The greatest sculpture of ancient civilization by:Kerray Rajaram

The Woman of Willendorf

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In my opinion I think one of the earliest sculpture of ancient civilization is the woman of Wilendorf, which is also called the Venus of Wilendorf.It was discovered by an archeologist, named Joseph Szombathy, around 1908 in a Aurignacian loess deposit near the town of Wilendorf Austria. This sculpture measures 110 mm in height and can fit in the palm of your hands. It was carved from a fine porous oolitic limestone and tinted with red ochre. This is a pigment derived from tinted clay and contains mineral oxide. This sculpture was dated back around 30,000 and 25,000 BC and was a derivative from a nomadic society.
            This prehistoric art has several intriguing features that stands out. Her physical appearance and structure depicts several characteristics of society back then and it also gave us an insight of how early humans lived. This sculpture can be analyzed by its body features. It has a huge abdomen and breast. It has no face, her hair is designed in a spiral shape, genital area is hugely emphasized, her arms are skinny and placed behind her back and also she has no feet. It is believed that her huge breast, abdomen and elaborate genital area, signifies procreation and nurture. Her lack of face is also believed to be seen as a way in which she has no identity or privilege over anyone else, she is just seen as a sexual object instead of a person. She is supposed to be equal to the other females and have the same duty. Her lack of feet is said to mean several things such as: to make her unable to leave wherever she had been place and they only included the parts that was important since she signifies fertility. The red ochre pigment covering her abdomen has been thought to symbolize menstrual blood seen as a life-giving agent.

It is also argued that this sculpture serves as a good luck charm and that it is possible that men carried it with them on their hunts so that it reminded them of their mate back home and as a charm to bring them success in their hunting. It was also assume that it could even just be a doll for a child due to its miniature size. This sculpture is seen as the goddess of fertility due to its exaggerated features that relates directly to procreation. She is a sentimental icon of ancient civilization and a representation of females during the Paleolithic period. She can currently be found in Vienna’s Naturhistorisches Museum on display for others to get a closer insight on one of the greatest sculptures of ancient civilization.

Mythology and their religion: By Alre Hudson

The ancient Greeks worshipped many gods, each with a distinct personality and domain. Greek myths explained the origins of the gods and their individual relations with mankind. The art of Archaic and Classical Greece illustrates many mythological episodes, including an established iconography of attributes that identify each god. There were twelve principal deities in the Greek pantheon. Foremost was Zeus, the sky god and father of the gods, to whom the ox and the oak tree were sacred; his two brothers, Hades and Poseidon, reigned over the Underworld and the sea, respectively. Hera, Zeus's sister and wife, was queen of the gods; she is frequently depicted wearing a tall crown or polos. Wise Athena, the patron goddess of Athens (1996.178), who typically appears in full armor with her aegis (a goat skin with a snaky fringe), helmet, and spear (07.286.79), was also the patroness of weaving and carpentry. The owl and the olive tree were sacred to her. Youthful Apollo (53.224), who is often represented with the kithara, was the god of music and prophecy. Judging from his many cult sites, he was one of the most important gods in Greek religion. His main sanctuary at Delphi, where Greeks came to ask questions of the oracle, was considered to be the center of the universe (63.11.6). Apollo's twin sister Artemis, patroness of hunting, often carried a bow and quiver. Hermes (25.78.2), with his winged sandals and elaborate herald's staff, the kerykeion, was the messenger god. Other important deities were Aphrodite, the goddess of love; Dionysos, the god of wine and theater; Ares, the god of war; and the lame Hephaistos, the god of metalworking. The ancient Greeks believed that Mount Olympos, the highest mountain in mainland Greece, was the home of the gods.Ancient Greek religious practice, essentially conservative in nature, was based on time-honored observances, many rooted in the Bronze Age (3000–1050 B.C.), or even earlier. Although the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer, believed to have been composed around the eighth century B.C., were powerful influences on Greek thought, the ancient Greeks had no single guiding work of scripture like the Jewish Torah, the Christian Bible, or the Muslim Qu'ran. Nor did they have a strict priestly caste. The relationship between human beings and deities was based on the concept of exchange: gods and goddesses were expected to give gifts. Votive offerings, which have been excavated from sanctuaries by the thousands, were a physical expression of thanks on the part of individual worshippers.

The Greeks worshipped in sanctuaries located, according to the nature of the particular deity, either within the city or in the countryside. A sanctuary was a well-defined sacred space set apart usually by an enclosure wall. This sacred precinct, also known as a temenos, contained the temple with a monumental cult image of the deity, an outdoor altar, statues and votive offerings to the gods, and often features of landscape such as sacred trees or springs. Many temples benefited from their natural surroundings, which helped to express the character of the divinities. For instance, the temple at Sounion dedicated to Poseidon, god of the sea, commands a spectacular view of the water on three sides, and the Parthenon on the rocky Athenian Akropolis celebrates the indomitable might of the goddess Athena.

The central ritual act in ancient Greece was animal sacrifice, especially of oxen, goats, and sheep. Sacrifices took place within the sanctuary, usually at an altar in front of the temple, with the assembled participants consuming the entrails and meat of the victim. Liquid offerings, or libations (1979.11.15), were also commonly made. Religious festivals, literally feast days, filled the year. The four most famous festivals, each with its own procession, athletic competitions (14.130.12), and sacrifices, were held every four years at Olympia, Delphi, Nemea, and Isthmia. These Panhellenic festivals were attended by people from all over the Greek-speaking world. Many other festivals were celebrated locally, and in the case of mystery cults, such as the one at Eleusis near Athens, only initiates could participate. (www.metmuseum.org)

My Thoughts

Okay Okay enough with that long detailed description. Here comes my real thoughts and opinions on this whole topic.  In my opinion I feel that all religions have somewhat of the same purpose. Each religion praises that of a higher power. The problem I notice with religion is that each faith believe that they are correct when in reality each religion is looked at in a different way. For example, A person of Muslim faith that praises Allah will look down upon a person who is of the Christian faith. The Muslims believe that Allah is superior than Christ, but in reality Both God are the same. They in fact also have the same reputation. So you can't really compare religions because to me it just wouldn't add up and make since to me, and each religion is all the same just a different name of the higher power they worship.  If you think about it each religion has somewhat of the same kinds of rules they just be worded in a different way. In Greek Mythology religion is looked at differently because the gods cherish and worship more than one god.  Now can you imagine living in the world they lived in while everything you do or have already done is being watched or looked over by a God.? I don't think I could but that's me I guess. The Mortal would praise the gods everyday and night to stay in good standing with them because they knew if the did anything to anger the Gods the gods would punish them for their wrong doings.
In my opinion I feel that Religion is a way to keep people under control because if you think about it when you go to church to worship the pastor tells you you're not supposed to be doing this and that and if you are you will be punished by God. Have you stop to realize that the pastor telling you this might have somethings that he or she had been doing that were wrong and are in the same boat and need to repent to be forgiving of there sins. This leads to a perfect example of the gods in Greek Mythology. They put some much fear into the mortals of the town that the people are like little puppets doing any and everything to stay on the Gods god side keeping them happy.  So this makes my point very valid saying that Religion is somewhat of a mind control. There's so many different ways and so many different opinions toward this subject.I'm sticking to my opinion saying that all religions are the same and not one is superior to the other. Now I do feel that is a form of mind control in the state of "perfectness" but for some reason you always here that no one is perfect in the eyes of god but yet and still they want you to be perfect. I understand where they are coming from but c'mon really? Give me a break here you cant be serious. Then again it really is that serious to those people that try to achieve that so called "perfectness" and if you think about it they had all ready achieved it. I hope everyone reading this understands my point of view and has a time to think more into it to get your own message out of it.

Science & Reason

Science & Reason

By Ruth Espinoza

Wise is a profound understanding and realization of people, things, events or situations proceeding in the capacity to apply ideas, judgments and actions in maintaining with this understanding. It generally requires control of one’s emotional reactions so that principles, reason and knowledge to decide ones actions over time. In my opinion there should be some limits to how much we aspire to know. There are so many things out there in the world that is yet to be discovered and studied. The more we get involved into knowing then our ideas and conclusions of a concept start to change. Our meanings and forms of ideas start to shift and we do not know what is right or wrong and true or false. I understand if we keep striving for the right answer to questions, but some stuff will appear over time. That is how we grow in knowledge. It would be wise to keep it a certain extent, because yet were always striving to know. We are intelligent and some more than others. That is fine because it is not always troubling ones thoughts and idea. Intelligence is what we have learned and knowledge we have picked up but not much have experienced. Trying to know and competing for knowledge make us tense. If we depend or start to depend on knowledge, we will start being closed minded to new experience, so we would not know what to do. To avoid this it would be appropriate to stay open minded to all kinds of experiences, but still remain focused. With too much knowledge people would not know or have their own opinion. It will make one not happy with so much intelligence, and without so much would make you a happier less stressful person. We as people will start to depend too much on knowledge in our life, and be controlled and lose fact. Knowledge would bring us harm and trouble. “Ignorance is bliss” what you cannot know, would not hurt you-Thomas Gray. If a person is ignorant of the sciences, the contradicting information cannot challenge their belief. Being ignorant to certain things means you can go on being happy. If you knew every secret to every magic trick, then it would not be fun or a magic trick. It is like knowing the end of a movie. If you knew what everything in life, how would you find anything interesting? Since there is no curiosity, why would you want to live? With so much knowledge people will lose communication with less intelligent people because they are at a lower level of intelligence. Nothing would be wrong to them. There would be less satisfaction with one’s self along with the feeling of no success because everything is already known. We would not be able to take trips knowing there is so much danger out in the world. Taking risks would not be an option and you would not be spontaneous. I believe with large amounts of knowledge life would be dull and boring. It would be wise to have limits on how much we aspire to know.

Mythology Throughout History

Mythology Throughout History

By: Hayley Reteneller

People say that mythology and iconology continue to reemerge in history, which is true seeing as though the word “iconology” indicates its comprehensiveness: “icon” meaning image, re-presentation and “logos” meaning word, speech, reason – in short, the lore and language of visualization.

“This sense of the term was inherited from Warburg, Saxl, Panofsky, Dvorak, Schlosser, Hoogewerff, Gombrich, Wind, Meiss, Stechow, Held as including all the meanings – explicit and implied, denotative and connotative – in images has a long history in studies of explanation and interpretation.” Dreams, plants, animals, gestures, and heaven all prefigure iconology as ways to discover meaning. Iconographers transformed pagan mysteries into a systematic dictionary of signs.

Mythology is used when referring to the study and analysis of stories. Early philosophical mythology was the first intellectual movement to question the basis for the people’s unquestioning faith in the muthoi of the poets. A second development that arose with the birth of Greek rationalism in the 6^th century BCE is something that many have called allegorical mythology. Allegorical mythology is a way of reading objects depicted in myth as symbolizing something beyond the story’s plot and the literal meaning of its words. Philosophers use “Allegory of Nature” to look beyond the literal surface to find hidden references to religious truth.

About a century after Plato, Euhemeros talked about the values and importance of traditional myths. His contribution to mythology has been called historical allegory. “Not unlike the philosophical mythologists and Theaganes, Euhemeros assumed that his ancestors were primitives lacking the scientific method, philosophical principles, and cognitive sophistication of the ‘modern’ world in which he lived. Therefore, he reasoned, the ancients exaggerated the historical facts of actual persons and events and, because they did not have access to better forms of knowledge, accepted these embellished stories as truth.”

Founded by Zeno of Citium, Cyprus, the Stoics made major contributions in logic, grammar, and the philosophies of language and mind. This ancient philosophical school’s moral philosophy of cultivating freedom from the passions that disarray our lives gives us our modern adjective, stoic, which means “a detached indifference to pleasure or pain.” The Stoics interpreted myth in terms of physical phenomena. The Stoics also read the Iliad and Odyssey because they were a lot like Theagenes, allegorical readings of myth frequently described the heroes and gods of myth as embodying their own moral ideals and as resisting the vices and weaknesses that they themselves wished to avoid.

More than a century later Porphyry also employed a form of allegorical mythology in his “The Cave of the Nymphs in the Odyssey”. “In this work he declares that what is obviously absurd in myth positively cries out to be read allegorically so that absurdity will be transformed into that which is meaningful.  Porphyry’s Cave of the Nymphs adds historical ‘research’ to the etymological method of the Stoics.”

Every culture has used mythology to help analysis stories, cultures still use mythology today and will continue to into the future. 

Olympian Gods of Ancient Greek Mythology   

Roman Mythology

The greatest architectural civilization : Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt civilization took place in North eastern Africa , it was concentrated along the lower reaches  of the Nile river .This civilization occured around 3500 BCE.

The success of Ancient Egypt civilization came mainly from the high benefits of the Nile River Valley, its significant irrigation produced crops which fueled social development and culture .The nile river was also a source of mud used to build houses.

This particular civilization is well known for its fascinating architecture that is still standing almost
 intact and testifying  of its  great achievements including the amazing engineering  techniques that facilitated  the building of monumental pyramids and temples .
The Ancient Egyptian architecture was based on stones , back then they were very abundant and this availability must explain the giant proportions of these surviving buildings. Limestone and sandstone were easily quarried in nearby locations along the Nile cliffs. Harder stones such as granite ,basalt and quartzite were obtained from more remote regions .


The  Pyramids are the most famous structures in all Egypt , they are one the seven wonders of the World and also one of the greatest achievements of all time .These structures can be as tall as  482 feet (147m) high .They were built in the fourth dynasty of the old kingdom  , they are a symbol of high skilled engineering techniques and the power of the pharaonic religion.

The great pyramid of Giza was finished around 2580 BC is the oldest of the pyramids and the only surviving building of the seven wonders of the ancient world.The great pyramids are built of  solid limestone ,the blocks were cut so precisely , modern architect are so intrigued by the mathematical precision of the pyramids .Inside the pyramids , they are burials for mummified pharaohs .

 
Before the existence of  the pyramids , the pharaohs of the old kingdom used to be buried in tombs called the mastabas which means house for eternal life , they flat roofed , rectangular structure .
The mastabas are composed of two distinct parts :the chapel and the crypt.
The chapel is an offering room to make offering to the dead person , it is decorated with a false
door as a symbol linking the living with the dead .The halls were flanked of small rooms full
of provisions such as furnitures ,offerings.The crypt was highly decorated with scriptures and paintings that describes the afterlife concept.

Temple of luxor

The ancient Egyptians believed that temples were the homes of the gods and goddesses.
Every temple was dedicated  to  gods or goddesses worship .
These temples were made of stone so they would last forever ;their walls were covered with scenes that were carved onto then brightly painted.The most popular temple is the luxor temple located in the city today known as Luxor (ancient Thebes).

 The rich culture and monuments of egypt have left a timeless treasure that is still  fascinating  the whole world including the ancient civilizations like Greece and Rome even if  the european's colonization of Egypt destroyed an important portion of the monuments .


posted by sara ben amer