1.
Geographic coordinate system
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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
2.
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
3.
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
4.
First Babylonian Dynasty
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The chronology of the first dynasty of Babylonia is debated as there is a Babylonian King List A and a Babylonian King List B. In this chronology, the years of List A are used due to their wide usage. The reigns in List B are longer, in general, thus any evidence must come from surrounding regions and written records. Not much is known about the kings from Sumuabum through Sin-muballit other than the fact they were Amorites rather than indigenous Akkadians, what is known, however, is that they accumulated little land. When Hammurabi ascended the throne of Babylon, the empire consisted of a few towns in the surrounding area, Dilbat, Sippar, Kish. Once Hammurabi was king, his military victories gained land for the empire, however, Babylon remained but one of several important areas in Mesopotamia, along with Assyria, then ruled by Shamshi-Adad I, and Larsa, then ruled by Rim-Sin I. In Hammurabis thirtieth year as king, he began to establish Babylon as the center of what would be a great empire. In that year, he conquered Larsa from Rim-Sin I, thus gaining control over the urban centers of Nippur, Ur, Uruk. In essence, Hammurabi gained control over all of south Mesopotamia, the other formidable political power in the region in the 2nd millennium was Eshnunna, which Hammurabi succeeded in capturing in c. Babylon exploited Eshnunnas well-established commercial trade routes and the stability that came with them. It was not long before Hammurabis army took Assyria and parts of the Zagros Mountains, Hammurabis other name was Hammurapi-ilu, meaning Hammurapi the god or perhaps Hammurapi is god. He could have been Amraphel king of Shinar or Sinear in the Jewish records and the Bible, Abraham lived from 1871 to 1784, according to modern interpretations of the Old Testaments figures that have been usually reckoned in modern half years before the Exodus, from equinox to equinox. The Venus tablets of Ammisaduqa are famous, and several books had been published about them, several dates have been offered but the old dates of many sourcebooks seems to be outdated and incorrect. A few sources, some printed almost a century ago, claim that the text mentions an occultation of the Venus by the moon. However, this may be a misinterpretation, calculations support 1659 for the fall of Babylon, based on the statistical probability of dating based on the planets observations. The presently accepted middle chronology is too low from the point of view. A text about the fall of Babylon by the Hittites of Mursilis I at the end of Samsuditanas reign which tells about an eclipse is crucial for a correct Babylonian chronology. The pair of lunar and solar eclipses occurred in the month Shimanu, the lunar eclipse took place on February 9,1659 BC
5.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
6.
Diyala Governorate
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Diyala Governorate or Diyala Province is a governorate in eastern Iraq. Governor, Muthana al-Timimi Deputy Governor, Mohammed Jassim al-Jubouri Diyala Governorate extends to the northeast of Baghdad as far as the Iranian border and it covers an area of 17,685 square kilometres. A large portion of the province is drained by the Diyala River, because of its proximity to two major sources of water, Diyalas main industry is agriculture, primarily dates grown in large groves. The province also contains one of the largest olive groves in the Middle East and it is also recognized as the orange capital of the Middle East. The Hamrin Mountains pass through the governorate and this changed drastically starting in 2003. It is now the Sunni Arabs that are exposed to expulsion and loss of house, presently, an estimated population of some 1,224,000 people live in this province. Sunni Arabs, once a majority until 2003, have been losing their positions due to violence of the Iraqi Civil War and since summer of 2014. Nearly half the Sunni Arab population has been pushed out of the province, presently, they constitute no more than 25 percent of the population of the Diyala Governorate. In contrast, the Feyli Kurds who were deported from this area from the 1960 to 1990s by various Sunni Arab governments in Baghdad are returning-as have other Kurds and they now dominate the entire Khanaqin district and all others bordering on Iran in this province. At the lowest point during the rule of Saddam Hussein, their numbers had fallen to just 7% of the total, today, they boast to around 30% and increasing as they take up their old homes in places such a Jalula/Jalawla and Al-Sadiyah. The rest of the residents are Iraqi Sunni Turkmen predominantly in Kifri, the Diyala Media Center was built under contract by a Japanese architectural firm in 1989. It is one of Iraqs few independent radio and television stations offer local television. There is evidence that Al-Qaeda in Iraq has recently moved its base of operations from Anbar province to Diyala, during late 2006 Baqubah and much of the Diyala province were reported to have come under Sunni insurgent control. This insurgent control is reported to have continued through 2007 and into early 2008, on May 11,2007, Army Maj. Gen. S. Military, and the debate about the level of commitment from the U. S. government. By mid-2007 the Islamic State of Iraq, already holding Baqubah and most of the province under its control, there is already strong evidence the Islamic State of Iraq has moved most of its command and control operations to Diyala. In June 2007, US forces launched Operation Arrowhead Ripper with night air assaults in Baquba, by August 19, Baquba was largely secured, although some insurgent presence remained in the city and surrounding areas. Fighting continued in the Diyala River valley but by the beginning of October, US and Iraqi forces held most of the province while the insurgents were in retreat to the north, Diyala is still a contested province
7.
Sumer
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Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, Sumerian farmers were able to grow an abundance of grain and other crops, the surplus of which enabled them to settle in one place. Proto-writing in the dates back to c.3000 BC. The earliest texts come from the cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr and date back to 3300 BC, modern historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c.5500 and 4000 BC by a West Asian people who spoke the Sumerian language, an agglutinative language isolate. These conjectured, prehistoric people are now called proto-Euphrateans or Ubaidians, some scholars contest the idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language. Reliable historical records begin much later, there are none in Sumer of any kind that have dated before Enmebaragesi. Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians lived along the coast of Eastern Arabia, todays Persian Gulf region, Sumerian civilization took form in the Uruk period, continuing into the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic periods. During the 3rd millennium BC, a cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians, who spoke a language isolate, and Akkadian-speakers, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a scale, to syntactic, morphological. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the 3rd millennium BC as a Sprachbund, Sumer was conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BC, but Sumerian continued as a sacred language. Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century in the Neo-Sumerian Empire or Third Dynasty of Ur approximately 2100-2000 BC, the term Sumerian is the common name given to the ancient non-Semitic-speaking inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Sumer, by the East Semitic-speaking Akkadians. The Sumerians referred to themselves as ùĝ saĝ gíg ga, phonetically /uŋ saŋ gi ga/, literally meaning the black-headed people, the Akkadian word Shumer may represent the geographical name in dialect, but the phonological development leading to the Akkadian term šumerû is uncertain. Hebrew Shinar, Egyptian Sngr, and Hittite Šanhar, all referring to southern Mesopotamia, in the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into many independent city-states, which were divided by canals and boundary stones. Each was centered on a dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the city. The Sumerian city-states rose to power during the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods, classical Sumer ends with the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 23rd century BC. Following the Gutian period, there is a brief Sumerian Renaissance in the 21st century BC, the Amorite dynasty of Isin persisted until c.1700 BC, when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule. The Sumerians were eventually absorbed into the Akkadian population, 2500–2334 BC Akkadian Empire period, c. 2218–2047 BC Ur III period, c, 2047–1940 BC The Ubaid period is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. It appears that this culture was derived from the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia and it is not known whether or not these were the actual Sumerians who are identified with the later Uruk culture
8.
Akkadian
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Akkadian is an extinct East Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the writing system, which was originally used to write the unrelated Ancient Sumerian. The language was named after the city of Akkad, a centre of Mesopotamian civilization during the Akkadian Empire. The mutual influence between Sumerian and Akkadian had led scholars to describe the languages as a sprachbund, Akkadian proper names were first attested in Sumerian texts from around the mid 3rd-millennium BC. From the second half of the third millennium BC, texts written in Akkadian begin to appear. By the second millennium BC, two variant forms of the language were in use in Assyria and Babylonia, known as Assyrian and Babylonian respectively, for centuries, Akkadian was the native language in Mesopotamian nations such as Assyria and Babylonia. However, it began to decline during the Neo-Assyrian Empire around the 8th century BC, by the Hellenistic period, the language was largely confined to scholars and priests working in temples in Assyria and Babylonia. The last known Akkadian cuneiform document dates from the 1st century AD, Akkadian belongs with the other Semitic languages in the Near Eastern branch of the Afroasiatic languages, a family native to East Africa, which then spread to West, Northwest and Northeast Africa. Within the Near Eastern Semitic languages, Akkadian forms an East Semitic subgroup and this novel word order is due to the influence of the Sumerian substratum, which has an SOV order. Additionally Akkadian is the only Semitic language to use the prepositions ina and ana, other Semitic languages like Arabic and Aramaic have the prepositions bi/bə and li/lə. The origin of the Akkadian spatial prepositions is unknown, in contrast to most other Semitic languages, Akkadian has only one non-sibilant fricative, ḫ. Akkadian lost both the glottal and pharyngeal fricatives, which are characteristic of the other Semitic languages, until the Old Babylonian period, the Akkadian sibilants were exclusively affricated. Old Akkadian is preserved on clay tablets dating back to c.2500 BC and it was written using cuneiform, a script adopted from the Sumerians using wedge-shaped symbols pressed in wet clay. As employed by Akkadian scribes, the cuneiform script could represent either Sumerian logograms, Sumerian syllables, Akkadian syllables. For this reason, the sign AN can on the one hand be a logogram for the word ilum, additionally, this sign was used as a determinative for divine names. Another peculiarity of Akkadian cuneiform is that many signs do not have a phonetic value. Certain signs, such as AḪ, do not distinguish between the different vowel qualities, nor is there any coordination in the other direction, the syllable -ša-, for example, is rendered by the sign ŠA, but also by the sign NĪĜ. Both of these are used for the same syllable in the same text
9.
City-state
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A city-state is a sovereign state that consists of a city and its dependent territories. A great deal of consensus exists that the term applies to Singapore, Monaco. A number of small states share similar characteristics, and therefore are sometimes also cited as modern city-states. Occasionally, other states with high population densities, such as San Marino, are also cited. Several non-sovereign cities enjoy a degree of autonomy, and are sometimes considered city-states. Hong Kong and Macau, along with independent members of the United Arab Emirates, most notably Dubai, scholars have classed the Viking colonial cities in medieval Ireland, most importantly Dublin, as city-states. In Cyprus, the Phoenician settlement of Kition was a city-state that existed from around 800 BC until the end of the 4th century BC. The success of regional units coexisting as autonomous actors in loose geographical and cultural unity, as in Italy and Greece. However, such small political entities often survived only for short periods because they lacked the resources to defend themselves against incursions by larger states, thus they inevitably gave way to larger organisations of society, including the empire and the nation-state. In the history of Mainland Southeast Asia, aristocratic groups, Buddhist leaders, the system existed until the 19th century when colonization by European powers, and Thailands resulted in the adoption of the modern concept of statehood. In the Holy Roman Empire the Free Imperial Cities enjoyed a considerable autonomy, some, like the three Hanseatic cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck, pooled their economic relations with foreign powers and were able to wield considerable diplomatic clout. Under Habsburg rule the city of Fiume had the status of a Corpus separatum, a later city-state, though lacking sovereignty, was West Berlin, being a state legally not belonging to any other state, but ruled by the Western Allies. They allowed – notwithstanding their overlordship as occupant powers – its internal organisation as one state simultaneously being a city, though West Berlin maintained close ties to the West German Federal Republic of Germany, it was legally never part of it. But the idea of leaving the United States proved too radical even in the turmoil of 1861 and was poorly received, the war, and especially conscription, was nevertheless often unpopular in the city, sparking the deadly New York Draft Riots. The neighboring City of Brooklyn, in contrast, was staunchly Unionist, the Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920 under the terms of Article 100 of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. Its territory of 28 km2 comprised the city of Fiume and rural areas to its north, with a corridor to its west connecting it to Italy, the Shanghai International Settlement was an international zone with its own legal system, postal service, and currency. The Klaipėda Region or Memel Territory was defined by the Treaty of Versailles in 1920 when it was put under the administration of the Council of Ambassadors
10.
Mesopotamia
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In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. The Sumerians and Akkadians dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of history to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthian Empire. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control. In AD226, eastern part of it fell to the Sassanid Persians, division of Mesopotamia between Roman and Sassanid Empires lasted until the 7th century Muslim conquest of Persia of the Sasanian Empire and Muslim conquest of the Levant from Byzantines. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek root words μέσος middle and ποταμός river and it is used throughout the Greek Septuagint to translate the Hebrew equivalent Naharaim. In the Anabasis, Mesopotamia was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria, the Aramaic term biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept. The neighbouring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia. A further distinction is made between Northern or Upper Mesopotamia and Southern or Lower Mesopotamia. Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jazira, is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghdad, Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf and includes Kuwait and parts of western Iran. In modern academic usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation and it is usually used to designate the area until the Muslim conquests, with names like Syria, Jazirah, and Iraq being used to describe the region after that date. It has been argued that these later euphemisms are Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments, Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the Armenian Highlands. Both rivers are fed by tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a 15,000 square kilometres region of marshes, lagoons, mud flats, in the extreme south, the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the Persian Gulf. In the marshlands to the south of the area, a complex water-borne fishing culture has existed since prehistoric times, periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number of reasons. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists has led to periods of trade collapse and these trends have continued to the present day in Iraq
11.
Diyala River
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The Diyala River, is a river and tributary of the Tigris that originates in Iran as the Sirwan River then runs mainly through Eastern Iraq. It covers a distance of 445 km. It rises near Hamadan, in the Zagros Mountains of Iran and it then descends through the mountains, where for some 32 km it forms the border between the two countries. It finally feeds into the Tigris below Baghdad, navigation of the upper reaches of the Diyala is not possible because of its narrow defiles, but the rivers valley provides an important trade route between Iran and Iraq. The river flows southwest of the Hamrin Mountains and its origin in Kurdish and Persian is called Sirwan, meaning roaring sea or shouting river, as well as being the name of an ancient city near Ilam city in Iran. In the Sassanid and early Islamic periods, the course of the river formed part of the Nahrawan Canal. The Diyala Governorate in Iraq is named after the river, the river returned to its former proportions after the channels disappeared under the sand. The Battle of Diyala River took place in 693 BC between the forces of the Assyrian empire and the Elamites of southern Iran and this area flourished already during the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic periods, through to the Akkadian period. During the Larsa period, Eshnunna especially became prominent, major excavations were done in the lower Diyala river basin in the 1930s. They were conducted by the University of Chicago Oriental Institute and by the University of Pennsylvania, the sites such as Tell Agrab, Tell Asmar, Ishchali, and Khafaje were excavated. In Tell Asmar, the Tell Asmar Hoard is particularly notable, twelve remarkable statues were found belonging to the Early Dynastic period. At that time, the Diyala was relatively unexplored compared to southern and northern Mesopotamia, but looting of sites was already underway. As the result, the excavations were launched. Archaeologists James Breasted and Henri Frankfort were leading these projects and these excavations provided very comprehensive data on Mesopotamian archaeology and chronology. They covered the time between the late Uruk period and the end of the Old Babylonian period, subsequently, nine detailed monographs were published, but most of the objects, numbering 12,000, remained unpublished. Launched in 1992, the Diyala Database Project has been publishing a lot of this material, other scholars who worked there were Thorkild Jacobsen as epigrapher, Seton Lloyd, and Pinhas Delougaz. More recently, the Diyala region was also explored intensively as part of the Hamrin Dam Salvage Project, the following sites were excavated from 1977 to 1981, Tell Yelkhi, Tell Hassan, Tell Abu Husaini, Tell Kesaran, Tell Harbud, Tell al-Sarah, and Tell Mahmud. A type of known as Scarlet Ware, a brightly coloured pottery with pictorial representations, was typical of sites along the Diyala River
12.
Tell Asmar Hoard
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The twelve statues known collectively as the Tell Asmar Hoard were unearthed in 1933 at Eshnunna in the Diyala Region of Iraq. Despite subsequent finds at this site and others throughout the Greater Mesopotamian area they remain the definitive example of the style of Early Dynastic temple sculpture. In the late 1920s antique dealers in Baghdad were acquiring large quantities of unusual, high quality artifacts from the desert east of the Diyala River, in 1929 the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago obtained a concession to excavate the area. James Henry Breasted, the founder of the institute, invited the Dutch Archeologist Henri Frankfort to lead the expedition, between 1930 and 1937 Frankfort and his team conducted extensive horizontal and vertical excavations on four mounds, Khafajah, Tell Asmar, Tell Agrab, and Ishchali. They uncovered temples, palaces, administrative buildings, and houses ranging in date from about 3100 to 1750 B. C, the hundreds of artifacts recovered from the stratified ruins of these ancient civic structures greatly enhanced understanding of Early Dynastic periodization. Among the most well-known and best preserved objects are the twelve statues known collectively as the Tell Asmar Hoard, the hoard was found during the 1933-34 excavation season at Tell Asmar beneath the floor of a temple dedicated to the god Abu. The statues were neatly stacked in an oblong cavity beside an altar in the sanctuary, the careful placement suggests that they were buried intentionally. However, the reason for the burial and person responsible for doing so remains unclear, Frankfort, who wrote extensively on the subject, suggests that a priest periodically buried old or badly damaged statues in order to make room in the temple for their replacements. The statues of the Tell Asmar Hoard range in height from 21 cm to 72 cm, of the twelve statues found ten are male and two are female. Eight of the figures are made from Gypsum, two from limestone, and one from alabaster, all the figures, with the exception of one that is kneeling, are rendered in a standing position. Thin circular bases were used as supports and large wedge shaped feet provided the larger statues with added durability, the males wear kilts with a patterned hem that covers the midsection and thighs. Their broad shoulders and thick, circular arms frame the bare chest, all the males, with the exception of one that is bald and clean shaven, have long hair rendered in two symmetrical halves that frames the smooth surfaces of the cheeks and forehead. These materials are secured to the head with bitumen, which was used as a pigment to give the beard. Both the hair and the clothing, though abstracted, accurately reflect Sumerian styles of the Early Dynastic period, the hoard was discovered in a temple dedicated to Abu, the ancient Near Eastern god of fertility. Some of the statues are inscribed on the back and bottom with a name and personalized supplicatory message, in the 3rd millennium B. C. the price for a votive statue likely depended on its size, and possibly what stone was used. Frankfort argued that the largest figure in the hoard is not an effigy of a human worshiper, the Lives Of Sumerian Sculpture, An Archaeology of the Early Dynastic Temple. The Square Temple at Tell Asmar and the Construction of Early Dynastic Mesopotamia, american Journal of Archaeology 4, 599-632. Sculpture of the 3rd Millennium B. C. from Tell Asmar, the University of Chicago, Oriental Institute Publications 60
13.
Jemdet Nasr period
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The Jemdet Nasr Period is an archaeological culture in southern Mesopotamia. It is generally dated from 3100–2900 BC and it is named after the type site Tell Jemdet Nasr, where the assemblage typical for this period was first recognized. Its geographical distribution is limited to south-central Iraq, the culture of the proto-historical Jemdet Nasr period is a local development out of the preceding Uruk period and continues into the Early Dynastic I period. In the early 1900s, clay tablets with a form of the Sumerian cuneiform script started to appear on the antiquities market. A collection of 36 tablets was bought by the German excavators of Shuruppak in 1903, while they thought that the tablets came from Tell Jemdet Nasr, it was later shown that they probably came from nearby Tell Uqair. Similar tablets were offered for sale by a French antiquities dealer in 1915, the Arabs told Langdon the finds came from Jemdet Nasr, a site some 26 kilometres northeast of Tell al-Uhaymir. Langdon was sufficiently impressed, visited the site and started excavations in 1926 and he uncovered a large mudbrick building with in it more of the distinctive pottery and a collection of 150 to 180 clay tablets bearing the proto-cuneiform script. Older scientific literature often used 3200–3000 BC as the beginning and end dates of the Jemdet Nasr Period, the period is nowadays dated from 3100–2900 BC based on radiocarbon dating. The hallmark of the Jemdet Nasr Period is its distinctive painted monochrome and polychrome pottery, designs are both geometric and figurative, the latter displaying trees and animals such as birds, fish, goats, scorpions, and snakes. Painted Jemdet Nasr Period pots were found in similar contexts at Tell Fara and Tell Gubba, apart from the distinctive pottery, the period is known as one of the formative stages in the development of the cuneiform script. The oldest clay tablets come from Uruk and date to the fourth millennium BC. By the time of the Jemdet Nasr Period, the script had undergone a number of significant changes. It originally consisted of pictographs, but by the time of the Jemdet Nasr Period it was already adopting simpler and it is also during this period that the script acquired its iconic wedge-shaped appearance. While the language in which these tablets were written cannot be identified with certainty, the texts deal without exception with administrative matters such as the rationing of foodstuffs or listing objects and animals. Literary genres like hymns and king lists, which very popular later in Mesopotamian history, are absent. Two different counting systems were in use, a system for animals and humans, for example, and a bisexagesimal system for things like grain, cheese. Contemporary archives have been found at Tell Uqair, Tell Khafajah, the economy seems to have been primarily concerned with subsistence based on agriculture and sheep-and-goat pastoralism and small-scale trade. Very few precious stones or exotic trade goods have been found at sites of this period, however, the homogeneity of the pottery across the southern Mesopotamian plain suggests intensive contacts and trade between settlements
14.
Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)
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The first settlement in southern Mesopotamia was Eridu. The Sumerians claimed that their civilization had been brought, fully formed, to the city of Eridu by their god Enki or by his advisor, Adapa U-an. The first people at Eridu brought with them the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia and are identified with the Ubaid period, the Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language listing kings of Sumer, including a few foreign dynasties. The best-known dynasty, that of Lagash, is omitted from the kinglist, dates are approximate, consult particular article for details Uruk III = Jemdet Nasr period Permanent year-round urban settlement may have been prompted by intensive agricultural practices. The work required in maintaining irrigation canals called for, and the surplus food enabled. The centres of Eridu and Uruk, two of the earliest cities, had successively elaborated large temple built of mudbrick. The development and system of administration led to the development of archaic tablets around 3500 BC-3200 BC, while there is no evidence they ever reigned as such, the Sumerians purported them to have lived in the mythical era before the Flood. Throughout its Bronze Age existence, the document evolved into a political tool, the SKL blends prehistorical, presumably mythical pre-dynastic rulers enjoying implausibly lengthy reigns with later, more plausibly historical dynasties. Although the primal kings are historically unattested, this does not preclude their possible correspondence with historical rulers who were later mythicized, some Assyriologists view the predynastic kings as a later fictional addition. Only one ruler listed is known to be female, Kug-Bau, “the tavern-keeper, the earliest listed ruler whose historicity has been archaeologically verified is Enmebaragesi of Kish, c.2600 BCE. Reference to both Enmebaragesi of Kish and his successor in the Epic of Gilgamesh has led to speculation that Gilgamesh himself may have been a king of Uruk. Lagash in particular is directly from archaeological artifacts dating from c.2500 BCE. The SKL is important to the Bronze Age chronology of the ancient near east, however, the fact that many of the dynasties listed reigned simultaneously from varying localities makes it difficult to reproduce a strict linear chronology. The following extant ancient sources contain the SKL, the Apkullu-list, Babyloniaca, Dynastic Chronicle, Scheil dynastic tablet, California Tablet, WB62, the last two sources are a part of the “Weld-Blundell collection” donated by Herbert Weld Blundell to the Ashmolean Museum. WB62 is a clay tablet, inscribed only on the obverse. It is the oldest dated source containing the list, WB444 in contrast is a unique inscribed vertical prism, dated c.1817 BCE, although some scholars prefer c.1827 BCE. The mythological antediluvian section of the SKL has the following entry, shea suggests that Alulim was a contemporary of the Biblical figure Adam (whose name and character may have been derived from Adapa of ancient Mesopotamian religion. In a chart of antediluvian generations in both Babylonian and Biblical traditions, professor William Wolfgang Hallo associated Alulim with Adapa, the earliest known use of the name Adam as a genuine name in historicity is Adamu
15.
Akkadian Empire
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The empire united all the Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one rule. The Akkadian Empire controlled Mesopotamia, the Levant, and eastern and southern parts of Anatolia and Iran, sending military expeditions as far south as Dilmun and Magan in the Arabian Peninsula. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed an intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC, the Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the conquests by its founder Sargon of Akkad. Under Sargon and his successors, the Akkadian language was imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam. Akkad is sometimes regarded as the first empire in history, though there are earlier Sumerian claimants, the Bible refers to Akkad in Genesis 10,10, which states that the beginning of Nimrods kingdom was in the land of Akkad. Nimrod is a Hebrew name not attested in Mesopotamians sources, many have pointed out similarities with the legend of Gilgamesh who founded Uruk, which is said to be the city Nimrod came to power. Today, some 7,000 texts from the Akkadian period alone are known, many later texts from the successor states of Assyria and Babylonia also deal with the Akkadian Empire. Understanding of the Akkadian Empire continues to be hampered by the fact that its capital Akkad has not yet been located, likewise, material that is thought to be Akkadian continues to be in use into the Ur III period. Many of the recent insights on the Akkadian Empire have come from excavations in the Upper Khabur area in modern northeastern Syria which was to become a part of Assyria after the fall of Akkad. For example, excavations at Tell Mozan brought to light a sealing of Taram-Agade, an unknown daughter of Naram-Sin. The excavators at nearby Tell Leilan have used the results from their investigations to argue that the Akkadian Empire came to an end due to a sudden drought, the so-called 4.2 kiloyear event. The impact of this event on Mesopotamia in general, and on the Akkadian Empire in particular. The Akkadian Period is contemporary with, EB IV, EB IVA and EJ IV, the absolute dates of their reigns are approximate. The Akkadian Empire takes its name from the region and city of Akkad, although the city of Akkad has not yet been identified on the ground, it is known from various textual sources. Among these is at least one text predating the reign of Sargon, together with the fact that the name Akkad is of non-Akkadian origin, this suggests that the city of Akkad may have already been occupied in pre-Sargonic times. Sargon of Akkad defeated and captured Lugal-Zage-Si in the Battle of Uruk, the earliest records in the Akkadian language date to the time of Sargon. Sargon was claimed to be the son of Laibum or Itti-Bel, a humble gardener, One legend related of Sargon in Assyrian times says that My mother was a changeling, my father I knew not
16.
Third Dynasty of Ur
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The Third Dynasty of Ur is commonly abbreviated as Ur III by historians studying the period. The Third Dynasty of Ur was the last Sumerian dynasty which came to preeminent power in Mesopotamia and it began after several centuries of control by Akkadian and Gutian kings. It controlled the cities of Isin, Larsa and Eshnunna and extended as far north as the Jazira, the Third Dynasty of Ur arose some time after the fall of the Akkad Dynasty. Their last king, Tirigan, was out by Utu-hengal of Uruk. Following Utu-Hengals reign, Ur-Nammu founded the Third Dynasty of Ur, the Sumerian King List tells us that Utu-hengal had reigned for seven years, although only one year-name for him is known from records, that of his accession, suggesting a shorter reign. It is possible that Ur-Nammu was originally his governor, there are two stelae discovered in Ur that include this detail in an inscription about Ur-Nammus life. Some scholars theorize that Ur-Nammu led a revolt against Utu-hengal, deposed him, another hypothesis is that Ur-Nammu was a close relative to Utu-hengal, and the latter had asked the former to rule over the city of Ur in his name. After four years of ruling in Ur, Ur-Nammu rose to prominence as a warrior-king when he crushed the ruler of Lagash in battle, after this battle, Ur-Nammu seems to have earned the title king of Sumer and Agade. Urs dominance over the Neo-Sumerian Empire was consolidated with the famous Code of Ur-Nammu, many significant changes occurred in the empire under Shulgis reign. He took steps to centralize and standardize the procedures of the empire and he is credited with standardizing administrative processes, archival documentation, the tax system, and the national calendar. He established an army of Ur. Shulgi was deified during his lifetime, an honor reserved for dead kings. With the fall of the Ur III Dynasty after an Elamite invasion in 2004/1940 BC, assyriologists employ many complicated methods for establishing the most precise dates possible for this period, but controversy still exists. Generally, scholars use either the conventional or the low chronologies and they are as follows, The land ruled by the Ur III kings was divided up into provinces that were each run by a governor. In certain tumultuous regions, military commanders assumed more power in governing, each province contained a redistribution center where provincial taxes, called bala, would all go to be shipped to the capital. Taxes could be payable in forms, from crops to livestock to land. The government would then apportion out goods as needed, including giving food rations to the needy and this is an area where scholars have many different views. It had long been posited that the laborer was nothing more than a serf
17.
Elamite
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Elamite is an extinct language spoken by the ancient Elamites. Elamite was a used in present-day south-western Iran from 2800 to 550 BC. The last written records in Elamite appear about the time of the conquest of the Achaemenid Empire by Alexander the Great, Elamite has no demonstrable relatives and is usually considered a language isolate. The lack of established relatives is one reason that interpretation of the language is difficult, Elamite cuneiform, adapted from Akkadian cuneiform, was used from ca.2500 to 331 BC. Elamite cuneiform was largely a syllabary of some 130 glyphs at any one time and retained only a few logograms from Akkadian, but over time, the complete corpus of Elamite cuneiform consists of c.20 thousand tablets and fragments. The majority belong to the Achaemenid era, and contain primarily economic records, two earlier scripts of the area remain undeciphered but plausibly have encoded Elamite, Proto-Elamite is the oldest known writing system from Iran. It was used during a period of time, clay tablets with Proto-Elamite writing have been found at different sites across Iran. It is thought to have developed from early cuneiform and consists of more than 1,000 signs and it is thought to be largely logographic. Linear Elamite is attested in a few monumental inscriptions and it is often claimed that Linear Elamite is a syllabic writing system derived from Proto-Elamite, but it cannot be proven. Linear Elamite was used for a brief period of time during the last quarter of the third millennium BC. Elamite was a language, and Elamite grammar was characterized by a well-developed. Animate nouns had separate markers for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, documents from the Old Elamite and early Neo-Elamite stages are rather scarce. Neo-Elamite can be regarded as a transition between Middle and Achaemenid Elamite, with respect to language structure, because of the limitations of the languages scripts, phonology is not well understood. As for the vowels, Elamite had at least /a/, /i/, and /u/ and may also have had an /e/, roots are generally of the forms CV, VC, VCV and, more rarely, CVCCV. Elamite is agglutinative, and predominantly suffixing, the inanimate 3rd singular -me forms abstracts. In noun phrases and pronoun phrases, the suffixes referring to the head are appended to the modifier, sometimes the suffix is preserved on the head as well. g. The suffix -na, which originated from the inanimate agreement suffix -n followed by the nominalizing particle -a. The personal pronouns distinguish nominative and accusative case forms and they are as follows, In general, no special possessive pronouns are needed in view of the construction with the noun class suffixes
18.
Horse
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The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. It is an ungulate mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, Eohippus, into the large, humans began to domesticate horses around 4000 BC, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC. Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior. Horses anatomy enables them to use of speed to escape predators and they have a well-developed sense of balance. Related to this need to flee from predators in the wild is an unusual trait, female horses, called mares, carry their young for approximately 11 months, and a young horse, called a foal, can stand and run shortly following birth. Most domesticated horses begin training under saddle or in harness between the ages of two and four and they reach full adult development by age five, and have an average lifespan of between 25 and 30 years. There are more than 300 breeds of horse in the world today, horses were historically used in warfare, from which a wide variety of riding and driving techniques developed, using many different styles of equipment and methods of control. Many products are derived from horses, including meat, milk, hide, hair, bone, humans provide domesticated horses with food, water and shelter, as well as attention from specialists such as veterinarians and farriers. Specific terms and specialized language are used to describe equine anatomy, different life stages, colors, depending on breed, management and environment, the modern domestic horse has a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years. Uncommonly, a few animals live into their 40s and, occasionally, the oldest verifiable record was Old Billy, a 19th-century horse that lived to the age of 62. In modern times, Sugar Puff, who had listed in Guinness World Records as the worlds oldest living pony. The exception is in endurance riding, where the age to compete is based on the animals actual calendar age. The following terminology is used to describe horses of various ages, Colt, a common terminology error is to call any young horse a colt, when the term actually only refers to young male horses. Filly, A female horse under the age of four, foal, A horse of either sex less than one year old. A nursing foal is sometimes called a suckling and a foal that has been weaned is called a weanling, most domesticated foals are weaned at five to seven months of age, although foals can be weaned at four months with no adverse physical effects. Gelding, A castrated male horse of any age, mare, A female horse four years old and older
19.
Copper
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Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of copper has a reddish-orange color. Copper is one of the few metals that occur in nature in directly usable metallic form as opposed to needing extraction from an ore and this led to very early human use, from c.8000 BC. Copper used in buildings, usually for roofing, oxidizes to form a green verdigris, Copper is sometimes used in decorative art, both in its elemental metal form and in compounds as pigments. Copper compounds are used as agents, fungicides, and wood preservatives. Copper is essential to all living organisms as a trace dietary mineral because it is a key constituent of the enzyme complex cytochrome c oxidase. In molluscs and crustaceans, copper is a constituent of the blood pigment hemocyanin, replaced by the hemoglobin in fish. In humans, copper is found mainly in the liver, muscle, the adult body contains between 1.4 and 2.1 mg of copper per kilogram of body weight. The filled d-shells in these elements contribute little to interatomic interactions, unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in copper are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak. This observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of copper, at the macroscopic scale, introduction of extended defects to the crystal lattice, such as grain boundaries, hinders flow of the material under applied stress, thereby increasing its hardness. For this reason, copper is supplied in a fine-grained polycrystalline form. The softness of copper partly explains its high conductivity and high thermal conductivity. The maximum permissible current density of copper in open air is approximately 3. 1×106 A/m2 of cross-sectional area, Copper is one of a few metallic elements with a natural color other than gray or silver. Pure copper is orange-red and acquires a reddish tarnish when exposed to air, as with other metals, if copper is put in contact with another metal, galvanic corrosion will occur. A green layer of verdigris can often be seen on old structures, such as the roofing of many older buildings. Copper tarnishes when exposed to sulfur compounds, with which it reacts to form various copper sulfides. There are 29 isotopes of copper, 63Cu and 65Cu are stable, with 63Cu comprising approximately 69% of naturally occurring copper, both have a spin of 3⁄2
20.
Tin
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Tin is a chemical element with symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a metal in group 14 of the periodic table. It is obtained chiefly from the mineral cassiterite, which contains tin dioxide, Tin shows a chemical similarity to both of its neighbors in group 14, germanium and lead, and has two main oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4. Tin is the 49th most abundant element and has, with 10 stable isotopes, metallic tin is not easily oxidized in air. The first alloy used on a scale was bronze, made of tin and copper. After 600 BC, pure metallic tin was produced, pewter, which is an alloy of 85–90% tin with the remainder commonly consisting of copper, antimony, and lead, was used for flatware from the Bronze Age until the 20th century. In modern times, tin is used in alloys, most notably tin/lead soft solders. Another large application for tin is corrosion-resistant tin plating of steel, inorganic tin compounds are rather non-toxic. Because of its low toxicity, tin-plated metal was used for packaging as tin cans. However, overexposure to tin may cause problems with metabolizing essential trace elements such as copper and zinc, Tin is a soft, malleable, ductile and highly crystalline silvery-white metal. When a bar of tin is bent, a sound known as the tin cry can be heard from the twinning of the crystals. Tin melts at the low temperature of about 232 °C, the lowest in group 14, the melting point is further lowered to 177.3 °C for 11 nm particles. β-tin, which is stable at and above room temperature, is malleable, in contrast, α-tin, which is stable below 13.2 °C, is brittle. α-tin has a cubic crystal structure, similar to diamond. α-tin has no properties at all because its atoms form a covalent structure in which electrons cannot move freely. It is a dull-gray powdery material with no common uses other than a few specialized semiconductor applications and these two allotropes, α-tin and β-tin, are more commonly known as gray tin and white tin, respectively. Two more allotropes, γ and σ, exist at temperatures above 161 °C, in cold conditions, β-tin tends to transform spontaneously into α-tin, a phenomenon known as tin pest. Commercial grades of tin resist transformation because of the effect of the small amounts of bismuth, antimony, lead
21.
Gemstone
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A gemstone is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks or organic materials that are not minerals are used for jewelry and are therefore often considered to be gemstones as well. Most gemstones are hard, but some soft minerals are used in jewelry because of their luster or other properties that have aesthetic value. Rarity is another characteristic that lends value to a gemstone, apart from jewelry, from earliest antiquity engraved gems and hardstone carvings, such as cups, were major luxury art forms. A gem maker is called a lapidary or gemcutter, a worker is a diamantaire. The carvings of Carl Fabergé are significant works in this tradition, the traditional classification in the West, which goes back to the ancient Greeks, begins with a distinction between precious and semi-precious, similar distinctions are made in other cultures. In modern usage the precious stones are diamond, ruby, sapphire, other stones are classified by their color, translucency and hardness. Another unscientific term for semi-precious gemstones used in art history and archaeology is hardstone, in modern times gemstones are identified by gemologists, who describe gems and their characteristics using technical terminology specific to the field of gemology. The first characteristic a gemologist uses to identify a gemstone is its chemical composition, for example, diamonds are made of carbon and rubies of aluminium oxide. Next, many gems are crystals which are classified by their crystal system such as cubic or trigonal or monoclinic, another term used is habit, the form the gem is usually found in. For example, diamonds, which have a crystal system, are often found as octahedrons. Gemstones are classified into different groups, species, and varieties, for example, ruby is the red variety of the species corundum, while any other color of corundum is considered sapphire. Other examples are the Emerald, aquamarine, red beryl, goshenite, heliodor, and morganite, gems are characterized in terms of refractive index, dispersion, specific gravity, hardness, cleavage, fracture, and luster. They may exhibit pleochroism or double refraction and they may have luminescence and a distinctive absorption spectrum. Material or flaws within a stone may be present as inclusions, gemstones may also be classified in terms of their water. This is a grading of the gems luster, transparency. Very transparent gems are considered first water, while second or third water gems are those of a lesser transparency, there is no universally accepted grading system for gemstones. Diamonds are graded using a system developed by the Gemological Institute of America in the early 1950s, historically, all gemstones were graded using the naked eye
22.
Copal
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More generally, the term copal describes resinous substances in an intermediate stage of polymerization and hardening between gummier resins and amber. The word copal is derived from the Nahuatl language word copalli, copal is still used by a number of indigenous peoples of Mexico and Central America as an incense, during sweat lodge ceremonies and Sacred Mushroom ceremonies. It is available in different forms, the hard, amber-like yellow copal is a less expensive version. The white copal, a hard, milky, sticky substance, is an expensive version of the same resin. Copal resin from Hymenaea verrucosa is found in East Africa and is used in incense. By the 18th century, Europeans found it to be an ingredient in making a good wood varnish. It became widely used in the manufacture of furniture and carriages and it was also sometimes used as a picture varnish. By the late 19th and early 20th century varnish manufacturers in England and America were using it on train carriages, in 1859 Americans consumed 68 percent of the East African trade, which was controlled through the Sultan of Zanzibar, with Germany receiving 24 percent. The American Civil War and the creation of the Suez Canal led to Germany, India, East Africa apparently had a higher amount of subfossil copal, which is found one or two meters below living copal trees from roots of trees that may have lived thousands of years earlier. This subfossil copal produces a harder varnish, subfossil copal is also well-known from New Zealand, Japan, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Madagascar. It often has inclusions and is sold as young amber. Copal can be distinguished from genuine amber by its lighter citrine colour
23.
Zanzibar
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Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania in East Africa. It is composed of the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 25–50 kilometres off the coast of the mainland, the capital is Zanzibar City, located on the island of Unguja. Its historic centre is Stone Town, which is a World Heritage Site, the name Zanzibar is apparently derived from the Persian zang-bâr signifying black coast. Zanzibars main industries are spices, raffia, and tourism, in particular, the islands produce cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and black pepper. For this reason, the islands, together with Tanzanias Mafia Island, are called the Spice Islands. Zanzibar is the home of the endemic Zanzibar red colobus monkey, the Zanzibar servaline genet, the word Zanzibar came from Arabic Zanjibār, which is in turn from Persian Zang-bār, a compound of Zang + bār. The presence of microlithic tools suggest that it has been home to humans for at least 20,000 years, a Greco-Roman text between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, mentioned the island of Menuthias, which is probably Unguja. Little is known about the history of Zanzibar between the time of the Periplus and the death of Muhammad in 632 CE, from that point forward, wars in Asia and increasing trade motivated Persians, Arabs, and Indians to visit or migrate to Zanzibar. Persian traders used Zanzibar as a base for voyages between the Middle East, India, and Africa and they established garrisons on the islands and built the first Zoroastrian fire temples and mosques in the Southern Hemisphere. The impact of these traders and immigrants on the Swahili culture is uncertain, during the Middle Ages, Zanzibar and other settlements on the Swahili Coast were advanced. The littoral contained a number of autonomous trade cities and these towns grew in wealth as the Bantu Swahili people served as intermediaries and facilitators to local, Arab, Persian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Indian, and Chinese merchants. This interaction contributed in part to the evolution of the Swahili culture, although a Bantu language, Swahili as a consequence today includes some elements that were borrowed from other civilizations, particularly Arabic loanwords. With the wealth that they had acquired through trade, some of the Arab traders also became rulers of the coastal cities, vasco da Gamas visit in 1498 marked the beginning of European influence. In 1503 or 1504, Zanzibar became part of the Portuguese Empire when Captain Ruy Lourenço Ravasco Marques landed and demanded and received tribute from the sultan in exchange for peace, Zanzibar remained a possession of Portugal for almost two centuries. It initially became part of the Portuguese province of Arabia and Ethiopia and was administered by a governor general, around 1571, Zanzibar became part of the western division of the Portuguese empire and was administered from Mozambique. It appears, however, that the Portuguese did not closely administer Zanzibar, the first English ship to visit Unguja, the Edward Bonaventure in 1591, found that there was no Portuguese fort or garrison. The extent of their occupation was a depot where produce was purchased and collected for shipment to Mozambique. In other respects, the affairs of the island were managed by the local king and this hands-off approach ended when Portugal established a fort on Pemba around 1635 in response to the Sultan of Mombasas slaughter of Portuguese residents several years earlier
24.
Elam
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The modern name Elam stems from the Sumerian transliteration elam, along with the later Akkadian elamtu, and the Elamite haltamti. Elamite states were among the political forces of the Ancient Near East. In classical literature, Elam was also known as Susiana, which is a derived from its capital. Elam was part of the early urbanization during the Chalcolithic period, the emergence of written records from around 3000 BC also parallels Sumerian history, where slightly earlier records have been found. In the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan and its culture played a crucial role during the Persian Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded Elam, when the Elamite language remained among those in official use. Elamite is generally accepted to be an isolate unrelated to the much later arriving Persian. The Elamites called their country Haltamti, Sumerian ELAM, Akkadian Elamû, female Elamītu resident of Susiana, the Elamite civilization was primarily centered in the province of what is modern-day Khuzestān and Ilam in prehistoric times. The modern provincial name Khuzestān is derived from the Persian name for Susa, Old Persian Hūjiya Elam, in Middle Persian Huź Susiana, in geographical terms, Susiana basically represents the Iranian province of Khuzestan around the river Karun. In ancient times, several names were used to describe this area, the great ancient geographer Ptolemy was the earliest to call the area Susiana, referring to the country around Susa. Another ancient geographer, Strabo, viewed Elam and Susiana as two different geographical regions and he referred to Elam as primarily the highland area of Khuzestan. Disagreements over the location also exist in the Jewish historical sources says Daniel T. Potts, some ancient sources draw a distinction between Elam as the highland area of Khuzestan, and Susiana as the lowland area. Yet in other ancient sources Elam and Susiana seem equivalent, the uncertainty in this area extends also to modern scholarship. Since the discovery of ancient Anshan, and the realization of its importance in Elamite history. Some modern scholars argued that the centre of Elam lay at Anshan and in the highlands around it and they were Anshanites, Marhashians, Shimashkians, Zabshalians, Sherihumians, Awanites, etc. That Anshan played a role in the political affairs of the various highland groups inhabiting southwestern Iran is clear. Knowledge of Elamite history remains largely fragmentary, reconstruction being based on mainly Mesopotamian sources, the history of Elam is conventionally divided into three periods, spanning more than two millennia. At least three proto-Elamite states merged to form Elam, Anshan, Awan and Shimashki, references to Awan are generally older than those to Anshan, and some scholars suggest that both states encompassed the same territory, in different eras. To this core Shushiana was periodically annexed and broken off, in addition, some Proto-Elamite sites are found well outside this area, spread out on the Iranian plateau, such as Warakshe, Sialk and Jiroft in Kerman Province
25.
Hammurabi
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Hammurabi was the sixth king of the First Babylonian Dynasty, reigning from 1792 BC to 1750 BC. He was preceded by his father, Sin-Muballit, who abdicated due to failing health and he extended Babylons control throughout Mesopotamia through military campaigns. Hammurabi is known for the Code of Hammurabi, one of the earliest surviving codes of law in recorded history, the name Hammurabi derives from the Amorite term ʻAmmurāpi, itself from ʻAmmu and Rāpi. Hammurabi was an Amorite First Dynasty king of the city-state of Babylon, Babylon was one of the many largely Amorite ruled city-states that dotted the central and southern Mesopotamian plains and waged war on each other for control of fertile agricultural land. Though many cultures co-existed in Mesopotamia, Babylonian culture gained a degree of prominence among the literate classes throughout the Middle East under Hammurabi, the kings who came before Hammurabi had founded a relatively minor City State in 1894 BC which controlled little territory outside of the city itself. Babylon was overshadowed by older, larger and more powerful kingdoms such as Elam, Assyria, Isin, Eshnunna, thus Hammurabi ascended to the throne as the king of a minor kingdom in the midst of a complex geopolitical situation. The powerful kingdom of Eshnunna controlled the upper Tigris River while Larsa controlled the river delta, to the east of Mesopotamia lay the powerful kingdom of Elam which regularly invaded and forced tribute upon the small states of southern Mesopotamia. The first few decades of Hammurabis reign were quite peaceful, Hammurabi used his power to undertake a series of public works, including heightening the city walls for defensive purposes, and expanding the temples. In c.1801 BC, the kingdom of Elam. With allies among the states, Elam attacked and destroyed the kingdom of Eshnunna, destroying a number of cities. In order to consolidate its position, Elam tried to start a war between Hammurabis Babylonian kingdom and the kingdom of Larsa. Hammurabi and the king of Larsa made an alliance when they discovered this duplicity and were able to crush the Elamites, although Larsa did not contribute greatly to the military effort. Angered by Larsas failure to come to his aid, Hammurabi turned on that southern power, as Hammurabi was assisted during the war in the south by his allies from the north such as Yamhad and Mari, the absence of soldiers in the north led to unrest. Continuing his expansion, Hammurabi turned his attention northward, quelling the unrest, next the Babylonian armies conquered the remaining northern states, including Babylons former ally Mari, although it is possible that the conquest of Mari was a surrender without any actual conflict. Hammurabi entered into a war with Ishme-Dagan I of Assyria for control of Mesopotamia. Eventually Hammurabi prevailed, ousting Ishme-Dagan I just before his own death, mut-Ashkur the new king of Assyria was forced to pay tribute to Hammurabi, however Babylon did not rule Assyria directly. In just a few years, Hammurabi had succeeded in uniting all of Mesopotamia under his rule, however, one stele of Hammurabi has been found as far north as Diyarbekir, where he claims the title King of the Amorites. Vast numbers of contract tablets, dated to the reigns of Hammurabi and his successors, have been discovered, as well as 55 of his own letters
26.
Babylon
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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
27.
Cuneiform script
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Cuneiform script, one of the earliest systems of writing, was invented by the Sumerians. It is distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by means of a blunt reed for a stylus, the name cuneiform itself simply means wedge shaped. Emerging in Sumer in the fourth millennium BC, cuneiform writing began as a system of pictograms. In the third millennium, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use grew smaller, the system consists of a combination of logophonetic, consonantal alphabetic and syllabic signs. Cuneiform writing was replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire. By the second century CE, the script had become extinct, between half a million and two million cuneiform tablets are estimated to have been excavated in modern times, of which only approximately 30,000 –100,000 have been read or published. Most of these have lain in these collections for a century without being translated, studied or published, the cuneiform writing system was in use for more than three millennia, through several stages of development, from the 34th century BC down to the second century CE. Ultimately, it was replaced by alphabetic writing in the course of the Roman era. It had to be deciphered as an unknown writing system in 19th-century Assyriology. Successful completion of its deciphering is dated to 1857, the cuneiform script was developed from pictographic proto-writing in the late 4th millennium BC. Mesopotamias proto-literate period spans roughly the 35th to 32nd centuries, the first documents unequivocally written in Sumerian date to the 31st century at Jemdet Nasr. Originally, pictographs were either drawn on clay tablets in vertical columns with a reed stylus or incised in stone. This early style lacked the characteristic shape of the strokes. Proper names continued to be written in purely logographic fashion. The earliest known Sumerian king whose name appears on contemporary cuneiform tablets is Enmebaragesi of Kish, from about 2900 BC, many pictographs began to lose their original function, and a given sign could have various meanings depending on context. The sign inventory was reduced from some 1,500 signs to some 600 signs, determinative signs were re-introduced to avoid ambiguity. Cuneiform writing proper thus arises from the more primitive system of pictographs at about that time, by adjusting the relative position of the tablet to the stylus, the writer could use a single tool to make a variety of impressions. Cuneiform tablets could be fired in kilns to provide a permanent record, many of the clay tablets found by archaeologists were preserved because they were fired when attacking armies burned the building in which they were kept
28.
Tell (archaeology)
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In archaeology, a tell or tel is an artificial mound formed from the accumulated remains of people living on the same site for hundreds or thousands of years. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a top and sloping sides. Tells are most commonly associated with the archaeology of the ancient Near East, within the Near East, they are concentrated in less arid regions, including Upper Mesopotamia, the Southern Levant, Anatolia and Iran. A tell is a hill created by many generations of people living and rebuilding on the same spot. Over time, the level rises, forming a mound, the single biggest contributor to the mass of a tell are mud bricks, which disintegrate rapidly. Excavating a tell can reveal buried structures such as government or military buildings, religious shrines and homes and they often overlap horizontally, vertically, or both. Archaeologists excavate tell sites to interpret architecture, purpose, and date of occupation, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press – via Internet Archive
29.
Baghdad
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Baghdad is the capital of the Republic of Iraq. The population of Baghdad, as of 2016, is approximately 8,765,000 making it the largest city in Iraq, the second largest city in the Arab world, and the second largest city in Western Asia. Located along the Tigris River, the city was founded in the 8th century, within a short time of its inception, Baghdad evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center for the Islamic world. This, in addition to housing several key institutions, garnered the city a worldwide reputation as the Centre of Learning. Throughout the High Middle Ages, Baghdad was considered to be the largest city in the world with a population of 1,200,000 people. The city was destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues. With the recognition of Iraq as an independent state in 1938, in contemporary times, the city has often faced severe infrastructural damage, most recently due to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent Iraq War that lasted until December 2011. In recent years, the city has been subjected to insurgency attacks. As of 2012, Baghdad was listed as one of the least hospitable places in the world to live, the site where the city of Baghdad developed has been populated for millennia. By the 8th century AD, several villages had developed there, including a Persian hamlet called Baghdad, the name is of Indo-European origin and a Middle Persian compound of Bagh god and dād given by, translating to Bestowed by God or Gods gift. In Old Persian the first element can be traced to boghu and is related to Slavic bog god, a similar term in Middle Persian is the name Mithradāt, known in English by its Hellenistic form Mithridates, meaning gift of Mithra. There are a number of locations in the wider region whose names are compounds of the word bagh, including Baghlan. The name of the town Baghdati in Georgia shares the same etymological origins, when the Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur, founded a completely new city for his capital, he chose the name Madinat al-Salaam or City of Peace. This was the name on coins, weights, and other official usage. By the 11th century, Baghdad became almost the exclusive name for the world-renowned metropolis, after the fall of the Umayyads, the first Muslim dynasty, the victorious Abbasid rulers wanted their own capital whence they could rule. They chose a site north of the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon, on 30 July 762, the caliph Al-Mansur commissioned the construction of the city, mansur believed that Baghdad was the perfect city to be the capital of the Islamic empire under the Abbasids. Mansur loved the site so much he is quoted saying, This is indeed the city that I am to found, where I am to live, and where my descendants will reign afterward. The citys growth was helped by its excellent location, based on at least two factors, it had control over strategic and trading routes along the Tigris, the abundance of water in a dry climate
30.
Baqubah
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Baqubah is the capital of Iraqs Diyala Governorate. The city is located some 50 km to the northeast of Baghdad, in 2003 it had an estimated population of some 467,900 people. Baqubah served as a way station between Baghdad and Khorasan on the medieval Silk Road, during the Abbasid Caliphate, it was known for its date and fruit orchards, irrigated by the Nahrawan Canal. Situated on the road and rail routes between Baghdad and Iran it is a centre of trade for agricultural produce. It is now known as the centre of Iraqs commercial orange groves, baqubahs name originates from the Aramaic words Bet and Yaqub and means Jacobs house The city was used as a refugee camp for Assyrian refugees fleeing the Assyrian Genocide. A refugee camp was set up outside the city, which accommodated between 40,000 and 50,000 refugees. During the course of the U. S. -led occupation of Iraq, Baquba emerged as the scene of some of the heaviest guerrilla activity, along with the Sunni enclaves of Fallujah and Ramadi. It was the site of the heaviest fighting during the June 24,2004, al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, took responsibility for the attacks. In a setback for insurgents, Iraqi and U. S. officials confirmed on June 8,2006, during late 2006, however, Baqubah and much of Diyala province were reported to have come under Sunni insurgent control. The city at its peak had over 460,000 residents, on August 10,2015 a suicide car bombing near Baqubah killed 30 and wounded 40 people. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, the following is a list of deadly attacks in the city including the death of al-Zarqawi and after. August 10,2003, SSG David Perry from the 649th MP Company was killed while inspecting a suspicious package outside Diyala Provincial Police Headquarters, the 649th MPs were guarding the police station and training Iraqi Police April 8–13,2004, Mahdi Militia attempt to over take the city. American tanks and Bradleys patrol the streets and Artillery and Air Force bombs dropped inside the city limits, Army Captain Humayun Khan ran towards a taxi that was speedily approaching the guard post he was inspecting. Its driver detonated a bomb before the taxi could hit the post or a mess hall. Khan was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, fighting peaked during the daylight hours and tapered off to a stop during nighttime. Respective units were alerted and a draft of the operation had been disseminated to all participants when the fighting stopped. The enemy primarily attacked the western side of the American position, June 24,2004, Insurgents establish a series of blocking positions and strong points along the major routes of travel through the city prior to 0500 local time. The platoon pushes through the fire and continues south, reaches a second enemy strong point identified vicinity the civic center adjacent to the Mufrak traffic circle where it is fired on again
31.
University of Chicago Oriental Institute
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The Oriental Institute, established in 1919, is the University of Chicagos interdisciplinary research center for ancient Near Eastern studies, and archaeology museum. It was founded for the university by professor James Henry Breasted with funds donated by John D. Rockefeller and it conducts research on ancient civilizations throughout the Near East, including at its facility, Chicago House, in Luxor, Egypt. The Institute publicly exhibits a collection of artifacts related to ancient civilizations at its on campus building in the Hyde Park. James Henry Breasted built up the collection of the universitys Haskell Oriental Museum, which he oversaw along with his field work, as World War I wound down, he sensed an opportunity to use his influence in the new political climate. He wrote to John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and proposed the foundation of what would become the Oriental Institute. Fundamental to the implementation of his plan was a trip through the Middle East. Breasted received a reply from Rockefeller pledging $50,000 over five years for the Oriental Institute, Rockefeller also assured University of Chicago President Harry Pratt Judson that he would pledge another $50,000 to the cause. The University of Chicago contributed additional support, and in May 1919 the Oriental Institute was founded, the Institute is housed in an unusual Art-Deco/Gothic building at the corner of 58th Street and University Avenue, which was designed by the architectural firm Mayers Murray & Phillip. Construction was completed in 1930, and the building was dedicated in 1931, in the 1990s, Tony Wilkinson, founded the Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes based at the institute. Its role is to investigate the Middle East through landscape archaeology, the Museum of the Oriental Institute has artifacts from digs in Egypt, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. The museum has free admission, although visitors are encouraged to donate US $10.00 for adults, the Oriental Institute is a center of active research on the ancient Near East. The buildings upper floors contain classrooms and faculty offices, and its gift shop, in addition to carrying out many digs in the Fertile Crescent, OI scholars have made contributions to the understanding of the origins of human civilization. The term Fertile Crescent was coined by J. H. Breasted, the OI founder, in 2011, among other projects OI scholars completed publication of the 21-volume Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, a basic cultural reference work. The effort was begun in 1921 by J. H. Breasted, Dr. Erica Reiner as editor-in-charge led the research teams for 44 years. She was succeeded by Dr. Martha T. Roth, dean of humanities at the university, similar dictionaries are under way, including the Chicago Hittite Dictionary and one for Demotic. The Institute oversees the work of Chicago House in Luxor, Egypt, the Egyptian facility, established in 1924, performs the Epigraphic Survey, which documents and researches the historical sites in Luxor. It also manages conservation at various sites, a collection comparable to the Institutes treasures could not be assembled today, since Middle Eastern governments no longer allow foreign archeologists to take home half of what they find. This had been the typical arrangement in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when most of the holdings were excavated, until the 1930s, when new antiquities laws were instituted
32.
University of Chicago
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The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It holds top-ten positions in national and international rankings and measures. The university currently enrolls approximately 5,700 students in the College, Chicagos physics department helped develop the worlds first man-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction beneath the viewing stands of universitys Stagg Field. The university is home to the University of Chicago Press. With an estimated date of 2020, the Barack Obama Presidential Center will be housed at the university. Both Harper and future president Robert Maynard Hutchins advocated for Chicagos curriculum to be based upon theoretical and perennial issues rather than on applied sciences, the University of Chicago has many prominent alumni. 92 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the university as professors, students, faculty, or staff, similarly,34 faculty members and 16 alumni have been awarded the MacArthur “Genius Grant”. Rockefeller on land donated by Marshall Field, while the Rockefeller donation provided money for academic operations and long-term endowment, it was stipulated that such money could not be used for buildings. The original physical campus was financed by donations from wealthy Chicagoans like Silas B, Cobb who provided the funds for the campus first building, Cobb Lecture Hall, and matched Marshall Fields pledge of $100,000. Organized as an independent institution legally, it replaced the first Baptist university of the same name, william Rainey Harper became the modern universitys first president on July 1,1891, and the university opened for classes on October 1,1892. The business school was founded thereafter in 1898, and the law school was founded in 1902, Harper died in 1906, and was replaced by a succession of three presidents whose tenures lasted until 1929. During this period, the Oriental Institute was founded to support, in 1896, the university affiliated with Shimer College in Mount Carroll, Illinois. The agreement provided that either party could terminate the affiliation on proper notice, several University of Chicago professors disliked the program, as it involved uncompensated additional labor on their part, and they believed it cheapened the academic reputation of the university. The program passed into history by 1910, in 1929, the universitys fifth president, Robert Maynard Hutchins, took office, the university underwent many changes during his 24-year tenure. In 1933, Hutchins proposed a plan to merge the University of Chicago. During his term, the University of Chicago Hospitals finished construction, also, the Committee on Social Thought, an institution distinctive of the university, was created. Money that had been raised during the 1920s and financial backing from the Rockefeller Foundation helped the school to survive through the Great Depression, during World War II, the university made important contributions to the Manhattan Project. The university was the site of the first isolation of plutonium and of the creation of the first artificial, in the early 1950s, student applications declined as a result of increasing crime and poverty in the Hyde Park neighborhood
33.
Henri Frankfort
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Henri Hans Frankfort was a Dutch Egyptologist, archaeologist and orientalist. Born in Amsterdam, Frankfort studied history at the University of Amsterdam and then moved to London, in 1927 he gained a Ph. D. from the University of Leiden. Between 1925 and 1929 Frankfort was the director of the excavations of the Egypt Exploration Society of London at El-Amarna, Abydos, in 1929 he was invited by Henry Breasted to become Field Director of the Oriental Institute of Chicago expedition to Iraq. In 1931 he became correspondent of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and he became foreign member in 1950. In 1937 Frankfort and Emil Kraeling identified a woman on the Burney Relief as Lilith of later Jewish mythology, though this identification is now generally rejected. In 1939 he published what Gary Beckman considers to be perhaps his most influential scholarly achievement Cylinder Seals, A Documentary Essay on the Art and Religion of the Ancient Near East. In a collaborative work with his wife, John A. Wilson and Thorkild Jacobsen he published The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man in 1946, Frankfort published Kingship and the Gods in 1948, a classic work in the opinion of John Baines. In 1948 he became director of the Warburg Institute in London, along with EA Wallis Budge, he was revolutionary for his time for suggesting that Egyptian civilization, culturally, religiously, and ethnically arose from an African, instead of an Asian base. He wrote 15 books and monographs and about 73 articles for journals about ancient Egypt, archaeology and cultural anthropology, erik Hornung in his influential work Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt, The One and the Many acknowledged his debt to previous work done by Henri Frankfort. He married Henriette Antonia Groenewegen and later Enriqueta Harris, Ancient Egyptian Religion, an Interpretation Kingship and the Gods The Birth of Civilization in the Near East The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient
34.
Shaduppum
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Shaduppum is an archaeological site in Baghdad Governorate. Nowadays, it lies within the borders of modern Baghdad, the site was excavated by Iraqi archaeologist Taha Baqir of the Department of Antiquities and Heritage from 1945 to 1963, discovering about 2000 tablets. In 1997 and 1998, the site was worked by a team from Baghdad University, many other illegally excavated tablets have found their way into various institutions. It was a center for the kingdom and its name means the treasury. The site featured a large wall and a temple to the goddess Nisaba. Among the tablets from Tell Harmal are two of the epic of Gilgamesh and two parts of the Laws of Eshnunna as well as some important mathematical tablets. Cities of the ancient Near East 1 Chronicles 7,12, Maria de J. Ellis, Old Babylonian Economic Texts and Letters from Tell Harmal, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol.24, No. 3, pp. 43–69,1972 Gwendolyn Leick, Francis J. Kirk, A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Architecture, Routledge,1988, Ellis, The Division of Property at Tell Harmal, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 3, pp. 133–153,1974 Lamia al-Gailani Werr, A Note on the Seal Impression IM52599 from Tell Harmal, Journal of Cuneiform Studies,1, pp. 62–64,1978 Maria deJ. Ellis, An Old Babylonian Adoption Contract from Tell Harmal, Journal of Cuneiform Studies,3, pp. 130–151,1975 T. Baqir, An important mathematical problem text from Tell Harmal, Sumer, vol. 6, pp. 39–54,1950 T. Baqir, Another important mathematical text from Tell Harmal, Sumer,6, pp. 130–148,1950 A. Goetze, A mathematical compendium from Tell Harmal, Sumer, vol. 7, pp. 126–155,1951 T Baqir Some more mathematical texts from Tell Harmal, Sumer, vol
35.
Code of Hammurabi
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The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian law code of ancient Mesopotamia, dating back to about 1754 BC. It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world, the sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the code, and partial copies exist on a seven and a half foot stone stele and various clay tablets. The code consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments, adjusting an eye for an eye, nearly one-half of the code deals with matters of contract, establishing, for example, the wages to be paid to an ox driver or a surgeon. Other provisions set the terms of a transaction, establishing the liability of a builder for a house collapses, for example. A third of the code addresses issues concerning household and family such as inheritance, divorce, paternity. Only one provision appears to impose obligations on an official, this establishes that a judge who reaches an incorrect decision is to be fined and removed from the bench permanently. A few provisions address issues related to military service, the code was discovered by modern archaeologists in 1901, and its editio princeps translation published in 1902 by Jean-Vincent Scheil. This nearly complete example of the code is carved into a basalt stele in the shape of an index finger,2.25 m tall. The code is inscribed in the Akkadian language, using cuneiform script carved into the stele, Hammurabi ruled for nearly 42 years, from about 1792 to 1749 BC according to the Middle chronology. On the stone slab are 44 columns and 28 paragraphs that contained 282 laws, some of these laws follow along the rules of an eye for an eye. It had been taken as plunder by the Elamite king Shutruk-Nahhunte in the 12th century BC and was taken to Susa in Elam where it was no longer available to the Babylonian people. The Code of Hammurabi was one of several sets of laws in the ancient Near East, the code of laws was arranged in orderly groups, so that all who read the laws would know what was required of them. These codes come from similar cultures in a small geographical area. The Code of Hammurabi is the longest surviving text from the Old Babylonian period, the code has been seen as an early example of a fundamental law, regulating a government — i. e. a primitive constitution. The code is one of the earliest examples of the idea of presumption of innocence. However, its copying in subsequent generations indicates that it was used as a model of legal and judicial reasoning, the Code issues justice following the three classes of Babylonian society, property owners, freed men, and slaves. For example, if a doctor killed a patient, he would have his hands cut off. Various copies of portions of the Code of Hammurabi have been found on baked clay tablets, the Prologue of the Code of Hammurabi is on such a tablet, also at the Louvre
36.
Cult image
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In the practice of religion, a cult image is a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents. Cultus, the outward religious formulas of cult, often centers upon the treatment of cult images, religious images cover a wider range of all types of images made with a religious purpose, subject, or connection. In many contexts cult image specifically means the most important image in a temple, kept in an inner space, as opposed to what may be many other images decorating the temple. The term idol is often synonymous with cult image, but may be used especially of an image believed not just to depict or represent a deity or spirit. Sometimes the image is believed to have its own powers, to grant wishes or otherwise affect the world, in cultures where idolatry is not viewed negatively, the word idol is not generally seen as pejorative, such as in Indian English. Cult of images is the practice of worshipping or venerating religious or cult images representing divine figures, common in a number of ancient religions, the practice continues most prominently today in Hinduism. Assertions by others outside the group concerned that such beliefs are held by the group are however common. Cult images were a presence in Ancient Egypt, and still are in modern-day Kemetism. A common example of an image in ancient Egypt was the Apis Bull. The term is confined to the relatively small images, typically in gold. These images usually showed the god in their sacred barque or boat, the Parthenon contained a cult image of Athena, the Greek goddess of civilization and the noble side of war. This cult image, known as Athena Parthenos, was created by Phidias and this cult image was used for religious sacrifices at this Athenian temple. Hinduism allows for many forms of worship and therefore it neither prescribes nor proscribes worship of images, in Hinduism, a murti typically refers to an image that expresses a Divine Spirit. Meaning literally embodiment, a murti is a representation of a divinity, made usually of stone, wood, or metal, hindus consider a murti worthy of serving as a focus of divine worship only after the divine is invoked in it for the purpose of offering worship. The depiction of the divinity must reflect the gestures and proportions outlined in religious tradition, members of Abrahamic religions identify cult images as idols and their worship as idolatry, the worship of hollow forms. The avoidance of such a degrading paradox was expressed in the early Christian idea of miraculous icons that were not made by human hands, acheiropoietoi. Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians make an exception for the veneration of image of saints, the word idol entered Middle English in the 13th century from Old French idole adapted in Ecclesiastical Latin from the Greek eidolon. Greek eidos was employed by Plato and the Platonists to signify perfect immutable forms, the local tribes, of the Arabian peninsula, came to this centre of commerce to place their idols in the Kaaba, in the process being charged tithes
37.
Shulgi
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Shulgi of Ur was the second king of the Sumerian Renaissance in the Third Dynasty of Ur. He reigned for 48 years, from c.2029 BC –1982 BC and his accomplishments include the completion of construction of the Great Ziggurat of Ur which was started by his father Ur-Nammu. Shulgi was the son of Ur-Nammu king of Ur – according to one later text, year-names are known for all 48 years of his reign, providing a fairly complete contemporary view of the highlights of his career. Shortly after his fathers death, Shulgi engaged in a series of wars against the Gutians to avenge his father. The only activity recorded in the year-names for his first few years involved temple construction, Shulgi is best known for his extensive revision of the scribal schools curriculum. Although it is unclear how much he wrote, there are numerous praise poems written by. He proclaimed himself a god in his 23rd regnal year, some early chronicles castigate Shulgi for his impiety, the Weidner Chronicle states that he did not perform his rites to the letter, he defiled his purification rituals. CM48 charges him with improper tampering with the rites, composing untruthful stelae, the Chronicle of Early Kings accuses him of criminal tendencies, and the property of Esagila and Babylon he took away as booty. The inscriptions state that he put its field accounts in order with the pick-axe and his 18th year-name was Year Liwir-mitashu, the kings daughter, was elevated to the ladyship in Marhashi, referring to a country east of Elam and her dynastic marriage to its king, Libanukshabash. Following this, Shulgi engaged in a period of expansionism at the expense of such as the Lullubi. In his 30th year, his daughter was married to the governor of Anshan, in his 34th year and he also destroyed Kimash and Humurtu in the 45th year of his reign. Ultimately, Shulgi was never able to rule any of these distant peoples, at one point, in his 37th year, he was obliged to build a large wall, in an attempt to keep them out. In addition to construction of walls and completion of the Great Ziggurat of Ur, Shulgi spent a great deal of time and resources in expanding, maintaining. He built rest-houses along roads, so travelers could find a place to rest. For this last feat, Samuel Noah Kramer calls him the builder of the first inn, Shulgi also boasted about his ability to maintain high speeds while running long distances. He claimed in his 7th regnal year to have run from Nippur to Ur, Kramer refers to Shulgi as The first long distance running champion. Early uncertainties about the reading of cuneiform led to the readings Shulgi and Dungi being common transliterations prior to the end of the 19th century. However, over the course of the 20th century, the scholarly consensus gravitated away from dun towards shul as the pronunciation of the
38.
Shu-Sin
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Shu-sin was king of Sumer and Akkad, and was the penultimate king of the Ur III dynasty. He succeeded his brother Amar-Sin, and reigned c and he was succeeded by his son Ibbi-Sin. History of Sumer Sumerian king list Shu-Sin year names at cdli Stiebing Jr. William H. Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture
39.
Khafajah
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Khafajah or Khafaje is an archaeological site in Diyala Province. It was part of the city-state of Eshnunna, the site lies 7 miles east of Baghdad and 12 miles southwest of Eshnunna. Khafajah was excavated for 7 seasons in the early 1930s primarily by an Oriental Institute of Chicago team led by Henri Frankfort with Thorkild Jacobsen, for two seasons, the site was worked by a joint team of the American Schools of Oriental Research and the University of Pennsylvania. Khafajah lies on the Diyala River, a tributary of the Tigris, the site consists of four mounds, labeled A through D. The main one, Mound A, extends back as far as the Uruk period and contained a temple, a temple of the god Sin, not surely. The Dur-Samsuiluna fort was found on mounds B and C, Mound D contained private homes and a temple for the god Sin where the archive tablets where found in two heaps. Khafajah was occupied during the Early Dynastic Period, through the Sargonid Period, later, after Eshnunna was captured by Babylon, a fort was built at the site by Samsu-iluna of the First Babylonian Dynasty and named Dur-Samsuiluna. The history of Khafajah is known in more detail for a period of several decades as a result of the discovery of 112 clay tablets in a temple of Sin. The tablets constitute part of an archive and include mostly loan. The Oriental Institute of Chicago holds 57 of the tablets with the remainder being in the Iraq Museum
Iraq
