среда, 20 октября 2010 г.
воскресенье, 18 июля 2010 г.
Vanished Alexandria
My city’s the greatest preceptor, queen of the Greek world,
genius of all knowledge, of every art.
— CP Cavafy
Like most ancient cities that have survived into modern times, Alexandria in Egypt has a vibrant modern culture as well as a dazzling array of ruins and archaeological treasures of UNESCO World Heritage high status.
Alexandria, or el-Iskandaria in Arabic, is a modern and thriving city at the edge of the Nile Delta. It's the second largest city in Egypt and a fascinating place to visit. This former capital is full of ruins that have both touristic and archaeological value, and museums dedicated to the more intangible aspects of Alexandrian culture, such as the poet Cavafy. The informed tourist can also visit the sites of notable historical events such as the Great Flap1.
The city has a lively Islamic quarter with a vast market, and a host of Roman, Greek and Egyptian ruins such as Trajan's Column, extensive catacombs, and even an underwater archaeological dig. Its massive international port ensures it has some of the worst dives in the Middle East, and its tram system and French-language street signs make it unique in the nation.
This Entry is not about that city.
There is another aspect to Alexandria; a somewhat more ephemeral atmosphere created by the ghosts of the parts of the city that are no longer visible. The focus of this Entry will be on those parts of classical Alexandria that are no longer directly visible, but whose existence still has an effect on the fabric of the city.
The Pharos Lighthouse
The Lighthouse at Pharos was one of the Seven Wonders of the World, according to the definitive list. Pharos itself was an island just off the coast of Alexandria; nowadays, a broad causeway links it to the mainland. The three tapering tiers of the Lighthouse would have been visible from far out to sea, even before it was fitted with an actual light, and would have made a prominent landmark for visitors.
The Lighthouse was destroyed by an earthquake in 1326. Much of the rubble was re-used in the building of the Citadel of Qaitbay on the same site in 1480, so to that extent this is the most visible of the Wonders aside from the Great Pyramid, and the only part of Alexandria described here that can be seen at all today.
Further remains of the Lighthouse can be seen by scuba divers on the seabed, including vast blocks of granite and statuary.
The Great Library of Alexandria
The place of the cure of the soul
— Inscription on Library wall.
If a hypothetical ancient traveller were to land at the docks, having been guided in by the Lighthouse, they could walk with the waterfront on their left past the Heptastadion2 until they reached the Great Library. Many myths surround the Library. Some people believe it to be one of the Seven Wonders, others that it was burnt to the ground by an Islamic mob that believed its contents 'will either contradict the Quran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous'. None of this is true.
The Library is in some ways the most ephemeral site listed here. It was in fact destroyed and rebuilt several times, and existed in several locations (sometimes simultaneously). The Library was originally founded by one of the early Ptolemies, and was therefore roughly contemporary with the Lighthouse and Soma (see below). Demetrius of Phaleron is named as the first curator. Assigned with translating the Bible into Greek, his version, known as the Septuagint, is still widely used. It is also from its location next to the Temple of the Muses that we obtain the English word museum.
The Library was more than just a storehouse for books. Its grounds are said to have included gardens and dining areas, as well as reading rooms, lecture theatres, and even a zoo. In modern terms, it was more like a university than a library.
Some of the more famous philosophers working at the library included, at various times:
Hero (or Heron) of Alexandria – inventor of the steam engine (aeolipile) and the vending machine, and a pioneer of cybernetics.
Eratosthenes – calculated the circumference of the Earth, catalogued the stars and constellations, and invented the leap year.
Archimedes – invented the lever, the Archimedes screw and streaking.
Aristarchus – estimated the distances of the Sun and Moon from Earth, and proposed heliocentrism.
Hipparchus of Bithynia – calculated eclipses, modelled the motions of the Sun and Moon, developed trigonometry, and catalogued the stars.
The 'books' themselves would actually have been papyrus scrolls. Alexandrian scholars had the right to copy any scroll of interest on any ship docking at the harbour, but also actively purchased books from home and abroad. It is not clear how many scrolls the library owned, but figures in the hundreds of thousands are bandied about in ancient literature– even up to half an million (though longer works would run over multiple scrolls, and the same work may have existed in the Library as more than one copy). It has been claimed that the percentage of Egyptian papyrus being used in production of scrolls in Alexandria was so high it promoted the development of parchment as an alternative!
The number of permanent staff probably ranged from 30 to 50, and it was funded initially by the royal family.
The collection was later moved at least once, ending up at a new site near the Temple of Sarapis (this 'daughter Library' building has been found by archaeologists). To confuse matters further, there seems to have been a separate storehouse of scrolls near the harbour. The later history of the Library is somewhat obscure (probably not helped by both the scrolls and the various buildings being referred to as 'the Library'). Accounts of its destruction include:
It was burned to the ground by Caesar in a conflagration caused by fire-ships during the Alexandrian War (48 BC).
It was destroyed when Aurelian attacked the city in 3 AD.
The Christian Theophilus ordered it to be destroyed in 391 AD.
It was destroyed by Muslims sometime after 642 AD (as mentioned above).
The modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina was built partly as a memorial to the ancient Library.
Canopic Street and the Street of the Soma
Leaving the Library by any convenient back exit, our 'paleotourist' now passes the Temple of the Muses and finds themselves on the 'main drag', Canopic Street.
The most striking features of ancient Alexandria to new visitors were the central axes of this planned3 city. The Street of the Soma ran roughly north-south along what is now called Nebi Daniel Street. It crossed Canopic Street at the city's main square, the Soma. Canopic Street – now Fouad Street – connected the city's two main gates, the western Gate of the Moon with the eastern Gate of the Sun; whereas the shorter Street of the Soma ran down to the Forum4, theatre and Caesareum5 on the waterfront.
The Tomb of Alexander the Great
The location of the final resting place of the Classical era's greatest general is one of the enduring mysteries of archaeology, and has generated extensive literature. We simply don't know where it is. However, we do know where it was, and that is where our nearly two-mile walking tour ends. After Alexander died of fever in Babylon, his remains were returned by a rather roundabout route to the greatest of the cities he founded.
Indeed, Alexander seems to have been as peripatetic in death as he was in life. His remains were shipped from Babylon, via Syria and Memphis, to Alexandria, where they were buried, disinterred and then reburied within the city. It is this final tomb, located by the main crossroads, that was the most magnificent – 'a sacred precinct worthy of the glory of Alexander in size and construction,' according to eyewitness Diodorus. Since it was located at the Soma, the tomb took that name for itself. One description, and some illustrations that may be of the Soma, indicate a pyramidal roof. Many ancient sources describe the elaborate funerary temple prepared in Alexandria for Alexander.
This was to the east of the Street of the Soma, and may have been where the Nebi Daniel Mosque is located today. There is some archaeological evidence of a Roman temple (from 4 AD) to support this, but further digs have not been permitted. Even this location is not undisputed. Some claim the tomb was further to the east along Tariq al-Horreyya, by the intersection with the R1; others that it was in Chatby.
There are contradictory accounts of the destruction of the tomb and what happened to the body. We know it disappeared, probably looted in 270 AD. Josephus claimed Cleopatra robbed the tomb. Cassius said it still existed when Augustus Caesar accidentally broke the corpse's nose, then refused to view the tombs of the Ptolemies, saying: 'I came to see a king and not dead men.' Reports continued on and off until nearly 1000 AD, and claims to have located the tomb have been made from as far afield as Venice.
genius of all knowledge, of every art.
— CP Cavafy
Like most ancient cities that have survived into modern times, Alexandria in Egypt has a vibrant modern culture as well as a dazzling array of ruins and archaeological treasures of UNESCO World Heritage high status.
Alexandria, or el-Iskandaria in Arabic, is a modern and thriving city at the edge of the Nile Delta. It's the second largest city in Egypt and a fascinating place to visit. This former capital is full of ruins that have both touristic and archaeological value, and museums dedicated to the more intangible aspects of Alexandrian culture, such as the poet Cavafy. The informed tourist can also visit the sites of notable historical events such as the Great Flap1.
The city has a lively Islamic quarter with a vast market, and a host of Roman, Greek and Egyptian ruins such as Trajan's Column, extensive catacombs, and even an underwater archaeological dig. Its massive international port ensures it has some of the worst dives in the Middle East, and its tram system and French-language street signs make it unique in the nation.
This Entry is not about that city.
There is another aspect to Alexandria; a somewhat more ephemeral atmosphere created by the ghosts of the parts of the city that are no longer visible. The focus of this Entry will be on those parts of classical Alexandria that are no longer directly visible, but whose existence still has an effect on the fabric of the city.
The Pharos Lighthouse
The Lighthouse at Pharos was one of the Seven Wonders of the World, according to the definitive list. Pharos itself was an island just off the coast of Alexandria; nowadays, a broad causeway links it to the mainland. The three tapering tiers of the Lighthouse would have been visible from far out to sea, even before it was fitted with an actual light, and would have made a prominent landmark for visitors.
The Lighthouse was destroyed by an earthquake in 1326. Much of the rubble was re-used in the building of the Citadel of Qaitbay on the same site in 1480, so to that extent this is the most visible of the Wonders aside from the Great Pyramid, and the only part of Alexandria described here that can be seen at all today.
Further remains of the Lighthouse can be seen by scuba divers on the seabed, including vast blocks of granite and statuary.
The Great Library of Alexandria
The place of the cure of the soul
— Inscription on Library wall.
If a hypothetical ancient traveller were to land at the docks, having been guided in by the Lighthouse, they could walk with the waterfront on their left past the Heptastadion2 until they reached the Great Library. Many myths surround the Library. Some people believe it to be one of the Seven Wonders, others that it was burnt to the ground by an Islamic mob that believed its contents 'will either contradict the Quran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous'. None of this is true.
The Library is in some ways the most ephemeral site listed here. It was in fact destroyed and rebuilt several times, and existed in several locations (sometimes simultaneously). The Library was originally founded by one of the early Ptolemies, and was therefore roughly contemporary with the Lighthouse and Soma (see below). Demetrius of Phaleron is named as the first curator. Assigned with translating the Bible into Greek, his version, known as the Septuagint, is still widely used. It is also from its location next to the Temple of the Muses that we obtain the English word museum.
The Library was more than just a storehouse for books. Its grounds are said to have included gardens and dining areas, as well as reading rooms, lecture theatres, and even a zoo. In modern terms, it was more like a university than a library.
Some of the more famous philosophers working at the library included, at various times:
Hero (or Heron) of Alexandria – inventor of the steam engine (aeolipile) and the vending machine, and a pioneer of cybernetics.
Eratosthenes – calculated the circumference of the Earth, catalogued the stars and constellations, and invented the leap year.
Archimedes – invented the lever, the Archimedes screw and streaking.
Aristarchus – estimated the distances of the Sun and Moon from Earth, and proposed heliocentrism.
Hipparchus of Bithynia – calculated eclipses, modelled the motions of the Sun and Moon, developed trigonometry, and catalogued the stars.
The 'books' themselves would actually have been papyrus scrolls. Alexandrian scholars had the right to copy any scroll of interest on any ship docking at the harbour, but also actively purchased books from home and abroad. It is not clear how many scrolls the library owned, but figures in the hundreds of thousands are bandied about in ancient literature– even up to half an million (though longer works would run over multiple scrolls, and the same work may have existed in the Library as more than one copy). It has been claimed that the percentage of Egyptian papyrus being used in production of scrolls in Alexandria was so high it promoted the development of parchment as an alternative!
The number of permanent staff probably ranged from 30 to 50, and it was funded initially by the royal family.
The collection was later moved at least once, ending up at a new site near the Temple of Sarapis (this 'daughter Library' building has been found by archaeologists). To confuse matters further, there seems to have been a separate storehouse of scrolls near the harbour. The later history of the Library is somewhat obscure (probably not helped by both the scrolls and the various buildings being referred to as 'the Library'). Accounts of its destruction include:
It was burned to the ground by Caesar in a conflagration caused by fire-ships during the Alexandrian War (48 BC).
It was destroyed when Aurelian attacked the city in 3 AD.
The Christian Theophilus ordered it to be destroyed in 391 AD.
It was destroyed by Muslims sometime after 642 AD (as mentioned above).
The modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina was built partly as a memorial to the ancient Library.
Canopic Street and the Street of the Soma
Leaving the Library by any convenient back exit, our 'paleotourist' now passes the Temple of the Muses and finds themselves on the 'main drag', Canopic Street.
The most striking features of ancient Alexandria to new visitors were the central axes of this planned3 city. The Street of the Soma ran roughly north-south along what is now called Nebi Daniel Street. It crossed Canopic Street at the city's main square, the Soma. Canopic Street – now Fouad Street – connected the city's two main gates, the western Gate of the Moon with the eastern Gate of the Sun; whereas the shorter Street of the Soma ran down to the Forum4, theatre and Caesareum5 on the waterfront.
The Tomb of Alexander the Great
The location of the final resting place of the Classical era's greatest general is one of the enduring mysteries of archaeology, and has generated extensive literature. We simply don't know where it is. However, we do know where it was, and that is where our nearly two-mile walking tour ends. After Alexander died of fever in Babylon, his remains were returned by a rather roundabout route to the greatest of the cities he founded.
Indeed, Alexander seems to have been as peripatetic in death as he was in life. His remains were shipped from Babylon, via Syria and Memphis, to Alexandria, where they were buried, disinterred and then reburied within the city. It is this final tomb, located by the main crossroads, that was the most magnificent – 'a sacred precinct worthy of the glory of Alexander in size and construction,' according to eyewitness Diodorus. Since it was located at the Soma, the tomb took that name for itself. One description, and some illustrations that may be of the Soma, indicate a pyramidal roof. Many ancient sources describe the elaborate funerary temple prepared in Alexandria for Alexander.
This was to the east of the Street of the Soma, and may have been where the Nebi Daniel Mosque is located today. There is some archaeological evidence of a Roman temple (from 4 AD) to support this, but further digs have not been permitted. Even this location is not undisputed. Some claim the tomb was further to the east along Tariq al-Horreyya, by the intersection with the R1; others that it was in Chatby.
There are contradictory accounts of the destruction of the tomb and what happened to the body. We know it disappeared, probably looted in 270 AD. Josephus claimed Cleopatra robbed the tomb. Cassius said it still existed when Augustus Caesar accidentally broke the corpse's nose, then refused to view the tombs of the Ptolemies, saying: 'I came to see a king and not dead men.' Reports continued on and off until nearly 1000 AD, and claims to have located the tomb have been made from as far afield as Venice.
The modern visitor can see none of this. Nevertheless, it is still possible to stand among the slightly shabby tower blocks where Sharia Gamal crosses Sharia Nabi Daniel and imagine that, instead of boxy taxis and dusty pavements, you are surrounded by pillared streets and views of the harbour-side Caesareum – the Pharos perhaps just visible over the rooftops and the pyramid of Alexander's grave looming over you.
1 The panicked destruction of documents by Allied forces just before the battle of el-Alamein, when it looked certain Alexandria would fall to Rommel's forces.
3 By the architect Dinocrates.
4 A public square for debate and commerce.
5 A great temple built by Cleopatra for Mark Anthony.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A47424369
The Pyramid of Hawara, Egypt
Many pyramids were built over the thousands of years of Ancient Egypt. The most familiar of these are the Pyramids of Giza, because they include the two biggest and best preserved, and are very close to Cairo. But many other pyramids were built over the history of the country. The Pyramid of Hawara is in fairly bad condition now, but it was once the tomb of a great king, and there is a lot to say about it.
Egypt's Middle Kingdom
When we think of Ancient Egypt, we may imagine those pyramids at Giza. Or we may picture Tutankhamen, the young king whose tomb full of golden treasures was uncovered in the early 20th Century. The origins of these two images of Egypt are more than a thousand years apart. The Giza pyramids were built in the period 2550 - 2475 BC, in the Old Kingdom; whereas Tutankhamen lived around 1330 BC, in the New Kingdom. The names of Old and New Kingdom pharaohs may be familiar: Djoser, Khufu, Seti, Ramesses, Tuthmose.
In between these two extremes, there is another period of Egyptian history which is much less remarkable. The pharaoh names Mentuhotep, Senwosret and Amenemhat will not be familiar to most people. This period, around 2000 - 1500 BC, is known as the Middle Kingdom. Egypt expanded during this time to control the dominion of much of the upper Nile, well into what is now Sudan. Yet for the most part life went on as normal, because the essential feature of Ancient Egypt was that it was a stable society based on intensive agriculture that worked well.
Amenemhat III
Probably the greatest pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom was Amenemhat1 III, whose birth name was Nimaatre2. He ruled Egypt from 1842 to 1794 BC, a period of 48 years, although it is thought he ruled jointly with his father for the first few years.
He was the sixth in a line of eight pharaohs known as the 12th Dynasty who passed their control from father to son – and, in the latter case, sister – for the best part of 180 years. All of them (except the last) bore either the name Amenemhat or Senwosret. When the seventh pharaoh, Amenemhat IV, died without an heir, his sister, Sobeknefru, became pharaoh and ruled for at least three years.
Most of the expansion of Egypt took place during this dynasty, so that by the time of Amenemhat III there was no more conquering to be done – Egypt was at peace and top dog of all the nations in the vicinity. Instead of warfare, Amenemhat concentrated on improvements to agriculture and mining.
There are a number of statues of Amenemhat III. Like any other successful pharaoh, he had many temples built with statues of himself. These show a serious-looking man with big ears. This may have been a style of the day, as his father and grandfather are also shown in statues with a scowl and big ears. Or perhaps the family really did have big ears.
Red Land, Black Land
The modern country of Egypt is a big one, with an area of about one million square kilometres, which is the equivalent of the US states of Texas and California combined, or four times the size of the United Kingdom. Of this land, only a small amount, about 5%, is agricultural, the rest being desert. The agricultural areas include the valley of the Nile River (known as Upper Egypt) and the delta of the Nile, where the river spreads out into a triangle before reaching the sea. The delta is known as Lower Egypt.
The ancient Egyptians called the agricultural land the 'Black Land' or kemet, because of the rich black soil; while the desert was known as the 'Red Land' or deshret. Because the Sun sets in the west, the western desert was considered to be the place where souls would go for their final sleep. Ancient Egyptian cemeteries were all built at the western edge of the Nile Valley where it meets the desert. All of the pyramids built during the history of Egypt, with one exception, are on the western side of the river3.
The Nile river has two sources, one in Central Africa and one in Ethiopia. Every year, there would be massive storms in Ethiopia and the Nile would flood, so that the whole of the Nile Valley would be underwater. The floods not only brought water but also life-giving silt, which fed the lands with nutrients, giving Egypt some of the most productive agricultural land in the world. The problem with the floods was that they only came once a year. Any way of harnessing the river could offer a great advantage to the country, if managed well.
The Fayoum
Along the west bank of the Nile, about 100km south of Cairo, there is a place where the bank is not so steep. Since before records began, when the Nile flooded the river would overflow the banks at this point and flood the low-lying land to the west, forming a great lake. The lake had no outlet, and the water in it would keep the land alive until the following year when more water would arrive from the Nile. It became good agricultural land and is known as the Fayoum. You can see it on maps of Egypt as a green heart-shaped area to the west of the Nile. It has an area of about 1,300 sq km.
Sometime in its history, the channel where the water overflowed was dug out to form a proper canal. Legend has it that this was done by the Biblical Joseph when he was co-ruler of Egypt. The canal is still known as Bahr Yussef, Joseph's Canal.
During the reign of Senwosret II (1900 - 1880 BC), the grandfather of Amenemhat III, a major project was started to improve the irrigation of the Fayoum. It may in fact have been at this time that the canal was built – whether it was built or just improved at this time is hard to tell now. Whatever the case, a dam was built in such a way that when the Nile flooded the lake would grow to an enormous size. Then when the Nile stopped flooding the lake would drain back through the canal, feeding the Nile and improving the flow of water to Lower Egypt. The project took a number of years and was completed during the reign of Amenemhat III. This was surely a cause for celebration. At last, the Nile was controlled, at least along the last 300km of its journey to the sea. The Fayoum was now prime agricultural land.
The level of the lake, known as Lake Moeris, was 85 metres higher than it is today. In the centre of the Fayoum was the city of Shedyet, known to the Greeks as Crocodilopolis because it was the centre of worship of the crocodile god Sobek. The Greek historian Herodotus tells us that the priests there kept a sacred crocodile which was hand-fed.
Unfortunately, over the years the canal silted up and the lake, known today as Birket Qaroun, is now much smaller than it was. Water no longer flows back into the Nile from the lake. As a result, the water now has a bitter taste.
Amenemhat was obviously very proud of the Fayoum. He had two enormous seated statues of himself constructed on two giant pedestals at Biahmu, about four miles north of Shedyet, standing on either side of the main road. It is estimated that these would have each been 35 feet tall, although only small parts of them remain. When the lake was in flood, these would be completely surrounded by water and would appear to hover on the lake.
The Black Pyramid
The capital of Egypt at the time was known as Ijt-tawy. It was situated roughly on the site of the modern town of Lisht. Amenemhat chose to build his pyramid nearby at the cemetery of Dahshur. Every pharaoh started work on their pyramid soon after taking up the sceptre, as they knew that when they died no further work would be done on it. It was therefore essential to get it completed before they needed it. Amenemhat's pyramid, known as the Black Pyramid, was built of brick with stone outer-facing sides, as was the custom of the time.
Unfortunately for us, over the subsequent millennia people stole the stone facing of the brick pyramids for use in building work. Without the stone to protect them, the brick cores have been badly eroded, and in some cases have completely disappeared. The Black Pyramid today is an impressive ruin, but it bears little resemblance to a pyramid. The only surviving part of the outer stonework is the pyramidion, the single top stone which formed the apex of the pyramid. This is engraved with hieroglyphs. It is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The Black Pyramid's problems apparently started before it was even completed; the internal structure appears to have been unsound. The pyramid had an extremely elaborate series of passages and rooms inside, and Amenemhat buried two of his wives there, but chose not to be buried there himself. Instead, he started work on another pyramid, and chose an unusual location for it.
The Pyramid of Hawara
Amenemhat's second pyramid was built at Hawara, just north of the entrance to the Fayoum from the Nile Valley. It is situated 2km north of the modern town of Hauwaret el Maqta.
The pyramid was built on desert land, like other pyramids, but it is not on the edge of the desert. It is surrounded by agricultural land, being on a spit of desert projecting south-west and dividing the Fayoum from the Nile. Whereas the souls of other dead Pharaohs could look out on the Sun setting over the western desert, Amenemhat's soul would have a view of fine agricultural land – a fitting tribute to a king who did so much to develop the agriculture of the region.
The pyramid had a 105 by 105 metre base, making it about the same size as the smallest of the three pyramids at Giza. It is estimated that it would have been 58m high originally, although time and the action of sand-blasting have worn it down to only about two-thirds of that now. As before, the pyramid was built of brick with a stone outer casing. Although the stone casing was later stripped off it, the brick core is in fact the best preserved of any of the brick pyramids. The bricks used were described by the British archaeologist Sir William Flinders Petrie (1852 - 1942) as twice as big in each dimension as a standard English brick, and weighing about 40 or 50 pounds. Internal passages were lined with stone.
Traps and Labyrinths
When Asterix and Obelix (two popular cartoon characters) go to Egypt, they get trapped inside a pyramid and can't find their way out. According to legend, pyramids had labyrinths inside them. In fact, the insides of pyramids are usually very simple with rarely more than three or four rooms and a few connecting passages. However, slabs of rock which line the walls, floor or ceiling can in fact conceal other passages. You can never be sure you've found them all.
The pyramid of Hawara has the most complex system of doors and sliding blocks of any pyramid, not to trap intruders inside but to keep them out. Amenemhat was obviously intent on ensuring his body would survive along with his soul until the time of resurrection, and not be plundered by grave robbers. These state-of-the-art anti-theft devices are best described by following the route of the funeral carrying the king's mummy from the pyramid entrance to its final resting place:
The entrance, which would have been covered over and hidden after the king's burial, was on the south side, whereas most pyramids had the entrance on the north side. This may sound trivial but it was enough to completely fox the modern archaeologists looking for a way into the pyramid.
The entrance passageway descended into the ground below the pyramid; the sloping part had steps to make the going easier, an unusual feature. At the bottom of the steps, the passage continued horizontally, then reached a dead end. The ceiling, which looked like a single slab, was in fact a giant block weighing 22 tonnes. Sliding this to one side revealed that the passage continued at a higher level. It's not known how the funeral party moved this block. There's a groove in it which suggests a rope was looped around it, but that doesn't seem enough to move a 22-tonne block!
The new passage now branched. One branch going north was a dead end completely filled with blocks of stone, as if to protect the way. The other branch going east had a simple wooden door. It appears that this was intended to fool the grave robbers into wasting time hacking their way through the stone.
The eastern passage continued, rising gradually, with two more of the sliding blocks in the ceiling to deter intruders, with a change of direction after each.
The passage now reached a chamber, called the Well Chamber because it had two fake wells in it and no other apparent features. At the bottom of the wells were two dead end passages. The north end of this chamber was filled with giant blocks of stone, apparently hiding something, but in fact there just to deceive. In the floor of the chamber was a trench which was filled with masonry after the funeral, and hidden. This trench led to a continuation of the passage.
Finally, the centre of the pyramid was reached. The central chamber was carved out of a single piece of sandstone weighing 110 tonnes, with four walls and the floor continuous, with no breaks or openings. The ceiling of the central chamber was formed by three giant sandstone slabs lying side by side, each weighing about 45 tonnes. There was an empty space above one of these roof slabs, and the slab was left raised into this space during construction, supported on two pillars of stone. When the king's mummy had been brought in and placed in the sarcophagus4, two plugs were removed. Sand poured out through two holes and the two pillars, which were held up by the sand, descended slowly, lowering the final roof slab into place and sealing the pharaoh in his tomb.
One unusual feature of the central chamber is that there was a second sarcophagus. This was added after the pyramid was built but before the king was buried, by fencing off the space between the main sarcophagus and the side wall with two flat panels of stone, and putting a lid on it. It appears to have been made for Amenemhat's daughter Ptahnefru, although her body was moved to another tomb a few miles away before the final sealing of the chamber.
Tomb Raiders and Archaeologists
It is clear that, despite these impediments, grave robbers succeeded in penetrating the tomb. We don't know what treasures were buried with the king, but they were stolen long ago. Desecration of a royal tomb was punishable by death, but the rewards were great if you got away with it. If the Middle Kingdom pharaohs had as much treasure in their tombs as New Kingdom pharaohs, then a successful grave robber would be one of the richest men in the world.
The robbers didn't bother to move the first sliding block; they just tunnelled around it. They spent some time hacking their way through the blocks in the blind passage, no doubt to their great frustration when they discovered nothing at the end. The thieves didn't have to slide back the second and third sliding blocks, as the funeral party had neglected to put them in place. They discovered the route through the floor of the Well Chamber and came to the central chamber of the pyramid, where they hacked their way through the solid stone, removed the treasure and burned the body of the king.
In modern times, Flinders Petrie was the first and only archaeologist to gain access to the pyramid. In 1888, he spent a few months studying it, meticulously measuring and noting down everything. His results were published in book form as Kahun, Gurob and Hawara (1890). This is available in electronic form at André Dollinger's Pharaonic Egypt site.
Flinders Petrie searched for the entrance for a number of weeks, but was unable to find it. So he took the extreme measure of tunnelling to the centre from the north side. His team of labourers did most of the rough work, but he was responsible for the tricky task of lining the tunnel with wood sheets as they progressed.
The pyramid was built with dry sand between the bricks instead of mortar. Dry sand can flow like a liquid. As soon as a brick was removed, all the sand from above would start to flow downward to fill the hole. In his time in the tunnel, there was a constant hiss of sand flowing, and there were occasional roof collapses. The tunnel did its job but has not survived.
Flinders Petrie found the central chamber and then followed all the passages outwards to find the entrance. He found that many of the lowest passages were flooded - a disadvantage of siting the pyramid right next to agricultural land. In addition, an irrigation canal was built in the 19th century which runs within 30m of the pyramid. This has seriously raised the water table - the level of water in the ground. When the pyramid was opened again in the 1990s, it was discovered that the entrance tunnel had flooded completely, so nobody has entered the pyramid since.
The Labyrinth
In ancient times, pyramids did not stand alone. Each one was accompanied by a temple, called the mortuary temple. It is presumed that the funeral rites were carried out here, and that perhaps ceremonies of remembrance were carried out in subsequent years. Amenemhat's mortuary temple was supposedly the greatest ever built. It was so complex it had a special name – 'The Labyrinth'. The Greek historian Herodotus had rather a lot to say about it in about 450 BC:
They caused to be made a labyrinth, situated a little above the lake of Moiris and nearly opposite to that which is called the City of Crocodiles. This I saw myself, and I found it greater than words can say. For if one should put together and reckon up all the buildings and all the great works produced by Hellenes [Greeks], they would prove to be inferior in labour and expense to this labyrinth, though it is true that both the temple at Ephesos and that at Samos are works worthy of note. The pyramids also were greater than words can say, and each one of them is equal to many works of the Hellenes, great as they may be; but the labyrinth surpasses even the pyramids.
It has twelve courts covered in, with gates facing one another, six upon the North side and six upon the South, joining on one to another, and the same wall surrounds them all outside; and there are in it two kinds of chambers, the one kind below the ground and the other above upon these, three thousand in number, of each kind fifteen hundred. The upper set of chambers we ourselves saw, going through them, and we tell of them having looked upon them with our own eyes; but the chambers under ground we heard about only; for the Egyptians who had charge of them were not willing on any account to show them, saying that here were the sepulchres of the kings who had first built this labyrinth and of the sacred crocodiles. Accordingly we speak of the chambers below by what we received from hearsay, while those above we saw ourselves and found them to be works of more than human greatness. For the passages through the chambers, and the goings this way and that way through the courts, which were admirably adorned, afforded endless matter for marvel, as we went through from a court to the chambers beyond it, and from the chambers to colonnades, and from the colonnades to other rooms, and then from the chambers again to other courts. Over the whole of these is a roof made of stone like the walls; and the walls are covered with figures carved upon them, each court being surrounded with pillars of white stone fitted together most perfectly; and at the end of the labyrinth, by the corner of it, there is a pyramid of forty fathoms, upon which large figures are carved, and to this there is a way made under ground.
— Greek historian Herodotus, c 450 BC.
Unfortunately, nothing of the Labyrinth has survived to modern times, other than a few of the foundations.
Egypt's Middle Kingdom
When we think of Ancient Egypt, we may imagine those pyramids at Giza. Or we may picture Tutankhamen, the young king whose tomb full of golden treasures was uncovered in the early 20th Century. The origins of these two images of Egypt are more than a thousand years apart. The Giza pyramids were built in the period 2550 - 2475 BC, in the Old Kingdom; whereas Tutankhamen lived around 1330 BC, in the New Kingdom. The names of Old and New Kingdom pharaohs may be familiar: Djoser, Khufu, Seti, Ramesses, Tuthmose.
In between these two extremes, there is another period of Egyptian history which is much less remarkable. The pharaoh names Mentuhotep, Senwosret and Amenemhat will not be familiar to most people. This period, around 2000 - 1500 BC, is known as the Middle Kingdom. Egypt expanded during this time to control the dominion of much of the upper Nile, well into what is now Sudan. Yet for the most part life went on as normal, because the essential feature of Ancient Egypt was that it was a stable society based on intensive agriculture that worked well.
Amenemhat III
Probably the greatest pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom was Amenemhat1 III, whose birth name was Nimaatre2. He ruled Egypt from 1842 to 1794 BC, a period of 48 years, although it is thought he ruled jointly with his father for the first few years.
He was the sixth in a line of eight pharaohs known as the 12th Dynasty who passed their control from father to son – and, in the latter case, sister – for the best part of 180 years. All of them (except the last) bore either the name Amenemhat or Senwosret. When the seventh pharaoh, Amenemhat IV, died without an heir, his sister, Sobeknefru, became pharaoh and ruled for at least three years.
Most of the expansion of Egypt took place during this dynasty, so that by the time of Amenemhat III there was no more conquering to be done – Egypt was at peace and top dog of all the nations in the vicinity. Instead of warfare, Amenemhat concentrated on improvements to agriculture and mining.
There are a number of statues of Amenemhat III. Like any other successful pharaoh, he had many temples built with statues of himself. These show a serious-looking man with big ears. This may have been a style of the day, as his father and grandfather are also shown in statues with a scowl and big ears. Or perhaps the family really did have big ears.
Red Land, Black Land
The modern country of Egypt is a big one, with an area of about one million square kilometres, which is the equivalent of the US states of Texas and California combined, or four times the size of the United Kingdom. Of this land, only a small amount, about 5%, is agricultural, the rest being desert. The agricultural areas include the valley of the Nile River (known as Upper Egypt) and the delta of the Nile, where the river spreads out into a triangle before reaching the sea. The delta is known as Lower Egypt.
The ancient Egyptians called the agricultural land the 'Black Land' or kemet, because of the rich black soil; while the desert was known as the 'Red Land' or deshret. Because the Sun sets in the west, the western desert was considered to be the place where souls would go for their final sleep. Ancient Egyptian cemeteries were all built at the western edge of the Nile Valley where it meets the desert. All of the pyramids built during the history of Egypt, with one exception, are on the western side of the river3.
The Nile river has two sources, one in Central Africa and one in Ethiopia. Every year, there would be massive storms in Ethiopia and the Nile would flood, so that the whole of the Nile Valley would be underwater. The floods not only brought water but also life-giving silt, which fed the lands with nutrients, giving Egypt some of the most productive agricultural land in the world. The problem with the floods was that they only came once a year. Any way of harnessing the river could offer a great advantage to the country, if managed well.
The Fayoum
Along the west bank of the Nile, about 100km south of Cairo, there is a place where the bank is not so steep. Since before records began, when the Nile flooded the river would overflow the banks at this point and flood the low-lying land to the west, forming a great lake. The lake had no outlet, and the water in it would keep the land alive until the following year when more water would arrive from the Nile. It became good agricultural land and is known as the Fayoum. You can see it on maps of Egypt as a green heart-shaped area to the west of the Nile. It has an area of about 1,300 sq km.
Sometime in its history, the channel where the water overflowed was dug out to form a proper canal. Legend has it that this was done by the Biblical Joseph when he was co-ruler of Egypt. The canal is still known as Bahr Yussef, Joseph's Canal.
During the reign of Senwosret II (1900 - 1880 BC), the grandfather of Amenemhat III, a major project was started to improve the irrigation of the Fayoum. It may in fact have been at this time that the canal was built – whether it was built or just improved at this time is hard to tell now. Whatever the case, a dam was built in such a way that when the Nile flooded the lake would grow to an enormous size. Then when the Nile stopped flooding the lake would drain back through the canal, feeding the Nile and improving the flow of water to Lower Egypt. The project took a number of years and was completed during the reign of Amenemhat III. This was surely a cause for celebration. At last, the Nile was controlled, at least along the last 300km of its journey to the sea. The Fayoum was now prime agricultural land.
The level of the lake, known as Lake Moeris, was 85 metres higher than it is today. In the centre of the Fayoum was the city of Shedyet, known to the Greeks as Crocodilopolis because it was the centre of worship of the crocodile god Sobek. The Greek historian Herodotus tells us that the priests there kept a sacred crocodile which was hand-fed.
Unfortunately, over the years the canal silted up and the lake, known today as Birket Qaroun, is now much smaller than it was. Water no longer flows back into the Nile from the lake. As a result, the water now has a bitter taste.
Amenemhat was obviously very proud of the Fayoum. He had two enormous seated statues of himself constructed on two giant pedestals at Biahmu, about four miles north of Shedyet, standing on either side of the main road. It is estimated that these would have each been 35 feet tall, although only small parts of them remain. When the lake was in flood, these would be completely surrounded by water and would appear to hover on the lake.
The Black Pyramid
The capital of Egypt at the time was known as Ijt-tawy. It was situated roughly on the site of the modern town of Lisht. Amenemhat chose to build his pyramid nearby at the cemetery of Dahshur. Every pharaoh started work on their pyramid soon after taking up the sceptre, as they knew that when they died no further work would be done on it. It was therefore essential to get it completed before they needed it. Amenemhat's pyramid, known as the Black Pyramid, was built of brick with stone outer-facing sides, as was the custom of the time.
Unfortunately for us, over the subsequent millennia people stole the stone facing of the brick pyramids for use in building work. Without the stone to protect them, the brick cores have been badly eroded, and in some cases have completely disappeared. The Black Pyramid today is an impressive ruin, but it bears little resemblance to a pyramid. The only surviving part of the outer stonework is the pyramidion, the single top stone which formed the apex of the pyramid. This is engraved with hieroglyphs. It is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The Black Pyramid's problems apparently started before it was even completed; the internal structure appears to have been unsound. The pyramid had an extremely elaborate series of passages and rooms inside, and Amenemhat buried two of his wives there, but chose not to be buried there himself. Instead, he started work on another pyramid, and chose an unusual location for it.
The Pyramid of Hawara
Amenemhat's second pyramid was built at Hawara, just north of the entrance to the Fayoum from the Nile Valley. It is situated 2km north of the modern town of Hauwaret el Maqta.
The pyramid was built on desert land, like other pyramids, but it is not on the edge of the desert. It is surrounded by agricultural land, being on a spit of desert projecting south-west and dividing the Fayoum from the Nile. Whereas the souls of other dead Pharaohs could look out on the Sun setting over the western desert, Amenemhat's soul would have a view of fine agricultural land – a fitting tribute to a king who did so much to develop the agriculture of the region.
The pyramid had a 105 by 105 metre base, making it about the same size as the smallest of the three pyramids at Giza. It is estimated that it would have been 58m high originally, although time and the action of sand-blasting have worn it down to only about two-thirds of that now. As before, the pyramid was built of brick with a stone outer casing. Although the stone casing was later stripped off it, the brick core is in fact the best preserved of any of the brick pyramids. The bricks used were described by the British archaeologist Sir William Flinders Petrie (1852 - 1942) as twice as big in each dimension as a standard English brick, and weighing about 40 or 50 pounds. Internal passages were lined with stone.
Traps and Labyrinths
When Asterix and Obelix (two popular cartoon characters) go to Egypt, they get trapped inside a pyramid and can't find their way out. According to legend, pyramids had labyrinths inside them. In fact, the insides of pyramids are usually very simple with rarely more than three or four rooms and a few connecting passages. However, slabs of rock which line the walls, floor or ceiling can in fact conceal other passages. You can never be sure you've found them all.
The pyramid of Hawara has the most complex system of doors and sliding blocks of any pyramid, not to trap intruders inside but to keep them out. Amenemhat was obviously intent on ensuring his body would survive along with his soul until the time of resurrection, and not be plundered by grave robbers. These state-of-the-art anti-theft devices are best described by following the route of the funeral carrying the king's mummy from the pyramid entrance to its final resting place:
The entrance, which would have been covered over and hidden after the king's burial, was on the south side, whereas most pyramids had the entrance on the north side. This may sound trivial but it was enough to completely fox the modern archaeologists looking for a way into the pyramid.
The entrance passageway descended into the ground below the pyramid; the sloping part had steps to make the going easier, an unusual feature. At the bottom of the steps, the passage continued horizontally, then reached a dead end. The ceiling, which looked like a single slab, was in fact a giant block weighing 22 tonnes. Sliding this to one side revealed that the passage continued at a higher level. It's not known how the funeral party moved this block. There's a groove in it which suggests a rope was looped around it, but that doesn't seem enough to move a 22-tonne block!
The new passage now branched. One branch going north was a dead end completely filled with blocks of stone, as if to protect the way. The other branch going east had a simple wooden door. It appears that this was intended to fool the grave robbers into wasting time hacking their way through the stone.
The eastern passage continued, rising gradually, with two more of the sliding blocks in the ceiling to deter intruders, with a change of direction after each.
The passage now reached a chamber, called the Well Chamber because it had two fake wells in it and no other apparent features. At the bottom of the wells were two dead end passages. The north end of this chamber was filled with giant blocks of stone, apparently hiding something, but in fact there just to deceive. In the floor of the chamber was a trench which was filled with masonry after the funeral, and hidden. This trench led to a continuation of the passage.
Finally, the centre of the pyramid was reached. The central chamber was carved out of a single piece of sandstone weighing 110 tonnes, with four walls and the floor continuous, with no breaks or openings. The ceiling of the central chamber was formed by three giant sandstone slabs lying side by side, each weighing about 45 tonnes. There was an empty space above one of these roof slabs, and the slab was left raised into this space during construction, supported on two pillars of stone. When the king's mummy had been brought in and placed in the sarcophagus4, two plugs were removed. Sand poured out through two holes and the two pillars, which were held up by the sand, descended slowly, lowering the final roof slab into place and sealing the pharaoh in his tomb.
One unusual feature of the central chamber is that there was a second sarcophagus. This was added after the pyramid was built but before the king was buried, by fencing off the space between the main sarcophagus and the side wall with two flat panels of stone, and putting a lid on it. It appears to have been made for Amenemhat's daughter Ptahnefru, although her body was moved to another tomb a few miles away before the final sealing of the chamber.
Tomb Raiders and Archaeologists
It is clear that, despite these impediments, grave robbers succeeded in penetrating the tomb. We don't know what treasures were buried with the king, but they were stolen long ago. Desecration of a royal tomb was punishable by death, but the rewards were great if you got away with it. If the Middle Kingdom pharaohs had as much treasure in their tombs as New Kingdom pharaohs, then a successful grave robber would be one of the richest men in the world.
The robbers didn't bother to move the first sliding block; they just tunnelled around it. They spent some time hacking their way through the blocks in the blind passage, no doubt to their great frustration when they discovered nothing at the end. The thieves didn't have to slide back the second and third sliding blocks, as the funeral party had neglected to put them in place. They discovered the route through the floor of the Well Chamber and came to the central chamber of the pyramid, where they hacked their way through the solid stone, removed the treasure and burned the body of the king.
In modern times, Flinders Petrie was the first and only archaeologist to gain access to the pyramid. In 1888, he spent a few months studying it, meticulously measuring and noting down everything. His results were published in book form as Kahun, Gurob and Hawara (1890). This is available in electronic form at André Dollinger's Pharaonic Egypt site.
Flinders Petrie searched for the entrance for a number of weeks, but was unable to find it. So he took the extreme measure of tunnelling to the centre from the north side. His team of labourers did most of the rough work, but he was responsible for the tricky task of lining the tunnel with wood sheets as they progressed.
The pyramid was built with dry sand between the bricks instead of mortar. Dry sand can flow like a liquid. As soon as a brick was removed, all the sand from above would start to flow downward to fill the hole. In his time in the tunnel, there was a constant hiss of sand flowing, and there were occasional roof collapses. The tunnel did its job but has not survived.
Flinders Petrie found the central chamber and then followed all the passages outwards to find the entrance. He found that many of the lowest passages were flooded - a disadvantage of siting the pyramid right next to agricultural land. In addition, an irrigation canal was built in the 19th century which runs within 30m of the pyramid. This has seriously raised the water table - the level of water in the ground. When the pyramid was opened again in the 1990s, it was discovered that the entrance tunnel had flooded completely, so nobody has entered the pyramid since.
The Labyrinth
In ancient times, pyramids did not stand alone. Each one was accompanied by a temple, called the mortuary temple. It is presumed that the funeral rites were carried out here, and that perhaps ceremonies of remembrance were carried out in subsequent years. Amenemhat's mortuary temple was supposedly the greatest ever built. It was so complex it had a special name – 'The Labyrinth'. The Greek historian Herodotus had rather a lot to say about it in about 450 BC:
They caused to be made a labyrinth, situated a little above the lake of Moiris and nearly opposite to that which is called the City of Crocodiles. This I saw myself, and I found it greater than words can say. For if one should put together and reckon up all the buildings and all the great works produced by Hellenes [Greeks], they would prove to be inferior in labour and expense to this labyrinth, though it is true that both the temple at Ephesos and that at Samos are works worthy of note. The pyramids also were greater than words can say, and each one of them is equal to many works of the Hellenes, great as they may be; but the labyrinth surpasses even the pyramids.
It has twelve courts covered in, with gates facing one another, six upon the North side and six upon the South, joining on one to another, and the same wall surrounds them all outside; and there are in it two kinds of chambers, the one kind below the ground and the other above upon these, three thousand in number, of each kind fifteen hundred. The upper set of chambers we ourselves saw, going through them, and we tell of them having looked upon them with our own eyes; but the chambers under ground we heard about only; for the Egyptians who had charge of them were not willing on any account to show them, saying that here were the sepulchres of the kings who had first built this labyrinth and of the sacred crocodiles. Accordingly we speak of the chambers below by what we received from hearsay, while those above we saw ourselves and found them to be works of more than human greatness. For the passages through the chambers, and the goings this way and that way through the courts, which were admirably adorned, afforded endless matter for marvel, as we went through from a court to the chambers beyond it, and from the chambers to colonnades, and from the colonnades to other rooms, and then from the chambers again to other courts. Over the whole of these is a roof made of stone like the walls; and the walls are covered with figures carved upon them, each court being surrounded with pillars of white stone fitted together most perfectly; and at the end of the labyrinth, by the corner of it, there is a pyramid of forty fathoms, upon which large figures are carved, and to this there is a way made under ground.
— Greek historian Herodotus, c 450 BC.
Unfortunately, nothing of the Labyrinth has survived to modern times, other than a few of the foundations.
1 The name is also written as Amenemhet, Amenemkhat, or even the Greek version: Ammenemes.
2 Most Egyptian pharaohs were given five names, the most important being the throne name by which the ruler is normally known and the birth name.
3 The one exception was a small pyramid at Zawiyet Sultan, whose purpose is unknown, but it appears not to have been a tomb.
4 A stone coffin.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A47232605
Pharaoh Hatshepsup
Regarded as Egypt's greatest female pharaoh1, Hatshepsup reigned for over 20 years, between 1479 and 1458 (or possibly 1457) BC, and was only the second out of at least six women known to have ruled Egypt as absolute monarch. The best-known of the female pharaohs was Cleopatra, but there is also compelling evidence that Nefertiti, ruling under the name of Smenkhkare2, may also have had full pharaonic status after the death of her husband Akhenaten.
Originally named Hatshepsut, meaning 'foremost of the noble ladies', she was the daughter of Tuthmosis I and his wife, Queen Ahmose. However, Tuthmosis I also had a number of minor wives, one of whom produced a male heir, Tuthmosis II, who became king around 1492 BC. In order to strengthen this half-brother's somewhat weak claim to the throne3 he was married to Hatshepsut. Tuthmosis II, however, reigned for only about 11 years before dying around 1479 BC, when Hatshepsut was about 30 years old. Although Hatshepsut had a daughter, Princess Neferure, by Tuthmosis II4, the succession passed to a male heir by a minor wife of Tuthmosis II. This was the infant Tuthmosis III (who was to become the greatest empire builder of the dynasty, and whose military exploits have earned him the modern appellation of 'The Napoleon of Ancient Egypt'), and Hatshepsut ruled as regent on his behalf. As regent, she wore the vulture crown and lily sceptre regalia of a queen. In this role she noted that, but for her gender, she would be the rightful heir to the throne.
Hatshepsut as Pharaoh
After about six years as regent, Hatshepsut evidently decided that she could 'cut the mustard' as pharaoh herself, as daughters, sisters and wives of kings had a greater legitimacy to the throne than the offspring of minor wives. She was canny enough to make sure that her metamorphosis from queen to pharaoh was not too sudden, and so she gradually discarded her queenly titles as she took up more kingly ones. She eventually proclaimed herself as pharaoh in 1473 BC, backed by her trusted adviser, Senmut, Chief of All Works and Chief Steward of the god Amen, a commoner whom she had elevated to high office.
As a queen taking on full status as a pharaoh she needed additional official appellations and so she became King Maatkara Hatshepsut-Khnemet-Amen. She even eventually dropped the feminine 't' suffix to her name thus becoming, in effect, His Majesty King Maatkara Hatshepsup-Khnemet-Amen ('foremost of the nobles').
From this time onwards, Hatshepsup had herself depicted as a man, and wore the male pharaonic regalia of crowns, nemes headdress and uraeus5, the shendyt kilt, khat headcloth and even a false beard.
As kings were regarded as demigods, Hatshepsup enhanced her status by attributing her birth to a union between her mother and the deity Amen, and had her lineage depicted thus upon the wall of her funerary temple at Deir el-Bahari. (Her father, Tuthmosis I had been born a commoner but claimed to have 'come from the Aten', the sun disc now named as a god in its own right some 150 years before Akhenaten is supposed to have pioneered the concept.)
As a pharaoh, Hatshepsup could no longer function as the pharaoh's wife and so she passed this hereditary position to her daughter, Princess Neferure. Neferure therefore became her mother's queen.
Some Egyptologists are of the opinion that Hatshepsup had been preparing her own daughter, Princess Neferure, to be her successor, as her education had been entrusted to Senmut, Hatshepsup's trusted adviser6. Sadly, Neferure died as a teenager some time after the 11th year of Hatshepsup's reign, around 1462 BC. Two years after this Senmut also died and so, at this time, Hatshepsup reinstated her step-son Tuthmosis III as her heir and co-regent. A detail on a wall scene at the temple at Karnak, near Luxor shows the two kings identically dressed in blue crowns and kilts and holding the royal sceptre in their right hands, bent across their chests.
Pharaoh Hatshepsup's Achievements
Once she came to power, Hatshepsup proved to be a forceful and ambitious ruler, and Egypt prospered for almost 20 years under her strong leadership. During her coronation it was decreed that she 'seize the chiefs of Retenu [Palestine] by violence, those left over from your father's reign. Your catch shall be men by the thousands.' She sent an army into Nubia where she 'destroyed the southern lands'.
During her reign Hatshepsup also reopened the turquoise and copper mines of Sinai, and expanded the temple of Hathor where she worshipped as the 'Lady of the Turquoise'. She also re-established long-distance trade networks between Egypt and the 'Land of Punt'7 on the Red Sea coast, following disruption by the Hyksos Wars. This region was the main area for production of the frankincense, myrrh and pistacia resins used for temple rituals, perfumes and in mummification.
Hatshepsup can be considered one of the great builders of ancient Egypt who did more than anyone else to make her country the wealthy kingdom it had become by the time Tutankhamun came to the throne over a century later.
Hatshepsup's name abruptly disappeared from the record when Tuthmosis III became sole monarch in 1458 BC, and it is not clear whether she died naturally at this time or whether there may be a more sinister explanation. However, she left behind more monuments and works of art than any other Egyptian queen to come. Some time after Tuthmosis III assumed the throne, he took steps to erase all traces of Hatshepsup, and stone portraits were shattered and her name erased from monuments. Archaeologists now believe that this was done in order that the Tuthmosis lineage appeared all male.
The Tomb of Tuthmosis I
During her time as queen, Hatshepsup had ordered the second of a large double burial chamber at Deir el-Bahari for herself. The first had been ordered by her father Tuthmosis I (1504 BC - 1492 BC) and was originally designed by the royal architect, Ineni. Tuthmosis I had chosen this as his final resting place due to its isolation and after having observed that there was hardly a tomb in the whole of Egypt, including the pyramids, that hadn't been plundered by robbers.
In a break with tradition, he had his tomb (now known as KV208) hewn from living rock, thus setting the pattern for interments of three pharaonic dynasties, the 18th, 19th and 20th. On the death of her father, Hatshepsup ordered that his tomb be enlarged to accommodate matching stone sarcophagi for herself and her father, so that they could 'be eternal like an undying star'. The original tomb of Tuthmosis I is the earliest datable tomb in the Valley.
The tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1902, and when he explored it properly in 1920, two years before his famous discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, he found two yellow quartzite sarcophagi - but both were empty, having been ransacked in ancient times. Interestingly, both sarcophagi had originally been inscribed for Hatshepsup, although one had subsequently been reinscribed for her earthly father, Tuthmosis I. (Stone sarcophagi were extremely time-consuming and expensive to produce.) The mummy of Tuthmosis I had at some stage been transferred to a great cache of mummies which were found in 1881 at Deir el-Bahari, but the location of Hatshepsup's mummy was unknown and has therefore exercised the minds of Egyptologists ever since. In particular, they would like to understand the causes of her death.
In spring 1903, Howard Carter found and opened a tomb, now known as KV60, in which he found the coffins of mummified geese and the partially disturbed and decaying coffins of two women, lying side-by-side. One bore the inscription of Sitre-In, Hatshepsup's wet nurse, the other was anonymous. As the tomb was not royal it received little attention at this time; in fact Carter closed the tomb and left no map of its exact location.
In 1906 the tomb was happened upon by another archaeologist who had the mummy of Sitre-In shipped to the Cairo Museum.
Hatshepsup's Mummy?
The tomb was rediscovered again in 1989 by Donald P Ryan, an American. When he reopened the tomb he found the abandoned mummy of an elderly female lying on the floor. Her nails were painted red and outlined in black. Her left arm, with clenched fist, lay diagonally across her chest: this is a pose thought to have been reserved for female royalty of the 18th Dynasty. Her folded, shrunken flesh suggested that she may have been obese in life. Her evisceration had been performed through the pelvic floor instead of the normal side-cut because of her obesity. Ryan also found a fragment of a wooden face - a fragment from a coffin lid - with a notched chin where a false beard could have been attached.
According to Dr Zahi Hawass, Head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, and therefore Egypt's foremost archaeologist, early accounts of these two female mummies confused their roles and identities. One indeed had her right arm clasped over her breast in the posture often adopted by Egyptian royalty, which led Egyptologists to postulate that this might be the missing queen, but Dr Hawass claims that the mummy found in this posture was, in fact, the queen's wet nurse.
In 2007 Dr Hawass, decided to re-investigate the other mummy in the hope that she might be Hatshepsup, and sent it to Cairo for a CT scan9.
The scan revealed an obese woman of between 45-60 years of age, who had bad teeth and probably had diabetes and liver cancer10.
In search of more clues, Dr Hawass used the CT scanner to examine other artefacts associated with Hatshepsup, in particular a small wooden box, discovered in 1881 with the Deir el-Bahari cache and bearing the cartouche of Hatshepsup. Inside the box was a liver11 and a molar tooth, which subsequently proved to be an exact match, give or take a fraction of a millimetre, with a cavity in the jaw of the anonymous mummy, thus conclusively identifying her as Hatshepsup. The minuscule difference between the size of the tooth and the gap was likely to be due to erosion after the tooth was extracted. Further analysis revealed identical bone densities between the tooth and the teeth remaining in the mummy's mouth.
Dr Hawass stated that the discovery of the Hatshepsup mummy was 'the most important find in Egypt since the discovery of Tutankhamun in 1922.' However, not all archaeologists are as yet fully convinced. One Egyptologist, who wishes to remain anonymous, has told the Reuters news agency that, 'It's an interesting piece of scientific deduction which might point to the truth.'
Originally named Hatshepsut, meaning 'foremost of the noble ladies', she was the daughter of Tuthmosis I and his wife, Queen Ahmose. However, Tuthmosis I also had a number of minor wives, one of whom produced a male heir, Tuthmosis II, who became king around 1492 BC. In order to strengthen this half-brother's somewhat weak claim to the throne3 he was married to Hatshepsut. Tuthmosis II, however, reigned for only about 11 years before dying around 1479 BC, when Hatshepsut was about 30 years old. Although Hatshepsut had a daughter, Princess Neferure, by Tuthmosis II4, the succession passed to a male heir by a minor wife of Tuthmosis II. This was the infant Tuthmosis III (who was to become the greatest empire builder of the dynasty, and whose military exploits have earned him the modern appellation of 'The Napoleon of Ancient Egypt'), and Hatshepsut ruled as regent on his behalf. As regent, she wore the vulture crown and lily sceptre regalia of a queen. In this role she noted that, but for her gender, she would be the rightful heir to the throne.
Hatshepsut as Pharaoh
After about six years as regent, Hatshepsut evidently decided that she could 'cut the mustard' as pharaoh herself, as daughters, sisters and wives of kings had a greater legitimacy to the throne than the offspring of minor wives. She was canny enough to make sure that her metamorphosis from queen to pharaoh was not too sudden, and so she gradually discarded her queenly titles as she took up more kingly ones. She eventually proclaimed herself as pharaoh in 1473 BC, backed by her trusted adviser, Senmut, Chief of All Works and Chief Steward of the god Amen, a commoner whom she had elevated to high office.
As a queen taking on full status as a pharaoh she needed additional official appellations and so she became King Maatkara Hatshepsut-Khnemet-Amen. She even eventually dropped the feminine 't' suffix to her name thus becoming, in effect, His Majesty King Maatkara Hatshepsup-Khnemet-Amen ('foremost of the nobles').
From this time onwards, Hatshepsup had herself depicted as a man, and wore the male pharaonic regalia of crowns, nemes headdress and uraeus5, the shendyt kilt, khat headcloth and even a false beard.
As kings were regarded as demigods, Hatshepsup enhanced her status by attributing her birth to a union between her mother and the deity Amen, and had her lineage depicted thus upon the wall of her funerary temple at Deir el-Bahari. (Her father, Tuthmosis I had been born a commoner but claimed to have 'come from the Aten', the sun disc now named as a god in its own right some 150 years before Akhenaten is supposed to have pioneered the concept.)
As a pharaoh, Hatshepsup could no longer function as the pharaoh's wife and so she passed this hereditary position to her daughter, Princess Neferure. Neferure therefore became her mother's queen.
Some Egyptologists are of the opinion that Hatshepsup had been preparing her own daughter, Princess Neferure, to be her successor, as her education had been entrusted to Senmut, Hatshepsup's trusted adviser6. Sadly, Neferure died as a teenager some time after the 11th year of Hatshepsup's reign, around 1462 BC. Two years after this Senmut also died and so, at this time, Hatshepsup reinstated her step-son Tuthmosis III as her heir and co-regent. A detail on a wall scene at the temple at Karnak, near Luxor shows the two kings identically dressed in blue crowns and kilts and holding the royal sceptre in their right hands, bent across their chests.
Pharaoh Hatshepsup's Achievements
Once she came to power, Hatshepsup proved to be a forceful and ambitious ruler, and Egypt prospered for almost 20 years under her strong leadership. During her coronation it was decreed that she 'seize the chiefs of Retenu [Palestine] by violence, those left over from your father's reign. Your catch shall be men by the thousands.' She sent an army into Nubia where she 'destroyed the southern lands'.
During her reign Hatshepsup also reopened the turquoise and copper mines of Sinai, and expanded the temple of Hathor where she worshipped as the 'Lady of the Turquoise'. She also re-established long-distance trade networks between Egypt and the 'Land of Punt'7 on the Red Sea coast, following disruption by the Hyksos Wars. This region was the main area for production of the frankincense, myrrh and pistacia resins used for temple rituals, perfumes and in mummification.
Hatshepsup can be considered one of the great builders of ancient Egypt who did more than anyone else to make her country the wealthy kingdom it had become by the time Tutankhamun came to the throne over a century later.
Hatshepsup's name abruptly disappeared from the record when Tuthmosis III became sole monarch in 1458 BC, and it is not clear whether she died naturally at this time or whether there may be a more sinister explanation. However, she left behind more monuments and works of art than any other Egyptian queen to come. Some time after Tuthmosis III assumed the throne, he took steps to erase all traces of Hatshepsup, and stone portraits were shattered and her name erased from monuments. Archaeologists now believe that this was done in order that the Tuthmosis lineage appeared all male.
The Tomb of Tuthmosis I
During her time as queen, Hatshepsup had ordered the second of a large double burial chamber at Deir el-Bahari for herself. The first had been ordered by her father Tuthmosis I (1504 BC - 1492 BC) and was originally designed by the royal architect, Ineni. Tuthmosis I had chosen this as his final resting place due to its isolation and after having observed that there was hardly a tomb in the whole of Egypt, including the pyramids, that hadn't been plundered by robbers.
In a break with tradition, he had his tomb (now known as KV208) hewn from living rock, thus setting the pattern for interments of three pharaonic dynasties, the 18th, 19th and 20th. On the death of her father, Hatshepsup ordered that his tomb be enlarged to accommodate matching stone sarcophagi for herself and her father, so that they could 'be eternal like an undying star'. The original tomb of Tuthmosis I is the earliest datable tomb in the Valley.
The tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1902, and when he explored it properly in 1920, two years before his famous discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, he found two yellow quartzite sarcophagi - but both were empty, having been ransacked in ancient times. Interestingly, both sarcophagi had originally been inscribed for Hatshepsup, although one had subsequently been reinscribed for her earthly father, Tuthmosis I. (Stone sarcophagi were extremely time-consuming and expensive to produce.) The mummy of Tuthmosis I had at some stage been transferred to a great cache of mummies which were found in 1881 at Deir el-Bahari, but the location of Hatshepsup's mummy was unknown and has therefore exercised the minds of Egyptologists ever since. In particular, they would like to understand the causes of her death.
In spring 1903, Howard Carter found and opened a tomb, now known as KV60, in which he found the coffins of mummified geese and the partially disturbed and decaying coffins of two women, lying side-by-side. One bore the inscription of Sitre-In, Hatshepsup's wet nurse, the other was anonymous. As the tomb was not royal it received little attention at this time; in fact Carter closed the tomb and left no map of its exact location.
In 1906 the tomb was happened upon by another archaeologist who had the mummy of Sitre-In shipped to the Cairo Museum.
Hatshepsup's Mummy?
The tomb was rediscovered again in 1989 by Donald P Ryan, an American. When he reopened the tomb he found the abandoned mummy of an elderly female lying on the floor. Her nails were painted red and outlined in black. Her left arm, with clenched fist, lay diagonally across her chest: this is a pose thought to have been reserved for female royalty of the 18th Dynasty. Her folded, shrunken flesh suggested that she may have been obese in life. Her evisceration had been performed through the pelvic floor instead of the normal side-cut because of her obesity. Ryan also found a fragment of a wooden face - a fragment from a coffin lid - with a notched chin where a false beard could have been attached.
According to Dr Zahi Hawass, Head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, and therefore Egypt's foremost archaeologist, early accounts of these two female mummies confused their roles and identities. One indeed had her right arm clasped over her breast in the posture often adopted by Egyptian royalty, which led Egyptologists to postulate that this might be the missing queen, but Dr Hawass claims that the mummy found in this posture was, in fact, the queen's wet nurse.
In 2007 Dr Hawass, decided to re-investigate the other mummy in the hope that she might be Hatshepsup, and sent it to Cairo for a CT scan9.
The scan revealed an obese woman of between 45-60 years of age, who had bad teeth and probably had diabetes and liver cancer10.
In search of more clues, Dr Hawass used the CT scanner to examine other artefacts associated with Hatshepsup, in particular a small wooden box, discovered in 1881 with the Deir el-Bahari cache and bearing the cartouche of Hatshepsup. Inside the box was a liver11 and a molar tooth, which subsequently proved to be an exact match, give or take a fraction of a millimetre, with a cavity in the jaw of the anonymous mummy, thus conclusively identifying her as Hatshepsup. The minuscule difference between the size of the tooth and the gap was likely to be due to erosion after the tooth was extracted. Further analysis revealed identical bone densities between the tooth and the teeth remaining in the mummy's mouth.
Dr Hawass stated that the discovery of the Hatshepsup mummy was 'the most important find in Egypt since the discovery of Tutankhamun in 1922.' However, not all archaeologists are as yet fully convinced. One Egyptologist, who wishes to remain anonymous, has told the Reuters news agency that, 'It's an interesting piece of scientific deduction which might point to the truth.'
1 The great American Egyptologist, James Henry Breasted, referred to her as 'the first great woman in history'.
2 Alternative spellings: Smenkhare and Smenkare.
3 It is thought that, in ancient Egypt, the royal blood was carried through the female line and so, to become Pharaoh, the man had to marry a female of royal blood, often a sister, half-sister or other near relative. Usually it was the eldest daughter of the previous Pharaoh.
4 Although there is a school of thought that Princess Neferure's father may have been Hatshepsut's lover, Senmut!
5 The classic blue and gold number made famous by Tutankhamun.
6 There is a beautiful block statue of Senmut, holding the child Neferure enfolded in his arms. Neferure is wearing the royal false beard, and the side lock of a youth.
7 The Land of Punt, which may be identified with the biblical Ophir, and which was also called 'Pwenet' by the ancient Egyptians, was a legendary place thought to have been perhaps in eastern Africa or Asia. It was the source of such exotic products as gold, aromatic resins, African blackwood, ebony, ivory, slaves and wild animals.
8 All the tombs in the Valley of the Kings are numbered with KV, shorthand for 'Kings' Valley'.
9 CT scanning, or 'Computerised Tomography', is a medical imaging technique which is basically a three-dimensional X-Ray. The object, usually a patient, is passed through a rotating X-Ray beam. A series of detectors capture a series of cross-sectional images, or 'slices', which a computer programme then compiles into a 3-D shape. Advanced CT scanners are capable of dividing a four centimetre portion of the patient into 74 distinct slices. CT scanning is faster and easier than an alternative procedure of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
10 This belies her own image of herself as she has described herself as 'beautiful and blooming'
11 Embalmers typically eviscerated the dead before embalming them, and normally preserved the internal organs in alabaster 'Canopic jars', so that they could be reunited with the body in the afterlife.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A24739185
The Laetoli Footprints
magine a broad swathe of flat, wet sand along a beach with two sets of footprints extending away and disappearing into the dry, powdery sand above the wave line about 70 feet away. One set large, the other small, parallel, close to the first. You might wonder who made those prints. Were they a young man and woman walking hip-to-hip, embraced? Were they an adult and child, holding hands and merrily chatting as they walked?
Now imagine similar footprints, not in today's wet sand, preserved in hardened volcanic ash mud that is almost four million years old. What might you wonder now? Such footprints indeed exist, and are known as the Laetoli footprints.
Discovery
The Laetoli footprints were discovered in 1976, not far from the village of Laetoli in a remote part of Tanzania. We tend to think that major scientific discoveries are made in laboratories by dull, plodding scientists with narrowly-focused minds and eyes, but the Laetoli discovery happened far differently. Two paleoanthropologists, in a group led by the famous anthropologist Mary Leakey, were horsing around, throwing elephant dung at each other while walking a familiar path back from the dig one day. After Andrew Hill dodged one well-aimed faecal projectile, he found himself face-down on the ground and staring at footprints fossilised in a layer of hardened volcanic mud. No one had noticed them before. Later excavation revealed an astonishing find that came to be known as the Laetoli footprints.
Fossil Footprints
The footprint trails are set in cement-like hardened volcanic mud and extend about 25 metres, 80 feet, over level ground. One set of prints was made by a larger, heavier creature; the other by a smaller, lighter one. Both sets are very similar and show that the two were walking in step - side-by-side most of the time. It appears that a third individual, much smaller than the first two, was following behind, stepping playfully in the footprints left by the larger individual.
Strikingly, the stride and gait are quite human-like in appearance, entirely different from those of modern apes when they walk upright. Looking more closely at the individual prints, they are considerably smaller than the prints of modern adult humans. Still, a non-expert observer would probably mistake them for human footprints, although the big toes angle off towards the outside and all of the toes are a bit longer than usual. One thing to keep in mind is that our idea of a 'normal' human footprint is that of feet that have been shaped by growing up in shoes. The footprints of people that traditionally do not wear shoes feature longer toes that spread more widely than are usually seen.
Formation
An unlikely but, for science, fortunate combination of events created and preserved these footprints. The ground in the area where the footprints were found was occasionally covered with ash from nearby volcanoes, much like how ground is covered with snow during a snowfall. On the day these three beings took their stroll, rain had turned the fallen ash into a fine mud that captured the footprints like a plaster casting. Before the prints were lost, they were buried beneath another heavy fall of ash. The layers of ash hardened, preserving the Laetoli footprints.
Significance
What makes these prints an almost unbelievable discovery are that not only are they clearly made by fully bipedal1 creatures, but are also almost indistinguishable from modern human footprints, despite being formed millions of years earlier than the earliest known fossilised human footprints.
The individual footprints are sufficiently well-formed and well-preserved to provide information on the soft tissues (skin and muscle) of their creators, yet even more interesting is the information determined about the skeletons of these upright-walking creatures. The toe pattern is much the same as the modern human foot - the toes are relatively short and the big toe is in line with the other toes. This is much different to the feet of chimpanzees and the other pongid apes2. The feet of pongids are more like human hands than feet, with the long great toe sticking out at about 45°, like the human thumb.
The footprint impression clearly shows that the heel strikes first with weight then transferred forward to the ball of the foot before finally the toes push off. This is the same as the modern human stride. The spacing of the footprints also shows that the leg bone structure of this creature must have been similar to that of humans - particularly in that the upper bone, the femur, slanted inward so that the feet could fall near the body centre line. This allowed upright bipedal walking in the manner of humans.
A good sceptical question to ask is: 'How do we know that these footprints are really so old?' The answer is convincing - they were dated by the potassium-argon radiometric method. The stratum (layer) below the footprints was determined to be 3.7 million years before present (BP) and the layer above the prints at 3.5 million years BP. There is 10% error using this technique so it is fairly certain that the footprints are three to four million years old.
Controversy
These fossilised footprints have generated much controversy, a lot of it within the relevant fields of science and even more between evolutionists and creationists. The creationists were delighted with the find, gleefully declaring this to be a clear fossil anomaly that destroys some of the basis for evolution and current anthropological theories as well as strongly challenging the methods of paleoanthropologists and their interpretation of the entire fossil record. Indeed, at the time of writing, a third to a half of web search results for 'Laetoli footprints' are for creationist sites.
Although scientists admit to being surprised that such an early hominid (proto-human) resembles modern humans closely in stride and standing posture, many scientists do not accept the idea that these footprints were made by humans. To begin with, there is no evidence of human culture from that time period. The artefacts that have been found do not indicate a human level of intelligence or of society.
Furthermore, the fossilised hominid skeletons from that time period, which include skulls, are clearly not human. The only hominids known to have lived at that time are Australopithecus afarensis, found in Ethiopia, and Australopithecus africanus, found in southern Africa.3 The famous Lucy skeleton, found in 1975, was complete enough to show that A afarensis, while appearing to be about as intelligent as a chimp4, could easily have been bipedal. Specifically, the shape of the pelvis was very humanlike and designed for upright walking. The femurs angled inward, a configuration that is necessary to allow the feet to catch the weight of the body near the midline allowing efficient and effective walking and running.
Although creationists want to see the Laetoli footprints as evidence that humans existed much earlier than evolutionists or paleoanthropologists admit, most scientists see the footprints as evidence supporting the theory that a hominid of that time was fully bipedal.
If it was indeed A afarensis/africanus that made the Laetoli footprints, they may have walked 'the walk', but they didn't talk 'the talk' - skull casts of A afarensis do not show significant development of the brain areas that support language abilities in modern humans. They also looked different to modern humans having ape-like heads with no chin, no forehead and a protruding jaw.
Now imagine similar footprints, not in today's wet sand, preserved in hardened volcanic ash mud that is almost four million years old. What might you wonder now? Such footprints indeed exist, and are known as the Laetoli footprints.
Discovery
The Laetoli footprints were discovered in 1976, not far from the village of Laetoli in a remote part of Tanzania. We tend to think that major scientific discoveries are made in laboratories by dull, plodding scientists with narrowly-focused minds and eyes, but the Laetoli discovery happened far differently. Two paleoanthropologists, in a group led by the famous anthropologist Mary Leakey, were horsing around, throwing elephant dung at each other while walking a familiar path back from the dig one day. After Andrew Hill dodged one well-aimed faecal projectile, he found himself face-down on the ground and staring at footprints fossilised in a layer of hardened volcanic mud. No one had noticed them before. Later excavation revealed an astonishing find that came to be known as the Laetoli footprints.
Fossil Footprints
The footprint trails are set in cement-like hardened volcanic mud and extend about 25 metres, 80 feet, over level ground. One set of prints was made by a larger, heavier creature; the other by a smaller, lighter one. Both sets are very similar and show that the two were walking in step - side-by-side most of the time. It appears that a third individual, much smaller than the first two, was following behind, stepping playfully in the footprints left by the larger individual.
Strikingly, the stride and gait are quite human-like in appearance, entirely different from those of modern apes when they walk upright. Looking more closely at the individual prints, they are considerably smaller than the prints of modern adult humans. Still, a non-expert observer would probably mistake them for human footprints, although the big toes angle off towards the outside and all of the toes are a bit longer than usual. One thing to keep in mind is that our idea of a 'normal' human footprint is that of feet that have been shaped by growing up in shoes. The footprints of people that traditionally do not wear shoes feature longer toes that spread more widely than are usually seen.
Formation
An unlikely but, for science, fortunate combination of events created and preserved these footprints. The ground in the area where the footprints were found was occasionally covered with ash from nearby volcanoes, much like how ground is covered with snow during a snowfall. On the day these three beings took their stroll, rain had turned the fallen ash into a fine mud that captured the footprints like a plaster casting. Before the prints were lost, they were buried beneath another heavy fall of ash. The layers of ash hardened, preserving the Laetoli footprints.
Significance
What makes these prints an almost unbelievable discovery are that not only are they clearly made by fully bipedal1 creatures, but are also almost indistinguishable from modern human footprints, despite being formed millions of years earlier than the earliest known fossilised human footprints.
The individual footprints are sufficiently well-formed and well-preserved to provide information on the soft tissues (skin and muscle) of their creators, yet even more interesting is the information determined about the skeletons of these upright-walking creatures. The toe pattern is much the same as the modern human foot - the toes are relatively short and the big toe is in line with the other toes. This is much different to the feet of chimpanzees and the other pongid apes2. The feet of pongids are more like human hands than feet, with the long great toe sticking out at about 45°, like the human thumb.
The footprint impression clearly shows that the heel strikes first with weight then transferred forward to the ball of the foot before finally the toes push off. This is the same as the modern human stride. The spacing of the footprints also shows that the leg bone structure of this creature must have been similar to that of humans - particularly in that the upper bone, the femur, slanted inward so that the feet could fall near the body centre line. This allowed upright bipedal walking in the manner of humans.
A good sceptical question to ask is: 'How do we know that these footprints are really so old?' The answer is convincing - they were dated by the potassium-argon radiometric method. The stratum (layer) below the footprints was determined to be 3.7 million years before present (BP) and the layer above the prints at 3.5 million years BP. There is 10% error using this technique so it is fairly certain that the footprints are three to four million years old.
Controversy
These fossilised footprints have generated much controversy, a lot of it within the relevant fields of science and even more between evolutionists and creationists. The creationists were delighted with the find, gleefully declaring this to be a clear fossil anomaly that destroys some of the basis for evolution and current anthropological theories as well as strongly challenging the methods of paleoanthropologists and their interpretation of the entire fossil record. Indeed, at the time of writing, a third to a half of web search results for 'Laetoli footprints' are for creationist sites.
Although scientists admit to being surprised that such an early hominid (proto-human) resembles modern humans closely in stride and standing posture, many scientists do not accept the idea that these footprints were made by humans. To begin with, there is no evidence of human culture from that time period. The artefacts that have been found do not indicate a human level of intelligence or of society.
Furthermore, the fossilised hominid skeletons from that time period, which include skulls, are clearly not human. The only hominids known to have lived at that time are Australopithecus afarensis, found in Ethiopia, and Australopithecus africanus, found in southern Africa.3 The famous Lucy skeleton, found in 1975, was complete enough to show that A afarensis, while appearing to be about as intelligent as a chimp4, could easily have been bipedal. Specifically, the shape of the pelvis was very humanlike and designed for upright walking. The femurs angled inward, a configuration that is necessary to allow the feet to catch the weight of the body near the midline allowing efficient and effective walking and running.
Although creationists want to see the Laetoli footprints as evidence that humans existed much earlier than evolutionists or paleoanthropologists admit, most scientists see the footprints as evidence supporting the theory that a hominid of that time was fully bipedal.
If it was indeed A afarensis/africanus that made the Laetoli footprints, they may have walked 'the walk', but they didn't talk 'the talk' - skull casts of A afarensis do not show significant development of the brain areas that support language abilities in modern humans. They also looked different to modern humans having ape-like heads with no chin, no forehead and a protruding jaw.
1 Animals that, like humans, walk on only two legs are bipedal.
2 The pongids, also known as the great apes, include the orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas.
3 It's notable that the distinction between these two hominids has not been proved. Both were bipedal.
4 Their brain cavity allowed a brain of approximately 400cc, compared to an average 390cc for a chimpanzee and 1300cc for a modern male human. However, judging intelligence from brain size alone is quite inaccurate. Intelligence is actually more dependent on brain structure than on brain size. Neanderthal man (Homo sapiens neanderthalis), for example, had a larger brain case than we do. Also, the fact that women, on average, have smaller brains than men does not mean that men are more intelligent. The true evidence for intelligence in A afarensis comes from examination of skull casts, which reveals the shape of the brain and the development of specific parts of the brain.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A944336
Irish Neolithic Tombs
Ireland is littered with ancient stone monuments; from castles dating back a few hundred years to tombs dating back five thousand years. This entry deals with the ancient tombs, of which there are the remains of more than 1,300 throughout the island.
Background
Thousands of years ago, Ireland was sparsely populated by a hunter-gatherer community. In about 4000 BC, the Neolithic Farming Revolution arrived in Ireland, bringing a farming lifestyle to the country. It is not known how much of this was new people arriving and how much was the native people changing their way of life; there's no doubt that the farm animals were brought to Ireland from abroad in boats, so communication and trade with other countries was obviously taking place. However it happened, Ireland developed into a farming country with settled communities. This period was called the Neolithic or New Stone Age. It lasted from about 4000 BC to about 2000 BC. During that period, these farmers set about clearing Ireland's primeval forest and converting it to farming land.
The Stone Age people did not build houses of stone; they lived in wooden huts with thatched rooves. Stone was used for their tools: axes, knives and ploughshares. Initially, flint, which cracks to form a very sharp edge, was used but later a polished black stone called porcellanite was used instead. Though not as sharp, it wore better.
Despite living in wooden huts, these early people buried their dead in elaborate stone tombs. The existence of these tombs tells us a few things:
People lived in communities, rather than in solitary farmsteads. The tombs used very large stones which could not have been shifted by a single person. Gangs of people working together would have been required to build a tomb.
Far more people were needed to build a tomb than could be buried in the tomb, so only some people got buried in tombs. This suggests a stratified society with some sort of a chief or priest receiving special treatment.
These people must have believed in some sort of afterlife. Topographical alignment of the tombs suggest that these people held the sun as very important, perhaps suggesting a heliocentric belief.
Although the stones used to make the tombs were crude and unshaped, their positioning was very precise in relation to the position of the sun. Most are aligned in definite directions to face the rising sun on a particular day. In the most elaborate, sun would shine down passageway on an auspicious day of the year, indicating that ancient people were skilled observers of the skies and capable of keeping records over many years.
Some stones are decorated with abstract spirals, triangles and zigzags and represent early rock art in Ireland.
The Basic Design of a Neolithic Period Tomb
All the tombs and other later constructions such as stone circles in this entry can be described as 'Megalithic' (Greek: 'Mega' - big, 'Lithos' - stone). The basic tomb has three features:
Chamber - this is a stone-lined space in which the corpse would have been laid. The body was sometimes cremated and the ashes placed in a stone basin or in an earthenware pot. Other times, the body was buried. There seems to be no preference between burial and cremation: often both methods were used in the same tomb. Larger chambers can hold 20 people standing, others are no bigger than a box 1m2.
Doorway - consists of two upright flat stones facing each other and a lintel stone above. These stones seem to have been symbolically important, as they were always present, even though the other parts of the tomb varied considerably over the centuries.
Mound - in most tomb designs, the whole structure was covered in a mound of clay and stones, so that all that was visible from the outside was a mound with a stone doorway.
There were four basic types of tomb that were used at different times in varying parts of Ireland. Some of these are also found in other parts of Europe, such as Great Britain and Brittany.
Court Tombs
The earliest type of stone tomb found in Ireland is the court tomb, built mainly between 4000 and 3500 BC. There are more than 400 found almost entirely in the northern half of the country, being particularly common around Sligo.
The tomb itself consists of a number of square or rectangular chambers in a line, each made from flat stones standing upright (orthostats) and other flat stones across the top. A mound is then constructed over the whole tomb, usually about 25m long and about 15m wide. The line of the tomb is from west to east and the doorway into the tomb faces east. The court tomb has a flat semi-circular area in front of the doorway known as a 'court'. The court is paved with stone and surrounded by standing stones. Presumably the court was used for rituals during the funeral.
Most court tombs in existence have been damaged over the years so that the mound has disappeared and the roof stones removed, leaving only the side stones. A good example of a court tomb, which has been partially reconstructed, can be seen at Creevykeel, County Sligo.
Portal Tombs or Dolmens
Portal tombs appear to have developed from court tombs. They are so-called because of the prominence of the doorway. As well as other vertical stones, they have two very large stones forming the doorway and an enormous stone, which not only covers the doorway but also covers the whole tomb. This 'capstone' can be anything from 20 to 90 tonnes in weight and slopes with its highest point at the doorway. Portal tombs are not and were never covered in a mound but stand with the stones exposed.
There are about 180 portal tombs, usually built on low-lying ground, scattered around Ireland, mainly in Ulster but with small concentrations in South Dublin and Waterford.
A very good example of a portal tomb is the Proleek Dolmen. Situated in the Cooley peninsula to the northeast of Dundalk, it is well sign-posted and easily reached through the grounds of Ballymascanlon Hotel. This dolmen has a capstone estimated at 30 tonnes in weight.
Passage Tombs
Passage tombs or passage graves were built in the period from 3500 to 3000 BC. There are about 240. Unlike other tombs which are isolated, passage tombs tend to be built in 'cemeteries', that is, collections of a large number of such tombs. The most significant of these cemeteries are in County Meath at Brъ na Bуinne and Loughcrew, and in Sligo at Carrowkeel and Creevykeel.
Passage tombs are a development of court tombs: the chamber is large and often cross-shaped, with a narrow stone-lined passage leading to it. The mound is circular and can be enormous. The biggest of these is more than 80m in diameter. Newgrange at Brъ na Bуinne in County Meath is the best example of a passage tomb and is open to the public. Excavations around Newgrange show that originally the front of the mound was faced with white stones. All the way around the base of the mound was a ring of large stones covered in engravings. There are also engravings inside the passage and chamber. However, these are the only Neolithic tombs to show any sort of engravings. The patterns are abstract ones - spirals, diamonds and zigzags, although it has been speculated that some of them represent the phases of the moon.
While the court tombs always faced east, the passages of the passage tombs point in many different directions. Many were built to align with the sun so that the sun's rays could shine down the passage on a significant date: for example, passages facing southeast catch the rays at sunrise on the winter solstice, as happens in Newgrange. Passages facing west were aligned with the setting sun at the equinox. Some of the bigger mounds might have had two separate passages, each aligned to a different solar event.
In smaller tombs, the roof of the chamber was made from flat slabs of rock placed directly on the side walls. For larger chambers of the bigger tombs such as Newgrange, this was not possible as the span is too wide. A different technique called 'corbelling' was used. A first layer of slabs rested on the walls and projected a short way, the next layer projected further, and so on until the final slab covered the hole in the centre. This gave the chamber a crude domed shape.
Passage tombs were usually built on the tops of mountains so that they could be seen from a long way off. The 'Fairy Castle' cairn on the top of Two Rock Mountain just south of Dublin, for example, can be seen 40 or 50 miles away (about 60 or 80km).
Wedge Tombs
The Wedge Tomb is the smallest and latest of the tomb types. These were built at the very end of the Neolithic Age from about 2500 to 2000 BC. There are more than 500. About quarter of all wedge tombs are in County Clare, another quarter in Southwest Ireland, and the remaining half are scattered mainly around the west and northwest of the country.
Here the chamber has become just a box. The passage widens to the doorway, in the wedge shape that gives the tomb its name. The whole thing is capped with flat stones and covered in a very small mound, sometimes only one metre high. Nowadays, the mound has been eroded away, leaving only the box-like stones of the tomb. Wedge tombs are usually built about three-quarters the way up a mountain, and the doorway nearly always faces southwest.
A good example of a wedge tomb can be found at Lough Gur, a wonderful site in County Limerick with many ancient remains, including the Great Stone Circle, the biggest in Ireland. Follow the signs from Limerick to Lough Gur, as far as the car park. Turn left out of the car park, bear right, turning right again at the next crossing. The tomb is signposted on your left. If you get as far as the new church, then you've gone too far. The tomb was built in about 2500 BC and is about 8m by 3.5m. The burial 'gallery' is divided into two chambers. Originally, it would have had a mound over it. Archaeological excavation has revealed the remains of at least eight adults and four children buried in it.
The Bronze Age Arrives
Around 2000 BC, bronze goods started arriving into Ireland. This was the beginning of the Bronze Age. There was a gradual shift to a new form of society with different customs. This might or might not have been caused by the arrival of the new technology and the whole culture required to mine the copper and refine it. Burial customs changed with the end of large tomb building and the start of smaller stone-lined graves called 'cists'.
The Bronze Age people specialised in another type of large stone monument, unconnected with tombs: the stone circle. But that's another story!
Background
Thousands of years ago, Ireland was sparsely populated by a hunter-gatherer community. In about 4000 BC, the Neolithic Farming Revolution arrived in Ireland, bringing a farming lifestyle to the country. It is not known how much of this was new people arriving and how much was the native people changing their way of life; there's no doubt that the farm animals were brought to Ireland from abroad in boats, so communication and trade with other countries was obviously taking place. However it happened, Ireland developed into a farming country with settled communities. This period was called the Neolithic or New Stone Age. It lasted from about 4000 BC to about 2000 BC. During that period, these farmers set about clearing Ireland's primeval forest and converting it to farming land.
The Stone Age people did not build houses of stone; they lived in wooden huts with thatched rooves. Stone was used for their tools: axes, knives and ploughshares. Initially, flint, which cracks to form a very sharp edge, was used but later a polished black stone called porcellanite was used instead. Though not as sharp, it wore better.
Despite living in wooden huts, these early people buried their dead in elaborate stone tombs. The existence of these tombs tells us a few things:
People lived in communities, rather than in solitary farmsteads. The tombs used very large stones which could not have been shifted by a single person. Gangs of people working together would have been required to build a tomb.
Far more people were needed to build a tomb than could be buried in the tomb, so only some people got buried in tombs. This suggests a stratified society with some sort of a chief or priest receiving special treatment.
These people must have believed in some sort of afterlife. Topographical alignment of the tombs suggest that these people held the sun as very important, perhaps suggesting a heliocentric belief.
Although the stones used to make the tombs were crude and unshaped, their positioning was very precise in relation to the position of the sun. Most are aligned in definite directions to face the rising sun on a particular day. In the most elaborate, sun would shine down passageway on an auspicious day of the year, indicating that ancient people were skilled observers of the skies and capable of keeping records over many years.
Some stones are decorated with abstract spirals, triangles and zigzags and represent early rock art in Ireland.
The Basic Design of a Neolithic Period Tomb
All the tombs and other later constructions such as stone circles in this entry can be described as 'Megalithic' (Greek: 'Mega' - big, 'Lithos' - stone). The basic tomb has three features:
Chamber - this is a stone-lined space in which the corpse would have been laid. The body was sometimes cremated and the ashes placed in a stone basin or in an earthenware pot. Other times, the body was buried. There seems to be no preference between burial and cremation: often both methods were used in the same tomb. Larger chambers can hold 20 people standing, others are no bigger than a box 1m2.
Doorway - consists of two upright flat stones facing each other and a lintel stone above. These stones seem to have been symbolically important, as they were always present, even though the other parts of the tomb varied considerably over the centuries.
Mound - in most tomb designs, the whole structure was covered in a mound of clay and stones, so that all that was visible from the outside was a mound with a stone doorway.
There were four basic types of tomb that were used at different times in varying parts of Ireland. Some of these are also found in other parts of Europe, such as Great Britain and Brittany.
Court Tombs
The earliest type of stone tomb found in Ireland is the court tomb, built mainly between 4000 and 3500 BC. There are more than 400 found almost entirely in the northern half of the country, being particularly common around Sligo.
The tomb itself consists of a number of square or rectangular chambers in a line, each made from flat stones standing upright (orthostats) and other flat stones across the top. A mound is then constructed over the whole tomb, usually about 25m long and about 15m wide. The line of the tomb is from west to east and the doorway into the tomb faces east. The court tomb has a flat semi-circular area in front of the doorway known as a 'court'. The court is paved with stone and surrounded by standing stones. Presumably the court was used for rituals during the funeral.
Most court tombs in existence have been damaged over the years so that the mound has disappeared and the roof stones removed, leaving only the side stones. A good example of a court tomb, which has been partially reconstructed, can be seen at Creevykeel, County Sligo.
Portal Tombs or Dolmens
Portal tombs appear to have developed from court tombs. They are so-called because of the prominence of the doorway. As well as other vertical stones, they have two very large stones forming the doorway and an enormous stone, which not only covers the doorway but also covers the whole tomb. This 'capstone' can be anything from 20 to 90 tonnes in weight and slopes with its highest point at the doorway. Portal tombs are not and were never covered in a mound but stand with the stones exposed.
There are about 180 portal tombs, usually built on low-lying ground, scattered around Ireland, mainly in Ulster but with small concentrations in South Dublin and Waterford.
A very good example of a portal tomb is the Proleek Dolmen. Situated in the Cooley peninsula to the northeast of Dundalk, it is well sign-posted and easily reached through the grounds of Ballymascanlon Hotel. This dolmen has a capstone estimated at 30 tonnes in weight.
Passage Tombs
Passage tombs or passage graves were built in the period from 3500 to 3000 BC. There are about 240. Unlike other tombs which are isolated, passage tombs tend to be built in 'cemeteries', that is, collections of a large number of such tombs. The most significant of these cemeteries are in County Meath at Brъ na Bуinne and Loughcrew, and in Sligo at Carrowkeel and Creevykeel.
Passage tombs are a development of court tombs: the chamber is large and often cross-shaped, with a narrow stone-lined passage leading to it. The mound is circular and can be enormous. The biggest of these is more than 80m in diameter. Newgrange at Brъ na Bуinne in County Meath is the best example of a passage tomb and is open to the public. Excavations around Newgrange show that originally the front of the mound was faced with white stones. All the way around the base of the mound was a ring of large stones covered in engravings. There are also engravings inside the passage and chamber. However, these are the only Neolithic tombs to show any sort of engravings. The patterns are abstract ones - spirals, diamonds and zigzags, although it has been speculated that some of them represent the phases of the moon.
While the court tombs always faced east, the passages of the passage tombs point in many different directions. Many were built to align with the sun so that the sun's rays could shine down the passage on a significant date: for example, passages facing southeast catch the rays at sunrise on the winter solstice, as happens in Newgrange. Passages facing west were aligned with the setting sun at the equinox. Some of the bigger mounds might have had two separate passages, each aligned to a different solar event.
In smaller tombs, the roof of the chamber was made from flat slabs of rock placed directly on the side walls. For larger chambers of the bigger tombs such as Newgrange, this was not possible as the span is too wide. A different technique called 'corbelling' was used. A first layer of slabs rested on the walls and projected a short way, the next layer projected further, and so on until the final slab covered the hole in the centre. This gave the chamber a crude domed shape.
Passage tombs were usually built on the tops of mountains so that they could be seen from a long way off. The 'Fairy Castle' cairn on the top of Two Rock Mountain just south of Dublin, for example, can be seen 40 or 50 miles away (about 60 or 80km).
Wedge Tombs
The Wedge Tomb is the smallest and latest of the tomb types. These were built at the very end of the Neolithic Age from about 2500 to 2000 BC. There are more than 500. About quarter of all wedge tombs are in County Clare, another quarter in Southwest Ireland, and the remaining half are scattered mainly around the west and northwest of the country.
Here the chamber has become just a box. The passage widens to the doorway, in the wedge shape that gives the tomb its name. The whole thing is capped with flat stones and covered in a very small mound, sometimes only one metre high. Nowadays, the mound has been eroded away, leaving only the box-like stones of the tomb. Wedge tombs are usually built about three-quarters the way up a mountain, and the doorway nearly always faces southwest.
A good example of a wedge tomb can be found at Lough Gur, a wonderful site in County Limerick with many ancient remains, including the Great Stone Circle, the biggest in Ireland. Follow the signs from Limerick to Lough Gur, as far as the car park. Turn left out of the car park, bear right, turning right again at the next crossing. The tomb is signposted on your left. If you get as far as the new church, then you've gone too far. The tomb was built in about 2500 BC and is about 8m by 3.5m. The burial 'gallery' is divided into two chambers. Originally, it would have had a mound over it. Archaeological excavation has revealed the remains of at least eight adults and four children buried in it.
The Bronze Age Arrives
Around 2000 BC, bronze goods started arriving into Ireland. This was the beginning of the Bronze Age. There was a gradual shift to a new form of society with different customs. This might or might not have been caused by the arrival of the new technology and the whole culture required to mine the copper and refine it. Burial customs changed with the end of large tomb building and the start of smaller stone-lined graves called 'cists'.
The Bronze Age people specialised in another type of large stone monument, unconnected with tombs: the stone circle. But that's another story!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3181673
Determining Geologic Time
If the age of the Earth were represented as the length of one's arm, with the shoulder representing the beginning of geologic time, the dinosaurs would have died out about where the wrist would be and all of human existence could be measured by the tip of a fingernail.
However, geologists typically divide the duration of time since the Earth came into being in different terms. The names of periods and eras they use will be referred to during this entry; please refer to this Geologic Glossary for definitions of unfamiliar terms.
The Law of Superposition
Superposition is a term applied to strata or layers of material deposited in low places on the Earth's surface by natural processes over time. The Principle of Superposition simply states that the lower strata or layers are older than the upper layers because they were deposited first. This means we can date a stratum or layer relative to the strata above and below it.
Strata are almost always deposited in horizontal layers, at least initially. This also means that if, for example, we find an exposure of strata that is tilted, then we can conclude that the event that caused the tilting is younger than the strata that was tilted.
This is how we know that a tilted exposure of the Fountain Formation on the eastside of the Front Range of the Southern Rocky Mountains is not material eroded from that range but from a much older range that preceded it. The Fountain Formation then is one of the few pieces of the evidence that we have that the former Ancestral Rockies ever existed.
Igneous intrusions into strata can also be dated as younger than the strata. Such intrusions are magma or molten rock from deep in the Earth's crust, or mantle. When they extrude on the surface we call them lava flows, or volcanic eruptions.
Radiometric Dating
Such igneous intrusions (or extrusions, for that matter) are important for dating geologic time intervals because they give us the opportunity to assign absolute as well as relative dates. Igneous rock often contains radioactive elements with a known half-life. By measuring the proportion of the element to the products of its radioactive decay, we can determine the number of years since the rock containing the element was molten, and hence intruded into (or extruded onto) the strata.
Paleomagnetism
There is, however, another way to obtain absolute dates.
The Earth has a magnetic field, as anyone who has used a magnetic compass to determine which way is North will know. The direction that the north end of the compass needle points has actually changed 180° periodically during the Earth's history. These magnetic reversals have occurred more or less randomly and persisted for different durations so that any given sequence of reversals will differ from other sequences.
It is possible, therefore, to associate magnetic reversal sequences worldwide with different geologic eras and, in conjunction with radiometric studies1, assign absolute dates to those eras.
Molten rock is continually upwelling on these zones. As the rock solidifies, it preserves a record of the direction of the Earth's magnetic North. That record is then pushed outwards from the spread zone as more molten rock is extruded and the cycle is repeated. The resulting records represent the state of the magnetic field over time. These are the sequences referred to above.
The Principle of Faunal and Floral Succession
Previous to the introduction of paleomagnetic studies, such worldwide dating was accomplished by the use of fossils under the Principle of Faunal and Floral Succession. In the evolution of life on Earth certain assemblages of creatures have followed others. Formations in which dinosaurs predominate are earlier than formations in which mammals predominate, for example. Signature fossils become associated with certain sequences of strata or sedimentary layers. If those same fossils are found in other strata, it is assumed that the sequences are approximately contemporary and can, therefore, be calibrated in time.
Another example relates to well established fossil records, such as that associated with Mesozoic Ammonites, and relatives of the modern nautilus. Because these creatures changed over time, their different forms were represented in different strata or layers. These could be used to resolve the relative dates of horizons or layers in marine deposits all over the world. This in turn could be used to date shoreline deposits that interleaved with the marine deposits.
Other Methods
Dendrochronology, the analysis of tree rings to determine time spans, can be utilised to resolve yearly changes within a specific era. It isn't particularly satisfactory for assigning absolute dates earlier than a few thousand years ago. However, since tree trunks sometimes fossilise, the method is not limited to the Holocene but has been applied as far back as the Mesozoic to resolve shorter time spans. It is sometimes used for calibration of Carbon 14 methods, which are radiometric.
Varves, the seasonal layers of sediment deposited in lakes, are discernable in Precambian formations and, therefore, somewhat more useful than dendrochronology because they can apply to periods before trees existed.
Presumed varve couplets located in ancient Lake Florissant yield estimates for the life of the lake of 2500 - 5000 years, however, the lake deposits date from the upper or latest Eocene, about 34 million years ago. As we go back further in geologic time, such fine resolution in formations is not easily attained.
Conclusion
Geologic time deals with durations of millions and sometimes billions of years. The average horizon resolution2 in this immense span of time would still be measured in hundreds of thousands of years until we approach relatively recent times.
Radiometric and paleomagnetic studies in conjunction with applications of the faunal and floral succession allow us to devise a pretty precise time scale for what has happened on earth over aeons. Various stratigraphies can be correlated with these dating techniques, as well as dendrochronology and varve analysis, to determine such things as how the Earth's climate has changed, how the continents have drifted around the Earth, how seas have inundated continents, how mountain ranges have risen and been eroded away, and how life has evolved.
However, geologists typically divide the duration of time since the Earth came into being in different terms. The names of periods and eras they use will be referred to during this entry; please refer to this Geologic Glossary for definitions of unfamiliar terms.
The Law of Superposition
Superposition is a term applied to strata or layers of material deposited in low places on the Earth's surface by natural processes over time. The Principle of Superposition simply states that the lower strata or layers are older than the upper layers because they were deposited first. This means we can date a stratum or layer relative to the strata above and below it.
Strata are almost always deposited in horizontal layers, at least initially. This also means that if, for example, we find an exposure of strata that is tilted, then we can conclude that the event that caused the tilting is younger than the strata that was tilted.
This is how we know that a tilted exposure of the Fountain Formation on the eastside of the Front Range of the Southern Rocky Mountains is not material eroded from that range but from a much older range that preceded it. The Fountain Formation then is one of the few pieces of the evidence that we have that the former Ancestral Rockies ever existed.
Igneous intrusions into strata can also be dated as younger than the strata. Such intrusions are magma or molten rock from deep in the Earth's crust, or mantle. When they extrude on the surface we call them lava flows, or volcanic eruptions.
Radiometric Dating
Such igneous intrusions (or extrusions, for that matter) are important for dating geologic time intervals because they give us the opportunity to assign absolute as well as relative dates. Igneous rock often contains radioactive elements with a known half-life. By measuring the proportion of the element to the products of its radioactive decay, we can determine the number of years since the rock containing the element was molten, and hence intruded into (or extruded onto) the strata.
Paleomagnetism
There is, however, another way to obtain absolute dates.
The Earth has a magnetic field, as anyone who has used a magnetic compass to determine which way is North will know. The direction that the north end of the compass needle points has actually changed 180° periodically during the Earth's history. These magnetic reversals have occurred more or less randomly and persisted for different durations so that any given sequence of reversals will differ from other sequences.
It is possible, therefore, to associate magnetic reversal sequences worldwide with different geologic eras and, in conjunction with radiometric studies1, assign absolute dates to those eras.
Molten rock is continually upwelling on these zones. As the rock solidifies, it preserves a record of the direction of the Earth's magnetic North. That record is then pushed outwards from the spread zone as more molten rock is extruded and the cycle is repeated. The resulting records represent the state of the magnetic field over time. These are the sequences referred to above.
The Principle of Faunal and Floral Succession
Previous to the introduction of paleomagnetic studies, such worldwide dating was accomplished by the use of fossils under the Principle of Faunal and Floral Succession. In the evolution of life on Earth certain assemblages of creatures have followed others. Formations in which dinosaurs predominate are earlier than formations in which mammals predominate, for example. Signature fossils become associated with certain sequences of strata or sedimentary layers. If those same fossils are found in other strata, it is assumed that the sequences are approximately contemporary and can, therefore, be calibrated in time.
Another example relates to well established fossil records, such as that associated with Mesozoic Ammonites, and relatives of the modern nautilus. Because these creatures changed over time, their different forms were represented in different strata or layers. These could be used to resolve the relative dates of horizons or layers in marine deposits all over the world. This in turn could be used to date shoreline deposits that interleaved with the marine deposits.
Other Methods
Dendrochronology, the analysis of tree rings to determine time spans, can be utilised to resolve yearly changes within a specific era. It isn't particularly satisfactory for assigning absolute dates earlier than a few thousand years ago. However, since tree trunks sometimes fossilise, the method is not limited to the Holocene but has been applied as far back as the Mesozoic to resolve shorter time spans. It is sometimes used for calibration of Carbon 14 methods, which are radiometric.
Varves, the seasonal layers of sediment deposited in lakes, are discernable in Precambian formations and, therefore, somewhat more useful than dendrochronology because they can apply to periods before trees existed.
Presumed varve couplets located in ancient Lake Florissant yield estimates for the life of the lake of 2500 - 5000 years, however, the lake deposits date from the upper or latest Eocene, about 34 million years ago. As we go back further in geologic time, such fine resolution in formations is not easily attained.
Conclusion
Geologic time deals with durations of millions and sometimes billions of years. The average horizon resolution2 in this immense span of time would still be measured in hundreds of thousands of years until we approach relatively recent times.
Radiometric and paleomagnetic studies in conjunction with applications of the faunal and floral succession allow us to devise a pretty precise time scale for what has happened on earth over aeons. Various stratigraphies can be correlated with these dating techniques, as well as dendrochronology and varve analysis, to determine such things as how the Earth's climate has changed, how the continents have drifted around the Earth, how seas have inundated continents, how mountain ranges have risen and been eroded away, and how life has evolved.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A882209
David and Goliath - Archaeological Evidence
Most people will be familiar with the Old Testament story related in 1 Samuel, chapter 17, in which a shepherd boy, David, armed only with a slingshot, slays the giant, Goliath.
The background to this story is that Goliath of Gath, a hero of the Philistine army, standing some six cubits1 and a span in height (299cm; nearly ten feet), challenged the Israelite army to provide a man to fight him. Despite Goliath's vast size and the fact his armour consisted of a bronze helmet, bronze mail armour weighing 5000 shekels (or 80kg - compare this with 14th-Century full-body plate armour which weighed up to 36kg) and a shield, David was able to kill him with single stone directed at his forehead.
The David of this story was a shepherd and skilful minstrel and, indeed, by the time of this event he was a musician at the court of Saul, the first king of Israel. In his book The Bible as History, Hodder and Stoughton (1956), Werner Keller says:
For his poetry alone a modern David would have been a Nobel Prize winner. Yet like the mediaeval troubadours he was poet, composer and musician rolled into one.
Following this triumph, Saul took David on as commander of his troops.
David was the son of Jesse, a farmer of Bethlehem, and eventually became the first king to rule a united Israel in Palestine. According to the genealogies given in Matthew and Luke, David was an ancestor of Christ and so is of vast significance theologically. Christ was the son of Joseph the carpenter and Mary, and Joseph was a descendant of David. But theologically, Christ is considered to be the son of God himself, thus making Joseph Christ's foster father.
The question is, were David and Goliath real people, or is this story merely a myth written centuries after it was supposed to have occurred, as some scholars claim? Is there any evidence that this event could really have occurred?
Recent archaeological discoveries in Israel provide the faintest glimmers that this story could have some basis in fact.
David
Despite the accounts of David's life and exploits as recorded in the Bible, many scholars have doubted that King David actually existed.
However, in 1868 an inscribed basalt stone, dating from the 9th Century BC - known as the Moabite Stone2 or the Mesha Stela - was discovered at Dibon, Jordan; an ancient city east of the Dead Sea, by FA Klein, a German missionary. The stone was 1.1m high and 0.6m in breadth and in thickness, rounded at the top. It consisted of thirty-four lines, written in the ancient Hebrew alphabet, a script closely related to Phoenician; and was set up by Mesha3 at Dan as a record and memorial of his victories.
The stone was, unfortunately, much fragmented but in 1993 a French scholar, Andre Lemaire, who had spent seven years piecing it all together, discovered the words 'House of David'. Line 31 of the Moabite Stone contains the words '...the sheep of the land. And the house (of Da)vid dwelt in Horonen'. This was reported in Biblical Archaeology Review, May-June, 1994. and created such a sensation that it was also reported on the front page of The New York Times. This inscription showed that Israel and Judah were important kingdoms in the 9th Century BC, and refuted the positions of those scholars who claimed that these were never nations of any significance, and even disputed that David had ever been at the head of a united monarchy.
A report in Biblical Archaeology Review, March-April 1994, states:
Avraham Biran and his team of archaeologists found a remarkable inscription from the 9th Century BC that refers to the 'House of David' and to the 'King of Israel'. This is the first time that the name David has been found in any inscription outside the Bible. That the inscription refers not simply to David but to the 'House of David', the dynasty of the great Israelite king, is even more remarkable.
Goliath
It is thought that the name 'Goliath' was an Israelite phonetic translation of the Philistinian name, Aylattes.
Goliath himself was a member of the Anakim4, a race of giant people who inhabited the Philistine cities in the neighbourhood of Hebron. The Anakim appear to have been an aggressive, war-mongering people who terrified the Israelites.
The Philistines
The Philistines were a people who, from the 12th Century BC, occupied the coastal lowlands of Palestine; and who gave their name to that country. They were organised under five lords who ruled at the five chief Philistinian cities: Gaza, Ashdod, Askalon, Gath and Ekron. Gath, the home of Goliath, was situated on the frontiers of Judah and, nowadays is identified with Tell-es-Safi, where crusaders built the castle of Blanche Garde.
The Philistines are believed to have invaded Israel in the 11th Century BC. They were highly civilised, skilled in agriculture and commerce; and brought in their own culture and language. Apart from this, not much is known about their language and writing.
Furthermore, the Philistines were technologically advanced, and possessed iron weaponry5, this being much harder and more durable than bronze and copper, used by the more primitive Israelites.
Archaeological Findings at Tell-es-Safi
Tell-es-Safi (known as Tel Tsafit in Hebrew) is a mound, some 100 acres in size, which occupies a commanding position on the border between the Judean foothills (known as the Shephelah) and the coastal plain; approximately halfway between Jerusalem and Ashkelon. It was continuously inhabited from the Chalcolithic6 period (4th millennium BC) until 1948 and, nowadays, is one of the largest and most important pre-Classical period archaeological sites in Israel.
In 2005, archaeologists from the Bar-Ilan University in Israel, while digging at Tell-es-Safi, uncovered a shard of pottery bearing the inscription ALWT and WLT, written in the archaic proto-Canaanite language dating back some 3,000 years to 950BC. This uses a different script from the Roman alphabet used in modern Western languages. The shard, measuring 6cm in length, is thought to come from a bowl of 15 to 20cm diameter. The dating puts it within 50 to 100 years of when standard Biblical chronology suggests that David met Goliath and also makes it the oldest Philistine inscription ever discovered. Professor Aren Maeir of the Bar-Ilan University says that the words ALWT and WLT are non-Semitic and are similar to the word 'Goliath'. Certainly, the inscription appears to be written in script which is closely related to Phoenecian. Phoenecian is written from right to left, and the A, W and T in the inscription are Phoenician, whereas the 'L' appears to be a sort of spiral like a G or a 6. (A Phoenician 'L' looks more like our Roman 'L', but with the two lines forming an acute angle. Hence, the entire script is not exactly Phoenician, but is closely related to it).
Although this finding at Tell-es-Safi does indicate that 'Goliath' was a name used in this area at that time; it would be extremely unlikely to have any connection with the person of the David and Goliath legend. It certainly does not prove that a ten-feet-tall giant actually existed. Note that other sources, for example Josephus, (Antiquities 6.171) and a Dead Sea Scroll fragment known as 4QSama both give Goliath's height as 'four cubits and a span', as do certain other editions of the Septuagint, or Greek translation of the Old Testament (285 - 246BC). Therefore, it is possible that Goliath was, in fact, closer to six feet nine inches tall, which might still have been considered to be 'giant' in those days.
Summary
Although the archaeological evidence leaves no doubt that King David of Israel was a real historical figure; and that Goliath was a name extant in the region at the same time, there is as yet no proof that a giant named Goliath fought with the future King David and was slain.
For those interested in 'the Bible as history', it is interesting to note the extent to which modern archaeology is able to uphold even the most ancient of biblical texts.
The background to this story is that Goliath of Gath, a hero of the Philistine army, standing some six cubits1 and a span in height (299cm; nearly ten feet), challenged the Israelite army to provide a man to fight him. Despite Goliath's vast size and the fact his armour consisted of a bronze helmet, bronze mail armour weighing 5000 shekels (or 80kg - compare this with 14th-Century full-body plate armour which weighed up to 36kg) and a shield, David was able to kill him with single stone directed at his forehead.
The David of this story was a shepherd and skilful minstrel and, indeed, by the time of this event he was a musician at the court of Saul, the first king of Israel. In his book The Bible as History, Hodder and Stoughton (1956), Werner Keller says:
For his poetry alone a modern David would have been a Nobel Prize winner. Yet like the mediaeval troubadours he was poet, composer and musician rolled into one.
Following this triumph, Saul took David on as commander of his troops.
David was the son of Jesse, a farmer of Bethlehem, and eventually became the first king to rule a united Israel in Palestine. According to the genealogies given in Matthew and Luke, David was an ancestor of Christ and so is of vast significance theologically. Christ was the son of Joseph the carpenter and Mary, and Joseph was a descendant of David. But theologically, Christ is considered to be the son of God himself, thus making Joseph Christ's foster father.
The question is, were David and Goliath real people, or is this story merely a myth written centuries after it was supposed to have occurred, as some scholars claim? Is there any evidence that this event could really have occurred?
Recent archaeological discoveries in Israel provide the faintest glimmers that this story could have some basis in fact.
David
Despite the accounts of David's life and exploits as recorded in the Bible, many scholars have doubted that King David actually existed.
However, in 1868 an inscribed basalt stone, dating from the 9th Century BC - known as the Moabite Stone2 or the Mesha Stela - was discovered at Dibon, Jordan; an ancient city east of the Dead Sea, by FA Klein, a German missionary. The stone was 1.1m high and 0.6m in breadth and in thickness, rounded at the top. It consisted of thirty-four lines, written in the ancient Hebrew alphabet, a script closely related to Phoenician; and was set up by Mesha3 at Dan as a record and memorial of his victories.
The stone was, unfortunately, much fragmented but in 1993 a French scholar, Andre Lemaire, who had spent seven years piecing it all together, discovered the words 'House of David'. Line 31 of the Moabite Stone contains the words '...the sheep of the land. And the house (of Da)vid dwelt in Horonen'. This was reported in Biblical Archaeology Review, May-June, 1994. and created such a sensation that it was also reported on the front page of The New York Times. This inscription showed that Israel and Judah were important kingdoms in the 9th Century BC, and refuted the positions of those scholars who claimed that these were never nations of any significance, and even disputed that David had ever been at the head of a united monarchy.
A report in Biblical Archaeology Review, March-April 1994, states:
Avraham Biran and his team of archaeologists found a remarkable inscription from the 9th Century BC that refers to the 'House of David' and to the 'King of Israel'. This is the first time that the name David has been found in any inscription outside the Bible. That the inscription refers not simply to David but to the 'House of David', the dynasty of the great Israelite king, is even more remarkable.
Goliath
It is thought that the name 'Goliath' was an Israelite phonetic translation of the Philistinian name, Aylattes.
Goliath himself was a member of the Anakim4, a race of giant people who inhabited the Philistine cities in the neighbourhood of Hebron. The Anakim appear to have been an aggressive, war-mongering people who terrified the Israelites.
The Philistines
The Philistines were a people who, from the 12th Century BC, occupied the coastal lowlands of Palestine; and who gave their name to that country. They were organised under five lords who ruled at the five chief Philistinian cities: Gaza, Ashdod, Askalon, Gath and Ekron. Gath, the home of Goliath, was situated on the frontiers of Judah and, nowadays is identified with Tell-es-Safi, where crusaders built the castle of Blanche Garde.
The Philistines are believed to have invaded Israel in the 11th Century BC. They were highly civilised, skilled in agriculture and commerce; and brought in their own culture and language. Apart from this, not much is known about their language and writing.
Furthermore, the Philistines were technologically advanced, and possessed iron weaponry5, this being much harder and more durable than bronze and copper, used by the more primitive Israelites.
Archaeological Findings at Tell-es-Safi
Tell-es-Safi (known as Tel Tsafit in Hebrew) is a mound, some 100 acres in size, which occupies a commanding position on the border between the Judean foothills (known as the Shephelah) and the coastal plain; approximately halfway between Jerusalem and Ashkelon. It was continuously inhabited from the Chalcolithic6 period (4th millennium BC) until 1948 and, nowadays, is one of the largest and most important pre-Classical period archaeological sites in Israel.
In 2005, archaeologists from the Bar-Ilan University in Israel, while digging at Tell-es-Safi, uncovered a shard of pottery bearing the inscription ALWT and WLT, written in the archaic proto-Canaanite language dating back some 3,000 years to 950BC. This uses a different script from the Roman alphabet used in modern Western languages. The shard, measuring 6cm in length, is thought to come from a bowl of 15 to 20cm diameter. The dating puts it within 50 to 100 years of when standard Biblical chronology suggests that David met Goliath and also makes it the oldest Philistine inscription ever discovered. Professor Aren Maeir of the Bar-Ilan University says that the words ALWT and WLT are non-Semitic and are similar to the word 'Goliath'. Certainly, the inscription appears to be written in script which is closely related to Phoenecian. Phoenecian is written from right to left, and the A, W and T in the inscription are Phoenician, whereas the 'L' appears to be a sort of spiral like a G or a 6. (A Phoenician 'L' looks more like our Roman 'L', but with the two lines forming an acute angle. Hence, the entire script is not exactly Phoenician, but is closely related to it).
Although this finding at Tell-es-Safi does indicate that 'Goliath' was a name used in this area at that time; it would be extremely unlikely to have any connection with the person of the David and Goliath legend. It certainly does not prove that a ten-feet-tall giant actually existed. Note that other sources, for example Josephus, (Antiquities 6.171) and a Dead Sea Scroll fragment known as 4QSama both give Goliath's height as 'four cubits and a span', as do certain other editions of the Septuagint, or Greek translation of the Old Testament (285 - 246BC). Therefore, it is possible that Goliath was, in fact, closer to six feet nine inches tall, which might still have been considered to be 'giant' in those days.
Summary
Although the archaeological evidence leaves no doubt that King David of Israel was a real historical figure; and that Goliath was a name extant in the region at the same time, there is as yet no proof that a giant named Goliath fought with the future King David and was slain.
For those interested in 'the Bible as history', it is interesting to note the extent to which modern archaeology is able to uphold even the most ancient of biblical texts.
1 A note about measurements used would be appropriate here. The cubit is a unit of linear measurement, from the elbow to the tip of the longest finger of a man. This unit is commonly converted to 0.46 metres or 18 inches, although this varies according to the proportions of the man doing the measurement. A span is the length from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger when the hand is stretched out (about 23 cm), and a shekel is a measure of weight approximately equal to 16 grams.
2 It is interesting to note that the Moabite Stone contains the earliest known extra-Biblical occurrence of the tetragrammaton.
3 Mesha was ruler of the small kingdom of Moab, east of the Dead Sea, in the mid-9th Century BC. Everything known about the Biblical Mesha is recorded in 2 Kings, chapter 3.
4 Mentioned in the Old Testament at Numbers 13:22, 28, 33; Deuteronomy 1:28; 2:21; and Joshua 11:21.
5 The Iron Age commenced in Israel during the days of the Judges. The book of Judges is believed to have been written by the prophet Samuel around 1050 to 1000BC.
6 A prehistoric age spanning approximately the years 4500 - 3500BC, between the Neolithic and Bronze ages. It was characterised by the human use of copper and stone tools. The word is derived from the Greek words for copper (chalcos) and stone (lithos).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A9914268
Ancient Mayan Cultures
The cultures of Central America1 are recognised as one of the great early centres of human civilisation, on a par with Mesopotamia and the valleys of the Nile, Ganges and Yellow Rivers. Several civilisations arose in the region, sharing some common elements. The Mayans were not the first of these, but, along with the Aztecs, they are among the best known.
Early Mesoamerican Cultures
The first true civilisation in the Americas was that of the Olmecs, on the Caribbean coast of what is now Mexico. From the Olmecs developed the Toltec civilisation, which in turn influenced the Aztecs in arid central Mexico.
Meanwhile in the south of Mexico and the regions of Central America that are today Guatemala, Honduras and Belize more fertile conditions supported a different culture: that of the Mayans. Although these areas are now largely rainforest, at the time they would have been fertile plains and light woods. The Mayans (or simply the Maya) appear to have developed alongside other Mesoamerican cultures during this Pre-Classic period, sharing religious and architectural developments with them, particularly the Aztecs.
Maya legends place their origin in 3,113 BC at the creation of the world, although modern archaeologists first identify the Maya as a distinct group in around 2,600 BC. They were nomadic hunter-gatherers for a long time, with their first cities being founded around 300 BC. It was not until much later that they reached the heights now known as their Classic period.
One notable difference between the Mayan and Old World classical civilisations is that the former did not arise around a major water-course. Instead, the Maya obtained their water primarily from underground sources, via naturally occurring sinkholes known as cenotes in the limestone rock.
Classic Period, 300 - 900 AD
Rather like the Greeks, but unlike the Inca or Aztecs, the Mayans had a series of city-states that were politically independent, with similar (but not identical) cultures. Cities such as Tikal, Palenque, Yaxchilán, Copán and Quirigua traded and fought with each other, and seem to have been heavily influenced by the culture of Teotihuacan in central Mexico.
Mayan politics was hugely complex, with trading alliances, royal marriages, wars and feuds taking place between all the cities. The collapse of Teotihuacan in around 650 AD had a knock-on effect on Mayan politics, with dramatic shifts in the power relationships between the various cities. This also seems to have heralded the peak of Mayan culture in terms of arts, science and population; their cities were larger and their astronomy - particularly with regard to the movements of Venus - more accurate than anything in Europe at the time.
The Mayans had a complicated calendar, and a system of writing using distinctive rounded hieroglyphs. They shared with other Mesoamerican cultures a fondness for monumental architecture, and their ziggurat-like temples are particularly well-known. Sites such as Palenque show that some of their palaces were equally imposing, although the majority of people would have lived in wooden suburbs that have left no visible trace 2.
Mayan artworks were among the most beautiful of the Mesoamerican peoples, often using gold and jade. Painted murals, inked codexes and carvings in stone had an elaborate, stylised quality, often so dense with detail that it can be hard to make out the subject matter. There is often little distinction between art and writing, with publicly visible obelisks covered in inscriptions.
A network of raised roads (sacbes) connected the cities to each other and with the cenotes. These allowed easy travel through the forests and farmland that made up the Mayan territories, which was essential to supply food to cities of any great size.
The Mayans were noted traders. Mayan goods are found throughout ancient Mesoamerica; and Columbus encountered a boatload of Mayan traders in the Caribbean in 1502. We know from archaeological finds that Mayan jade and obsidian were widely traded, and it is likely that salt and perishables such as food (primarily maize but also honey and cocoa), wax, furs, cloth and slaves were too. Trade certainly brought Mayan civilisations into contact both with each other and neighbours such as the Teotihuacans. It is very likely that conflicts also ensued, although we have little historical evidence of this.
There is good evidence that some cities specialised in certain products - for example, agriculture in the lowlands, or various crafts. Other cities such as Tikal appear to have been 'middlemen' where traders could exchange goods from different regions - in the case of Tikal, food from the Petén lowlands for salt from the coast and stones (mostly obsidian and jade) from the highlands.
Remarkably, the Mayans achieved all this without access to metal tools. Although they used metals such as gold for decorative purposes, their tools and weapons were made of obsidian, wood or stone.
Mayan Religion
The Mayans had a complex pantheon, with over 150 named deities known. Some of their gods were more important than others, and the importance of each could vary over time and from place to place. Their gods were related to (but distinct from) the Aztec gods, rather as the Greek gods were to their Roman equivalents, and for similar reasons; although they shared a common origin, they developed independently.
One of the most important gods was Chac, the god of rain. He is represented with distinctive owl-like rings around his eyes. In their earliest form, these were simple loops of clay on the face of a clay model; as the centuries passed, they became incorporated into the face of the god even when carved in stone.
Mayans practised blood sacrifice. For the most part this was non-fatal, although on occasion they did offer human sacrifices like their more bloodthirsty northern neighbours the Aztecs. Usually, men would simply pierce an organ3 to give an offering. It seems likely that people of all social classes made offerings of their blood to the gods in return for divine favour. However, surviving carvings feature only the king and queen being ritually bled on state occasions. Human sacrifice was probably a rare event, restricted to executions of notable figures such as ball players or captured kings.
It has recently been suggested that many temples were erected by individuals or groups, indicating that Mayans had freedom of worship. Although several Mayan religious texts survive in the original Mayan script, the most important source on Mayan myths is the Popol Vuh, written in the 1550s in European characters and based on oral legends. It tells of the Mayan creation myths, the creation of monkeys and men, and the Hero Twins. Other notable texts include the Dresden Codex and the Paris Codex (both named for the European cities whose museums now house them). It is from texts such as these that we know about Mayan ideas of the afterlife: they believed that the dead went to Xibalba, an underground city (complete with ball court), accessed through a cave and ruled over by 12 demons who seem to have delighted in setting vicious traps and tricks for their visitors.
Part of Mayan (and Aztec) worship involved playing a game in which teams competed to pass a rubber ball through stone hoops, using only their hips and elbows. This game - known by many names including pitz and 'the sacred ball game' - resembled a cross between football and basketball. A version known as ulama is still played in parts of Mexico. Carvings from Mayan sites suggest that one team - probably but not necessarily the losers - were ritually decapitated after the game, which must have made league play difficult.
Mayan Glyphs
Most of our knowledge of Mayan society and religion comes from the illustrations and texts they carved onto the sides of buildings or upright stone pillars called stelas. The Mayans had a complex system of writing based around elaborate square bubble-like glyphs. Nearly 800 of these have been identified, both carved in stone and painted on parchment. There is some discussion over whether the Mayans invented this system from scratch or adapted a pre-existing Olmec one. The system is made of a combination of phonetic (letters) and representative glyphs (where a single symbol represents a word). These were read horizontally from the top left, like English, but written in columns only two glyphs wide.
The meaning of a glyph could be modified by adding a smaller glyph above, below, before, after or even within the main symbol. Names, particularly of rulers or lords, were often a single symbol made of a combination of other glyphs. This combined name symbol is known as an 'emblem glyph'. It is possible that the city of origin was indicated in the name, as well as a unique personal identifier and often a number.
The conquistadores4 - and in particular Bishop Diego de Landa - carried out a systematic destruction of Mayan written materials, leading to the death of the written language. Ironically, de Landa would later attempt to preserve the written language he had so effectively destroyed in order to use it as an evangelical tool, although the reduced alphabet he gave his name to bears little resemblance to the complex Mayan writings. It was not until well into the 20th century that linguists (mostly Russians such as Yuri Knorozov) began to piece the system back together enough to roughly translate most texts, starting with astronomical and calendrical writings. We now know enough to understand most of what has been written, but large sections remain unclear.
Architecture
Temples were step pyramids constructed of limestone blocks, whereas most other buildings were made of wood. Rather than being a single structure, many surviving pyramids have been repeatedly rebuilt, each time the new construction being built over the older one, with the smaller temple preserved inside the newer.
Each city was effectively a separate nation, and consequently would have a slightly different architectural style to the others. Tikal, for instance, had unusually steep pyramids, whereas Uxmal had an obsession with Chac faces. Some cities used exclusively limestone and plaster, whereas others also used brickwork. The Mayans never developed true arches. However, they made extensive use of 'corbeled (or false) arches' - overlapping layers of bricks that form a gently curving roof without giving the structural benefits of an arch.
Ball courts also appear at a number of Mayan cities, varying in size and exact shape, but all roughly H-shaped with sloping sides. Large stone buildings - probably palaces - are also known, and called acropolises. In addition, there are several unique buildings such as the 'observatory' at Palenque and the round temple at Chichén Itzá.
Collapse
The Classic era of Mayan civilisation came to an end around 900 AD. Why this happened is unclear; the cities were probably over-farming the land, so that a period of drought led to famine. Recent geological research supports this, as there appears to have been a 200-year drought around this time.
The cities seem to have disappeared slowly, rather than all at once. There is no sign of conquest from outside, although there was a period of increased warfare among the city-states - possibly over farming land or prisoners to sacrifice to the gods. It is likely that this had a cumulative effect; warfare over resources was itself a further drain on resources, encouraging further warfare.
Post-Classic Period
Around the 10th century, Mayan civilisation recovered with a shift of power northwards to the Yucatan peninsula. Chichén Itzá, Uxmal and Mayapán rose to prominence, although they would never quite reach the heights of their illustrious predecessors. Mayapán in particular ruled the entire Yucatán from around 1221 - 1441.
The revived culture had some differences, notably the apparent Toltec influence at Chichén Itzá. One obvious sign of this was in statuary such as the Chac-Mool (a reclining figure which may have been a sacrificial altar) and colossi resembling those at the Tolec site of Tula. The Toltecs were in the ascendance in central Mexico at this time; however, it is surprising that their influence should be so strongly concentrated in just one Mayan city.
The Spanish Conquest of the Mayans
The Spanish conquest of the Aztecs (1519 - 1521) and Inca (largely 1532 - 1536, with the hidden city of Vilcabamba holding out until 1572) are remembered for their speed and the great wealth they gave to the Spanish empire. The Maya were the third great civilisation that the Spanish conquered in the Americas. Their arrival spelled the end of Mayan civilisation, as well as the undermining of indigenous cultures. However, the Maya held out for much longer than their northern cousins or the more remote Inca.
First contact came in 1511 when a shipwrecked group of Spaniards were washed into what is now Belize. The most significant impact this event had was not realised until much later, however; smallpox, introduced by these mariners, decimated the Mayans.
The right to conquer Yucatan was granted by the Spanish crown to Francisco de Montejo, who launched two expeditions during the 1520s and 1530s. Despite military success and the huge propaganda boost of the destruction of the Aztecs (of which the Mayans were well aware), the Spaniards were hampered by Mayan guerilla tactics. Montejo later passed his rights onto his son, who launched a third (and more successful) expedition in 1540.
In practical terms, the Mayans were subdued by the end of the 1540s. However, due to their decentralised power structure, the inaccessible terrain and lack of precious metals as a motive for conquest, the Mayans held out against the Spanish for far longer than their Aztec and Inca cousins, with the last independent city-state not falling until 1697.
The Mayan peoples survive to this day, but as primarily rural farmers in Yucatán, Guatemala and Belize. Their languages are still spoken, but their unique system of writing has been lost, and archaeologists are only slowly piecing it back together.
Early Mesoamerican Cultures
The first true civilisation in the Americas was that of the Olmecs, on the Caribbean coast of what is now Mexico. From the Olmecs developed the Toltec civilisation, which in turn influenced the Aztecs in arid central Mexico.
Meanwhile in the south of Mexico and the regions of Central America that are today Guatemala, Honduras and Belize more fertile conditions supported a different culture: that of the Mayans. Although these areas are now largely rainforest, at the time they would have been fertile plains and light woods. The Mayans (or simply the Maya) appear to have developed alongside other Mesoamerican cultures during this Pre-Classic period, sharing religious and architectural developments with them, particularly the Aztecs.
Maya legends place their origin in 3,113 BC at the creation of the world, although modern archaeologists first identify the Maya as a distinct group in around 2,600 BC. They were nomadic hunter-gatherers for a long time, with their first cities being founded around 300 BC. It was not until much later that they reached the heights now known as their Classic period.
One notable difference between the Mayan and Old World classical civilisations is that the former did not arise around a major water-course. Instead, the Maya obtained their water primarily from underground sources, via naturally occurring sinkholes known as cenotes in the limestone rock.
Classic Period, 300 - 900 AD
Rather like the Greeks, but unlike the Inca or Aztecs, the Mayans had a series of city-states that were politically independent, with similar (but not identical) cultures. Cities such as Tikal, Palenque, Yaxchilán, Copán and Quirigua traded and fought with each other, and seem to have been heavily influenced by the culture of Teotihuacan in central Mexico.
Mayan politics was hugely complex, with trading alliances, royal marriages, wars and feuds taking place between all the cities. The collapse of Teotihuacan in around 650 AD had a knock-on effect on Mayan politics, with dramatic shifts in the power relationships between the various cities. This also seems to have heralded the peak of Mayan culture in terms of arts, science and population; their cities were larger and their astronomy - particularly with regard to the movements of Venus - more accurate than anything in Europe at the time.
The Mayans had a complicated calendar, and a system of writing using distinctive rounded hieroglyphs. They shared with other Mesoamerican cultures a fondness for monumental architecture, and their ziggurat-like temples are particularly well-known. Sites such as Palenque show that some of their palaces were equally imposing, although the majority of people would have lived in wooden suburbs that have left no visible trace 2.
Mayan artworks were among the most beautiful of the Mesoamerican peoples, often using gold and jade. Painted murals, inked codexes and carvings in stone had an elaborate, stylised quality, often so dense with detail that it can be hard to make out the subject matter. There is often little distinction between art and writing, with publicly visible obelisks covered in inscriptions.
A network of raised roads (sacbes) connected the cities to each other and with the cenotes. These allowed easy travel through the forests and farmland that made up the Mayan territories, which was essential to supply food to cities of any great size.
The Mayans were noted traders. Mayan goods are found throughout ancient Mesoamerica; and Columbus encountered a boatload of Mayan traders in the Caribbean in 1502. We know from archaeological finds that Mayan jade and obsidian were widely traded, and it is likely that salt and perishables such as food (primarily maize but also honey and cocoa), wax, furs, cloth and slaves were too. Trade certainly brought Mayan civilisations into contact both with each other and neighbours such as the Teotihuacans. It is very likely that conflicts also ensued, although we have little historical evidence of this.
There is good evidence that some cities specialised in certain products - for example, agriculture in the lowlands, or various crafts. Other cities such as Tikal appear to have been 'middlemen' where traders could exchange goods from different regions - in the case of Tikal, food from the Petén lowlands for salt from the coast and stones (mostly obsidian and jade) from the highlands.
Remarkably, the Mayans achieved all this without access to metal tools. Although they used metals such as gold for decorative purposes, their tools and weapons were made of obsidian, wood or stone.
Mayan Religion
The Mayans had a complex pantheon, with over 150 named deities known. Some of their gods were more important than others, and the importance of each could vary over time and from place to place. Their gods were related to (but distinct from) the Aztec gods, rather as the Greek gods were to their Roman equivalents, and for similar reasons; although they shared a common origin, they developed independently.
One of the most important gods was Chac, the god of rain. He is represented with distinctive owl-like rings around his eyes. In their earliest form, these were simple loops of clay on the face of a clay model; as the centuries passed, they became incorporated into the face of the god even when carved in stone.
Mayans practised blood sacrifice. For the most part this was non-fatal, although on occasion they did offer human sacrifices like their more bloodthirsty northern neighbours the Aztecs. Usually, men would simply pierce an organ3 to give an offering. It seems likely that people of all social classes made offerings of their blood to the gods in return for divine favour. However, surviving carvings feature only the king and queen being ritually bled on state occasions. Human sacrifice was probably a rare event, restricted to executions of notable figures such as ball players or captured kings.
It has recently been suggested that many temples were erected by individuals or groups, indicating that Mayans had freedom of worship. Although several Mayan religious texts survive in the original Mayan script, the most important source on Mayan myths is the Popol Vuh, written in the 1550s in European characters and based on oral legends. It tells of the Mayan creation myths, the creation of monkeys and men, and the Hero Twins. Other notable texts include the Dresden Codex and the Paris Codex (both named for the European cities whose museums now house them). It is from texts such as these that we know about Mayan ideas of the afterlife: they believed that the dead went to Xibalba, an underground city (complete with ball court), accessed through a cave and ruled over by 12 demons who seem to have delighted in setting vicious traps and tricks for their visitors.
Part of Mayan (and Aztec) worship involved playing a game in which teams competed to pass a rubber ball through stone hoops, using only their hips and elbows. This game - known by many names including pitz and 'the sacred ball game' - resembled a cross between football and basketball. A version known as ulama is still played in parts of Mexico. Carvings from Mayan sites suggest that one team - probably but not necessarily the losers - were ritually decapitated after the game, which must have made league play difficult.
Mayan Glyphs
Most of our knowledge of Mayan society and religion comes from the illustrations and texts they carved onto the sides of buildings or upright stone pillars called stelas. The Mayans had a complex system of writing based around elaborate square bubble-like glyphs. Nearly 800 of these have been identified, both carved in stone and painted on parchment. There is some discussion over whether the Mayans invented this system from scratch or adapted a pre-existing Olmec one. The system is made of a combination of phonetic (letters) and representative glyphs (where a single symbol represents a word). These were read horizontally from the top left, like English, but written in columns only two glyphs wide.
The meaning of a glyph could be modified by adding a smaller glyph above, below, before, after or even within the main symbol. Names, particularly of rulers or lords, were often a single symbol made of a combination of other glyphs. This combined name symbol is known as an 'emblem glyph'. It is possible that the city of origin was indicated in the name, as well as a unique personal identifier and often a number.
The conquistadores4 - and in particular Bishop Diego de Landa - carried out a systematic destruction of Mayan written materials, leading to the death of the written language. Ironically, de Landa would later attempt to preserve the written language he had so effectively destroyed in order to use it as an evangelical tool, although the reduced alphabet he gave his name to bears little resemblance to the complex Mayan writings. It was not until well into the 20th century that linguists (mostly Russians such as Yuri Knorozov) began to piece the system back together enough to roughly translate most texts, starting with astronomical and calendrical writings. We now know enough to understand most of what has been written, but large sections remain unclear.
Architecture
Temples were step pyramids constructed of limestone blocks, whereas most other buildings were made of wood. Rather than being a single structure, many surviving pyramids have been repeatedly rebuilt, each time the new construction being built over the older one, with the smaller temple preserved inside the newer.
Each city was effectively a separate nation, and consequently would have a slightly different architectural style to the others. Tikal, for instance, had unusually steep pyramids, whereas Uxmal had an obsession with Chac faces. Some cities used exclusively limestone and plaster, whereas others also used brickwork. The Mayans never developed true arches. However, they made extensive use of 'corbeled (or false) arches' - overlapping layers of bricks that form a gently curving roof without giving the structural benefits of an arch.
Ball courts also appear at a number of Mayan cities, varying in size and exact shape, but all roughly H-shaped with sloping sides. Large stone buildings - probably palaces - are also known, and called acropolises. In addition, there are several unique buildings such as the 'observatory' at Palenque and the round temple at Chichén Itzá.
Collapse
The Classic era of Mayan civilisation came to an end around 900 AD. Why this happened is unclear; the cities were probably over-farming the land, so that a period of drought led to famine. Recent geological research supports this, as there appears to have been a 200-year drought around this time.
The cities seem to have disappeared slowly, rather than all at once. There is no sign of conquest from outside, although there was a period of increased warfare among the city-states - possibly over farming land or prisoners to sacrifice to the gods. It is likely that this had a cumulative effect; warfare over resources was itself a further drain on resources, encouraging further warfare.
Post-Classic Period
Around the 10th century, Mayan civilisation recovered with a shift of power northwards to the Yucatan peninsula. Chichén Itzá, Uxmal and Mayapán rose to prominence, although they would never quite reach the heights of their illustrious predecessors. Mayapán in particular ruled the entire Yucatán from around 1221 - 1441.
The revived culture had some differences, notably the apparent Toltec influence at Chichén Itzá. One obvious sign of this was in statuary such as the Chac-Mool (a reclining figure which may have been a sacrificial altar) and colossi resembling those at the Tolec site of Tula. The Toltecs were in the ascendance in central Mexico at this time; however, it is surprising that their influence should be so strongly concentrated in just one Mayan city.
The Spanish Conquest of the Mayans
The Spanish conquest of the Aztecs (1519 - 1521) and Inca (largely 1532 - 1536, with the hidden city of Vilcabamba holding out until 1572) are remembered for their speed and the great wealth they gave to the Spanish empire. The Maya were the third great civilisation that the Spanish conquered in the Americas. Their arrival spelled the end of Mayan civilisation, as well as the undermining of indigenous cultures. However, the Maya held out for much longer than their northern cousins or the more remote Inca.
First contact came in 1511 when a shipwrecked group of Spaniards were washed into what is now Belize. The most significant impact this event had was not realised until much later, however; smallpox, introduced by these mariners, decimated the Mayans.
The right to conquer Yucatan was granted by the Spanish crown to Francisco de Montejo, who launched two expeditions during the 1520s and 1530s. Despite military success and the huge propaganda boost of the destruction of the Aztecs (of which the Mayans were well aware), the Spaniards were hampered by Mayan guerilla tactics. Montejo later passed his rights onto his son, who launched a third (and more successful) expedition in 1540.
In practical terms, the Mayans were subdued by the end of the 1540s. However, due to their decentralised power structure, the inaccessible terrain and lack of precious metals as a motive for conquest, the Mayans held out against the Spanish for far longer than their Aztec and Inca cousins, with the last independent city-state not falling until 1697.
The Mayan peoples survive to this day, but as primarily rural farmers in Yucatán, Guatemala and Belize. Their languages are still spoken, but their unique system of writing has been lost, and archaeologists are only slowly piecing it back together.
1 Specifically the area known as Mesoamerica, consisting of the southern half of modern Mexico and most of Honduras, Guatemala and Belize.
2 The extent of these can be seen from satellite photography, and estimates of total populations thus made.
3 Yes, that organ. Women would pierce their tongue, and in both cases thorns were dragged through the wound to increase the bleeding.
4 Spanish imperialists who conquered the Americas during the 16th and 17th centuries.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A44196843
воскресенье, 11 июля 2010 г.
суббота, 12 июня 2010 г.
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