The National Museum of Ancient Cultures

HebrewsJudaism

Judaism, an ethnic religion rooting from the Hebrews of Ur, is the first known monotheistic religion (or religion that believes in one G-d). It was more than a faith for the Israelites, but a philosophy and way of life. Followers of the religion “Jews”, believe that G-dis one and deals with actions of all people. This idea is embraced by Jews; saying a prayer to G-d before all positive actions (known as halakhot).

Religion

HebrewsThe Second Temple

The second temple, constructed between times of 516 BCE and 70 CE, was a built after Cyrus the Great of Persia took the throne in 538 BCE, decreeing the Jews back to Jerusalem. There is duel significance to this standing temple. The first is that it was the rebuilding of the original temple that was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jews were exiled to Babylon. The second being that its western wall (known as the Kotel in modern Judaism) is still standing after the Romans, under Titus, destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 70 CE. This physical holy place, a characteristic common of ethnic religions, is known as the holiest of holy places in Judaism.

Fun Fact: People of the Jewish faith write notes to HaShem (G-d) and wedge them in between the bricks of the wall because it the spot deemed as the closest someone can get to G-d.

Architecture

PhoeniciansBiremes

The Phoenicians were masters of the sea, and consequently they built some very advanced vessels for the ancient world. Around 700 B.C, a time when the son of Sargon II, Sennacherib, ruled, a vessel called a “bireme” was prominent. The ship featured two separate levels on the ship for rowers to row, maximizing space without doubling the length of the ship. The steering oars also came in two, both of which at the rear of the boat. There were two variations of the “bireme”, one having a mast and the other not. Also, there was a beaked ship, thought to be a war-galley, and one without, most likely for transportation.

Technology

PhoeniciansClay Mask

Found in a tomb in the cemetery of Tharros in the mid 19th century, this mask and other amulets that were found give evidence that it was indeed originated in Carthage (giving Phoenician routes). The body of a Phoenician was buried with written spells and gifts, like this mask and other terracotta objects, to give protection from G-d in the afterlife. Most masks, like most Phoenician art, were grotesque. The masks mainly came with two different features, wrinkled (meaning old) and unlined (youthful).

Fun Fact: The Phoenician masks found a lot of their inspiration from Greek art.

Art

PhoeniciansAristotle’s Politics

Phoenicians followed “Kingship” as their form of government. The royalty only came through decent; there were no “general elections for the throne”. This didn’t necessarily mean that Phoenician royalty held all power. The powerful merchant families within Phoenicia dealt with public affairs. Also, the king had is own council of elders to help with decision-making. At one point, during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, a republic form of government, consisting of a council of judges, held authority in short 6-year periods. Carthage had its own two suffetes (judges). Aristotle’s Politics, writing that mention the Carthaginian Constitution, points out that there was a belief in oligarchy within Carthaginian (meaning government should be ruled by a small council, fitting well with the Phoenician council of elders).

Government

Phoenicians

Phoenician Plate

Phoenicians were among the greatest traders of the ancient world. Trading originally with just the Greeks, Phoenicians traded with people from Morocco and even places in Europe. They were known for the trading of their Tyrian purple dye, coming from the shell of a sea-snail. They also were among the first civilizations to have production centers separate from their civilization, having glass production centers in Morocco. Another key export of the Phoenicians was wine.

Economy

AssyriansBattering Ram

The Assyrians were known, and feared for their great military technology. The effectiveness of their weapons came from their use of iron. Assyrians loved to tip their weapons with a nice coating of the precious metal. One of their weapons, the battering ram, was revolutionary for its time. The weapon, a long piece of wood, known as the ram, suspended by chains connected to a beam that would be cocked back wards by some motive and propelled forward by the force of gravity, was like most of their weapons, tipped with iron to help give a strong surface for knocking down walls.

Technology

AssyriansCarving of Ashur

Ashur was the Assyrian God of war and their national God. He was one of many Assyrian Gods. The Assyrians were a polytheistic and had thousands of different Gods who were responsible from things from the Underworld (Mutu) to the destroyer of mankind (Atrahasis).

Fun Fact: Assyrians built temples for all of their Gods and Goddesses. They believed that they all deserved a home, and a place for people to speak and idolize them.

Religion

BabyloniansHammurabi’s Law

Code

The law of Hammurabi, code of the great Babylonian King, brings forth the famous philosophy of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. This idea was meant both literally, and through financial compensation because social status was very important. For example, if a son was to hit his father, his forearm would be cut off. But if a similar instance was to occur between a common man and a wealth merchant, than the merchant would only pay the common man, a person of lower social status, with money.

Law

BabyloniansEpic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the story of two men, Gilgamesh and a man created by the gods, Enkidu. Divided into two parts, the first half involves adventure and the second with Gilgamesh’s reflection on the death of his friend. The story tries to make the point that the life some one seeks will not be attained. There have been many parallels between the story and other famous writings in literature, one of which being the Odyssey.

Literature

BabyloniansDialogue of Pessimism

Like many of Babylonian philosophical writings, the Dialogue of Pessimism has many similarities to biblical literature writings. Written in cuneiform script, there are multiple interpretations of the writings. People believe it to evoke the idea that what is right and wrong has gray areas. Others believe it to be social and religious satire. Finally there is a third interpretation that human action is meaningless, and that the universe is mysterious with an answer that only the gods know. The one agreed upon idea is that it there are parallels between the writings and the Old Testament (which is also a wisdom writing).

Literature

Sumerians

Pottery

Pottery and Sumerian daily life

went hand and hand. Vases

had many different functions,

mostly for holding specific

foods. Jars were specific to

honey, oil, wine, and butter.

The staple to a Sumerian jar

had legs, and had a single

spout extending from the side.

Pottery was almost always

made from clay.

Daily Life

Sumerians

Sumerian Pictograph

This pictograph is significant because the carvings of crops and tools for agriculture agree with the idea that Sumerians were a very agricultural society. They are very important in the history of agriculture for they were the first to use the techniques of monocropping(intensive farming on a large scale), organized farming, and the specialization of labor (in this case for farming). By using these techniques, and the key technique of irrigation along the waterways, which involved the use of canals, dykes, and other water manipulatingmechanisms, the Sumerians were able to settle rather than graze the land for farming. This inversely led to a large surplus in non-perishable food items; an economic booster. The Sumerians domesticated animals (sheep, oxen, and goat) and grew everything from barley to dates to mustard. Like most Mesopotamian people, the Sumerians had to work around and embrace flooding, in their case after the Spring Equinox and Akitu (new years festival).

Fun Fact: High salinity (salt content) in the waters that flooded along with high evaporation rates is one of the reasons why barley (a salt-tolerant crop) was cultivated in Sumer

Economy

SumeriansSumerian Tax Tablet

The Sumerians had a very complex government, with taxes collected and kept from employed scribes. The bureaucracy (large government) dealt with a complex irrigation system at the city-state level. There was a ruler, also the chief priest that took care of religious parts of Sumerian society as well. The overall leader of the Sumerian people was a monarch, with leaders like the famed Hammurabi, who made the code of laws. But, the civilization so was so complex and the power shifted so much that no single entity or emperor ever ruled Sumer.

Government

SumeriansZiggurats

A Sumerian ziggurat is a direct result of flooding from Tigris-Euphrates. The floodplain was the idle place to live, but with having access to mud for building, which would deteriorate from flooding, building up was the way to keep a sustainable structure. Ziggurats were not structures for the common person, in fact they were believed to be places for the gods to dwell. They were not a place for worship, the only people allowed to enter ziggurats were the priests. The structures themselves were pyramid like structures (having similarities to Egyptian structures like the step pyramid at Saqqara). They were constructed with sun-baked bricks at the core, and fired bricks on the outside (which were colored with different drawings of astrological significance). The two ways to reach the shrines of the god that dwelled in each ziggurat was by multiple ramps, or sometimes spiral ramps.

Architecture

Ancient ChineseChinese Robe

Clothing in ancient china had much more significance than style, it represented order, gender, class, and most importantly community. Appropriate attire was crucial to a community for it represented one that functioning well. People who didn’t dress traditionally they would be considered barbarians within the society. In terms of gender, how hair was worn distinguished a man from a women (men with their hair back in a not covered with cloth, and women with hair braded and with a comb of ivory). Class was represented by the fitting and color of clothing. The more loosely fitting ones clothes were, the higher status they held. Also, the color of clothing distinguished status; darker colors (like the ones seen in the ancient robe) meant wealth. Common men wore hats while out in public, another distinguisher.

Fun Fact: during the Zhou dynasty, the color yellow as exclusive to the clothing of the emperor.

Daily Life

Ancient ChineseQin Sculptures

Found in a quantity of 7,000 in the Mausoleum of the first Qin Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, these terracotta worriers are iconic to ancient Chinese art. Even more impressive is the uniqueness and variety of different warriors. Each worrier has distinct facial features and hairstyles. Also, their poses vary from standing, to kneeling, to what seems to be a pose of a horse charioteer. Unfortunately, the color these sculptures were supposed to be aren’t visible any more because the exposure to air has faded the paint. But, this gives all of them color of terracotta.

Fun Fact: The burial place for Qin Shi Huang was actually picked by the Emperor, and was worked on rigorously by a collection of 700,000 workers so that it would be finished by his death. Also, the principle craftsman of the Emperor’s tomb were walled up by his successor so that they wouldn’t reveal any of their secrets of the structure.

Art

Ancient ChinesePages from the Classic of

Poetry (particularly The Book of

Songs)

The book of songs is one of the iconic pieces of Confucian religion. Confucianism is humanism. It teaches the idea that humans are teachable, and ultimately can be modeled to perfection through education of certain virtues. The topics of the writings range from love, marriage, work, and war. The poems are short, and have strict rhythm. These poems had very large impact on Chinese society. Feudal leaders would use the poems to profess ideas.

Philosophy

Harappans

Harappan City Model

The most significant part of Harappansociety had to be its city planning. The civilization very early on had sophisticated municipal facilities like sanitization systems. Houses had their own wells for water, and a place to dispose used water, a covered drain, within their homes as well. The separation of living quarters and religious centers has relevance to modern city planning. The civilization also had impressive protective walls, used for flood protection and to hold of military attack.

Architecture

HarappansLoading site at Mohenjo-daro

Harappa was a very agricultural society. People made a living by farming. Crops ranged from barley to cotton. The allocation of crops had a very socialistic way about it. A large portion of what a farmer produced had to be given to public granaries. Archeological digging has surfaced a light-loading platform where farmers were to dump their grains.

Economy

HarappansCity Seals

Harappans were very advanced with their ability to measure accurately. This ability is seen with the seals made for each city. Some of these seals measured as small as around 29 centimeters. Their weight measurements were very impressive, having a system of weight, with a base unit of 28 grams. Harappans also were advance in other types of sciences, including dentistry. The Indus-River Valley natives were the first known people to drill into human teeth.

Technology

EgyptiansStep Pyramids at

Saqqara

The step pyramids at Saqqara are significant for they are the earliest large-scale structure made from cut stone. Designed by the Egyptian architect Imhotep for Pharaoh Djoser, it features multiple complex structures from the Pyramid Substructure to the burial chamber. The burial chamber does not hold the pharaoh for the tomb was extensively robbed. Interestingly, there are limestone blocks with five pointed stars on the ceiling, agreeing with Djoser’s association with the eternal North Star.

Architecture

EgyptiansScribe Sculpture

Ultimately the Pharaoh was the leader of the legal system, but there were local councils of elders, and scribes, were responsible for taxation. No actual legal exist, but other sources prove that Egyptian law was based on pragmatic right and wrong. Status did not come into play when it came to the breaking of the law. Minor cases went the previously mentioned council of elders, while more offensive crimes, like murder or tomb robbery, went the to Great Kenbet, where the vizier (the pharaoh’s right hand man) or even the pharaoh decided the offenders fate. Punishment for a minor crime might have resulted in financial repercussions, or possibly beating. Serious crimes on the other hand could mean decapitation.

Law

Aryan-IndiansVarnas writings

The Aryan-Indian people followed a social class system (caste-system) called varnas. It ranked peoples social status from the most highly ranked members of society, the Brahmans (a priestly class), all the way down to the lowest of people called the untouchables. What kind of job someone could have. Untouchables had such horrible responsibilities like hauling dead bodies. These people were literally believed to be untouchable. Meaning that any physical contact with them would lower someone’s social rank.

Philosophy