Ancient World Review

Oldest Maya Royal Tomb Found In Guatemala

"The tomb of a Maya ruler excavated this summer at the Classic Maya city of Waka’ in northern Guatemala is the oldest royal tomb yet to be discovered at the site, the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Guatemala has announced." Source: Archaeology News Network.

Top 20 Ancient Temples Of India

"The history of India is very old and so is the history of Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma with which temples are associated. The construction of temples started somewhere 2000 years ago. But the question of finding an answer to the oldest temple in India is bit difficult. Each temple that is considered to be the oldest is questioned by another set of people claiming their temple to be the oldest one." Source: Maps of India (2013).

Note: The oldest temple still in operation in India, the Mundeshwari temple in the Kaimur District of Bihar, is thought to date back to 108 AD, but it may be of later construction (320 AD?). That's pretty recent in the grand scheme of things (India has been populated since around 7000 BC), but Hinduism itself didn't start to come together until sometime between 500 BC and 300 AD, so in very general terms the temple was constructed during the formational period of the new religion.

Some of the deities worshipped at Mudeshwari are much older than Hinduism. According to Maps of India, "Mundeshwari temple is devoted to Lord Shiva and Shakti. The temple also has other idols like Ganesha, Vishnu, Surya and Mother Goddess." Ganesha, the familiar elephant-headed god, apparently didn't appear as a distinct entity until around the fourth or fifth centuries AD, but "Hindu worship of the divine Mother can be traced back to pre-vedic, prehistoric India," according to Wikipedia.

Huge Quake For Himalayas? Ancient Hindu Temples Hold Clues

A 2015 earthquake destroys ancient temples in Nepal.

"Past earthquakes that damaged ancient temples perched high in the Himalayas could be harbingers of dangerous quakes to come, new research suggests." Source: Live Science.

The Sunken City Of Baiae

Baiae, aka Baia, located on the shore of the Gulf of Naples in Roman times, "flourished as a fashionable spa and resort, thanks to volcanic hot springs. By the mid-1st cent. BC, many of the Roman elite owned houses there. Several imperial palaces were built and it remained fashionable until the 3rd cent. AD, when earthquakes and malaria sent it into decline. Medieval interest in the medical properties of the springs and the historical associations caused a resurgence of popularity. Extensive remains of bath complexes and parts of the imperial palaces have been excavated. " Source: Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed. revised).

Most (all?) of Baiae is underwater now, the result of coastal subsidence caused by earthquakes. According to Wikipedia, "[t]he most remarkable ruins are those colloquially known as the Temple of Mercury, the Temple of Venus, and the Temple of Diana, which were traditionally credited to some of the more famous residents of the towns' villas."

According to Timeless Italy, "Baia far surpassed Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Capri as a desirable resort full of hedonistic temptations. Rumours of scandal and corruption filled the palace halls and baths. Julius Caesar, Nero, Hadrian and Caligula had spacious pleasure palaces built along the shoreline. Much of the town was considered imperial property under Augustus."

The Nekyomanteion: Greek Oracle Of The Dead

The video above shows the underground chamber of the Nekyomanteion, aka the Necromanteion, the "Oracle of the Dead," which the ancient Greeks believed was the door to Hades -- the Greek underworld, not the Hell of Christianity.

"The Necromanteion ... was an ancient Greek temple of necromancy devoted to Hades and [his wife, the goddess of he underworld] Persephone," according to Wikipedia. "According to tradition, it was located on the banks of the Acheron river in Epirus, near the ancient city of Ephyra. The site was believed by devotees to be the door to Hades, the realm of the dead."

"The Greeks used several terms for oracles of the dead. Nekyomanteion, 'prophecy-place of the dead' is found first, in the 5th century BC." Source: "The Ancient Greek Orackles Of The Dead," Daniel Ogden (slow-loading PDF).

"Although there were many oracles in ancient Greece, there is only one known oracle of the dead (1)," according to the Atlas Obscura. "It was an entryway to the underworld, and a place where the shades of the dead could - under special circumstances - reveal the future to the living. It was the place that Homer sent Odysseus to seek advice from a long-dead oracle, and where he was horrified by visions of Hades, and it also appears in a sordid chapter of Herodotus' Histories."

"Communicating with the dead, however, was not limited to the famous characters in the writings of the ancient Greek authors," according to Ancient Origins. "Regular citizens [also visited] the Necromanteion to seek counsel with the dead. They would first enter a dark chamber before performing certain elaborate rituals intended for their own protection and to gain the ability to communicate with the deceased. After this, a priest would lead them into a deeper chamber, where a ritual animal sacrifice would be performed, before passing through three gates which symbolised their entry into the Underworld. The celebrants would now be able to speak to the spirits of the Underworld."

(1) The Atlas Obscura is incorrect when it says that there was only one Greek oracle of the dead. According to the Ogden paper cited above, there were four major oracles: "Acheron in Thesprotia [the oracle discussed here--named after the river], Avernus in Campania [Italy], Heracleia Pontica on the south coast of the Black Sea, and Tainaron at the tip of the Peloponnese's Mani Peninsula."

Note: As mentioned in the footnote above, the oracle on the Acheron river was located in Thesprotia. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed. revised), the Thesproti were "a people mentioned in Homer's Odyssey with a king of Ephyra in the Archeron valley." They formed "a tribal state which entered the Epirote Alliance and the Epirote Confederacy, sided with Rome in 170 BC, and survived under the Roman settlement." 

Egypt - The Habit Of Civilization

Note: The history of Egypt before the Pharoahs (aka the Predynastic period) is complex and still very murky, partly because so many artifacts and remains were buried by the silt of the Nile over the millennia. The first cultures appeared in the region as desertification drove the Paleolithic hunter-gatherers of north Africa to migrate to the river valley. Some early stone tools have been discovered and the only complete human skeleton from the Late Stone Age in Africa -- the Nazlet Khater skeleton -- dates to "between 30,360-35,100 years ago," according to Wikipedia.

Amazing Finds From Egypt's Lost Cities (2016)

The Submerged City Of Canopus

"The ancient city of Canopus is mentioned many times by classical authors and the fathers of the church. The oldest mention of Canopus can be found in a poem by Solon, from the first half of the 6th century BC. According to the poet Nicander (2nd century BC), Menelaus’ helmsman, Canopus, died here, bitten by a viper on the sands of Thonis. The city located close by was named after this unfortunate sailor: Canopus. During the last Pharaonic dynasties and the Ptolemaic period, Canopus was famous for its sanctuaries of Osiris and Serapis. Pilgrims from all over the world came to visit in search of miraculous healing." Source: Franck Goddio, Underwater Archaeologist.

The Roman Province Of Mauretania

"Mauretania ... was in ancient times a part of North Africa corresponding to the Mediterranean coast of what is today Morocco," according to Wikipedia. "Mauretania originally was an independent tribal Berber kingdom from around the 3rd century BC. It became a client state of the Roman empire in 33 BC, then a full Roman province after the death of its last king Ptolemy of Mauretania in AD 40."

According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD, 3rd ed. revised), "[m]ost of the country is high and rocky, supporting sheep and producing a little wine; corn and olives grew on the coast, in the Mulucha valley, and on the plains of Volubilis and [Sala Colonia]. The chief exports were wine, ebony, precious woods, and purple dyes."

Next video shows the ruins of Chellah, a fortified medieval Muslim necropolis built on the site of Sala Colonia. Views of the Roman ruins begin at around 2:10.

Berber Mauretania was in touch with Spain "from early days, binding Europe and Africa by piracy and colonization," according to the OCD. "The bulk of the population belonged to the Moorish branch (1) of the Berber race, while a string of Phoenician trading stations was established on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts during the 8th and 7th cents. BC."

(1) Technically, "Moor" doesn't have any racial connotations. According to Wikipedia, "medieval and early modern Europeans variously applied the name to Arabs, Berber North Africans and Muslim Europeans." The Berbers were apparently a mixed Semitic and North African ethnic group and they don't appear to have been sub-Saharan in origin.

Mauretania had a complex and chaotic history which included the rise of various kingdoms which became involved in the Roman Jugurthine War (112-106 BC). An excellent account of this war can be found in The Jugurthine War by the Roman historian Sallust. In 25 BC, Octavian handed over the rule of Mauretania to the king of Numidia, Juba II, "whose capitals were at Iol (Caesarea) [modern Cherchell] and probably Volubius," according to the OCD.

The murder of Juba's son in Rome led to disturbances in Mauretania, which was then pacified by the Romans. "In or about 44 [AD], Claudius constituted two Mauretanian provinces, ruled by procurators, with capitals at Tingis and Caesarea." (OCD) The provinces were Mauretania Tingitana and Mauretania Caesariensis.

The structures at Volubilis were built over a period of many years. The city walls -- 1.5 miles long with eight gates, were added in the 160s (AD). According to the OCD,  "The forum is probably Neronian (AD 54-68), the two sets of baths are both Flavian in origin, and two street grids with different orientations in the north and north-eastern quarters are both now known to date from before the end of the 1st century." The city and surrounding farms were abandoned around 255 AD after a reorganization by Diocletian.

"The city fell to local tribes around 285 and was never retaken by Rome because of its remoteness and indefensibility on the south-western border of the Roman Empire. It continued to be inhabited for at least another 700 years, first as a Latinised Christian community, then as an early Islamic settlement. In the late 8th century it became the seat of Idris ibn Abdallah, the founder of the Idrisid dynasty and the state of Morocco."

Drone Photography Of Ancient Roman Ruins In Israel

Reference: Roman sites in Israel.