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.