Sitara+M

3rd Quarter Primary Source:
The Cyrus Cylinder, written in 539-530 BC When Cyrus the Great was ruling the four corners of the world, he declared what philosophers believe to be the first form of human rights. This deceleration along accounts of his reign was written in Akkadian cuneiform script on a clay cylinder. It dates back to the 16th century and was found in Babylon in Mesopotamia. T he Cylinder praises Cyrus, and lays out his genealogy and tells how he was welcomed by his people when he became king, along with many of his greatest achievements. The Cylinders has been used by biblical philosophers since the text talks bout Cyrus's story of releasing the Jews from exile. It also holds what is possibly the first form of human rights but that is still being debated by professors and philosophers. //The Making of the Cylinder:// The Cyrus Cylinder is shaped like a barrel/cylinder and made of baked clay that measures 8.9 in by 3.9 in at its widest diameter. It was made in multiple stages around a cone-shaped core of clay within which there are large grey stone inclusions. It was built up with more layers of clay to make it cylindrical before a thin, smooth layer of clay was added on which the text was etched. It was found and excavated in several pieces. Today it is in two main fragments, known as "A" and "B", which were reunited in 1972. // Content: // Lines 1–19: an introduction reviling Nabonidus, the previous king of Babylon, and associating Cyrus with the god Marduk; Lines 20–22: detailing Cyrus's royal titles and genealogy, and his peaceful entry to Babylon; Lines 22–34: a commendation of Cyrus's policy of restoring Babylon; Lines 34–35: a prayer to Marduk on behalf of Cyrus and his son Cambysus; Lines 36–37: a declaration that Cyrus has enabled the people to live in peace and has increased the offerings made to the gods; Lines 38–45: details of the building activities ordered by Cyrus in Babylon Why Was It Made? well, a ccording to the British Museum, the Cyrus Cylinder reflects a long tradition in Mesopotamia in which, kings began their reigns with declarations of reforms. Cyrus's declaration shows his legitimacy as the king, and is a statement of his respect for the religious and political traditions of Babylonia. The British Museum and scholars believe it is an instrument of ancient Mesopotamian propaganda. The Cylinder is part of a Mesopotamian tradition of laying down a wide variety of symbolic items, including animal sacrifices, stone tablets, terracotta cones, cylinders and figures. New kings of Babylon would make public declarations of their righteousness when they began their reigns, usually in the form of declarations that were put in the foundations of public buildings. Some contained messages, and they had a number of purposes: elaboration of a building's value, commemoration of the ruler or builder and the magical sanctification of the building, through the invocation of divine protection

This is a painting by Joseph Wright called //A philosopher giving a lecture at the Orrery// from 1765.
====In it, Wright depicts the demonstration of the orrery, a model of the solar system that is mechanical and can show the movements of the planets around the sun like a clock. The gas light in the center of the structure represented the sun. but Wright used the light it gave off to intensify the emotions shown by the viewers. You can see that the two children with their faces close the the invention are clearly interested in the new ideas the demonstrator is presenting, but the older man behind them doesn't seem the be impressed. I t was not uncommon for enlightened thinkers of the era to show their inventions to the public there are also many paintings of other inventions; but it wasn't easy to get interested viewers since some enlightenment ideas went against the church and encouraged criticism to the monarchy and aristocracy. These new ways of thinking and the debt of the country left the French people with nothing and created grounds for the French Revolution in 1789. ==== Wow, that must have been so amazing to view new inventions out in public. Inventions that were completely new. Do you think that these inventors ever showed these inventions in public just to make a point to the catholic church? -LM Like Laura said, it must've been such a great experience to see all of the wondrous inventions in public. Great analysis of the painting and connection to the French Revolution, I never would have thought of that. -AK

School of Athens:

 * [[image:boiseapworld/800px-Raphael_School_of_Athens.jpg width="86" height="164"]]I found Pyrrho of Elis the most interesting because is seems that most of the philosophers of the time were looking for new, innovative and positive things; but Pyrrho constantly contradicted ideas and thought more on the negative side which seems to contradict the time period since the Renaissance was about rebirth and positive things. He was a skeptist and was actually known as the father of skepticism. He was a Greek philosopher during the renaissance and he taught that nothing can be known since the contradictory of each statement can be maintained with equal plausibility.**
 * I think Raphael should have painted himself into the painting discreetly into the background since some painters did that during the renaissance. More importantly he was considered a master of the time period along with Michelangelo and Leonardo Di Vinci. Since most of the people in the painting were very knowledgeable and well known, Raphael wouldnt be out of place in the painting since he was admired for his clarity in form and ease in composition. He was also very influential both during and after his lifetime as his work was set as a model for other artists. He did, he's on the right hand side. -SW **

**Primary Source Unit 2**: Aztec Temple Momolith
In 2006, in the heart of Mexico City, archeologists discovered and ancient altar and monolith that dates back to the Aztecs 500 years ago. The Altar was uncovered at the main Aztec trmple, Templo Mayor, and depicts the Aztecs rain god Tlaloc. More impressive than the altar though, the 11ft monolith which is still mostly burried. Some of the archeologists suspect that the great stone slab could be the entrance to an underground chamber. The stone itself is thought to be from the Chiquihuite stone formation north of Mexico City and could weigh as much as 12 tons and dates back to the last phase of the Aztec empire, from 1487 to 1520. According to archeologists, based of the deep carvings in the stone and the position of it, the carvings may be of an earth goddess of diety and although the signifagance of the monolith is unsure its highly likely that its part of an offering. What I find interesting is that this is not the only Monolith found. Infact rereaschers found another one that was slightly bigger at 13ft that depicted a fearsome, blood drinking god of the earth, Tlaltecuhtli, also in Mexico city at Templo Mayor, that dated to around the same time period or earlier. This Monolith is strongly believed to be a gravestone covering to an Aztec Emperors tumb. If this may have been a burrial site and there are more than one monolith that lead somewhere underground around one of the Aztecs major temples then there may be other tombs of emperors that could help us know more about them and their god and rituals.

This is such an interesting primary source, Sitara. It almost reminds me of the pyramids in Egypt, with the depictions of deities, underground chambers, and encasing of emperors. It really goes to show their dedication to religion and amazing technology since the carvings look so elaborate. I wonder if any new information will be unearthed about their world views if they are ever able to locate more burial sites and altars similar to the one at Templo Mayor. Cool find! - AK

The Valley of Kings-Egypt

The valley of the Kings is located in <span style="background-color: transparent !important; background-position: initial initial !important; background-repeat: initial initial !important; border: none !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif !important; font-size: 13px !important; font-style: normal !important; font-variant: normal !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: auto !important; line-height: 19.5px !important; margin: 0px !important; min-height: 0px !important; min-width: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline !important; width: auto !important;">, Egypt. For nearly 500 years from the 16 to the 11 century BCE, tombs for the pharaohs and powerful nobles of the 18th to the 20th dynasties were built here. In the same time period Memphis was abandoned as the home of building pyramids and the pyramid style itself was also left. Instead tombs were build in limestone cliffs on the west bank of the Nile river, opposite Thebes which is now modern Luxor, inside the heart of the Theban Necropolis. The valley has two branches, the East Valley where the majority of the pharaohs tombs are found and the West Valley. There are 63 known tombs and chambers that range from simple pits to complex tombs with around 120 chambers; each tomb took about 6 years to construct.

Royal tombs are decorated with elaborats scenes from Egyptian mythology and give clues to the beliefs and funerary rituals. Also inside the tombwere the kings formal names and title along with his images and statues. The Egyptians believed that in the after life, your soul or Ka lives on and so they left materials for survival like food, wine, jewelry and more for the souls to live off of. There were over 1,000 gods and godesses and some were more honored that others. The gods that were honored changed from time to time and varied depending on where you were. When pharaohs started being buried in the Valley of the Kings, the gods Amun or Amun-Re who is the equivalent of Zeus and the god Osiris who is the god of the deads, rose into being among the highest worshiped gods. These god and a few others like Anubis, the god of mummification, were depicted on the tomb walls along with the pharaohs soul to help their journey to the after life.



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=Primary Source: Rig Vedas= The Rig Veda was one of four Vedas, the other three were known as the Sama Veda, "knowledge of chants" they were a number of hymns recited during sacrifices, next there was the Yajur Veda, "knowledge of rites" this told how to make the sacrifices book. The last Veda is the Athara Veda, this shows the knowledge given by the sage Athara. The Rig Veda itself is a collection of over 1000 hymns that hold mythology of the Hinu gods and is thought to be one of the foundations to Hinduism. At first the Vedas were passed down verbally from one genertation to the next; then they were written down‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ in the early form of sanskrit know as vedic writting‍‍‍‍‍‍‍, before being written down in around 300BCE, in the form we have them in today. The Rig veda was written down by the Aryans around 1300 and 1000 BCE when the first came into Inda at the end of Harappan civilization. The hymns in the veda contain praises, blessings, sacrafices and curses that were directed towards the gods and used by the Aryans during worship and religious cerimonies. There were written in poem form and personify the powers of nature. The Vedas theology was passes onto the Upanishads which became the basis of Hinduism we know today. The Hindu religion came from the Vedas and in turn the hymns helped shape Indian culture from their religion to the caste system they used for social classes.

This is very interesting -especially that they were written as poems. I assume the Upanishads -the commentary- were not? Did the Hindu gods and goddesses originate from the Aryans then? Nice <span style="background-color: transparent !important; background-position: initial initial !important; background-repeat: initial initial !important; border: none !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif !important; font-size: 13px !important; font-style: normal !important; font-variant: normal !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: auto !important; line-height: 19.5px !important; margin: 0px !important; min-height: 0px !important; min-width: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline !important; width: auto !important;">. -RW

It's interesting how much more there was to the vedas than just religious text and the basis of the caste system, I had no idea that they were actually hymns - even for sacrifice. Is there a possibility that some ideas were lost or altered in the process of the vedas being passed down verbally? Good information. -JM