Here, the cranium and mandible of the rhino are shown as they may have appeared when the animal was alive some …According to recent reports, an international team of scientists digging in Central Turkey uncovered the fossil of an adolescent rhino skull, and whereas that is not a particularly unusual event, this fossil shows signs that the poor animal died in a way similar to the unfortunate residents of Pompeii — by being instantly cooked to death.
According to the report, published in the online journal PLOS ONE, “the body of the [rhino] experienced severe dehydration”, “was then dismembered within the pyroclastic flow”, and “the skull being separated from the remnant body and baked under a temperature approximating 400°C.”
[ Related: Blame Canada for ancient and massive 1,300-year ‘Big Freeze’ ]
The skull and jaw bone of this two-horned rhino (Ceratotherium neumayri) were found at a site just to the east of Karacaşar, Turkey. According to an email sent to LiveScience by Pierre-Olivier Antoine, the lead author of the study, “the bony surface was rough and corrugated all around the skull and mandible, and the dentine (the internal component of the teeth) was incredibly brittle, and even kind of ‘corroded’ [in] places,” and “there were no other rhino bones in the surroundings, except for some rib fragments, potentially of rhino affinities,” which led the team to the conclusion that the poor beast had been ripped apart by the searing volcanic flow that killed it.
A ‘pyroclastic flow’ is a current of volcanic gases and ash flowing down the side of a volcano that can range in size anywhere from a hundred cubic meters to over a thousand cubic kilometers. Pyroclastic flows from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius, in 29 A.D., are thought to be responsible for the destruction of the ancient Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The flow that killed this rhino apparently originated from the ‘Çardak caldera’, about 30 km to the south of where its skull was found, which shows the immense power of this kind of flow, that it could transport the skull that far.
“There was not a real volcano, but a caldera which spread huge amounts of volcanic ash over Cappacocia, during millions of years, throughout the late Miocene-Pliocene interval,” said Antoine.
The so-called Çardak caldera, which spread huge amounts of ash over Cappacocia, is inactive today. Even so, thick …
[ More Geekquinox: U.S. planned to nuke the Moon to win Cold War ]
Today, the caldera is quiet and docile, and is described by Antoine as “among the most magnificent landscapes I’ve ever seen.”
via Rhino fossil ‘flash cooked’ 9 million years ago in Turkey | Geekquinox – Yahoo! News Canada.
A team of archeologists from the University of Toronto has found 2,800-year old stone lion during excavations at Turkey’s Tell Tayinat ancient site.
Excavations at Tell Tayinat, Turkey
Led by Tim Harrison, the team discovered the beautifully carved lion while excavating a temple at the site, Unreported Heritage News reported.
The lion is nearly four feet tall and appears to be roaring. Experts have dated it to the time when Tayinat was the capital of a small independent kingdom, called Palastin, which vanished when the Assyrians under Tiglath-pileser III conquered the city in 738 BCE.
Tayinat was revived 3,200 years ago when Middle Eastern civilizations were invaded by people of the Aegean known as the “Sea People.”
Similar lion statues were also found by Robert Braidwood during his Tayinat excavations in the 1930’s.
Around 30 years ago, one of the first Ottoman photography studios, the Sebah & Joaillier Photography House, decided to put its archives up for sale. After all, it took a lot of work just keeping all these photographs organized and in good shape.
But in the hands of Sebah & Joaillier lay a critical mass of visuals that illuminated 100 years worth of history having to do with Turkey. This private photography collection went first to the Archaeology Museum, or rather the Turkish Ministry of Culture. A council was formed, and for three months the photographs in this archive were carefully examined, while a sum of what amounted to TL 3 million (at the time) was set aside as payment. In the end however, no payment was forthcoming from the Ministry of Culture. Little by little, the situation began to be discussed in the local art and culture community, and it was at this point that the German Archaeological Institute stepped forward with an offer of TL 49 million to the family that owned these archives. And thus on the evening of that day, the archives were moved to the buildings that house the institute. In the meantime, years passed, and a rush towards restoration of historic buildings began in Turkey. Especially in light of İstanbul being selected as a 2010 European Capital of Culture, there was a renewed effort to see everything from small and large mosques to old wooden homes and many other historic structures renovated and restored. But of course, the architects and cultural historians working on these restorations had a great need for information and visuals regarding the original state of all these structures. It was at this critical juncture that the institute stepped in, coming to the rescue of researchers with its archives.
And so, the archives, which at one time the Ministry of Culture was unwilling to pay for, have nowadays become priceless. In fact, the institute has a very wide visual archive that is made up of photographs collected from not only its own archaeologists and academics, but also from various world collections. All of which is why the stream of visitors over the past decade to the institute’s historic stone building in Beyoğlu has simply not slowed down.
Turkish frescoer Kaya Uçer, who restored the frescoes that decorate the historic Piyale Pasha Mosque, got hold of the visual representations of this mosque, which helped him in this project, from the institute. Üçer notes that everyone who works in this arena must absolutely make at least one trip to the institute. He says part of what makes the institute’s role so critical is that it has carefully organized the photographs in its archives, ensuring that people can find the photographs they need in a short time. The photographs are organized according to topics and geographic regions.
Actually, there are also the famous Yıldız Albums at Istanbul University, albums that Sultan Abdulhamit shot that document the cultural and historical wealth of the 19th century Ottoman Empire. However, these photographs are now located at both İstanbul University and the Süleymaniye Library and have not been organized; thus, researchers have a very difficult time using them as a resource. Üçer notes that even now, hundreds of important documents and glass negatives are just sitting in the depots of both the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts and the Süleymaniye Library. And while one section of the images from the Yıldız Albums has been organized, and a copy is available at IRCICA (Research Center for Islamic History, Art and Culture), the price tag for these visual images is even higher than that demanded by the institute. (IRCICA asks $150 per photograph, while the institute asks for 50 euros, or a reduced 15-20 euros for academics.) All of which is why researchers, architects and academics tend to prefer the institute.
Books printed by the first printing press are here too
Institute Director Professor Felix Pirson notes that the photograph collection at the institute is the archive of Turkey and İstanbul’s architectural legacy. He also points out that the libraries at the institute are Turkey’s most comprehensive archaeological library. Some of the more notable books included in this library are 14 of the 17 books printed in the first Ottoman printing house. Printed by İbrahim Müteferrika, most of these books are the only known copies in Turkey. Other noteworthy books in this library are books by German travel writers, boasting abundant maps and engravings.
The İstanbul branch of the institute was founded in 1929. Used as an office by archaeologists, Orientalists and historians who visited İstanbul and Anatolia, the institute over time managed to collect many resources concerning the various cultures that flourished in the Ottoman Empire. Those not taken back to Germany thus remained at the institute. Pirson asserts that everyone can make use of the library and extensive photography archives at the institute. Scientists and students working on their doctorates may even spend the night here, as there are five guest rooms.
‘As we lack cultural policies, we learn our own heritage from foreigners’
Cultural historian Süleyman Faruk Göncüoğlu says: “As Turkey has no cultural policies of its own, we have never taken action on our own culture. But when the restorations began and there arose a need for documents, then the big mistake we made became clear because the Prime Ministerial archives contain only documents. There are no photographs, no ephemera (articles from daily life, diplomas, newspapers, brochures, letters, business cards, postcards, invitations, etc.) in those archives. But the truth is, for cultural and art historians, as well as for restoration efforts, there is a need for these types of documents. And the power that foreigners seem to have in opining on Ottoman cultural history derives from these types of documents. There have been many collections such as these put up for sale in İstanbul, but all of them were bought by foreign institutes. As for our foundations and institutes, none of which go any further than the signs hung over their doors, they never did anything to back these inventories of documents. And so now the ministries, foundations and various institutes in Turkey need to go to the door of places like the German Archeological Institute for their work.”
Archeologists no longer dig to gather items for museums
Travel writers curious about the Ottomans were some of the first to travel to Anatolia. These travel writers from the West first observed and wrote about the structures above the ground, as well as the lives of those around them, and it was after this that archeologists came to look at the traces of architecture left underground in Anatolia. Not only did they come to see, but they also took back home with them what they could. Pirson notes that the aim of much 19th century archaeological work was to procure materials for various museums around the world. He says: “We see this not only in Western Europe, but everywhere in the world. We even see it in the İstanbul museums.” However, Pirson points out the general direction taken by archaeology has changed, and digs no longer are undertaken with the goal of procuring museum items, but rather simply for knowledge. After a dig takes place nowadays, the items found are generally displayed in regional museums. Pirson, who heads up the digs at the Bergama site – -now ongoing for 130 years – – points to the uncovered tower that has been restored and turned into a museum. The German Archaeological Institute backs digs not only in Bergama, but also at Çorum’s Hattuşaş, Urfa’s Göbeklitaş, Milet, Didim and Söke.
Cyrus the Great liberated the Hebrew from the Babylonian captivity to resettle and rebuild Jerusalem, earning him an honoured place in Judaism. (Click to enlarge)
By Brokhim Davoudian from Tehran for CAIS
LONDON, (CAIS) — The Cyrus Cylinder loaned by the British Museum to Iran and currently on show at the National Museum in Tehran has attracted attention nationally and internationally and has excited all Iranians including the small community of the Iranian Jews.
The Cyrus Cylinder signifies humanity and kindness and it is considered by many scholars to be the world’s first declaration of human rights issued by the ancient Iranian emperor, Cyrus the Great in 6thcentury BCE.
Amongst Iranians the most excited for the return of the Cyrus Cylinder being home after forty years, is the small Jewish community. The Iranian Jewish population better known as ‘Persian Jews’, constitute the largest among the Islamic countries.
A Tehran Rabbi excitingly stating: “it is wonderful and I’m much exited to see that the Cylinder is home – in fact I am doubley exited, as an Iranian as well as a Jew.”
He continued: “the Cylinder is a Persian artefact, but its contents concerns the history of Jewish people as much as Iranians, which echoes the past and is the voice of our ancestors – it tells us about the history of my ancestors, the Hebrews who were liberated by the ‘anointed of God’ from Babylonian captivity and their return to the holy land. It is the history of my forefathers who stayed behind and who had chosen Iran as their home.”
Shahram, a young Persian Jew who travelled from the city of Shiraz to visit the Cylinder said: “when I laid my eyes on the Cylinder I start shaking and tears ran down my cheeks, which I had no control over. I felt a bit embarrassed but when I noticed that I am not the only one drowning in the tears of excitement I let my emotions to run.”
Maurice another teenager who was not lucky as Shahram to visit the Cylinder, said: “I am going to see it no matter how long it takes. From my childhood my family told me about Cyrus the Great and who he was. This artefact has importance for me for a number of reasons: first and foremost because I am an Iranian and second, this is a historical document that tells me how my ancestors were freed from captivity.”
Daniyal, a patriot Persian Jew from Esfahan and a veteran hero of Iran-Iraq war in moving words told me: “I defended my country during the sacred defence against the Arab aggressors and served in the frontline and I have a shattered leg to prove it. My feelings of knowing Cyrus’s Cylinder is home, is the exact feeling of joy and excitement that I had when I was ready to offer my life defending my country. If I have to sleep behind the doors of the National Museum, I will do it to see the Cylinder.”
According to Iran’s National Museum over 2,000 peoples are visiting the Cylinder everyday. The number could be have been three times but since the visitors are divided into groups of 20 to 25 individuals and at a time to be led to a special room where the priceless Persian artefact is kept, the numbers are currently limited to 2,000.
Some Iranians called for the museum to be open 24 hours before the return of the Cyrus Cylinder to England.
With regard to attacking Cyrus the Great in Western Media, such as a ‘Cyrus-bashing’ article published by Der Speigel in 2008 rabbi said: “We are appalled by those in West who are attacking the character of Cyrus the Great and calling his Cylinder as a hoax, especially that neo-Nazi who wrote the article in the Spiegel. We the Jewish community in Iran are deeply insulted and consider his attack as anti-Semitism, which is no better than those anti-Semitics who are denying the Holocaust from taking place.”
He added “Cyrus deserves better respect, and I’m pleading to my Jewish brothers and sisters outside Iran to stop these anti-Semitic-Nazis, attacking the man who loved and liberated us from captivity.”
A prominent Persian Rabbi back in 2008 also called the author of the De Spiegel article a neo-Nazi and an anti-Semitic.
The Persian Jews
The Persian Jews trace their ancestry to the Babylonian Exiles of the 6th century BCE and, and like the Armenians and the Assyrians living in modern Iran, have retained their ethnic, linguistic, and religious identity.
The beginnings of Jewish history in Iran dates back to late biblical times. The biblical books of Isaiah, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles, and Esther contains references to the life and experiences of Jews in Persia. In the book of Ezra, the Persian kings are credited with permitting and enabling the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple; its reconstruction was ordered “according to the decree of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia” (Ezra 6:14). As the result, sixth century BCE is considered as one of the greatest events in the Jewish history.
Scholars believe that during the peak of the Persian Empire, Jews may have comprised as much as 20% of the Iranian population.
Jews continued living in various part of the empire including Babylon during and after the fall of Achaemenids. Under the succeeding Iranian dynasties of Parthians and Sasanian, Jews lived freely and practised their religion until the 7th century and invasion of Iran by Arabs, the majority of which along with other Iranians faced execution or were forced to accept Islam.
The reaming which could afford to pay the Jizyya (poll tax) for not being Muslim to the Arab invaders chose to remain or emigrated to concentrated Jewish areas such as in Assuristan and Khvarvaran (nowadays Iraq), Khuzestan, Fars and Esfahan provinces. As the result the central Iranian city of Esfahan become one of the main hubs for the Persian Jews. Esfahan then divided into two major settlements of Yahudiyeh (the Jewish Quarter) and Shahrestan or Gey (the Zoroastrian Quarter).
The second major blow to the Jewish community after the Arab invasion of Iran was under the Mongol Ghazan Khan. In 13th century, he ordered a large number of synagogues to be destroyed and forced many to accept Islam. The policy continued under the Tamburlaine’s rule which resulted in more Jews converting to Islam and their resettlement in the north-eastern Iranian city of Samaqand (in modern Uzbekistan) to promote the textile industry.
The Jewish community however survived in large numbers until the reign of Shah Soltan Hossein (r. 1694–1722) when they forced the majority to convert to Islam once again. Their numbers were estimated in the Safavid capital, Esfahan around 3,000,000 (including the Zoroastrians). As the result Jewish scholars believe a large portion of modern Esfahani ancestry is of Jewish origin.
Some of the Jewish communities in Iran have been isolated from others, to the extent that their classification as “Persian Jews” is a matter of linguistic or geographical convenience rather than actual historical relationship with one another.
Persian Jews until the 19th to mid-20th century were still extant communities in the mainland-Iran and the Greater Iran (once were part of Iran) including the present-day Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Eastern Turkey, Georgia, Northern-Iraq, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
Before the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948, there was an estimated 140,000-150,000 remaining Jews living in Iran, the historical centre of Persian Jewry, the number were expected to be well over 500,000 by early 2000. Over 85% have since left Iran either for Israel or the United States.
Since the 1979 Revolution in Iran, the Jewish population of Iran dramatically decreased from 80,000 to less than 40,000 today, with around 25,000 residing in Tehran, and the remaining mainly living in the cities of Esfahan and Shiraz, the historical cities of Persian Jewry.
Modern Israelis of Iranian origin are referred to as Parsim meaning “Persians”.
It is widely believed the President Mahmood Ahmadinejad is of a Jewish origin who turned against his own people. His surname before conversion of his parents to Islam was Saburjian, meaning ‘cloth weaver’, a traditional Jewish family- name in Iran. Ahmadinejad rejected the claim.
, 24 September 2010
[2]
Falling for Ancient Propaganda
UN Treasure Honors Persian Despot
By Matthias Schulz
A 2,500-year-old cuneiform document ceremoniously displayed in a glass case at the United Nations in New York is revered as an “ancient declaration of human rights.” But in fact, argue researchers, the document was the work of a despot who had his enemies tortured.
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi was planning a record-breaking gala. First he proclaimed the “White Revolution,” a land reform program, and then declared himself the “Light of the Aryans.” Finally, in October of 1971, he had taken it upon himself to celebrate “2,500 years of the Iranian monarchy.” The organizers of the celebration had promised to deliver “the greatest show on earth.”
The Shah had 50 opulent tents set up amid the ruins of Persepolis. Invited dignitaries included 69 heads of state and crowned monarchs. The guests consumed 20,000 liters of wine, ate quail eggs with pheasant and gilded caviar. Magnum bottles of Château Lafite circled the tables.
At the high point of the festival, the Shah walked to the grave of Cyrus II who, in the 6th century B.C., had conquered more than 5 million square kilometers (1.9 million square miles) of land in a long and bloody war.
Critics at the time complained that $100 million (€63 million) was a lot of money to spend celebrating the ancient Persian king. “Should I serve heads of state bread and radishes instead?” was the Shah’s brusque rejoinder.
Religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini, still in exile at the time, was also quick to issue his scathing criticism: “The crimes committed by Iranian kings have blackened the pages of history books.”
But the Shah knew better. Cyrus, he announced, was a very special man: noble and filled with love and kindness. The Shah insisted that Cyrus was the first to establish a right to “freedom of opinion.”
‘Ancient Declaration of Human Rights’
Pahlevi also ensured that his view of history would be taken to the United Nations. On Oct. 14, just as the party in Persepolis was in full swing, his twin sister walked into the United Nations building in New York, where she handed a copy of a cuneiform document, about the size of a rolling pin, to then Secretary General Sithu U Thant. Thant thanked her for the “historic gift” and promptly praised it as an “ancient declaration of human rights.”
Suddenly even the UN secretary-general was insisting that Cyrus “wanted peace,” and that the Persian king had “shown the wisdom to respect other civilizations.”
Then Thant had the clay cylinder (which contains a supposedly particularly humane decree by Cyrus II dated 539 B.C.) displayed in a glass case in the main UN building. And there it continues to lie today, directly adjacent to a copy of the world’s oldest peace treaty.
Those were grand gestures and grand words, but in the end it was nothing but a hoax that the UN had fallen for. Contrary to the Shah’s claims, the cuneiform degree was “propaganda,” explains Josef Wiesehöfer, a scholar of ancient history at the University of Kiel in the northern Germany. “The notion that Cyrus introduced concepts of human rights is nonsense.”
Hanspeter Schaudig, an Assyriologist at the University of Heidelberg in the southwestern Germany, says that he too would be hard-pressed to see the ancient king as a pioneer when it comes to equality and human dignity. Indeed, Cyrus demanded that his subjects kiss his feet.
The ruler was responsible for a 30-year war that consumed the Orient and forced millions to pay heavy taxes. Anyone who refused stood to have his nose and ears cut off. Those sentenced to death were buried up to their heads in sand, left to be finished off by the sun.
Did the UN simply believe this historical lie — concocted by the Shah — without any further examination?
‘The UN Made a Serious Mistake’
Art historian Klaus Gallas, who is preparing a German-Iranian cultural festival to take place in Weimar next summer, has now brought the matter to the public’s attention. During his preparations for the festival he discovered the inconsistencies between the Shah’s claims and the Cyrus decree. “The UN made a serious mistake,” says Gallas.
The limestone tomb at Pasargadae of King Cyrus the Great.
Despite having been contacted by SPIEGEL several times, the organization has declined to comment on the incident. Indeed, the UN Information Service in Vienna continues to insist that many still consider the cuneiform cylinder from the Orient to be the “first human rights document.”
The aftermath of the hoax has been disastrous. Even German schoolbooks describe the ancient Persian king as a pioneer of humane policies. According to a forged translation on the Internet, Cyrus even supported a minimum wage and right to asylum.
“Slavery must be abolished throughout the world,” the fake translation reads. “Every country shall decide for itself whether or not it wants my leadership.”
Even Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was taken in by the hoax. “I am an Iranian. A descendant of Cyrus the Great,” she said in her speech in Oslo. “The very emperor who proclaimed at the pinnacle of power 2,500 years ago that … he would not reign over the people if they did not wish it.”
The experts are now stunned at this example of a rumor gone wild.
If one thing is clear, it is that the figure at the center of this hoax radically shook the ancient Orient like no other ruler. With what German scholar Wiesehöfer calls “military strokes of genius,” Cyrus advanced with his armies to India and to the Egyptian border. He is considered the creator of a new kind of country. At the height of his power, he was the ruler of a magnificent empire bursting with prosperity.
But it all began far more modestly. Born the son of an insignificant minor king in what is today southwestern Iran, the young man mounted the throne in 559 B.C.
Even in antiquity, bizarre legends were associated with the king. According to one of them, Cyrus grew up in the wild and was nursed by a female dog. There are no contemporary images of him.
His neighbors to the west soon felt the brunt of this man’s determination. After conquering the neighboring Elamite people, he attacked the Median Empire in 550 B.C. with his army’s fast combat chariots and soldiers dressed in bronze armor.
After that, the upstart king invaded Asia Minor, or modern Turkey, where hundreds of thousands of Greeks lived in colonies. Well-to-do citizens from Priene were enslaved.
Part 2: ‘One of the Most Magnificent Documents Ever Written’
The general recuperated from the trials of war at his residence in Pasargadae. It was surrounded by an irrigated garden known as the “paradeisos” and was home to a sumptuous harem.
But Cyrus soon became restless in his palace and returned to the front, this time heading east to Afghanistan. His life ended at 71, somewhere in Uzbekistan, when a spear punctured his thigh. He died three days later.
The Walls of Babylon, now at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.
Courageous in battle and adept in the politics of running his empire, Cyrus, says Wiesehöfer, was a “pragmatist” who attained his goals with “carrots and sticks.” But he was no humanist.
Some Greeks praised the conqueror. Herodotus and Aeschylus (who lived after Cyrus’s death) called him merciful. The Bible describes him as the “anointed one,” because he supposedly permitted the abducted Jews to return to Israel.
But modern historians have long since debunked such reports as flattery. “A shining image of Cyrus was created in antiquity,” Wiesehöfer says. In truth, he was a violent ruler, like many others. His army ransacked residential neighborhoods and holy sites, and the urban elites were deported.
Only the Shah, who had his own problems in the 1960s, could have come up with the idea of reinterpreting this man as an originator of human rights. Despite his SAVAK secret police’s notorious torture practices, there was resistance throughout the country. Marxist groups carried out bombings while mullahs called upon their followers to resist the government.
In response, the Shah attempted to invoke his ancient predecessors. Just as Cyrus was once the father of the nation, he insisted, “So am I today.”
“The history of our empire begins with the famous proclamation by Cyrus,” the Shah claimed. “It is one of the most magnificent documents ever written on the spirit of freedom and justice in the history of mankind.”
One thing is true, and that is the clay cylinder documents a banal story of political betrayal. When the text was written in 539 B.C., Cyrus found himself in what was probably the most dramatic part of his life. He had dared to attack the New Babylonian Empire, his powerful rival for dominance of the Orient, a realm that extended all the way to Palestine. Its capital, the magnificent city of Babylon, crowned by a 91-meter tower, was also a center of knowledge and culture. The empire itself was bristling with weapons.
Nevertheless, the Persian ruler decided to risk attacking the Babylonians. His troops marched down the Tigris River. After attacking the fortified city of Opis and killing all prisoners, they advanced on Babylon.
Babylonian Betrayal
There, barricaded behind an 18-kilometer (11-mile) wall around the city, sat Cyrus’ beleaguered enemy: King Nabonid, an old man of 80.
At that very moment, the priests of the god Marduk were committing treason against their own country. Angry over the loss of power they had suffered under their king, they secretly opened the gates and allowed hostile Persian negotiators to enter the city. Nabonid was banished and his son murdered.
Cyrus' Persian Empire
The conditions for a complete surrender were then hammered out. Cyrus demanded the release of fellow Persians who had been carried off in earlier wars. He also insisted on the return of stolen statues of gods.
These were the passages that the Shah would later reinterpret as a general rejection of slavery. In truth, Cyrus merely freed his own followers.
In compensation for their treacherous services, the priests were given money and estates. In return, they praised Cyrus as a “great” and “just” man and as someone who “saved the entire world from hardship and distress.”
Only after all the arrangements had been made did the king enter Babylon, riding in through the blue-glazed Gate of Ishtar. Reeds were spread on the ground at his feet. Then, as is written in line 19 of the Cyrus proclamation, the people were permitted to “kiss his feet.”
There is no evidence of moral reforms or humane commandments in the cuneiform document. Assyriologist Schaudig calls it “a brilliant piece of propaganda.”
But the legend of this prince of peace had been born, thanks to the wily priests of Babylon. And since it was placed on a pedestal by the UN, it has become even more inflated.
Iran’s mullahs have not escaped the Cyrus cult. In mid-June, the British Museum in London announced that it planned to lend the valuable original cylinder to Tehran. It has become an object of Persian national pride.
“The German Bundestag even recently received a petition to have the proclamation exhibited in a glass case at the Reichstag building,” says Gallas.
The petition was denied, and yet the distortion of history continues. With its disastrous tribute, the UN gave birth to a seemingly never-ending rumor.
As the saying from the Orient goes: “A fool may throw a stone into a well which a hundred wise men cannot pull out.”
Archeologists have unearthed the tablets of first written trade agreement in Anatolia.
Archeologists have unearthed the tablets of first written trade agreement in Anatolia.
Professor Cahit Gunbatti of Ankara University’s Faculty of Letters, History and Geography said the first written trade agreement in Anatolia was made 4,000 years ago.
“We have discovered the cuneiform-script tablets in Kultepe-Karum excavations in (the Central Anatolian province of) Kayseri,” Gunbatti told AA correspondent.
Archeologists have been carrying out excavations in Karum hamlet near Kultepe tumulus, where Assyrians used to live, since 1948. They have unearthed some 23,000 cuneiform-script tablets so far.
“Around 4,500 tablets have been smuggled abroad since 1948,” Gunbatti said. Gunbatti said Assyrian tradesmen who settled in the region 4,000 years ago sold the tin and fabrics they brought from Mesopotamia.
The two tablets indicated that the oldest trade agreement in Anatolia was made 4,000 years ago, Gunbatti said.
“The Assyrian Kingdom in Mesopotamia made written trade agreements with Kanesh Kingdom and Hahhum Kingdom near Adiyaman,” he said.
Kultepe is a modern village near the ancient city of Kanesh, located in Kayseri.
Kanesh, inhabited continuously from the Chalcolithic period down to Roman times, flourished most strongly as an important merchant colony (karum) of the Old Assyrian kingdom, from ca. 20th to 16th centuries BC. A late (c 1400 BC) witness to an old tradition includes a king of Kanesh called Zipani among seventeen local city-kings who rose up against the Akkadian Naram-Sin (ruled c.2254-2218).
It is the site of discovery of the earliest traces of the Hittite language, and the earliest attestation of any Indo-European language, dated to the 20th century BC.
Here, the cranium and mandible of the rhino are shown as they may have appeared when the animal was alive some …According to recent reports, an international team of scientists digging in Central Turkey uncovered the fossil of an adolescent rhino skull, and whereas that is not a particularly unusual event, this fossil shows signs that the poor animal died in a way similar to the unfortunate residents of Pompeii — by being instantly cooked to death.
