The Book of Job

The book of Job is a moral tale in the bible proving Job's faith in God. It is really different from other bible moral stories because Job is punished for no reason at all. God allows the accuser(the devil) to do all these horrible things to Job to test his faith. After Job went through all these terrible things, he does not question God because he knows he is always right. The accuser challenges God again and God lets him test Job once again. Job then has to go through similar horrific things and have his children and wife killed.

Job morns for a week with his friends. His friends begin to question what is happening to Job. Saying these types of things only happen to people that have done bad things. Job says he did not do anything wrong and tries to convince his friends. His friends deep down know that he did not do anything wrong, but are too scared to say anything because they do not want to go against God and be punished. Job then puts God on trial asking what he did wrong ad why he is being punished.Doing this proves is faith to God because he is being honest and truthful about God. His friends however were being unfaithful and were not punished because Job said a prayer for them and they had to offer him gifts and they were not punished.At the end Job was rewarded by getting double of everything he owned, a family and offerings from his friends.

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great was the son of Philip II the state Macedonia in Greece.In 338 BCE he defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes. He helped unify Greece besides Sparta. Then in 336 he was assassinated, thought to be ordered by Alexander the Great. The Thebans tried to rebel, but Alexander burnt down Thebes and sold their people into slavery. Then he began to think about expanding to the rest of the world. He crossed the Hellespont into Asia, and then defeated Darius III of Persia. This took place at the battle of Issus, which is just north of modern Iskenderon, Turkey.

In 332 Alexander the Great already conquered Egypt, founding the city Alexandria that is in the Nile Delta. He then marched back to Mesopotamia defeated Darius III again, and marched into Babylon and Susa with no remorse. His motive was to get to India and take over. Alexander the Great traveled 11,000 miles without defeat, but founded many new cities and destroyed ancient empires.In the 320's BCE he created the largest empire of the time. In 326 BCE reached the banks of the Indus River. He has been fascinated by the Indian culture for a long time, that he read in some of Aristotle's teachings. Alexander the Great first stopped at Taxila, north or modern day Pakistan. King Omphis greeted him with 200 silver talents. 3,000 oxen, 10,000 sleep, 30 elephants, 700 Indian cavalry and 5,000 infantry.On his way home be caught a fever and died in Babylon in 323 BCE.

The death of Socrates

The philosopher Socrates lived from 469–399 BCE.He was sentenced to death for refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the state and corrupting of the youth.In 399 BCE the jury consisted of five hundred Athenians. He was seventy years old when he was executed. Socrates felt like it was his time to go any ways. His views on Anti Democratic government made a lot of people turn against him.After the accuser and Socrates spoke, the jury voted him guilty. They chose to punish him with the death penalty.

Socrates had an chance to choose a different punish for himself instead of the death penalty. He said his punishment should be a fine for a sum of money. Socrates could have made a better suggestion and saved his life, but he basically chose to die, instead of spending his life in jail for expressing his opinions. The jury selected that he would be sentenced with death according to the two suggestions.Soon after he was taken to a jail and given a cup of poison hemlock to drink. Slowly his body become numb until it reached the heart and killed him. One of his famous quotes is "Death may be the greatest of all human blessings."

The Great Stupa

The Great Stupa is a famous monument in Buddhist architecture. Ashoka the Great had The Great Stupa built in Sanchi, India. It was made bigger in the second century BCE.A stupa is a type of burial place for the Buddhist. The first eight of them were built around the year 483 BCE. All of them were each holding the remains of Buddha.In the third century BCE Ashoka further scattered Buddha's remains to more stupas. The stupa structure is symbolic of a hemispheric dome. It was built from rubble and dirt and it was faced with stone.The dome also symbolizes the Dome of Heaven.

On the top of the dome is a small square platform, in the middle that is supported by three circular discs or umbrellas. There discs are called chatras. They symbolize both the bo tree which Buddha was given enlightenment. Also the three levels of Buddhist consciousness, desire, form, and formlessness. These three levels help the soul to enlightenment. The dome is put on a raised base around the top for a circular walk way. When they circle the walk way they symbolically follow the path of Buddha, and awake the enlightenment. The mandala is the Buddhist diagram of the cosmos, literally meaning circle.There are thirty two foot high stone pieces decorated with stories from the life of Buddha, and other things such as vines, elephants, and peacocks.

Solomon's Temple

Solomon's Temple in Hebrew is בית המקדש.It is translated to Beit HaMikdash, meaning the House of the Holy.The temple was known as the first temple. It was located in Jerusalem, and built by king Solomon. The temple was designed to hold the Ark of the Covenant and where the Israelites worshiped the God of Israel.Also sacrifices called korbanot were performed. The sacrifices were done with usually animals, such as sheep and bull. The temple was finsihed being built in 960 BCE and was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.

In 516 BCE the templewas rebuilt, commonly called the second temple. It is described in the Book of Ezra .Also it was approved by the Persian king Cyrus the Great and ratified by Darius the Great. Then Herod the Great decided that the old temple would be torn down and replaced by a much better one. The temple was known as Herod's Temple. It stood until 70 CE till it was destroyed during the First Jewish-Roman War, by the Roman general Titus.

Cuneiform Writing in Sumeria

Cuneiform pictograms were drawn on clay tablets in vertical columns with a tool made from a sharpened reed stylus. Then two developments made the process quicker and easier: People wrote from left to right in horizontal rows. The new wedge shaped stylus was used for wedged shaped cuneiform.The word "cuneiform" derives from the Latin word cuneus,which meaning "wedge".Many of the tablets found by archaeologists were preserved because they were baked when enemy armies burned the buildings they were stored in.

The cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of writing.It was created by the Sumerians from in the 34th century BCE.Cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs.Pictograms were originally drawn on clay tablets in vertical columns with a tool made from a sharpened reed stylus, or incised in stone. The archaic style was still missing the wedge-shape characteristic of the strokes.From about the year 2900 BC, the pictographs began to lose their original function.Given a sign could have various meanings depending on thee context. The signs were reduced from some 1,500 signs to some 600 signs.Writing became increasingly phonological.This process is directly parallel to, and not independent of the development of Egyptian hieroglyphic orthography.The knowledge of cuneiform was lost until 1835, when Henry Rawlinson the British army officer, found some Behistun inscriptions on a cliff at Behistun in Persia.

The ziggurat

Ziggurats were built by the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians for local religions.Every ziggurat was part of a temple complex that included other buildings. The end of the Early Dynastic Period were the earliest ziggurats.The earliest ziggurats date back to the 6th century BCE.Its built upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform.The ziggurat was a pyramid structure with a flat top.They have Sun-baked bricks, making up the core of the ziggurat, and facing of fired bricks on the outside.The facings often were glazed in different colors.The Mesopotamian ziggurats were not used for public worship or ceremonies. They were the dwelling places for the gods. Each of cities has its own patron god. Only priests were allowed on the ziggurat or in the rooms. It was their responsibility to care for the gods and attend to their needs. The priests were very powerful people in Sumerian society.

One of the best standing ziggurats is called Choqa Zanbil, located in western Iran. In Kashan, Iran, the Sialk ziggurat is the oldest ziggurat dating back to the 3rd millennium BCE. The massive ziggurat called Marduk or Etemenanki ,of ancient Babylon society. There is not even much of the base left of this giant structure.yet archeological findings and historical accounts put this tower at seven multicolored tiers, topped with a temple of exquisite proportions. People think it was painted and an indigo color, matching the tops of the tiers. It had three staircases leading to the temple, two of that were thought to have only went up to half the ziggurat's height.

Egyptian Mummification

The mummification process was very long and expensive .The people that took part during this were the scribe, the cutter, and the embalmer. The role of the scribe was to over see the cutting of the body. The cutter does the incision. The procedure was considered unclean, and limited their position in society. The embalmer was a type of priest that removed the internal organs and prepare the body. The process of mummification would take about two months, usually done at a workshop close to the person's tomb.

First the body is placed on a board. Then the brain was extracted through the nose. The brain cavity will then be filled with a mix of resin and linen. The chest will be cut open, and the main organs will be removed besides the heart. The organs will be stored in Canopic jars. The jars are usually in a set of four to respect for the sons of Horus. The body cavity will be washed and packed with natron, a natural dying substance in Egypt. The body will then dry for forty days, and then will be sewn back together. Then it is sealed with wax or metal. The body is then filled with linens, saw dust, salt or ash to keep the body hard.

The Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is a very important artifact of historical value. It helped decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Before the nineteenth century no one could figure out how to translate the hieroglyphs. It was discovered in 1799 and made in year 196 BCE.The hieroglyphs were deciphered by 1822 by the British scientist Thomas Young and the French scholar Jean-François Champollion. It was originally discovered by the French. By a man name Captain Pierre-François Bouchard, who was a French army engineer. The French army surrendered to Napoleon's army. Then there was a dispute about who it belonged to, and Napoleon's army ended up taking possession of the Rosetta Stone.

Today the Rosetta Stone remains in the British Museum, where people can visit and see the display of the stone. It has been there since 1802. During the end of World War I in 1917 the Rosetta stone and other value objects were moved to a safe place because of the bombing in London. The stone spent two years during this time in Postal Tube Railway 50 feet below the ground of Holborn.It was again moved from the British museum in October 1972 for a display at the Louvre Museum. It was the 150th anniversary of the decipherment of hieroglyphic.

The Code of Hammurabi

The upper part of the stele of Hammurabi's code of laws was discovered in 1901 by the Egyptologist Gustav Jéquier. It was discovered in what is now Iran. Hammurabi ruled from 1796 BC – 1750 BC. They believed he was chosen by the gods to give the law to the people. He said "Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land." The Babylonians had to follow the Code of Hammurabi. It was one of the several sets of laws in Ancient Ancient Middle East. Older sets of laws from the past are,Ur-Nammu, king of Ur in 2050 BC, the Laws of Eshnunna in 1930 BC and the codex of Lipit-Ishtar of Isin in 1870 BC.

The Babylonians and the countries next door developed the earliest system of economics that was in a legal code. It uses a metric of various commodities. A commodity is some good for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. The law codes from Sumer could be the first written economic formula. It had things very similar today's society such as interest rates, fines for wrong doing, inheritance rules and how private property is to be taxed or divided.

King Tut

Tutankhamun's original name was Tutankhaten, which means living image of Aten. Aten was the disk of the sun in ancient Egyptian mythology. Tutankhamun means living image of Amun. Amun is as deity in Egyptian mythology. He became Pharaoh at nine years old, and ruled for about ten years. Tutankhamun's tomb is in the Valley of the Kings, discovered by Carter. His tomb was the most complete Ancient Egyptian royal tomb ever found. When he was younger Ay made the political decisions when he was very young. Tutankhamun was one of the very few pharaohs’ not worshiped as a god and instead had cult like followers, when he was still alive. A stela was discovered at Karnak and devoted to Amun and Tutankhamun, where people would come to ask for forgiveness for their wrong doings. Temples of his cult were also built in Kawa and Faras in Nubia.

Tutankhamun's cause of death was unknown. In 1968 x-ray results revealed a dense spot in his skull, which is an injury from some kind of accident. Some people believe he could have been murdered. A trauma specialist from Long Island University thinks that this injury could not have been from a natural cause. The injury was caused by blunt force to the head.

Book IX

Agamemnon, king of the Greek Army, cries and says that they have lost the war. He thinks the best thing to do is just sail home. Diomedes said he would not give up and even fight by himself if he had to. He helps raise the armies' spirit and they decide to stay in the war and not return home. Old Nestor suggests during a meeting that the absence of Achilles is causing suffering to the Greek Army. Agamemnon decides to offer him many gifts and let Briseis return if he will rejoin the army. Ajax and Odysseus go to send the message to Achilles.

Achilles refuses the offer to come back and fight in the army. He says he will not be bought back by the King. Also that Agamemnon can not ever change the fact that he publicly insulted him, no matter how many things he gives me. He says there is no way that he will participate in the war and that he and his man will sail home in the morning. They go back to tell King Agamemnon the bad news at Achaian camp. The king is filled with great sorrow from the news. Diomedes says it was a mistake to have even tried to persuade Achilles to come back. They are advised to do what ever they can to protect their ships with or without Achilles .