star & 3 wisemen

A woman takes her 16-year-old daughter to the doctor. The doctor says, “Okay, Mrs. Jones, what’s the problem?”

The mother says, “It’s my daughter Darla. She keeps getting these cravings, she’s putting on weight, and is sick most mornings.”

The doctor gives Darla a good examination, then turns to the mother and says, “Well, I don’t know how to tell you this, but your Darla is pregnant — about 4 months, would be my guess.”

The mother says, “Pregnant?! She can’t be, she has never ever been left alone with a man! Have you, Darla?”

Darla says, “No mother! I’ve never even kissed a man!”

The doctor walked over to the window and just stares out of it. About five minutes pass and finally the mother says,

“Is there something wrong out there doctor?”

The doctor replies, “No, not really, it’s just that the last time anything like this happened, a star appeared in the east and three wise men came over the hill. I’ll be damned if I’m going to miss it this time!”

Indus-Valley(Harappan) Civilization

(3300 BC–1900 BC)

The Indus-Valley Civilization (c. 3300–1700 BC, flowered 2600–1900 BC), abbreviated IVC, was an ancient riverine civilization that flourished in the Indus river (Sindhu Nadi) valley in ancient India (now Pakistan and the present north-west India). Another name for this civilization is the “Harappan Civilization.”

The Mohenjo-daro ruins were one of the major centres of this ancient society. At its peak, some archaeologists opine that the Indus Civilization may have had a population of well over five million.

The epicenter of the Harappan civilization was in the fertile plains of River Indus. The settlements have been found as far as Baluchistan in Pakistan and Gangetic plain in India. It is estimated that around 5000 years back, a group of nomads came to India from Sumeria, which is the modern day Iraq. They passed through the Himalayas where they discovered a rich and fertile land which was irrigated by a number of rivers like Indus, Ravi, Chenab, Sutlej and Beas. This was the fertile plain of the modern day Punjab. As compared to Iran, which is essentially a desert and arid land, this land was blessed with ample water and other natural resources. There was enough wood to burn and enough clay to make bricks.

Cities

A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident in the Indus Valley civilization. The quality of municipal town planning suggests knowledge of urban planning and efficient municipal governments which placed a high priority on hygiene. The streets of major cities such as Mohenjo-daro or Harappa were laid out in a perfect grid pattern, comparable to that of present day New York. The houses were protected from noise, odors, and thieves.

As seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, and the recently discovered Rakhigarhi, this urban plan included the world’s first urban sanitation systems. Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells. From a room that appears to have been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets. Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes. The ancient Indus systems of sewage and drainage that were developed and used in cities throughout the Indus Empire were far more advanced than any found in contemporary urban sites in the Middle East and even more efficient than those in some areas of modern Pakistan and India today. The advanced architecture of the Harappans is shown by their impressive dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick platforms, and protective walls. The massive citadels of Indus cities that protected the Harappans from floods and attackers were larger than most Mesopotamian ziggurats.

The purpose of the “Citadel” remains debated. In sharp contrast to this civilization’s contemporaries, Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, no large monumental structures were built. There is no conclusive evidence of palaces or templesÐor, indeed, of kings, armies, or priests. Some structures are thought to have been granaries. Found at one city is an enormous well-built bath, which may have been a public bath. Although the “Citadels” are walled, it is far from clear that these structures were defensive. They may have been built to divert flood waters.

Most city dwellers appear to have been traders or artisans, who lived with others pursuing the same occupation in well-defined neighborhoods. Materials from distant regions were used in the cities for constructing seals, beads, and other objects. Among the artifacts made were beautiful beads of glazed stone called faïence. The seals have images of animals, gods, etc., and inscriptions. Some of the seals were used to stamp clay on trade goods, but they probably had other uses.Although some houses were larger than others, Indus civilization cities were remarkable for their apparent egalitarianism. For example, all houses had access to water and drainage facilities. One gets the impression of a vast middle-class society.

Geography

The Indus valley was by main rivers, the Indus River. The Indus River was very important to Indus life. The river provided irrigation, and also created fertile land for farming. In the middle of India is the Deccan Plateau, which might have helped protect the Indus people from foreign invaders. The Himalayas are also located near the Indus Valley, as is the Hindu Kush mountain range.

Transportation

People used camels, oxen and elephants to travel over land. They had carts with wooden wheels. They had ships, with one mast, probably used to sail around the Arabian Sea. Seals with a pictographic script, which has not as yet been deciphered, were found at the Indus Valley sites. Similar seals were found in Mesopotamia, which seems to indicate possible trade between these two civilizations.

Trade

The Indus civilization’s economy appears to have depended significantly on trade, which was facilitated by major advances in transport technology. These advances included bullock-driven carts that are identical to those seen throughout South Asia today, as well as boats. Most of these boats were probably small, flat-bottomed craft, perhaps driven by sail, similar to those one can see on the Indus River today; however, there is secondary evidence of sea-going craft. Archaeologists have discovered a massive, dredged canal and docking facility at the coastal city of Lothal.

Judging from the dispersal of Indus civilization artifacts, the trade networks, economically, integrated a huge area, including portions of Afghanistan, the coastal regions of Persia, northern and central India, and Mesopotamia.

Agriculture

The nature of the Indus civilization’s agricultural system is still largely a matter of conjecture due to the limited amount of information surviving through the ages. Some speculation is possible, however.

Earlier studies (prior to 1980) often assumed that food production was imported to the Indus Valley by a single linguistic group (“Aryans”) and/or from a single area. But recent studies indicate that food production was largely indigenous to the Indus Valley. Already the Mehrgarh people used domesticated wheats and barley and the major cultivated cereal crop was naked six-row barley, a crop derived from two-row barley. Archaeologist Jim G. Shaffer (1999: 245) writes that the Mehrgarh site “demonstrates that food production was an indigenous South Asian phenomenon” and that the data support interpretation of “the prehistoric urbanization and complex social organization in South Asia as based on indigenous, but not isolated, cultural developments.”

Indus civilization agriculture must have been highly productive; after all, it was capable of generating surpluses sufficient to support tens of thousands of urban residents who were not primarily engaged in agriculture. It relied on the considerable technological achievements of the pre-Harappan culture, including the plough. Still, very little is known about the farmers who supported the cities or their agricultural methods. Some of them undoubtedly made use of the fertile alluvial soil left by rivers after the flood season, but this simple method of agriculture is not thought to be productive enough to support cities. There is no evidence of irrigation, but such evidence could have been obliterated by repeated, catastrophic floods.

The Indus civilization appears to contradict the hydraulic despotism hypothesis of the origin of urban civilization and the state. According to this hypothesis, cities could not have arisen without irrigation systems capable of generating massive agricultural surpluses. To build these systems, a despotic, centralized state emerged that was able to suppress the social status of thousands of people and harness their labor as slaves. It is very difficult to square this hypothesis with what is known about the Indus civilization. There is no evidence of kings, slaves, or forced mobilization of labor.

It is often assumed that intensive agricultural production requires dams and canals. This assumption is easily refuted. Throughout Asia, rice farmers produce significant agricultural surpluses from terraced, hillside rice paddies, which result not from slavery but rather the accumulated labor of many generations of people. Instead of building canals, Indus civilization people may have built water diversion schemes, which – like terrace agriculture – can be elaborated by generations of small-scale labor investments.

In addition, it is known that Indus civilization people practiced rainfall harvesting, a powerful technology that was brought to fruition by classical Indian civilization but nearly forgotten in the 20th century. It should be remembered that Indus civilization people, like all peoples in South Asia, built their lives around the monsoon,a weather pattern in which the bulk of a year’s rainfall occurs in a four-month period. At a recently discovered Indus civilization city in western India, archaeologists discovered a series of massive reservoirs, hewn from solid rock and designed to collect rainfall, that would have been capable of meeting the city’s needs during the dry season.

Food

Dinner might have been warm wheat bread served with barley or rice. It would appear they were very good farmers. They grew barley, peas, melons, wheat, and dates. Farms raised cotton and kept herds of sheep, pigs, zebus (a kind of cow), and water buffalo. Fish were caught in the river with fish hooks! Each town had a large central storage building for grain. Crops were grown, and the harvest stored centrally, for all in the town to enjoy.

Social Life:

In Indus valley civilization, the society was divided into three distinct social groups. One group ruled and administered the city, the other group included the merchants who were associated with trade and other business activities in the city. The third group were the labourers who worked in the city. They also included the farmers who cultivated wheat and barley as their main crops. Animals like the buffaloes, sheeps and pigs and the humped bull were bred. Fish, mutton, beef, poultry and pork consisted the food they ate. Animals like the elephant, camels and dogs were also domesticated.

Men also seemed to have worn ornaments like fillets, necklaces, finger rings and armlets. Women were fond of ornaments like earrings, bangles, bracelets, necklaces, girdles and anklets made of shell, beads, gold and silver and copper. Razors, bronze mirrors and combs made of ivory speaks of the people interest in personal upkeep. Toys like the whistle and carts besides puppets, rattles and dolls made of terracotta speaks greatly about the attitude of the people in child care. People enjoyed playing in dice and marble. Gambling was a favourite past time of the elder members in the society.

Religious Life:

Scholars are unable to draw a conclusion regarding the religion of Indus people. Unlike Mesopotamia or Egypt, there was no such buildings discovered so that we can conclude it might be a temple or involve any kind of public worship. However some historians are of the opinion that Harappan people were Hindus.

The Harappan religion was polytheistic. They used cattle, elephants and other animals to represent their Gods. The Harappan seals were amulets addressed to the Harappan Gods. The Gods of the Harappans depicted on their seals represented the Gods of the various economic corporations in the Indus Valley. The unicorn God, probably represented `Ma`, while the cattle God probably represented Kali or Uma, Amma or Pravarti, the mother goddess.

The bulk of public buildings in the city seemed to be solely oriented towards the economy and making life comfortable for the Harappans. We do, however, have a number of tantalizing figures on various seals and statues. What we gather from these figures, is that the Harappans probably exercised some sort of goddess worship. There is, however, some sort of male god that has the head of a man with the horns of a bull. In addition, we believe from various artifacts that the Harappans also may have worshipped natural objects or animistic forces, but the circumstances of this worship can only be guessed at. No temple has yet been discovered. From the Pashupati seal, it is certain that they worshipped Shiva. There is an image of Shiva, seated on a stool flanked by an elephant. Numerous pottery figurines of Mother Goddesses have also been found. Nature worship must have been part of their ritual as revealed in the seals. There is a scene of a horned goddess, before whom another horned deity is kneeling and animals as some male figures wearing the horns of a goat or a bull, some animals standing on rectangular pedestals, composite animals having body of a ram and trunk of an elephant, a limestone bull having a garland round his neck and a unicorn being carried in a procession.

However Historian John Keays in his book on Religion of Harappans countered this view. He states: “The religion of Harappans is unknown. No site has certainly been identified as a temple and most suppositions about sacrificial fires, cult objects and deities rest on doubtful retrospective references from Hindu practices of many centuries later. Such inferences may be as futile as, say, looking to Islamic astronomy for an explanation of the orientation of the pyramids. In short, these theories are all fanciful and do not bear scrutiny”.

“Depicted on some Harappan seals, is that of a big-nosed gentleman wearing a horned head-dress who sits in the lotus position, an air of abstraction and an audience of animals. He cannot be the early manifestation of Lord Shiva as Pashupati, `Lord of the Beasts.` Myth, as has been noted, is subject to frequent revision. The chances of a deity remaining closely associated with the specific powers – in this case, fertility, asceticism, and familiarity with the animal kingdom – for all of two thousand years must raise serious doubts, especially since, during the interval, there is little evidence for the currency of this myth. Rudra, a Vedic deity later identified with Shiva, is indeed referred to as Pasupati because of his association with the cattle, but asceticism and meditation were not Rudra`s specialties nor is he usually credited with an empathy for animals other than kine. More plausibly, it has been suggested that the Harappan figure`s heavily horned headgear bespeaks a bull cult, to which numerous other representations of bulls lend substance.

“Similar doubts surround the female terracotta figurines which are often described as mother goddesses. Pop-eyed, bat-eared, belted and sometime miniskirted, they are usually of crude workmanship and grotesque mien. Only a dusty-eyed archaeologist could describe them as `pleasing little things.` The bat-ears, on closer inspection, appear to be elaborate head dresses or hairstyles. If, as the prominent and clumsily applied breasts suggest, they were fertility symbols, why bother with millinery? Or indeed miniskirts?”

“Similar to the cultures of ancient Middle East, it appears that the Indus religion recognized some type of life after death. Unlike Hindus who practice cremation, Indus people carefully buried their dead in wooded coffins with their heads facing north and the feet pointing south. Included in the graves were pottery jars containing food and weapons for use in the afterlife.”

The civilization flourished for many years before finally declining rapidly. One of the main causes that contributed to the decline of Indus valley civilization is changing patterns of climate. Apparently the climate of Indus valley changed over the years making it colder and drier. As a result, the Ghaggar Hakra river system shrunk and its major portions dried up. It is also said that a major tectonic shift may have diverted the natural resources towards the Gangetic Plain. However, the real and definite cause for the decline of the civilization is not known and it is speculated to be a result of various factors including the above two.

some facts:
(1) They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures. Their building bricks were very uniform making city planning easy.

(2) This was the first civilization to incorporate urban sanitation systems. Personal hygiene seems to have been a high priority.

(3) Their art was highly advanced. Terracotta, steatite and bronze human and animal figurines with anatomically correct proportions have been found. Their jewelry was complex and considered beautiful by today’s standards. Long carnelian beads were a specialty.

(4) Transportation and trade were major goals of these people. Their trade network ran from Mesopotamia to northern and central India. Their empire was economic, not military.

(5) Indus Valley Civilization agriculture was based upon a highly productive method of raising, storing and transporting domesticated wheat and barley. Other crops were known.

(6) They had a written script, mostly used on inscribed seals. The language and scripts are still being investigated and are controversial.

(7) Formal religion was highly advanced and included burial and cremation of human

Aztec Civilization

hi friends,

The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican people that lived in the area of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th century. The Aztec history is one of the most famous, enigmatic and tragic histories in the world. They called themselves Mexica. The Republic of Mexico and its capital, Mexico City, derive their names from the word “Mexica”.

The capital of the Aztec empire was Tenochtitlan, built on raised island in Lake Texcoco. Mexico City is built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan. The Spanish colonization of the Americas reached the mainland during the reign of Huey Tlatoani , Moctezuma II (Montezuma II). In 1521 Hernan Cortes and an allied army of American Indians that far outnumbered the defending Aztecs, conquered the Aztecs through germ warfare, siege warfare, psychological warfare, and direct combat.

The center of the Aztec civilization was the Valley of Mexico, a huge, oval basin about 7,500 feet above sea level. The Aztec empire included many cities and towns, especially in the Valley of Mexico. The largest city in the empire was the capital, Tenochtitlan

The story of the Aztecs’ rise to power is awe inspiring one, and is one of the most remarkable stories in world history. They were a relatively unknown group of people who came into the Valley of Mexico during the 12th and 13th century A.D., and rose to be the greatest power in the Americas by the time the Spaniards arrived, in the 16th century. Little is known of the earliest Aztecs, they did not keep a written record. Their history was passed on by word of mouth from one generation to the next. Legend has it that they came from an Island called Aztlan, meaning White Place – Place of Herons.

Arts

Song and poetry were highly regarded; there were presentations and poetry contests at most of the Aztec festivals. There were also dramatic presentations that included players, musicians and acrobats.

Poetry was the only occupation worthy of an Aztec warrior in times of peace. A remarkable amount of this poetry survives, having been collected during the era of the conquest. In some cases poetry is attributed to individual authors, such as Nezahualcoyotl, tlatoani of Texcoco, and Cuacuauhtzin, Lord of Tepechpan, but whether these attributions reflect actual authorship is a matter of opinion. Miguel Leon-Portilla, a well-respected Aztec scholar of Mexico, has stated that it is in this poetry where we can find the real thought of the Aztecs, independent of “official” Aztec ideology.

It is also important to note that the Spanish classified many aspects of the Aztec/Nahuatl culture according to the lexicon and organizational categories with which they would distinguish in Europe.

In the same way that the second letter of Cortez made a mention of “mesquitas”, or in English, “mosques”, when trying to convey his impression of Aztec architecture, early colonists and missionaries divided the principal bodies of nahuatl literature as “poetry” and “prose”. “Poetry” was in xochitl in cuicatl a dual term meaning “the flower and the song” and was divided into different genres. Yaocuicatl was devoted to war and the god(s) of war, Teocuicatl to the gods and creation myths and to adoration of said figures, xochicuicatl to flowers (a symbol of poetry itself and indicative of the highly metaphorical nature of a poetry that often utilized duality to convey multiple layers of meaning). “Prose” was tlahtolli, also with its different categories and divisions (Garganigo et al).

The most important collection of these poems is Romances de los senores de la Nueva Espana, collected (Tezcoco 1582), probably by Juan Bautista de Pomar. Bautista de Pomar was the great-grandson of Netzahualcoyotl. He spoke Nahuatl, but was raised a Christian and wrote in Latin characters. (See also: “Is It You?”, a short poem attributed to Netzahualcoyotl, and “Lament on the Fall of Tenochtitlan”, a short poem contained within the “Anales de Tlatelolco” manuscript.)

The Aztec people also enjoyed a type of dramatic presentation, a kind of theatre. Some plays were comical with music and acrobats, others were staged dramas of their gods. After the conquest, the first Christian churches had open chapels reserved for these kinds of representations.

Plays in Nahuatl, written by converted Indians, were an important instrument for the conversion to Christianity, and are still found today in the form of traditional pastorelas, which are played during Christmas to show the Adoration of Baby Jesus, and other Biblical passages.

Music and dance formed an essential part of the indigenous rites and ceremonies. Research about music of the Aztec people dates back to the writings of Bernal del Castillo, who was appalled by the music of these people because he viewed it during their ritualistic sacrifices, which were very different from rituals of Christian worship. Others, such as the Franciscan monk Fray Bernardino de Sahagun and the Dominican monk Diego Duran, were able to look at the music from different viewpoints, noting the unique instruments and the qualities of pitch and harmony that were achieved with these instruments – new sounds to their ears. Some musical instruments used are Tetzilacatl, Teponaztli, Tecomapiloa, Omichicahuaztli, Huehuetl, Coyolli, Chililitli, Caililiztli, Chicahuaztli, Cacalachtli, Ayotl, Ayacahtli, Tetzilacatl.

The Aztec sculptures which adorned their temples and other buildings were among the most elaborate in all of the Americas. Their purpose was to please the gods and they attempted to do that in everything they did. Many of the sculptures reflected their perception of their gods and how they interacted in their lives. The most famous surviving Aztec sculpture is the large circular Calendar Stone, which represents the Aztec universe.

Food

The principal food of the Aztec was a thin cornmeal pancake called a tlaxcalli. (In Spanish, it is called a tortilla.) They used the tlaxcallis to scoop up foods while they ate or they wrapped the foods in the tlaxcalli to form tacos. They hunted for most of the meat in their diet and the chief game animals were deer, rabbits, ducks and geese. The only animals they raised for meat were turkeys and dogs.

The Aztecs have been credited with the discovery of chocolate. The Aztecs made chocolate from the fruit of the cacao tree and used it as a flavoring and as an ingredient in various beverages and kinds of confectionery.

In 1519, Hernan Cortez tasted Cacahuatt, a drink enjoyed by Montezuma II, the last Aztec emperor. Cortez observed that the Aztecs treated cacao beans, used to make the drink, as priceless treasures. He subsequently brought the beans back to Spain where the chocolate drink was made and then heated with added sweeteners. Its formula was kept a secret to be only enjoyed by the nobility and the warrior class.

Farming

The Aztecs made terraces, which were steps descending down a hall to control the flow of water. This kept their crops from flooding. Like the Olmec civilization, the Aztecs also used a slash and burn method of farming. Chinampas, artificial islands made by weaving giant reed mats and covering them with mudded plants, were used to extend crops into the swamp. Although they seemed to float, the chinampas were anchored to the ground by plant roots. All this helped the Aztecs grow and abundance of corn, chili peppers, squash, tomatoes, beans, and other kinds of food.

The Aztecs were late arrivals to the Lake Texcoco area. They were surrounded by very strong neighbors, so they were forced to live on the swampy, western side of the lake. As the Aztecs grew in number they made excellent military and civil organizations.

By 1325, they founded the city of Tenochtitlan. The city was located on present day Mexico City.

It was very hard to build Tenochtitlan because the Aztecs only had a small piece of land in the surrounding marshes. The Aztecs made the swampy, shallow lake into chinampas. In this case the islands were made by piling up mud from the lake bottom. They used them as their city foundations. Then they built causeways and bridges to connect the city to the mainland. To easily move people and goods, canals were dug and lined with stone. All this made it easy to defend the city from attack. Because of Tenochtitlan’s location and high organization, the city grew rapidly. By 1519 there were about 60,000 people in the city every day. Goods were exported and traded in many other parts of the Aztec Empire.

Government

The Aztec Empire was an example of an empire that ruled by indirect means. Like most European empires, it was ethnically very diverse, but unlike most European empires, it was more a system of tribute than a single system of government. In the theoretical framework of imperial systems posited by Alexander J. Motyl the Aztec empire was an informal or hegemonic empire because it did not exert supreme authority over the conquered lands, it merely expected tributes to be paid. It was also a discontinuous empire because not all dominated territories were connected, for example the southern peripheral zones of Xoconochco were not in direct contact with the center. The hegemonic nature of the Aztec empire can be seen in the fact that generally local rulers were restored to their positions once their city-state was conquered and the Aztecs did not interfere in local affairs as long as the tribute payments were made.

Human Sacrifice

Although the Aztec form of government is often referred to as an empire, in fact most areas within the empire were organized as city-states, known as altepetl in Nahuatl. These were small polities ruled by a king (tlatoani) from a legitimate dynasty. The Early Aztec period was a time of growth and competition among altepetl. Even after the empire was formed (1428) and began its program of expansion through conquest, the altepetl remained the dominant form of organization at the local level. The efficient role of the altepetl as a regional political unit was largely responsible for the success of the empire’s hegemonic form of control.

For most people today, and for the European Catholics who first met the Aztecs, human sacrifice was the most striking feature of Aztec civilization. While human sacrifice was practiced throughout Mesoamerica, the Aztecs, if their own accounts are to be believed, brought this practice to an unprecedented level. For example, for the reconsecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they sacrificed 84,400 prisoners over the course of four days, reportedly by Ahuitzotl, the Great Speaker himself.

Religion

Aztec religion a Mesoamerican religion combining elements of polytheism, shamanism and animism within a framework of astronomy and calendrics. Like other Mesoamerican religions, it had elements of human sacrifice in connection with a large number of religious festivals which were held according to patterns of the Aztec calendar. It had a large and ever increasing pantheon; the Aztecs would often adopt into their own religious practice deities of other geographic regions or peoples.

Aztec cosmology divided the world into upper and nether-worlds, each associated with a specific set of deities and astronomical objects. Important in Aztec religion were the sun, moon and the planet Venus–all of which held different symbolic and religious meanings and were connected to deities and geographical places.

Legacy

Most modern day Mexicans (and people of Mexican descent in other countries) are mestizos, of mixed indigenous and European Spanish ancestry. During the 16th century the racial composition of Mexico began to change from one that featured distinct indigenous (Mexicas and members of the many other Mexican indigenous groups) and immigrant (mostly Spanish) populations, to the population composed primarily of mestizos that is found in modern day Mexico.

The Nahuatl language is today spoken by 1.5 million people, mostly in mountainous areas in the states of central Mexico. Local dialects of Spanish, Mexican Spanish generally, and the Spanish language worldwide have all been influenced, in varying degrees, by Nahuatl. Some Nahuatl words (most notably chocolate and tomato) have been borrowed through Spanish into other languages around the world.

Mexico City was built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, making it one of the oldest living cities of America. Many of its districts and natural landmarks retain their original Nahuatl names. Many other cities and towns in Mexico and Central America have also retained their Nahuatl names (whether or not they were originally Mexica or even Nahuatl-speaking towns). A number of town names are hybrids of Nahuatl and Spanish.

Mexican cuisine continues to be based on and flavored by agricultural products contributed by the Mexicas/Aztecs and Mesoamerica, most of which retain some form of their original Nahuatl names. The cuisine has also become a popular part of the cuisine of the United States and other countries around the world, typically altered to suit various national tastes.

The modern Mexican flag bears the emblem of the Mexica migration legend.

Mexico’s premier religious icon, the Virgin of Guadalupe has certain similarities to the Mexica earth mother goddess Tonantzin

Inca Civilization

(1442 AD - 1573 AD)

the largest empire in Pre-Columbian America, THE INCAS.

The Inca Empire was quite short-lived. It lasted just shy of 100 years, from ca.1438 AD, when the Inca ruler Pachacuti and his army began conquering lands surrounding the Inca heartland of Cuzco, until the coming of the Spaniards in 1532.

As ancient civilizations sprang up across the planet thousands of years ago, so too the Inca civilization evolved. As with all ancient civilizations, its exact origins are unknown. Their historic record, as with all other tribes evolving on the planet at that time, would be recorded through oral tradition, stone, pottery, gold and silver jewelry, and woven in the tapestry of the people.

The Inca of Peru have long held a mystical fascination for people of the western world. Four hundred years ago the fabulous wealth in gold and silver possessed by these people was discovered, then systematically pillaged and plundered by Spanish conquistadors. The booty they carried home altered the whole European economic system. And in their wake, they left a highly developed civilization in tatters. That a single government could control many diverse tribes, many of which were secreted in the most obscure of mountain hideaways, was simply remarkable.

Geography

The Incans gave their empire the name, ‘Land of the Four Quarters’ or the Tahuantinsuyu Empire. It stretched north to south some 2,500 miles along the high mountainous Andean range from Colombia to Chile and reached west to east from the dry coastal desert called Atacama to the steamy Amazonian rain forest.

The Incas ruled the Andean Cordillera, second in height and harshness to the Himalayas. Daily life was spent at altitudes up to 15,000 feet and ritual life extended up to 22,057 feet to Llullaillaco in Chile, the highest Inca sacrificial site known today. Mountain roads and sacrificial platforms were built, which means a great amount of time was spent hauling loads of soil, rocks, and grass up to these inhospitable heights. Even with our advanced mountaineering clothing and equipment of today, it is hard for us to acclimatize and cope with the cold and dehydration experienced at the high altitudes frequented by the Inca. This ability of the sandal-clad Inca to thrive at extremely high elevations continues to perplex scientists today.

At the height of its existence the Inca Empire was the largest nation on Earth and remains the largest native state to have existed in the western hemisphere. The wealth and sophistication of the legendary Inca people lured many anthropologists and archaeologists to the Andean nations in a quest to understand the Inca’s advanced ways and what led to their ultimate demise.

Society

Inca society was made up of ayllus, which were clans of families who lived and worked together. Each allyu was supervised by a curaca or chief. Families lived in thatched-roof houses built of stone and mud. Furnishings were unkown with families sitting and sleeping on the floor. Potatoes were a basic Inca food. The Imperial Incas clothed themselves in garments made from Alpaca and many of their religious ceremonies involved the animal. They wore sandals on their feet.

In Inca social structure, the ruler, Sapa Inca, and his wives, the Coyas, had supreme control over the empire. The High Priest and the Army Commander in Chief were next. Then came the Four Apus, the regional army commanders. Next were temple priests, architects, administrators and army generals. Next were artisans, musicians, army captains and the quipucamayoc, the Incan accountants. At the bottom were sorcerers, farmers, herding families and conscripts.

Inca society continued uninterrupted in this way for hundreds of years. The appearance of light-skinned strangers during the rule of Atahuallpa, however, was to forever change things for the Inca. Deadly plague would soon sweep through the Inca empire. Those that survived had to face the swords and cannons of the invading Spanish. After leading the Spanish to more gold than they had ever before seen, even Lord Atahuallpa was strangled by his Spanish captors.

Every style of hand-weaving was practiced by the Incas. They used this instead of writing in some cases. They also made very artistic pottery.

Language-Religion

The Incan language was based on nature. All of the elements of which they depended, and even some they didn’t were give a divine character. They believed that all deities were created by an ever-lasting, invisible, and all-powerful god named Wiraqocha, or Sun god. The King Incan was seen as Sapan Intiq Churin, or the Only Son of the Sun.

The Inca were a deeply religious people. They feared that evil would befall at any time. Sorcerors held high positions in society as protectors from the spirits. They also believed in reincarnation, saving their nail clippings, hair cuttings and teeth in case the returning spirit needed them. The religious and societal center of Inca life was contained in the middle of the sprawling fortress known as Sacsahuaman. Here was located Cuzco, ‘The Naval of the World’

he home of the Inca Lord and site of the sacred Temple of the Sun. At such a place the immense wealth of the Inca was clearly evident with gold and silver decorating every edifice. The secret of Inca wealth was the mita. This was a labor program imposed upon every Inca by the Inca ruler. Since it only took about 65 days a year for a family to farm for its own needs, the rest of the time was devoted to working on Temple-owned fields, building bridges, roads, temples, and terraces, or extracting gold and silver from the mines. The work was controlled through chiefs of thousands, hundreds and tens.

The Incas worshipped the Earth goddess Pachamama and the sun god, the Inti. The Inca sovereign, lord of the Tahuantinsuyo, the Inca empire, was held to be sacred and to be the descendant of the sun god. Thus, the legend of the origin of the Incas tells how the sun god sent his children Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo (and in another version the four Ayar brothers and their wives) to found Cuzco, the sacred city and capital of the Inca empire. Inti Raymi, the feast of the sun The “Inti Raymi” or “Sun Festivity” was the biggest, most important, spectacular and magnificent festivity carried out in Inca times. It was aimed to worship the “Apu Inti” (Sun God). It was performed every year on June 21, that is, in the winter solstice of the Southern Hemisphere, in the great Cuzco Main Plaza

Economy

Everyone worked except for the very young and the very old. Children worked by scaring away animals from the crops and helping in the home.

About 2/3 of a farmer’s goods would be shared by a tax system, and the rest were for keeps. Some of the goods would be distributed to others, goods would be received in return, and the rest was stored in government storehouses or sacrificed to the gods.

Each ayllu – clans – had their own self-supporting farm community. Ayllu members worked the land cooperatively to produce food crops and cotton. All work was done by hand because the Incas lacked wheeled tools and draft animals. Their simple implements included a heavy wooden spade or foot plow called a taclla, a stone-tipped club to break up clods, a bronze-bladed hoe, and a digging stick.

The inhabitants of the Andean region developed more than half the agricultural products that the world eats today. Among these are more than 20 varieties of corn; 240 varieties of potato; as well as one or more varieties of squash, beans, peppers, peanuts, and cassava (a starchy root); and quinoa, which is made into a cereal.

By far the most important of these was the potato. They grew over 20 varieties of corn and 240 varieties of potatoes.The Incas planted the potato, which is able to withstand heavy frosts, as high as 4600 m (15,000 ft). At these heights the Incas could use the freezing night temperatures and the heat of the day to alternately freeze and dry the potatoes until all the moisture had been removed. The Incas then reduced the potato to a light flour.

They cultivated corn up to an altitude of 4100 m (13,500 ft) and consumed it fresh, dried, and popped. They also made it into an alcoholic beverage known as saraiaka or chicha.

The Incas faced difficult conditions for agriculture. Mountainous terrain limited the land that could be used for agriculture, and water was sometimes scarce.

To compensate, the Incas adopted and improved upon the terracing methods invented by pre-Inca civilizations. They built stone walls to create raised, level fields. These fields formed steplike patterns along the sides of hills that were too steep to irrigate or plough in their natural state. Terraces created more arable land and kept the topsoil from washing away in heavy rains.

Although rain generally falls in the Andes between December and May, there are often years of drought. The Incas constructed complex canals to bring water to terraces and other patches of arable land.

They also made use of natural fertilizers. Guano, the nitrate-rich droppings of birds, was plentiful in coastal areas. In the highlands, farmers used the remains of slaughtered llamas as a fertilizer.

Camelids, such as llamas, alpacas, and vicu­as, were very important to the economy. In addition to carrying burdens, llamas and alpacas were raised as a source of coarse wool and of dung, which was used for fuel. The finest-quality wool came from the wild vicu­a, which was caught, sheared, and set free again.

The Inca also raised guinea pigs, ducks, and dogs, which were the main sources of meat protein.

Government

The Incas had a highly organized government based in Cuzco. The emperor lived there and was regarded to as The Inca, the main supreme the ruler. Underneath him were the nobles.,They were talented and gifted and their skills provided for all of the Inca civilization.

Cuzco, which emerged as the richest city in the New World, was the center of Inca life, the home of its leaders. The riches that were gathered in the city of Cuzco alone, as capital and court of the Empire, were incredible, says an early account of Inca culture written 300 years ago by Jesuit priest Father Bernabe Cobo.

Inca kings and nobles amassed stupendous riches which accompanied them, in death, in their tombs. But it was their great wealth that ultimately undid the Inca, for the Spaniards, upon reaching the New World, learned of the abundance of gold in Inca society and soon set out to conquer it at all costs. The plundering of Inca riches continues today with the pillaging of sacred sites and blasting of burial tombs by grave robbers in search of precious Inca gold.

Decline

The demise of the Incan civilization, at the hands of the Spanish Conquistadors, occurred in the 1500’s, after years of fighting left the already disarticulate anthology in more disarray.

Egyptian Civilization

KHUFU, KHAFRE and MENKAURE

hi friends,

Ancient Egypt — a land of mysteries. No other civilization has so captured the imagination of scholars and laypeople alike. Mystery surrounds its origins, its religion and its monumental architecture: colossal temples, pyramids and the enormous Sphinx. The Egyptian pyramids are the most famous of all the ancient monuments, the only remaining wonder of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Herodotus, a Greek historian who is frequently designated ‘The Father of History,’ went on to call Egypt itself the “Gift of the Nile”, and in doing do he has given us a remarkably accurate summary of Egyptian Civilization.

Just as life arose from the waters, the seeds of civilization were first sown along the banks of the Nile. This mighty river, which flows north from the heart of Africa to the Mediterranean Sea, nourished the growth of the Pharaohs kingdom. The long, narrow flood plain was a magnet for life, attracting people, animals and plants to its banks. In Pre-dynastic times, nomadic hunters settled in the valley and began to grow crops to supplement their food supply. Seen as a gift from the gods, the annual flooding of the river deposited nutrient rich silt over the land, creating ideal conditions for growing wheat, flax and other crops. The first communal project of this fledgling society was the building of irrigation canals for agricultural purposes.

The sun was a principal deity whose passage across the sky represented the eternal cycle of birth, death and rebirth. The pharaohs were seen as gods, divine representatives on earth who, through rituals, ensured the continuation of life. After death, they became immortal, joining the gods in the after-world.

Spinx: The lion with a human head

The Egyptian Spinx at GIZA

A Sphinx is a mythological figure which is depicted as a recumbent lion with a human head. It has its origins in sculpted figures of Old Kingdom Egypt, to which the ancient Greeks applied their own name for a female monster, the strangler, an archaic figure of Greek mythology. Similar creatures appear throughout India as Narasimha (The man-lion) and the sphinx enjoyed a major revival in European decorative art from the Renaissance onwards.

Indian Spinx

The largest, and best known Sphinx lies near the Great Pyramid in the Giza Valley Plateau, situated about six miles west of Cairo. It is the largest single sculpted statue in the world, carved from the bedrock of the plateau. The Sphinx is oriented due east – facing the rising sun – near the 30th parallel – and may well be the oldest monument on the Giza Plateau since long-term water weathering has been found in the great pit in which it lays.

No one is certain when the Sphinx was built nor what it represents, though many theories about its origin and purpose have been noted. It is commonly believed that the Sphinx was built by ancient Egyptians in the 3rd millennium BC.

Carved out of the surrounding limestone bedrock, the Sphinx is 57 metres (260 feet) long, 6 m (20 ft) wide, and has a height of 20 m (65 ft), making it one of the largest single-stone statues in the world. Blocks of stone weighing upwards of 200 tons were quarried in the construction phase to build the adjoining Sphinx Temple.

Greek Spinx

All these cultures and civilizations share the same ideas…..and idols, but with different names.

The true origin and purpose of the Sphinx remains a mystery, and it is perhaps a puzzle which will never be fully solved. Despite its fundamental enigma, the image of the Sphinx remains in the mind of history as the keystone of ancient Egyptian civilization and a part of its religious beliefs.

MUMMY

egyptian mummy

Their mastery in mummification is the highlight of their knowledge in Medical Science.

The Egyptians also believed that the body and soul were important to human existence, in life and in death. Their funerary practices, such as mummification and burial in tombs, were designed to assist the deceased find their way in the after-world. The tombs were filled with food, tools, domestic wares, treasures — all the necessities of life — to ensure the soul’s return to the body so that the deceased would live happily ever after.

The most imposing tombs are the famous pyramids, shaped like the sacred mound where the gods first appeared in the creation story. These were incredibly ambitious projects, the largest structures ever built. Their construction was overseen by highly skilled architects and engineers. Paid laborers moved the massive limestone blocks without the use of wheels, horses or iron tools. The conscripts may have been motivated by a deep faith in the divinity of their leaders and a belief in immortality. Perhaps they thought that their contributions would improve their own prospects at the final judgment in the after-world.

Bastet

Cats were treated as Gods in Egyptian Era. Recent discoveries prove that cats become domesticated during this period, in modern day TURKEY

.

mummyfied cat

They loved, cared and worshiped cats more than any other civilization.

egyptian art

The Egyptian art is the most developed one when compared to other civilizations.

pictorial language

Without the Hieroglyphs (pictorial language) modern day Archeologists won’t have ever come this much close to know the Egyptian Civilization.

Nefertiti

Nefertiti and her husband were known for changing Egypt’s religion from a polytheistic religion to a henotheistic religion. They revered only one god, Aten, the sun disc. This was not strictly monotheism, as they did not deny the existence of other gods.

She had many titles: read Heiress, Great of Favors, Possessed of Charm, Exuding Happiness, Mistress of Sweetness, beloved one, soothing the king’s heart in his house, soft-spoken in all, Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt, Great King’s Wife, whom he loves, Lady of the Two Lands, Nefertiti’.

became pharaoh at 9 and reigned for 10 years

Tutankhamun, named Tutankhaten early in his life, was the 12th Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. He ruled from 1334-1323 BC and lived ca. 1341 BC – 1323 BC, during the period known as the New Kingdom. His original name, Tutankhaten, meant “Living Image of Aten”, while Tutankhamun meant “Living Image of Amun”.

As Tutankhamun began his reign at age 9, a considerable responsibility for his reign must also be assigned to his vizier and eventual successor, Ay. Nonetheless, Tutankhamun is in modern times the most famous of the Pharaohs, and the only one to have a nickname in popular culture (“King Tut”).

The 1922 discovery by Howard Carter of his (nearly) intact tomb received worldwide press coverage and sparked a renewed public interest in Ancient Egypt, of which Tutankhamun remains the popular face.

In historical terms, Tutankhamun is of only moderate significance, primarily as a figure managing the beginning of the transition from the heretical Atenism of his predecessor Akhenaten back to the familiar Egyptian religion.

The gigantic pyramids were conspicuous targets for tomb robbers, whose plundering jeopardized the hope for eternal life. Subsequent generations of kings hid their tombs in the Valley of the Kings in an attempt to elude the robbers. In the desert valley near the ancient capital of Thebes, now called Lu-xor, they prepared their royal tombs by cutting into the side of the mountain. Despite efforts to hide the entrances, thieves managed to find the tombs, pillaging and emptying them of their treasures.

One tomb was spared, however: Tutankhamun’s. Although his resting place was disturbed twice by robbers, the entrance was resealed and remained hidden for over 3,000 years. Its discovery by the British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922 is considered the greatest archaeological find in history. Carter spent the rest of his life working on the tomb, removing its treasures to Cairo, and documenting and studying its contents, including the pharaoh’s gold coffins and mask. Tutankhamun’s mummy remains in his tomb, the only pharaoh to be left in the Valley of the Kings

The cause of Tutankhamun’s death is unclear, and is still the root of much speculation.

eye of horus

The metaphorical side of this information linked the Old Kingdom six fractions, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, and 1/64, to separate parts of the eye, as noted by:

• 1/2 was represented by smell, symbolized by the right side of the eye in a form of the nose. The pyramid text says: “Behold [the fire] rises in Abydos and it comes; I cause it to come, the Eye of Horus. It is set in order upon thy brow, O Osiris Khenti-Amenti; it is set in the shrine and rises on thy brow.”
• 1/4 was represented by sight or the sensation of light, symbolized by the pupil. The pyramid text says: “Perfect is the Eye of Horus. I have delivered the Eye of Horus, the shining one, the ornament of the Eye of Ra, the Father of the Gods.”
• 1/8 was represented by thought, symbolized by the eyebrow. The pyramid text says: “…the Eye of Horus hath made me holy…I will hide myself among you, O ye stars which are imperishable. My brow is the brow of Ra.”
• 1/16 was represented by hearing, symbolized by the left side of the eye in the form of an arrow pointing towards the ear. The pyramid text says: “That which has been shut fast/dead hath been opened by the command of the Eye of Horus, which hath delivered me. Established are the beauties on the forehead of Ra.”
• 1/32 was represented by taste, by the sprouting of wheat or grain from the planted stalk, symbolized by a curved tail. The pyramid text says: “Come, the Eye of Horus hath delivered for me my soul, my ornaments are established on the brow of Ra. Light is on the faces of those who are in the members of Osiris.”
• 1/64 was represented by touch, symbolized by a leg touching the ground, or what can also be thought of as a strong plant growing into the surface of the earth. The pyramid text says: “I shall see the Gods and the Eye of Horus burning with fire before my eyes!”

INFORMATION COURTESY FOR EYES OF HORUS IS FROM WIKIPEDIA

Egyptian Mau

Egyptian Mau’s are a medium-large sized short-haired cat breed. They are the only naturally spotted breed of domesticated cat. The spots on an Egyptian Mau are not only just on the coat; a shaved Mau does, in fact, have spots on its skin. The spotted Mau is an ancient breed from natural stock; its look has not changed significantly as is evidenced by artwork over 3000 years old. Unlike other spotted cats such as Ocicat or Bengal cat the Egyptian Mau is a natural breed. Other breeds are created from domestic breed out-cross or, in the case of the Bengal cat, domestic out-crosses with wildcats. The Mau is significantly smaller than these other breeds.

The Egyptian Mau is the fastest of the domestic cats with its longer hind legs, and unique flap of skin extending from the flank to the back knee, provides for greater agility and with its longer hind legs, and unique flap of skin extending from the flank to the back knee, provides for greater agility and Mau’s have been clocked running over 30 mph (48 km/h).

Sumerian, Mesapotamian Civlization…the cradle of human civilization

(late 6th millennium BC - early 2nd millennium BC)

hi friends,

Archeologists call Sumerian (Mesapotamia) civilization as the cradle of all the human civilizations across the wold. My question is, because of the influence and monopoly of some fast growing religions did we ignore our past?

Authorities do not all agree about the definition of civilization. Most accept the view that “a civilization is a culture which has attained a degree of complexity usually characterized by urban life.” In other words, a civilization is a culture capable of sustaining a substantial number of specialists to cope with the economic, social, political, and religious needs of a populous society. Other characteristics usually present in a civilization include a system of writing to keep records, monumental architecture in place of simple buildings, and an art that is no longer merely decorative, like that on Neolithic pottery, but representative of people and their activities. All these characteristics of civilization first appeared in Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamia: The First Civilization

During the European Ice Ages the Near East was an uninhabitable, overgrown swamp.  When the glaciers began to retreat the rainfall in the Near East began a steady decline.  The grasslands became deserts and the swamps slowly became inhabitable lowlands, a valley formed by two neighboring rivers; the Tigris and the Euphrates; Mesapotamia

The first true civilization on planet earth (of which we are aware) developed in Mesopotamia, and the people who built this first civilization are known as the Sumerians. Ironically, little more than a century ago, nothing was known of the Sumerians.  The first civilization in history had been lost to history.  Slowly, over the past hundred years, and largely due to the efforts of the Universities of Chicago and Pennsylvania, the puzzle has been slowly pieced together.

There are, however, more questions than answers.  For instance, modern scholars have no idea where the Sumerians originated.  We do know that the Sumerians were not the first inhabitants of the ‘Land Between the Rivers.’   The primary evidence that there were earlier inhabitants comes from the study of language, in much the same way that the names  Chattahoochee, Tallapoosa, Etowah, Coosa, Kennesaw, Apalacheecola, and Alatoona indicate that those who now inhabit our own state were preceded by others.  At present, the best scholarly guess is that the Sumerians came from the same area that would eventually give rise to the Indo-Europeans, though the Sumerian language does not appear to be related in any way to the Indo-European languages, or, for that matter, any other language that has ever been spoken on earth.

The Sumerians occupied the lower half of the Tigris-Euphrates valley, roughly the area presently known as Iraq.  It was an area about the size of Massachusetts and had a hot, dry, wind-swept climate.  There were no trees, and therefore no timber.  It would seem that the only natural resources were the silt-laden waters of the rivers and the huge reeds that grew in abundance along the river banks.  For the resourceful Sumerians, however, this would prove to be sufficient.

During the first half of this century an extremely important historian named Arnold Toynbee authored  a twelve-volume work that revolved around his theory that civilizations develop or die as a result of the manner in which they respond to various challenges.  In most instances, these challenges are environmental in nature.  The environment of Sumeria and the Sumerian response provide an excellent example of Toynbee’s theories in action.

To begin, contrast the Tigris-Euphrates valley with the Nile, the cradle of Egyptian civilization.  The Nile was predictable.  Though it flooded, it flooded with regularity, at the same time and with basically the same intensity every year.  As we will see next class, this predictability is the key to understanding the longevity as well as the static nature of Egyptian civilization.

The flooding of the Tigris and the Euphrates, on the other hand,  was violent and irregular, hence the mental life of the Mesopotamian civilizations became dominated by a sense of anxiety.  The world was unpredictable and capricious, bringing life-giving rain and fertility one day and devastating destruction the next.  Since the forces of nature were expressions of the whims of the gods, the gods were also unpredictable and capricious.  Rather than the high estate which the Hebrews assigned to man as the representative of God on earth, for the inhabitants of Mesopotamia man was nothing more than the slave of the gods, designed to relieve them of their toils and subject to their whims.

 

The Geography Of Mesopotamia

Around 6000 B.C., after the agricultural revolution had begun to spread from its place of origin on the northern fringes of the Fertile Crescent, Neolithic farmers started filtering into the Fertile Crescent itself. Although this broad plain received insufficient rainfall to support agriculture, the eastern section was watered by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Known in ancient days as Mesopotamia (Greek for “between the rivers”), the lower reaches of this plain, beginning near the point where the two rivers nearly converge, was called Babylonia. Babylonia in turn encompassed two geographical areas – Akkad in the north and Sumer, the delta of this river system, in the south.

Broken by river channels teeming with fish and re-fertilized frequently by alluvial silt laid down by uncontrolled floods, Sumer had a splendid agricultural potential if the environmental problems could be solved. “Arable land had literally to be created out of a chaos of swamps and sand banks by a ‘separation’ of land from water; the swamps … drained; the floods controlled; and lifegiving waters led to the rainless desert by artificial canals.” ^4 In the course of the several successive cultural phases that followed the arrival of the first Neolithic farmers, these and other related problems were solved by cooperative effort. Between 3500 B.C. and 3100 B.C. the foundations were laid for a type of economy and social order markedly different from anything previously known. This far more complex culture, based on large urban centers rather than simple villages, is what we associate with civilization.

The Land of the Two Rivers

The word Mesopotamia , derived from the Greek, means literally “between the rivers,” but it is generally used to denote the whole plain between and on either side of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The plain was bordered to the north and east by mountain ranges, in whose foothills, as we have seen, agriculture was first practiced. To the southwest lay the forbidding deserts of Syria and Arabia . Each year the two great rivers were swollen with the winter snows of the northern mountains, and each year at flood stage they spread a thick layer of immensely fertile silt across the flood plain where they approached the Persian Gulf . This delta, a land of swamp rich in fish, wildlife, and date palms, was the most challenging and rewarding of the three natural units into which the river valleys were divided; and it was here, between 3500 and 3000 B. c., that agricultural settlers created the rich city-states of Sumer , of which the best known is Ur . The delta could only be made habitable by large-scale irrigation and flood control, which was managed first by a priestly class and then by godlike kings. Except for the period 2370-2230 B. c., when the Sumerian city-states were subdued by the rulers of Akkad , the region immediately to the north, the Sumerians remained prosperous and powerful until the beginning of the second millennium B. C.

Immediately to the north of Sumer , where the two rivers came most closely together, the plain was less subject to flooding but made fertile by rainfall and irrigation. This area, known first as Akkad , was inhabited by Semitic peoples who subdued the Sumerians in the middle of the third millennium; but when a new Semitic people called the Amorites conquered the area about 2000 B. c. and founded a great new capital city of Babylon ; the area henceforth came to be known as Babylonia . Except for invasions of Hittites and Kassites, who were Indo-European peoples from Asia , Babylonia continued to dominate Mesopotamia for a thousand years.

The third natural region, called Assyria , stretched from the north of Babylonia to the Taurus range. Its rolling hills were watered by a large number of streams flowing from the surrounding mountains as well as by the headwaters of the two great rivers themselves. The Assyrians, a viciously warlike Semitic people, were able to conquer the whole of Mesopotamia in the eighth and seventh centuries B. c. Thus the history of Mesopotamia can be envisaged as a shift of the center of power northwards, from Sumer to Babylonia and then to Assyria.

Cuneiform-writing system

We can say that History begins at Sumer because the earliest written records that have to this point come into our possession are of Sumerian origin.  Without documents there can be no history; there may be tradition, there may be culture, but there can be no civilization and no history. To the extent of our present knowledge, there have been only three genuine writing systems created in human history: The Egyptian, the Sumerian, and the Chinese.

Fully 75% of the records that have been preserved are economic or administrative in nature.  Deeds, loans, marriages, inventories, wills, census, and tax matters form the bulk of our knowledge of Sumerian life.  There is also, however, a substantial body of literature, as well as such mundane conveniences as cookbooks, lists of familiar plants and animals, and most important, dictionaries.

The earliest of these dictionaries contain about 2000 pictographs or icons.  These symbols were meant to resemble that which they represented.  The Egyptian and the Chinese systems of writing developed in much the same way.

In Sumeria, however, the pictographic character of the written language was soon lost, primarily due to the difficulty of making a curved line in soft clay.  They were replaced by a series of signs based on wedge-shaped characters, or cuneiform.

Eventually the limitations of such pictorial representations became obvious.  Then the idea occurred to someone that the signs could represent sounds instead of things.  This greatly increased the versatility of written language, since any spoken word could now be written.  In the beginning the sounds that were represented were syllables rather than individual sounds,  so extremely large numbers of signs were still necessary.  For centuries writing would remain the property of the few who were able to invest years in mastering the system.

STORIES, GOD’S & HEROES

As the people in a city-state became familiar with the gods of other cities, they worked out relationships between them, just as the Greeks and Romans did in their myths centuries later. Sometimes two or more gods came to be viewed as one. Eventually a ranking order developed among the gods. Anu, a sky god who originally had been the city god of Uruk, came to be regarded as the greatest of them all–the god of the heavens. His closest rival was the storm god of the air, Enlil of Nippur. The great gods were worshiped in the temples. Each family had little clay figures of its own household gods and small houses or wall niches for them.

The Sumerians believed that their ancestors had created the ground they lived on by separating it from the water. According to their creation myth, the world was once watery chaos. The mother of Chaos was Tiamat, an immense dragon. When the gods appeared to bring order out of Chaos, Tiamat created an army of dragons. Enlil called the winds to his aid. Tiamat came forward, her mouth wide open. Enlil pushed the winds inside her and she swelled up so that she could not move. Then Enlil split her body open. He laid half of the body flat to form the Earth, with the other half arched over it to form the sky. The gods then beheaded Tiamat’s husband and created mankind from his blood, mixed with clay.

The longest story is the Gilgamesh epic, one of the outstanding works of ancient literature. The superhero Gilgamesh originally appeared in Sumerian mythology as a legendary king of Uruk. A long Babylonian poem includes an account of his journey to the bottom of the sea to obtain the plant of life. As he stopped to bathe at a spring on the way home, a hungry snake snatched the plant. When Gilgamesh saw the creature cast off its old skin to become young again, it seemed to him a sign that old age was the fate of humans.

Another searcher for eternal life was Adapa, a fisherman who gained wisdom from Ea, the god of water. The other gods were jealous of his knowledge and called him to heaven. Ea warned him not to drink or eat while there. Anu offered him the water of life and the bread of life because he thought that, since Adapa already knew too much, he might as well be a god. Adapa, however, refused and went back to Earth to die, thus losing for himself and for mankind the gift of immortal life. These legends somewhat resemble the Bible story of Adam and Eve. It is highly probable, in fact, that the ancient legends and myths of Mesopotamia supplied material that was reworked by the biblical authors.

It was during the Sumerian era that a great flood overwhelmed Mesopotamia. So great was this flood that stories about it worked their way into several ancient literatures. The Sumerian counterpart of Noah was Ziusudra, and from him was developed the Babylonian figure Utnapishtim, whose story of the flood was related in the ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’. Immortal after his escape from the flood, Utnapishtim was also the wise man who told Gilgamesh where to find the youth-restoring plant.

The epic if Gilgamesh

The Sumerians were the first to produce epic tales about semi-legendary characters, the most famous of whom was Gilgamesh, ruler of the city-state of Uruk (known in the Bible as Erech) about 2700 B.C.  Some seven hundred years later, an unknown Babylonian collected a series of ten tales about Gilgamesh and fused them into a whole.

In literature  the Sumerians provided us with the prototype of  the  tragic  hero,  perhaps the most enduring of all literary staples.   From  Gilgamesh  to  Indiana  Jone’s ‘Last Crusade’ we find  the  Holy  Grail within our grasp, only to slip through our fingers at the last moment

AKKAD

The Sumerians were never able to unify their society due primarily to the fierce independence of each of the eleven city-states.  Unity was finally imposed from without, around 2340 BC,  when Sargon, the king of the northern Mesopotamian territory, known as Akkad, and the first great world-conquerer,  drove his forces into the south.

SARGON

According to one legend Sargon’s mother abandoned him at birth, setting him to float down the Euphrates in a reed basket.  A farmer fished him from the river and raised him as his own….oops…..it sounds familiar…….in Bible it’s Moses and in Mahabharath it’s karna…what a coincidence….!!!!!

Religion

We know very little about the early Semitic religions, but the Semites that invaded Mesopotamia seem to have completely abandoned their religion in favor of Sumerian religion. Sumerian religion was polytheistic, that is, the Sumerians believed in and worshipped many gods. These gods were incredibly powerful and anthropomorphic, that is, they resembled humans. Many of these gods controlled natural forces and were associated with astronomical bodies, such as the sun. The gods were creator gods; as a group, they had created the world and the people in it. Like humans, they suffered all the ravages of human emotional and spiritual frailties: love, lust, hatred, anger, regret. Among the gods’ biggest regrets was the creation of human life; the Sumerians believed that these gods regretted the creation of human life and sent a flood to destroy their faulty creation, but one man survived by building a boat. While the destruction of the earth in a great flood is nearly universal in all human mythology and religion, we can’t be sure if the Semites had a similar story or took it over from the Sumerians. This is, of course, a question of contemporary significance: according to Genesis, the originator of the Hebrew race, the patriarch Abraham, originally came from the city of Ur.

Although the gods were unpredictable, the Sumerians sought out ways to discover what the gods held in store for them. Like all human cultures, the Sumerians were struck by the wondrous regularity of the movement of the heavens and speculated that this movement might contain some secret to the intentions of the gods. So the Sumerians invented astrology, and astrology produced the most sophisticated astronomical knowledge ever seen to that date, and astrology produced even more sophisticated mathematics. They also examined the inner organs of sacrificed animals for secrets to the gods’ intentions or to the future. These activities produced a steady increase in the number of priests and scribes, which further accelerated learning and writing.
Hammurabi’s Code

Hammurabi’s Code of laws were some of the very fist laws to be invented. We benefit from the invention of a code of laws because the laws that Hammurabi made, he made purposely created to help keep people safe in a peaceful, orderly, and well-structured society that was his kingdom. Maybe some of his punishments for disobeying the law were harsh, but he did it in order to keep the people of the society of his kingdom safe so they don’t have to live in fear of any threats that may uphold them. We still benefit from the invention of laws today, and still for the same purpose; to help keep people within our society safe.

His 11 Codes

• If a man kills another man’s son his son shall be cut off.

• If anyone ensnares another, putting a ban upon him, but he can not prove it, then he that ensnared him shall be put to death.

• If anyone brings an accusation against a man, and the accused goes to the river and leaps into the river, if he sinks in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river proves that the accused is not guilty, and he escapes unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.

• If anyone brings an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not prove what he has charged, he shall, if a capital offense is charged, be put to death.

• If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then the builder shall be put to death.(Another variant of this is, If the owner’s son dies, then the builder’s son shall be put to death.)

• If a son slaps his father, his hand shall be cut off.

• If a man give his child to a nurse and the child dies in her hands, but the nurse unbeknown to the father and mother nurses another child, then they shall convict her of having nursed another child without the knowledge of the father and mother and her breasts shall be cut off.

• If anyone steals the minor son of another, he shall be put to death.

• If a man takes a woman to wife, but has no intercourse with her, this woman is no wife to him.

• If a man strikes a pregnant woman, thereby causing her to miscarry and die, the assailant’s daughter shall be put to death.

• If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

THE FERTILE CRESCENT

The light of civilization first dawned in the Middle East along what is known by historians as the fertile cresent – a cresent-shaped region stretching from just south of modern-day Jerusalem then northward along the Mediterranean coast to present-day Syria and eastward through present-day Iraq then southward along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the Persian Gulf.

Initially, the Fertile Crescent was only sparsely inhabited but around 8000 BC, it was in this fertile valley that agriculture was first believed to have been developed. Wild wheat and barley grew in abundunce and tribes of nomad hunters and herders began to settle down along the lush banks of the rivers and became the world’s first farmers. Agriculture was the spark which lit the flame of civilization. Farming gave rise to social planning on a larger scale as groups of nomadic tribes settled down and joined co-operative forces. Irrigation developed as the need increased to feed and support growing populations. Soon towns were built to afford comfort and protection for these early settlers. Towns like Jericho, Jarmo, Ali Kosh, Catal Huyuk, Beidha and Hassuna were the basis of a new form of human social organization and became the foundation for the first civilization.

Around 5,000 B.C. the first cities were constructed in the southern part of this long crescent valley, near the Persian Gulf, by an intelligent, resourceful and energetic people who became known as the Sumerians. Their capital, Sumer, became a rich and vibrant city in which the rudiments of writing and an alphabet were first invented. Another great city established by the Sumerians, where a famous temple, or ziggurat, was excavated is the city of Ur. These people introduced the Bronze Age to civilization; they  invented the wheel and the rudiments of mathematics. They gave to humankind one of the first great literary epics -“The Epic of Gilgamesh”; and they also fought the first large-scale wars. They had a religion and built great temples – called ziggurats – to their gods, their primary purpose in life being to serve and please these gods. The priests who administered the temples were the aristocracy and their war leaders become their kings. A rough form of writing called cuneiform developed from the requirements of administering the temples, which included collecting the earliest taxes or tribute to the gods. The Sumerians were also extensive traders of goods and natural resources, exchanging their grain and manufactured products, such as pottery, hand tools and weaponry, for precious metals from surrounding settlements. The Sumerians gradually extended their civilization northward, becoming the first great empire. Mesopotamia, meaning “land between two rivers”, was a name given to this geographical area by the ancient Greeks.

Because of its accessibility, the region has seen a constant wave of invaders and conquests. Around 2300 BC the Akkadians invaded the area and for some time the more backward culture of the Akkadians mixed with the more advanced culture of the Sumerians. The Akkadians invented the abacus as a tool for counting and they developed somewhat clumsy methods of arithmetic with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division all playing a part. The Sumerians, however, revolted against Akkadian rule and by 2100 BC they were back in control. Around 2000 BC, the Babylonians, a Semitic people, invaded Mesopotamia and established their capital at Babylon.

This land had deep roots in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic (and hence, the present-day western) tradition. It is said to have hosted the legendary Garden of Eden – if it existed anywhere. To emphasize this the ancient village of Al-Qurna singled out a tree (“Adam’s tree”) with a sign – in Arabic and English. Abraham prayed here 2,000 years B.C. Throughout Iraq loom ziggurat temples dating from 3,000 B.C. which recall the story of the Tower of Babel. One such ziggurat is Aqar-Quf (a suburb of present day Baghdad) marking the capital of the Cassites. In the south lie the ruins of Sumer where were found tens of thousands of stone tablets from the incredible Sumerian culture which flourished 5,000 years ago. On some of these tablets, which were used for teaching children, are found fascinating descriptions of everyday life, including the first organized and detailed set of instructions on when to plant and when to harvest. Also in the south lie the ruins of Ur from which at God’s prodding Abraham set out for the promised land. Here the Akkadians introduced chariots to warfare. In the north of Iraq the gates of Ninevah the Assyrian capital with their imaginative stone winged-bulls mark the place where the prophet Jonah is said to have preached penance to the wicked inhabitants, all of whom repented, much to Jonah’s chagrin.

mayan civilization

(2000 BC - 900 A.D)

hi friends,

this is all about one of the fascinating civilization, the MAYA.

Maya , an ancient Native American culture that represented one of the most advanced civilizations in the Western Hemisphere before the arrival of Europeans. The people known as the Maya lived in the region that is now eastern and southern MEXICO, GUATEMALA, BELIZE, EL SALVADOR, and western HONDURAS.

Building on the inherited inventions and ideas of earlier civilizations such as the Olmec, the Maya developed astronomy, calendar and hieroglyphic writing. The Maya were noted as well for elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories, all built without metal tools. Mayan history shows that they were also skilled farmers, clearing large sections of tropical rain forest and, where groundwater was scarce, building sizable underground reservoirs for the storage of rainwater. The Maya were equally skilled as weavers and potters, and cleared routes through jungles and swamps to foster extensive trade networks with distant peoples.

SOCIETY

The Mayan civilization was not one unified empire, but rather a multitude of separate entities with a common cultural background. Similar to the Greeks, they were religiously and artistically a nation, but politically sovereign states. As many as twenty such states existed on the Yucatan Peninsula. the Mayans were the most important of the cultured native peoples of North America, both in the degree of their civilization and in population and resources, formerly occupying a territory of about 60,000 square miles, including the whole of the peninsula of Yucatan, Southern Mexico, together with the adjacent portion of Northern Guatemala, and still constituting the principal population of the same region outside of the larger cities.

The most important tribes or nations, after the Maya proper were the Quiche and Cakchiquel of Guatemala. All the tribes of this stock were of high culture, the Mayan civilization being the most advanced and probably the most ancient, in aboriginal North America. They still number altogether about two million souls.

CULTURAL DIVISIONS

Culturally the area is divided into three sections: the northern, central and southern regions. The earliest evidence of the Maya civilization is found in the southern region. At Izapa carvings depict gods that were the precursors of the Classic deities and at Kaminaljuyu glyphs on stelea foreshadow the Maya writing system. The area was clearly influenced by the Olmec.

The central region includes the southern lowlands, from Tabasco in the Northwest to Belize and Guatemala’s Motagua River region in the southeast. Here is where the Classic Maya flourished, along the Usumacinta River and throughout the Peten.

The northern region, which encompasses the northern lowlands, was populated by the Maya in the Late Classic period, when influence from central Mexico created a hybrid Maya/Toltec culture, and was home to the Maya well into the Post-Classic period.

CLASS SYSTEM

There was a distinct class system in ancient Maya times between the ruling class and the farmer/laborer. there must have been educated nobility who were scribes, artists and architects. There are evidences of their skill and innovation remains in works of stone, stucco, jade, bone, pottery, obsidian and flint. There is no evidence of priesthood and it is likely that priestly duties were performed by the ruler.

LANGUAGE

Their language, which is actually supplanting Spanish to a great extent, is still spoken by about 3,000,00 persons, of whom two-thirds are pure Maya, the remainder being whites and of mixed blood.

The Mayan linguistic stock includes some 20 tribes, speaking closely related dialects, and (excepting the Huastec of northern Vera Cruz and south-east San Luis Potosi, Mexico) occupying contiguous territory in Tabasco, Chiapas, and the Yucatan peninsula, a large part of Guatemala, and smaller portion of Honduras and Salvador. The ancient builders of the ruined cities of Palenque and Copan were of the same stock.

GOVERNMENT

Under the ancient system, the Maya Government was an hereditary absolute monarchy, with a close union of the spiritual and temporal elements, the hereditary high priest, who was also king of the sacred city of Izamal, being consulted by the monarch on all important matters, besides having the care of ritual and ceremonials. On public occasions the king appeared dressed in flowing white robes, decorated with gold and precious stones, wearing on his head a golden circlet decorated with the beautiful quetzal plumes reserved for royalty, and borne upon a canopied palanquin. The provincial governors were nobles of the four royal families, and were supreme within their own governments. The rulers of towns and villages formed a lower order of nobility, not of royal blood. The king usually acted on the advice of a council of lords and priests. The lords alone were military commanders, and each lord and inferior official had for his support the produce of a certain portion of land which was cultivated in common by the people. They received no salary, and each was responsible for the maintenance of the poor and helpless of his district. The lower priesthood was not hereditary, but was appointed through the high priest. There was also a female priesthood or vestal order, whose head was a princess of royal blood. The plebeians were farmers, artisans, or merchants; they paid taxes and military service, and each had his interest in the common land as well as his individual portion, which descended in the family and could not be alienated. Slaves also existed, the slaves being chiefly prisoners of war and their children, the latter of whom could become freemen by putting a new piece of unoccupied ground under cultivation. Society was organized upon the clan system, with descent in the male line, the chiefs being rather custodians for the tribe than owners, and having no power to alienate the tribal lands. Game, fish, and the salt marshes were free to all, with a certain portion to the lords. Taxes were paid in kind through authorized collectors. On the death of the owner, the property was divided equally among his nearest male heirs. The more important cases were tried by a royal council presided over by the king, and lesser cases by the provincial rulers or local judges, according to their importance, usually with the assistance of a council and with an advocate for the defense. Crimes were punished with death – frequently by throwing over a precipice – enslavement, fines, or rarely, by imprisonment. The code was merciful, and even murder could sometimes be compounded by a fine. Children were subject to parents until of an age to marry, which for boys was about twenty. The children of the common people were trained only in the occupation of their parents, but those of the nobility were highly educated, under the care of the priests, in writing, music, history, war, and religion. The daughters of nobles were strictly secluded, and the older boys in each village lived and slept apart in a public building. Birthdays and other anniversaries were the occasions of family feasts.

MARRIAGE

Marriage between persons of the same gender was forbidden, and those who violated this law were regarded as outcasts. Marriage within certain other degrees of relationship – as with the sister of a deceased wife, or with a mother’s sister – was also prohibited.

WRITING

The Mayans evolved the only true written system native to the Americas and were masters of mathematics. Mayan writing – written system of Maya. Mayan legacy in stone has survived in spectacular fashion at places like Palenque, Tikal, Tulum, Chichen Iyza, Copin, and Uxmal. The Maya developed a highly complex system of writing, using pictographs and phonetic or syllabic elements. Mayan writing was highly sophisticated. Most likely only members of the higher classes were able to read their symbols. Maya writing was composed of recorded inscriptions on stone and wood and used within architecture. Folding tree books were made from fig tree bark and placed in royal tombs. Unfortunately, many of these books did not survive the humidity of the tropics or the invasion of the Spanish, who regarded the symbolic writing (Mayan Writing) as the work of the devil.

The Maya also carved these symbols into stone, but the most common place for mayan writing was probably the highly perishable books they made from bark paper, coated with lime to make a fresh white surface. These ‘books’ were screen-folded and bound with wood and deer hide. They are called codices, codex is singular.

Because of their perishable nature and zealous Spanish book burning, only four codices remain today.

1.TheDresdenCodex
2.TheMadridCodex
3.TheParisCodex
4.The Grolier Codex

The contents of the codices must have varied, but some of them were evidently similar to astronomic almanacs. We have examples of a Venus table, eclipse tables in a codex in Dresden. There is a codex in Paris that seems to contain some kind of Maya Zodiac, but if it is and how it must have worked is still unknown. Another major example of Maya almanacs or Maya writings is present in the Madrid Codex. The fourth codex is called the Grolier and was authenticated as late as 1983. These codices probably contained much of the information used by priests or the noble class to determine dates of importance or seasonal interest. We can only speculate as to whether or not the Maya developed poetry or drama that was committed to paper. The codices probably kept track of dynastic information as well.

27 parchment books were publicly destroyed by Bishop Landa at Mani in 1562, others elsewhere in the peninsula, others again at the storming of the Itz capital in 1697, and almost all that have come down to us are four codices, as they are called, viz., the “Codex Troano”, published at Paris in 1869; another codex apparently connected with the first published at Paris in 1882; the “Codex Peresianus”, published at Paris in 1869-71; and the “Dresden Codex”, originally mistakenly published as an Aztec book in Kingsborough’s great work on the “Antiquities of Mexico” (London, 1830-48).

CALENDAR

The Classic Mayan civilization was unique and left us a way to incorporate higher dimensional knowledge of time and creation by leaving us the Tzolkin calendar, Mayan calendars we use today. The present calendar ends in the year 2012. By tracking the movements of the Moon, Venus, and other heavenly bodies, the Mayans realized that there were cycles in the Cosmos. From this came their reckoning of time, and a calendar that accurately measures the solar year to within minutes. The “Calendar Round” is like two gears that inter-mesh, one smaller than the other. One of the ‘gears’ is called the Tzolkin, or Sacred Round. The other is the Haab, or Calendar Round.

The Tzolkin consisted of 13 months each 20 days long, and the Haab of 18 months each 20 days long, and 5 rest days, thus making 365 days. The date was written using both rounds. For example, “6 lk 10 Camber” might be the same as if we wrote “20 June 30 Gemini”, (Haab – Calendar round / 20 June, and Tzolkin – Sacred round / 30 Gemini). As both these wheels turned so passed the Mayan calendar years. Every 52 years the cycle began again. It was on one of these auspicious years that Cortez landed, thus giving credence to his god image.

Archeologists – claim that the Maya began counting time as of August 31, 3114 B.C. This is called the zero years and is likened to January 1, AD. All dates in the Long Count begin there, so the date of the beginning of this time cycle is written 13-0-0-0-0. That means 13 cycles of 400 years will have passed before the next cycle begins, which is December 27, 2012. The new cycle will begin as 1-0-0-0-0.

A day was called a “kin”, and still is today. A 20 day month was a “uinal”, one solar year was a “tun”, 20 tuns a “katun”, and 20 katuns were a “baktun”, 13 of which take us back to the August 13, 3114 B.C. date.

RELIGION

Like the Aztec and Inca who came to power later, the Maya believed in a cyclical nature of time. The rituals and ceremonies were very closely associated with celestial and terrestrial cycles which they observed and inscribed as separate calendars. The Maya priest had the job of interpreting these cycles and giving a prophetic outlook on the future or past based on the number relations of all their calendars. They also had to determine if the “heavens” or celestial matters were appropriate for performing certain religious ceremonies.

The Maya practiced human sacrifice. In some Maya rituals people were killed by having their arms and legs held while a priest cut the person’s chest open and tore out his heart as an offering. This is depicted on ancient objects such as pictorial texts, known as codices. It is believed that children were often offered as sacrificial victims because they were believed to be pure. Much of the Maya religious tradition is still not understood by scholars, but it is known that the Maya, like most pre-modern societies, believed that the cosmos has three major planes, the underworld, the sky and the earth.

Philosophically, the Maya believed that knowing the past meant knowing the cyclical influences that create the present, and by knowing the influences of the present one can see the cyclical influences of the future.

AGRICULTURE

The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of food production. It was formerly believed that shifting cultivation agriculture provided most of their food but it is now thought that permanent raised fields, terracing, forest gardens, managed fallows, and wild harvesting were also crucial to supporting the large populations in some areas. Indeed, evidence of these different agricultural systems persist today: raised fields connected by canals can be seen on aerial photographs, contemporary rainforest species composition has significantly higher abundance of species of economic value to ancient Maya, and pollen records in lake sediments suggest that corn, manioc, sunflower seeds, cotton, and other crops have been cultivated in association with the deforestation in Mesoamerica since at least 2500 BC.

While the Maya diet varies, depending on the local geography, maize remains the primary staple now as it was centuries ago. Made nutritionally complete with the addition of lime, the kernels are boiled, ground with a metate(the larger stone surface) and mano((Spanish for “hand”), then formed by hand into flat tortillas that are cooked on a griddle that is traditionally supported on three stones. Chile peppers, beans and squash are still grown in the family farm plot (milpa) right along with the maize, maximizing each crop’s requirements for nutrients, sun, shade and growing surface. Agriculture was based on slash and burn farming which required that a field be left fallow for 5 to 15 years after only 2 to 5 years of cultivation. But there is evidence that fixed raised fields and terraced hillsides were also used in appropriate areas.

The Maya farmer cultivated corn, beans, cacao, chile, maguey, bananas, and cotton, besides giving attention to bees, from which he obtained both honey and wax. Various fermented drinks were prepared from corn, maguey, and honey. They were much given to drunkenness, which was so common as hardly to be considered disgraceful.

Chocolate was the favorite drink of the upper classes. Cacao beans, as well as pieces of copper, were a common medium of exchange. Very little meat was eaten, except at ceremonial feasts, although the Maya were expert hunters and fishers. A small “barkless” dog was also eaten.

ASTRONOMY

The Maya were quite accomplished astronomers. Their primary interests, in contrast to “western” astronomers, were Zenial Passages when the Sun crossed over the Maya latitudes. On an annual basis the sun travels to its summer solstice point or the latitude of 23-1/3 degrees north. The Maya could easily determine these dates, because at local noon, they cast no shadow. Zenial passage observations are possible only in the Tropics and were quite unknown to the Spanish conquistadors who descended upon the Yucatan peninsula in the 16th century. Most of the Maya cities were located south of this latitude, meaning that they could observe the sun directly overhead during the time that the sun was passing over their latitude. This happened twice a year, evenly spaced around the day of solstice. The Maya had a god to represent this position of the Sun called the Diving God. The Maya believed the Earth was flat with four corners. Each corner represented a cardinal direction. Each direction had a color: east-red; north-white; west-black; south-yellow. Green was the center. At each corner, there was a jaguar of a different color that supported the sky. The jaguars were called bacabs. Mayans believed that four jaguars held up the sky.

The MilkyWay itself was much venerated by the Maya. They called it the World Tree, which was represented by a tall and majestic flowering tree, the Ceiba. The Milky Way was also called the Wakah Chan. Wak means “Six” or “Erect“. Chan or K’an means “Four“, “Serpent” or “Sky”. The World Tree was erect when Sagittarius was well over the horizon. At this time the Milky Way rose up from the horizon and climbed overhead into the North. The star clouds that form the Milky Way were seen as the tree of life where all life came from. The constellations on the ecliptic are also called the zodiac. We scientists in astronomy don’t know exactly how fixed constellations on the ecliptic were seen by the Maya, but they have some idea of the order in some parts of the sky. We know there is a scorpion, which we equate with our own constellation of Scorpius. It has also been found that Gemini appeared to the Maya as a pig or peccary, (a nocturnal animal in the pig family.) Some other constellations on the ecliptic are identified as a jaguar, at least one serpent, a bat, a turtle, a xoc monster–that is, shark, or a sea monster. Spiritually, Mayans seem to have thought of the Milky Way as the mystic road along which souls walk into the Underworld. Crossing the Milky Way at the constellation Scorpio is the ecliptic, the apparent path of the sun, moon, and planets as they move against the background of stars. Mayans tracked their creation stories in relation to the movement of the stars across the heavens. They believed that the point at which the MilkyWay appeared as a vertical band in the night sky represented the moment of creation. The Mayans had calculated the cosmos was 90 million years old. Maya had a profound knowledge of the sky. Their priests recorded astronomical observations and passed them down from generation to generation. The result was an extremely accurate calendar that predicted the coming of eclipses and the revolutions of Venus to an error of one day in 6,000 years.

The Maya portrayed the Ecliptic in their artwork as a Double-Headed Serpent. The ecliptic is the path of the sun in the sky which is marked by the constellations of fixed stars. Here the moon and the planets can be found because they are bound, like the Earth, to the sun.

Uniquely, there is some evidence to suggest the Maya appear to be the only pre-telescopic civilization to demonstrate knowledge of the orion nebula. The information which supports this theory comes from a folk tale that deals with the Orion constellation’s area of the sky. This is a significant clue to support the idea that the Maya detected a diffuse area of the sky contrary to the pin points of stars before the telescope was invented.

ART & ARCHITECTURE

As unique and spectacular as any Greek or Roman architecture, Maya architecture spans many thousands of years; yet, often the most dramatic and easily recognizable as Maya are the fantastic stepped pyramids from the Terminal Pre-classic period and beyond. Being based on the general Mesoamerican architectural traditions these pyramids relied on intricate carved stone in order to create a stair-step design. Each pyramid was dedicated to a deity whose shrine sat at its peak. During this “height” of Maya culture, the centers of their religious, commercial and bureaucratic power grew into incredible cities, including Chichen Itza, Tikal, and Uxmal. Through observation of the numerous consistent elements and stylistic distinctions, remnants of Maya architecture have become an important key to understanding the evolution of their ancient civilization.

With the decipherment of the Maya script it was discovered that the Maya were one of the few civilizations where artists attached their name to their work. The art of the Maya has been called the richest of the New World because of the great complexity of patterns and variety of media expressions. Limestone structures, faced with lime stucco, were the hallmark of ancient Maya architecture. Maya buildings were adorned with carved friezes and roof combs in stone and stucco. With large quantities of limestone and flint available, plaster and cement were easily produced. This allowed the Mayans to build impressive temples, with stepped pyramids. On the summits were thatched- roof temples. Evidence show that the early Maya architects were using the corbel vault principle, which is arch like structures with sides that extend inward until they meet at the top.

Another matchless feature of the Mayans was the use of colorful murals. It is also noted that most of the Maya cities were built by being divided into quaters by two avenues which cross-cut each other at right angles. Roofs were flat and made with cedar beams overlaid with mortar. The walls were plastered and painted with great gods and other mythological features.

Tombs were often encased within or beneath Mayan structures. Frequently new temples were built over existing structures. The Mayans also expressed themselves artistically. Their ceramics were made in a large variety of forms and decorated with complex scenes. The Mayans also designed works of art from flint, bone and shell, along with making decorated cotton textiles. Even metal was used for ceremonial purposes. Items made with metal include necklaces, bracelets and headresses.

It is evident that all of the structures built by the ancient Mayans were built in honor of the gods. Compounds were built with large open areas, from which all the citizens could view the religious ceremonies taking place on the platforms elevated above the city. On the other hand, the construction of the Castillo, seems to relate to the ancient Maya’s obsession with the calendar. For example, each stairway in the temple has 91 steps, making a total of 364 steps in the four staircases, which, counting the platform at the top of the pyramid, equals the total number of days in the solar year. Even more so, each side of the pyramid has 9 stepped terraces divided by a stairway, for a total of 18 sections on each side, consequently, the number of months in the Mayan calendar. A honeycombed roofcomb towered above many structures, providing a base for painted plaster that was the Maya equivalent of the billboard. In addition to temples, most Maya sites had multi-roomed structures that probably served as royal palaces as well as centers for government affairs.

Historically significant events, such as accessions, the capture or sacrifice of royal victims and the completion of the 20 year katun cycle, were recorded on stone stelae and tablets. Without metal tools, beasts of burden, or even the wheel the Mayans were able to construct vast cities across a huge jungle landscape with an amazing degree of architectural perfection and variety. They were noted as well for elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories, all built without metal tools.

Pottery

Many examples of Maya pottery survive today. Along with clay vessels, the Maya created many earthenware figures of humans and animals. Several examples of the Teotihuacan fresco technique of applying paint to a wet clay surface have been found at Maya sites, showing the influence that civilization had on Maya art. Most pieces of pottery were decorated with images of humans, animals , or mythological creatures. Many highly detailed clay figurines were made by the Maya, portraying humans and gods. These were made with molds and by hand. Many of these figures were buried with rulers, which is how they survived to the current day.

Sculptures

The Maya created a great number of sculptures, many of which can be seen at Maya sites and museums. A common form of Maya sculpture was the stele. These were large stone slabs covered with carvings. Many depict the rulers of the cities they were located in, and others show gods. The stelae almost always contained hieroglyphs, which have been critical to determining the significance and history of Maya sites. Other stone carvings include figurines, similar to the earthenware ones described earlier, and stone lintels which show scenes of blood sacrifice. The Maya used a great deal of jade in their art. Many stone carvings had jade inlays, and there were also ritual objects created from jade. It is remarkable that the Maya, who had no metal tools, created such intricate and beautiful objects from jade, a very hard and dense material. An excellent example is the death mask of Lord Pacal, ruler of Palenque. A life-size mask created for his corpse had “skin” made from jade and “eyes” made from mother-of-pearl and obsidian.

Painting

Due to the humid climate of Central America few Maya paintings have survived to the present day. Some murals have been discovered at Bonampak. The paintings at Bonampak were preserved when a layer of calcium carbonate covered the paintings, preventing moisture from destroying them. The murals, which date from 790, show scenes of nobility, battle, and sacrifice. At San Bartolo, murals were discovered in 2001. These paintings date from 100 A.D., and are some of the oldest Maya paintings discovered. These paintings, which depict the Corn god myth, made scholars realize that the myth was older than previously believed.

The Maya were resourceful in harnessing energy, creating amazingly sophisticated works of art and engineering and sustaining a civilization for approximately 1,500 years. It has been shown that the Maya had attributes of the supernatural, and were masters of their environment. Their secret wisdom remains unknown, some people attributing it to extraterrestrials races, whose space ships are seen to this very day in Central and South America. As with ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, Mayan rulers filled vast cities with sky high pyramids, ornate and lavish palaces personifying the power of the great kings and their connections to the gods, and astronomical observatories which helped them created their calendars and plan their lives.

The cause of the Mayan collapse came over decades with no one quite sure what happened. There is no one single explanation for this implosion but some scholars seems to believe that environmental catastrophe lead to a full blown meltdown – lack of food and polluted water which produced malnutrition and disease. As with all civilizations, we discover that their Gods – like those some people worship today our Gods – did not help – as they do not exist – only our own consciousness to guide us in the wastelands of realities.

Mayan archaeology is coming into its Golden Age with the help of satellite imagery and photography. There are innumerable Mayan cities, temples, and settlements still to be discovered. We have learned that the Maya were an innovative, creative, and majestic people with their own particular taste for violence. The allure of the Maya is coming to the fore. Like the mystique of Egypt, people are drawn to the land of the Maya, each year. There is something they are guided to find, perhaps linked to major planetary grid points that awaken consciousness………

mayan calendar

the mayan calendar started from13 August 3114 B.C.E. and will end on 21-12-2012

Mayan calendar, the most accurate calendar than the modern day version…..how these people gained this much astronomical knowledge has been the constant quest. But like some ignorant minds across the world i do not think it was given to them by Aliens. They had much knowledge of the nature and universe and always lived submerging into it…..basking in to the mother earth, how many of us living in concrete jungles see the sunrise and moonrise, then why do we tend to fantasize about a much higher Alien intellectuals. Does it make any sense when most people think ” if we are not able have such knowledge today they would have got it from Aliens”. How may Einsteins, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Budha, Davinci and Picasso have come to this world??….Will you people impose this same fantasy label upon them, like Budha was given enlightenment by Aliens!! Out of the present 100 million Indians there is only one Budha who become the Light of Mankind, but people calls him Light of Asia….pity on them for their narrow minds.

nibiru

cg visualization - gopucreator@yahoo.com

it’s not about a science fiction movie, it’s all about the notorious planet X or better known as Nibiru. It will be passing next to earth on 2012…….are you prepared?

Nibiru, in Babylonian Astronomy translates to “Planet of Crossing” or “Point of Transition”, especially of rivers, i.e. river crossings or ferry-boats, a term of the highest point of the ecliptic, i.e. the point of summer solstice, and its associated constellation. The establishment of the Nibiru point is described in tablet 5 of the “Enuma Elish”( The Mesopotamian “Epic of Creation”) . Its cuneiform sign was often a cross, or various winged disc. The Sumerian culture was located in the fertile lands between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, at the southern part of today’s Iraq. As the highest point in the paths of the planets, Nibiru was considered the seat of the summus deus who pastures the stars like sheep, in Babylon identified with Marduk.

Some authors believe that the observations of ancient astronomers provide proof that Nibiru is an actual planet or brown dwarf in our solar system. These claims are for the most part dismissed as fringe science or pseudoscience by the mainstream scientific communities of archaeology and astronomy.

The work of Zecharia Sitchin has garnered much attention among ufologists, ancient astronaut theorists and conspiracy theorists. He claims to have uncovered, through his retranslations of Sumerian texts, evidence that the human race was visited by a group of extraterrestrials from a distant planet in our own Solar System.

Part of his theory lies in an astronomical interpretation of the Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish, in which he replaces the names of gods with hypothetical planets. However, since the principal evidence for Sitchin’s claims lies in his own personally derived etymologies and not on any scholarly agreed interpretations, his theories remain at most pseudoscience to the majority of academics.

Sitchin’s theory proposes the planets Tiamat and Nibiru. Tiamat supposedly existed between Mars and Jupiter. He postulated that it was a thriving world in a much differently shaped solar system, with jungles and oceans, whose orbit was disrupted by the arrival of a large planet or very small star (less than twenty times the size of Jupiter) which passed through the solar system between 65 million and four billion years ago. The new orbits caused Tiamat to collide with one of the moons of this object, which is known as Nibiru. The debris from this collision are thought by the theory’s proponents to have variously formed the asteroid belt, the Moon, and the current inclination of the planet Earth.

To the Babylonians, Nibiru was the celestial body or region sometimes associated with the god Marduk. The word is Akkadian and the meaning is uncertain. Because of this, the planet Nibiru is sometimes also referred to as Marduk. Sitchin hypothesizes it as a planet in a highly elliptic orbit around the Sun, with a perihelion passage some 3,600 years ago and assumed orbital period of about 3,750 years; he also claims it was the home of a technologically advanced human-like alien race, the Anunnaki, who apparently visited Earth in search of gold. These beings eventually created humanity by genetically crossing themselves with extant primates, and thus became the first gods.

Sitchin also postulates that Pluto began life as Gaga, a satellite of Saturn which, due to gravitational disruption caused by Nibiru’s passing, was flung into orbit beyond Neptune.

Stories about the fictional planet Nibiru and predictions of doomsday in December 2012 have blossomed on the Internet. There are now (February 2010) more than 275 books listed on Amazon.com dealing with the 2012 doomsday. As this hoax spreads, many more disaster scenarios are being suggested.

2012 The dooms day.

21-12-2012

21-12-2012, this day the mayan calender ends……………..The question is should we make a new calender as always and start everything a new or is it going to be the end of mankind as a whole?

The first mob to predict 2012 as the end of the world were the Mayans, a bloodthirsty race that were good at two things: Building highly accurate astrological equipment out of stone and Sacrificing Virgins.

Thousands of years ago they managed to calculate the length of the lunar moon as 329.53020 days, only 34 seconds out. The Mayan calendar predicts that the Earth will end on December 21, 2012. Given that they were pretty close to the mark with the lunar cycle, it’s likely they’ve got the end of the world right as well.

But there are some other reason also….let us go through them.

1. Sun storms

Solar experts from around the world monitoring the sun have made a startling discovery: our sun is in a bit of strife. The energy output of the sun is, like most things in nature, cyclic, and it’s supposed to be in the middle of a period of relative stability. However, recent solar storms have been bombarding the Earth with so much radiation energy, it’s been knocking out power grids and destroying satellites. This activity is predicted to get worse, and calculations suggest it’ll reach its deadly peak sometime in 2012

2. The Atom Smasher

Scientists in Europe have been building the world’s largest particle accelerator. Basically its a 27km tunnel designed to smash atoms together to find out what makes the Universe tick. However, the mega-gadget has caused serious concern, with some scientists suggesting that it’s properly even a bad idea to turn it on in the first place. They’re predicting all manner of deadly results, including mini black holes. So when this machine is fired up for its first serious experiment in 2012, the world could be crushed into a super-dense blob the size of a basketball.

3. The Bible says…

If having scientists warning us about the end of the world isn’t bad enough,religious folks are getting in on the act aswell. Interpretations of the Christian Bible reveal that the date for Armageddon, the final battle between Good an Evil, has been set down for 2012. The I Ching, also known as the Chinese book of Changes, says the same thing, as do various sections of the Hindu teachings.

4. Super Volcano

Yellowstone National Park in the United States is famous for its thermal springs and Old Faithful geyser. The reason for this is simple – it’s sitting on top of the world’s biggest volcano, and geological experts are beginning to get nervous sweats. The Yellowstone volcano has a pattern of erupting every 650,000 years or so, and we’re many years overdue for an explosion that will fill the atmosphere with ash, blocking the sun and plunging the Earth into a frozen winter that could last up to 15,000 years. The pressure under the Yellowstone is building steadily, and geologists have set 2012 as a likely date for the big bang.

5. The Physicists

This one’s case of bog-simple maths mathematics. Physicists at Berekely Uni have been crunching the numbers. and they’ve determined that the Earth is well overdue for a major catastrophic event. Even worse, they’re claiming their calculations prove, that we’re all going to die, very soon – while also saying their prediction comes with a certainty of 99 percent- and 2012 just happens to be the best guess as to when it occurs.

6. Slip-Slop-Slap-BANG!

We all know the Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that sheilds us from most of the sun’s radiation. What you might not know is that the magnetic poles we call north and south have a nasty habit of swapping places every 750,000 years or so – and right now we’re about 30,000 years overdue. Scientists have noted that the poles are drifting apart roughly 20-30kms each year, much faster than ever before, which points to a pole-shift being right around the corner. While the pole shift is underway, the magnetic field is disrupted and will eventually disappear, sometimes for up to 100 years. The result is enough UV outdoors to crisp your skin in seconds, killing everything it touches.

Calendars exist for keeping track of the passage of time, not for predicting the future. The Mayan astronomers were clever, and they developed a very complex calendar. Ancient calendars are interesting to historians, but of they cannot match the ability we have today to keep track of time, or the precision of the calendars currently in use. The main point, however, is that calendars, whether contemporary or ancient, cannot predict the future of our planet or warn of things to happen on a specific date such as 2012.

I note that my desk calendar ends much sooner, on December 31 2010, but I do not interpret this as a prediction of Armageddon. It is just the beginning of a new year….so be happy….