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Plastered Skull
Plastered human skulls are human skulls covered in layers of plaster and typically found in the ancient Levant, most notably around the city of Jericho, between 8,000 and 6,000 BC (approximately 9000 years ago), in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. They represent some of the oldest forms of art in the Middle East and demonstrate that the prehistoric population took great care in burying their ancestors below their homes. The skulls denote some of the earliest sculptural examples of portraiture in the history of art. The process typically included the removal of the jawbone. Signs of wear suggest they were handled over time. These skulls were often found interred alongside other human remains, and each cache displays a consistent style within. The skulls are generally with a backward tilt, and there appears to be no discernible pattern concerning the age or gender of the individuals when selecting the skulls for plastering. Discovery One skull was accidentally unearthed in the 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tell Es-Sultan
Tell es-Sultan (, ''lit.'' Sultan's Hill), also known as Tel Jericho or Ancient Jericho, is an archaeological site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Palestine, in the city of Jericho, consisting of the remains of the oldest fortified city in the world. It is located adjacent to the Ein es-Sultan camp, Ein es-Sultan refugee camp, two kilometres north of the centre of the Palestinian city of Jericho. The Tell (archaeology), tell was inhabited from the 10th millennium BCE, which makes Jericho among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. The site is notable for its role in the history of Levantine archaeology. The area was first identified as the site of ancient Jericho in modern times by Charles Warren in 1868, on the basis of its proximity to the large spring of Ein es-Sultan'','' that had been proposed as the spring of Elisha by Edward Robinson (scholar), Edward Robinson three decades earlier. History and archaeology ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about 80 km (50 mi) from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the Blue Mountains (New South Wales), Blue Mountains in the west, and about 80 km (50 mi) from Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and the Hawkesbury River in the north and north-west, to the Royal National Park and Macarthur, New South Wales, Macarthur in the south and south-west. Greater Sydney consists of 658 suburbs, spread across 33 local government areas. Residents of the city are colloquially known as "Sydneysiders". The estimated population in June 2024 was 5,557,233, which is about 66% of the state's population. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2017. The city's nicknames include the Emerald City and the Harbour City. There is ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teraphim
Teraphim () is a word from the Hebrew Bible, found only in the plural, and of uncertain etymology. Despite being plural, teraphim may refer to singular objects. Teraphim is defined in classical rabbinical literature as "disgraceful things",''Jewish Encyclopedia''Teraphim/ref> but this is dismissed by modern etymologists. Many Bible translations into English translate it as idols or household god(s); its exact meaning in ancient times is unknown. Teraphim in the Hebrew Bible There are three extended passages involving teraphim: during Rachel and Jacob's escape from Laban; with Michal's haphazard assistance of David fleeing Saul; and as the object of desire in the narrative of Micah's Idol. There are also a number of minor references to them as an element of culture or illicit religion. Polemic is wholly absent from the earlier stories. Rachel According to , when her husband Jacob escapes, Rachel takes the teraphim belonging to her father Laban and hides them on a camel's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bucrania
Bucranium (; , , referring to the skull of an ox) was a form of carved decoration commonly used in Classical architecture. The name is generally considered to originate with the practice of displaying garlanded, sacrificial oxen, whose heads were displayed on the walls of temples, a practice dating back to the sophisticated Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in eastern Anatolia, where cattle skulls were overlaid with white plaster. Etymology and sphere of application The word "bucranium" (latin ''bucranium'') comes from Ancient Greek: βουκράνιον – being composed of βοῦς (''ox'') and κρανίον (''skull'') – and literally means "ox skull". Analogic, the Greek word αἰγικράνιον (''latin'' aegicranium) means a "goat skull", also used as a decorative element in architecture. The technical term "bucranium" was originally used in the description of classical architecture. Its application to the field of prehistoric archeology is relatively recent and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yiftahel
Yiftahel () is an archaeological site located in the Lower Galilee in northern Israel. Various salvage excavations took place here between 1992 and 2008. The best known periods of occupation are the Early Bronze Age I and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B. In the Early Bronze Age village ca. 20 oval and rounded structures were uncovered. This is regarded as the most typical village of its period in the southern Levant The Southern Levant is a geographical region that corresponds approximately to present-day Israel, Palestine, and Jordan; some definitions also include southern Lebanon, southern Syria and the Sinai Peninsula. As a strictly geographical descript .... The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B village is characterized by rectangular architecture and plastered floors of burnt limestone. One of the most important processes underway during the Neolithic period was the shift from a hunter-gatherer economy to early agriculture. The finds from Yiftahel shed light on the domestication of both ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beisamoun
Baysamun or Beisamoun (, ''Beisamûn'') was a small Palestinian Arab village, located in the marshy Hula Valley northeast of Safad. In 1945, it had a population of 20.Hadawi, 1970p. 69 It was depopulated during the 1948 War on May 25, 1948, by the Palmach's First Battalion in Operation Yiftach. Beisamoun is an important archaeological site for the Neolithic period, with two plastered human skulls, cremation signs and house floors found there. It stood in close proximity to another major Natufian ("Final Old Stone Age") site, 'Ain Mallaha. History Prehistoric and Bronze Age site Kathleen Kenyon notes that Beisamoun disappeared under modern drainage systems set up by Israel; in the fish ponds created, Neolithic remains were found that included houses and two plastered skulls.Kenyon, 1985p. 29 Rectangular houses with plastered floors show striking similarities to those at Byblos.Wright, 1985p. 30 These "Levantine pier house were also found in Yiftahel, Ayn Ghazal, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tale Of Aqhat
The Tale of Aqhat or Epic of Aqhat is a Canaanite myth from Ugarit, an ancient city in what is now Syria. It is one of the three longest texts to have been found at Ugarit, the other two being the Legend of Keret and the Baal Cycle. It dates to approximately 1350 BCE. While the complete tale has not been preserved, there remain of it, according to David Wright, "approximately 650 poetic lines", with the bulk of its content concerning "ritual performances or their contexts". The remains of the story are found on three clay tablets, missing the beginning and end of the story. These tablets were discovered in 1930 and 1931. The Tale of Aqhat was recorded at Ugarit by the high priest Ilmilku, who was also the author of the Legend of Keret and the Baal Cycle. The three primary characters of the Tale are a man named Danel, his son Aqhat, and his daughter Pugat. The narrative First tablet Danel is described as a "righteous ruler" (Davies) or "probably a king" (Curtis), providing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Near East
The ancient Near East was home to many cradles of civilization, spanning Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran (or Persia), Anatolia and the Armenian highlands, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. As such, the fields of ancient Near East studies and Near Eastern archaeology are one of the most prominent with regard to research in the realm of ancient history. Historically, the Near East denoted an area roughly encompassing the centre of West Asia, having been focused on the lands between Greece and Egypt in the west and Iran in the east. It therefore largely corresponds with the modern-day geopolitical concept of the Middle East. The history of the ancient Near East begins with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, though the date that it ends is a subject of debate among scholars; the term covers the region's developments in the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, and is variously considered to end with either the establishment of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC, the establi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancestor Worship
The veneration of the dead, including one's ancestors, is based on love and respect for the deceased. In some cultures, it is related to beliefs that the dead have a continued existence, and may possess the ability to influence the fortune of the living. Some groups venerate their direct, familial ancestors. Certain religious groups, in particular the Eastern Orthodox Churches, Anglican Church, and Catholic Church venerate saints as intercessors with God; the latter also believes in prayer for departed souls in Purgatory. Other religious groups, however, consider veneration of the dead to be idolatry and a sin. In European, Asian, Oceanian, African and Afro-diasporic cultures (which includes but should be distinguished from multiple cultures and Indigenous populations in the Americas who were never influenced by the African Diaspora), the goal of ancestor veneration is to ensure the ancestors' continued well-being and positive disposition towards the living, and sometim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seashell
A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer usually created by an animal or organism that lives in the sea. Most seashells are made by Mollusca, mollusks, such as snails, clams, and oysters to protect their soft insides. Empty seashells are often found washed up on beaches by beachcombing, beachcombers. The shells are empty because the animal has died and the soft parts have decomposition, decomposed or been eaten by another organism. A seashell is usually the exoskeleton of an invertebrate (an animal without a backbone), and is typically composed of calcium carbonate or chitin. Most shells that are found on beaches are the shells of marine (ocean), marine mollusks, partly because these shells are usually made of calcium carbonate, and endure better than shells made of chitin. Apart from mollusk shells, other shells that can be found on beaches are those of barnacles, horseshoe crabs and brachiopods. Marine annelid worms in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neolithic
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts of the world. This "Neolithic package" included the History of agriculture, introduction of farming, domestication of animals, and change from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of sedentism, settlement. The term 'Neolithic' was coined by John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury, Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. The Neolithic began about 12,000 years ago, when farming appeared in the Epipalaeolithic Near East and Mesopotamia, and later in other parts of the world. It lasted in the Near East until the transitional period of the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) from about 6,500 years ago (4500 BCE), marked by the development ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tell Ramad
Tell Ramad () is a prehistoric, Neolithic tell at the foot of Mount Hermon, about southwest of Damascus in Syria. It was inhabited as early as 10,000-8000 BC. History The tell was the site of a small village of , which was first settled in the late 8th millennium BC. Notable features from the earliest stage include a number of 3–4 metre diameter, lime-plaster floored, clay lined oval pits with ovens & clay bins that were suggested to have been used as houses. Tell Ramad is notable as one of the few sites fundamental to the understanding of the origin of agriculture with finds including various types of domesticated wheat, barley and flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. In 2022, France produced 75% of t .... Emmer wheat is an important characteristic of Basin sites in this area, where it is tho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
