Ancient World Review

The First Babylon Dynasty

Note: "The actual origins of the First Babylonian dynasty [roughly 1894 - 1595 BC] are rather hard to pinpoint with great certainty simply because Babylon itself, due to a high water table, yields very few archaeological materials intact. Thus, the evidence that survived throughout the years includes written records such as royal and votive inscriptions, literary texts, and lists of year-names. The minimal amount of evidence in economic and legal documents makes it difficult to illustrate the economic and social history of the First Babylonian Dynasty, but with historical events portrayed in literature and the existence of year-name lists, it is possible to establish a chronology." (Wikipedia)

World's Oldest Example Of Applied Geometry?

"A scientist has revealed that an ancient clay tablet could be the oldest and most complete example of applied geometry. The surveyor's field plan from the Old Babylon period shows that ancient mathematics was more advanced than previously thought." Source: Science Daily.

"The tablet -- known as Si.427 -- was discovered in the late 19^th century in what is now central Iraq, but its significance was unknown until the UNSW scientist's detective work was revealed today."

Si.427 is thought to date back to the First Babylon Dynasty in the second millennium BC.

Note: According to this 2017 RT report (next video), the Babylonians were also familiar with a form of trigonometry.

Ancient Assyrian Records Provide Evidence Of Solar Storms

"Researcher finds evidence of ancient solar magnetic storms based on cuneiform astrological records and carbon-14 dating. This work may help with our understanding of intense solar activity that can threaten modern electronics." Source: Science Daily (2019).

"...Some of the observations made by ancient Assyrian and Babylonian astrologers more than two millennia ago survive in the form of cuneiform records. These rectangular clay tablets were messages from professional scholars to kings who had commissioned astronomical observations for the purpose of discerning omens -- including comets, meteors, and planetary motions.

"Now, a team led by the University of Tsukuba has matched three of these ancient tablets that mention an unusual red glow in the sky with the carbon-14 concentrations in tree rings and demonstrate how they are evidence of solar magnetic storms. These observations were made approximately 2,700 years ago in Babylon and the Assyrian city of Nineveh, both of which are mentioned contemporaneously in the Bible."

Cuneiform Inscription From Last King Of Babylon Discovered In Saudi Arabia

The story of Nabonidus begins at around 16:35.

"A 2,550-year-old inscription, written in the name of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, has been discovered carved on basalt stone in northern Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage recently announced." Source: Live Science.

"An engraving at the top of the inscription shows King Nabonidus holding a scepter alongside four other images that include a snake, a flower and a depiction of the moon, the commission said in a statement, noting that these symbols likely have a religious meaning. 

"These engravings are followed beneath by about 26 lines of cuneiform text that experts with the commission are currently deciphering. This is the longest cuneiform inscription ever found in Saudi Arabia, the commission said in the statement. "

Note: No one knows what happened to Nabonidus after the conquest of the Neo-Babylonian Empire by the Achaemenid Empire (the first Persian Empire) in 539 BC. He may have been killed, but it seems more likely that he ended up going into exile.

Sacred Prostitution In The Near East & Israel

"In the Ancient Near East, temple women, of whom one class was called qadištu, probably served as sacred prostitutes. Sometimes dedicated by their fathers to the deity, they had special statutes, and provisions were made for them by law (Code of Hammurapi). Customs connected with them are likely to underlie Herodotus' lurid and misleading statement that in Babylon every woman was to serve once as a sacred prostitute before getting married, thus sacrificing her virginity to the goddess Mylitta (Ishtar) ... In Israel the sacred prostitutes were condemned for their connection with idolatry. Deuteronomy 23:18–19 forbids Israelites, men and women alike, to become sacred prostitutes, and states that their wages must not be used for paying vows." Source: Jewish Virtual Library.

Astarte is the Greek name of the very ancient Mesopotamian goddess, Ishtar. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD, 3rd ed. revised), Ishtar was the "goddess of love and war, variously described as [the] daughter of Sin (moon god) or of Anu (sky god) with various attributes according to different city traditions." All of Ishtar's temples, according to the OCD, were probably "centers for cult prostitution of various kinds."

Some modern scholars believe that sacred prostitution, as an institution, never actually existed, but it seems like it must have occurred in one form or another or it wouldn't have been mentioned in all the various sources.  If it did exist, however, it probably wasn't as widespread as previously believed. Herodotus' account, for instance, must be an exaggeration. It's hard to believe that every woman in Babylon had to serve once as a temple prostitute before getting married. If that was true, then the temples would have been swarming with them.

According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed. revised), "sacred prostitution is a strictly modern, not ancient, term and misleading in that it transfers to the institution, or rather a variety of institutions, an adjective [sacred] which in ancient sources denotes only the status of the personnel involved (sometimes also their earnings, which likewise became sacred on dedication.)." I've read this two or three times now and I'm still not sure what it means. If a prostitute is considered sacred and her earnings are dedicated to a god, then isn't she a "sacred prostitute" by definition? The term may be modern, but how is it misleading?

Sacred prostitution is apparently still practiced in parts of India.

Report from 1998.

A History Of The Masoretic Hebrew Texts

"Masoretic text, (from Hebrew masoreth, 'tradition' [1]), traditional Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible, meticulously assembled and codified, and supplied with diacritical marks to enable correct pronunciation [2]. This monumental work was begun around the 6th century ad and completed in the 10th by scholars at Talmudic academies in Babylonia and Palestine, in an effort to reproduce, as far as possible, the original text of the Hebrew Old Testament. Their intention was not to interpret the meaning of the Scriptures but to transmit to future generations the authentic Word of God. To this end they gathered manuscripts and whatever oral traditions were available to them." Source: Encyclopedia Britannica.

[1]: "The Masoretes ... were groups of Jewish scribe-scholars who worked between the 6th and 10th centuries CE, based primarily in early medieval Palestine in the cities of Tiberias and Jerusalem, as well as in Iraq (Babylonia). Each group compiled a system of pronunciation and grammatical guides in the form of diacritical notes (niqqud) on the external form of the biblical text in an attempt to standardize the pronunciation, paragraph and verse divisions and cantillation of the Jewish Bible, the Tanakh, for the worldwide Jewish community." Source: Wikipedia.

[2] "Hebrew had no vowels in its alphabet. Vowel sounds were for the most part handed down by tradition. Certain consonants were used to express some long vowels, these consonants were called Matres lectionis, because they determined the pronunciation. The efforts of copyists would seem to have become more and more minute and detailed in the perpetuation of the consonantal text. These copyists (grammateis) were at first called Sopherim (from the Hebrew meaning 'to count'), because, as the Talmud says, 'they counted all the letters in the Torah' (Kiddushin, 30a). It was not till later on that the name Massoretes, was given to the preservers of Massorah." Source: New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia.

ISIS Only Destroyed Duplicate Artifacts In Mosul

"[The National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad] just re-opened at the end of February, only few days after the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) had posted a video on the Internet in which militants are seen using hammers to destroy Assyrian statues and artifacts in the Mosul Museum." Source: Deutsche Welle.

Now it appears that IS only destroyed duplicates of the original artifacts. "'They didn't destroy the originals in Mosul; those were just copies,' according to one of the Baghdad museum attendants." Apparently the Iraqis have taken steps to protect many of their archaeological treasures from destruction by occupying forces (including the US military):

Baghdad Museum Reopens 12 Yrs After Looting

"Iraq’s national museum officially reopened Saturday after 12 years of painstaking efforts during which close to a third of 15,000 pieces looted during the U.S.-led invasion were recovered." Source: The Lebanon Daily Star

"The reopening was brought forward in what officials said was a response to the destruction of priceless artifacts by ISIS in the northern city of Mosul."

Comment: The hidden message here is that after "12 years of painstaking efforts" to recover them, almost two-thirds of the artifacts looted from the museum are still missing. The Iraqis should worry less about restoring their national pride and more about ensuring the safety of the relics they still control. At this point, the best thing to do would probably be to get them out of the country altogether.

The Cult Of Venus, Astarte & Aphrodite In Sicily

Note: Astarte is the Greek name of the very ancient Mesopotamian goddess, Ishtar. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD, 3rd ed. revised), Ishtar was the "goddess of love and war, variously described as [the] daughter of Sin (moon god) or of Anu (sky god) with various attributes according to different city traditions." All of Ishtar's temples, according to the OCD, were probably "centers for cult prostitution of various kinds."

Sex In The Service Of Aphrodite

"'Holy harlots' in Jerusalem, temple sex in the service of Aphrodite? Many ancient authors describe sacred prostitution in drastic terms. Are the accounts nothing but legends? Historians are searching for the kernel of truth behind the reports." Source: Der Spiegel (2010)