites, the Canaanites language speaking Amorites, Syria during this time was known as The land of the Amurru. Levantine sites previously showed evidence of links with Mesopotamia, Egypt. Evidence, at Ugarit, shows that the destruction there occurred after the reign of Merneptah, the last Bronze Age king of the Semitic state of Ugarit, Ammurapi, was a contemporary of the Hittite king Suppiluliuma II
Bronze Age collapse
–
The
fall of Troy, an event recounted in
Greek mythology at the end of the Bronze Age, as represented by the 17th century painter
Kerstiaen De Keuninck
50.
Suppiluliuma II
–
Suppiluliuma II, the son of Tudhaliya IV, was the last known king of the New Kingdom of the Hittite Empire, ruling c. 1207–1178 BC, contemporary with Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria. In 1210 BC, a fleet under his command defeated one manned by the Cypriots, according to some historians, this and following two victories against Cypriots were probably won by using Ugartic ships. He is known from two inscriptions in Hieroglyphic Luwian and they record wars against former vassal Tarhuntassa, and against Alasiya in Cyprus. One inscription is found at the base of Nisantepe in the Upper City of Hattusa and this served as a water reservoir for Hattusa. The chamber 2 reliefs are historically important since it records major political instability which plagued Hatti during Suppiluliumas reign and it states that this ruler sacked the city of Tarhutassa which was a Hittite city and had briefly served as the Empires political capital under the reign of Muwatalli II. The Hittite kingdom was destroyed by the invading Sea Peoples. Based on records in Ugarit, the threat originated in the west, the enemy against us and there is no number. Our number is pure Whatever is available, look for it, Hattusa itself was destroyed by fire, its site only re-occupied by a Phrygian fortress some 500 years later. Kuzi-Teshub, a ruler of Carchemish, would assume the title of Great King since he was a direct descendent of Suppiluliuma I. Some sources indicate Suppiluliuma IIs end is unknown or he was simply vanished, history of the Hittites Astour, AJA69
Suppiluliuma II
–
Relief of Suppiluliuma II in Hattusa
Suppiluliuma II
–
Chamber 2 built and inscribed by Suppiliuma II at
Hattusa
Turkey
Syria
_and_T.E.Lawrence_at_the_British_Museum%27s_Excavations_at_Carchemish,_Syria,_in_the_spring_of_1913.jpg)
