"Archaeologists have found what they believe is the world's oldest site for alcohol production, a study said Thursday, adding the beer-like beverage may have been served in ceremonies some 13,000 years ago." Source: AFP.
"The site is located in the Raqefet cave south of Haifa in today's northern Israel that also served as a burial site for the Natufian people."
Note: Flowers and plants were used to decorate the cave burials. According to Science Daily (2013), "[t]he earliest evidence of using flower beds for burial, dating back to 13,700 years ago, was discovered in Raqefet Cave in Mt. Carmel in northern Israel. In four different graves from the Natufian period, dating back to 13,700-11,700 years ago, dozens of impressions of Salvia plants and other species of sedges and mints (the Lamiaceae family), were found under human skeletons.
"Current theory has it that grain was first domesticated for food. But since the 1950s, many scholars have found circumstantial evidence that supports the idea that some early humans grew and stored grain for beer, even before they cultivated it for bread." Source: NY Times (2013).
The full paper is, unfortunately, hidden behind a paywall, but according to the abstract, the research provides "compelling circumstantial evidence that makes it increasingly likely that brewing of beer was an important aspect of feasting and society in the Late Epipaleolithic [Late Stone Age]."
Comment: I'm not sure what that last quote actually means. Somebody should invent a drinking game where you have to guzzle a mug of beer every time an archaeologist uses a dodge word in a scientific paper. You could get drunk just reading this particular abstract. "Compelling circumstantial evidence that makes it increasingly likely ..." The handwaving is strong with this one. Still, the idea that beer played an important role in the rise of civilization isn't outlandish at all. It would be hilarious if it turns out that civilization itself was nothing but an invention to facilitate getting plastered.
"The Natufian culture, which flourished 15,000 years ago, is well known for its complex burial customs. A new study has discovered that these ceremonies included the use of giant boulder mortars whose pounding sound informed the community that a ceremony was being held." Source: Science Daily (2015).
"In Jericho, as well as placing the deceased under the floors of homes, the people also engaged in another unique mortuary practice. In some cases their skulls were removed and covered with plaster in order to create very life-like faces, complete with shells inset for eyes and paint to imitate hair and moustaches. The flesh and jawbones were removed from the skulls in order to model the plaster over the bone and the physical traits of the faces seem specific to individuals, suggesting that these decorated skulls were portraits of the deceased. The subtle modelling used to create the life-like flesh is impressive in itself, but even more so given the very early date of these artefacts. Evidence suggests that the skulls were then displayed or stored with other plaster skulls." Source: Ancient Origins.
This Channel Four (UK) news report shows the damage in Palmyra, but its anti-Russian and anti-Syrian bias is obvious.
"The ancient Syrian city of Palmyra will be expecting tourists next summer, according to local officials. However, much of its historic beauty and significance has been reduced to rubble by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS)." Source: RT.
"Governor of Homs Province Talal al-Barazi believes that 'by the summer of 2019 Palmyra will be completely ready for tourists,' as quoted by RIA Novosti.
"Palmyra, often referred to as the Bride of the Syrian Desert, was a center of commerce and culture, as well as home to a crossing of trade routes. It reached its peak of grandeur in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD."
Comment: If you ask me, the people responsible for the war in Syria should be rounded up and hanged beside their ISIS puppets.
"A major work illustrating the imperial art of the Akkadian Dynasty, this victory stele celebrates the triumph of King Naram-Sin over a mountain people, the Lullubi. The Akkadian king led his troops over the steep slopes of the enemy territory, mercilessly crushing all resistance. The conqueror's victory march is coupled with the personal ascension of a sovereign who could now claim equal footing with the gods." Source: The Louvre.
Notes: Akkad was the capital of the Akkadian empire. According to the Ancient History Encyclopedia, "no one knows where the city of Akkad was located, how it rose to prominence, or how, precisely, it fell; yet once it was the seat of the Akkadian empire which ruled over a vast expanse of the region of ancient Mesopotamia. It is known that Akkad (also given as Agade) was a city located along the western bank of the Euphrates River possibly between the cities of Sippar and Kish (or, perhaps, between Mari and Babylon or, even, elsewhere along the Euphrates). According to legend, it was built by the king Sargon the Great (who ruled 2334-2279 BCE) who unified Mesopotamia under the rule of his Akkadian Empire and set the standard for future forms of government in Mesopotamia."
"Akkadian" was the term used "until 1869 for the language now known as Sumerian," according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed., revised). "[It was the] term used since 1869 for the East Semitic language that is also known by its northern and southern dialects as Assyrian and Babylonian. The language is first attested from personal names of the mid-3rd millennium when it began to supersede Sumerian. It was written on clay, stone, and waxed writing boards in cuneiform script."
"Forensic anthropology usually involves the investigation of recent, medico-legally significant human remains as opposed to ancient skeletons recovered from archaeological sites, an American researcher explained." Source: Archaeology News Network.
"These two perspectives recently merged at the archaeological site of Qasr Hallabat (35km northeast of Amman), where the skeletons of five people showing signs of homicide were found in one of the site’s cisterns, pushing bio-archaeologists to formulate stories surrounding their death."
Notes: "The complex of Qasr al-Hallabat is located in Jordan's eastern desert. Originally a Roman fortress constructed under Emperor Caracalla to protect its inhabitants from Bedouin tribes, this site dates to the second and third century AD, although there is trace evidence of Nabatean presence at the site." (Wikipedia)
The Umayyad Desert Castles, of which the Desert Castles of Jordan represent a prominent part, are fortified palaces or castles in what was the then Umayyad province of Bilad ash-Sham. Most Umayyad 'desert castles' are scattered over the semi-arid regions of north-eastern Jordan, with several more in Syria, Israel and the West Bank (Palestine)." Source: Wikipedia.
Most of these desert castles are said to have been built by the Umayyads. The Roman-constructed Qasr al-Hallabat appears to be an exception.
"Nimrud was an ancient city of Assyria, located in the Tigris Valley of Northern Iraq. In the 1980s, an incredible archaeological discovery was made, which was comparable to that of King Tutankhamun's tomb in the 1930s. This was [sic] the royal tombs of Nimrud. However, not as many people have heard of the treasure of Nimrud as that of King Tut. This is probably because King Tut's treasure has toured the world since its discovery in the 1930s, while the golden treasure of Nimrud was only recently discovered and exhibited to the Iraqi public for a very short time before war broke out in Kuwait." Source: Gem Select.
Note: "The 'Treasure of Nimrud' ... is a collection of 613 pieces of gold jewelry and precious stones. It has survived the confusions and looting after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in a bank vault, where it had been put away for 12 years and was 'rediscovered' on June 5, 2003." Source: Wikipedia.
I'm unclear on the dates and the exact sequence of events, but it appears that the treasure was on display at the Baghdad Museum until sometime before or during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait that started the First Gulf War. Since the treasure later turned up in a bank vault, someone -- the museum curators? -- must have moved it to the vault for safekeeping. I'm not sure where the treasure is now, but from what I can tell most of it apparently survived and is still in the hands of the Iraqi government. Some of the pieces seem to have disappeared into the black market, however, so they may be in the hands of private collectors or museums around the world.
Notes: "To date, nearly 200 Acheulean(1) [a type of prehistoric stone tool industry] sites of Middle Pleistocene age [app. 781 - 126,000 years ago] have been recorded in Saudi Arabia. They occur with highest frequency in the central, western and southwestern provinces, and are fewer in the east toward the Gulf coast. They consist of artifacts found on the descending surface of alluvial fans - delta-shaped deposits of material left by rivers of bygone times - or on terraces, exposed by wind or water erosion, overlooking a wadi, spring or Pleistocene lake ... Where water was in plentiful supply, a dozen or more sites could appear, although not all were necessarily occupied at the same time. Usually, we believe, these sites were inhabited only temporarily, as transient stations to shelter residents for a few weeks." Source: "Early Mankind in Arabia," Aramco World.
(1) "From geological dating of sedimentary deposits, it appears that the Acheulean [stone tool industry] originated in Africa and spread to Asian, Middle Eastern, and European areas sometime between 1.5 million years ago and about 800 thousand years ago." Source: Wikipedia.
It sounds like these early hunter-gatherers passed through the region during their migrations, following river beds or moving from oasis to oasis, but the picture is still unclear. "Encompassing a landmass greater than the rest of the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean combined, the Arabian peninsula remains one of the last great unexplored regions of the ancient world," according to the Cambridge University Press. I believe the earliest known period is the Mesopotamian Ubaid period (6500-3800 BCE), which covered a larger area than just Arabia.
An incredible testament to ancient engineering techniques can be found in the Roman ruins located in modern-day Baalbek, Lebanon, which was known as Heliopolis during Roman times (not to be mistaken with Heliopolis in Egypt).
"In the base of the ruins of the Jupiter Baal Temple [in Baalbek] lie three hewn stones known together as the 'trilithon.' Each is estimated to weigh over 750 tons. [Emphasis added] Construction on the massive Roman temple of Jupiter began roughly 27 years before the birth of Jesus, and while most scholars agree the blocks were cut by the Romans, there is some evidence that the trilithon may predate their presence in the Middle East. In fact, the stones may predate even Alexander the Great, who founded Heliopolis in 334 BCE." Source: Atlas Obscura.
Comment: The Romans were expert engineers, but considering how many huge temples and megaliths have been discovered around the globe, the techniques required to move extremely heavy stones must have been fairly widespread in the ancient world.