Of what ethnicity was the Biblical Abraham?. Genesis 14: 13 calls him “Abram the Hebrew”, the first use of “Hebrew” in the Bible. This title likely connects him to Eber, the great-grandson of Shem, from whom the term “Hebrew” is derived. Abraham was born in Ur of the... Chaldees, a powerful Sumerian city in southern Mesopotamia, near modern-day Nasiriyah, Iraq. However, the Chaldeans as a tribal group rose to power much later - so the biblical reference is likely a geographic marker, not an ethnic label.

The Amorites were an ancient Semitic-speaking people who emerged around 2100 BCE from western Syria. Gen 14 :13 suggests that Abraham might have lived among Amorites and interacted with the clan chieftains who were living near Hebron. The Amorite heartland stretched from... northern Canaan through southern Syria, up to the Euphrates River. They later spread into Mesopotamia, establishing dynasties in: Babylon, Mari, Larsa, Eshnunna and Aleppo (Yamhad).

Aramaic is a Semitic language that originated in the ancient Near East around 1300 BCE. Hebrew and Aramaic both come from the same Northwest Semitic language family and developed simultaneously. If you were in ancient Israel around 1000 BCE, you'd hear Hebrew. But in... Syria, you'd hear Aramaic. Neither came directly before the other.

Hebrew uses a script derived from the Phoenician alphabet while Aramaic developed its own script, which later influenced other scripts, including Syriac and Arabic.

What do we know of the monetary production in the regions to the north of the hindu Kush during the time of Ashoka? The earliest coins struck in Bactria did not appear before about 305 BC. These were 3 series that only circulated to the north of the hindu Kush and whose... dating has caused much ink to flow. We speak of the imitations of Athenian owls, the coins with the eagle, and the coins struck in the name of Sophists. These coins, without exception, were all found to the north of the hindu Kush and more precisely in the oxus valley.

The Roman cohort is traditionally viewed as the primary tactical unit of the legion. This is certainly the impression given by Caesar & Tacitus, who tell of formations and tactics based around the cohort. My argument is: The cohort could not function as a tactical unit because... it had no commander or obvious standard of its own, leaving the century as the primary tactical unit.

The Persian polymath Abū Mūsā Jābir ibn Hayyān is regarded as the father of Arabic chemistry. He invented over 20 laboratory equipment and began classifying elements into different categories, arguably foreshadowing the periodic table.

He has nearly 3,000 treatises, texts and… articles credited to him, on topics ranging from music and medicine to grammar and geometry. This is a suspiciously large body of work, and some modern scholars think only about half of them are actually his. Even so, it’s a sign of Jābir’s influence.

The God Janus.

Janus has no parallel in the Greek pantheon, making him an exclusively Roman god. A duel headed, with one head looking forward and the other behind, he marked actual and metaphorical thresholds in time and space... Janus guarded crossing places and thresholds, beginnings and endings and acted as an intermediary between the gods and mortals. Janus is portrayed as a bearded duel-headed god who bore a staff in his right hand and keys in his left.

Julian's Campaign in Persia.

Julian was above all a brave man of thought and of action, loyal to his family and country. He swept through Persia like a whirlwind. He defeated the Persians in each battle and so it was said of his victories, "Right were it, my friends, that the... thing for which I and all mankind were praying, had been accomplished - that the power of the Persians had been overthrown; that Romans, in the place of Satraps, were governing and administering their country according to our laws... But... envious Fortune hath proved stronger

The Ancient mosaics of Lydda.

In 1996 mosaics were accidentally uncovered during highway construction in the modern Israeli town of Lod. Lod is ancient Lydda, which was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 66 during the Jewish War. Refounded by Hadrian as Diospolis, Lydda was... awarded the rank of a Roman colony under Septimius Severus in A.D. 200. It remained in Roman hands until becoming a Christian city and eventually succumbing to Arab conquerors in A.D. 636.

The Ugarit Archives

Thousands of cuneiform tablets written in a distinctive script tell the dramatic story of a Bronze Age merchant city in Syria

Urtenu was a late Bronze Age merchant of some status. From his town house in Ugarit,he ran a trading firm that conducted business... on behalf of the state. Beginning sometime before 1200 B .C., he kept letters, accounting ledgers, and administrative texts documenting the export of copper ingots, wood, and other goods from the interior of Syria and the import of wares from Cyprus and Egypt. Urtenu also sent

The ruins of Panticapaeum, an important ancient Greek colony, and capital of the Bosporan Kingdom, present-day Kerch, Crimea.

The Bosporan Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus was an ancient Greco-Scythian state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, the present-day Strait of Kerch. It was the first truly 'Hellenistic' state in the sense that a mixed population adopted the Greek language and civilization. The Bosporan Kingdom became the longest surviving Roman client kingdom.

Griffin mosaic from the Acropolis at Rhodes, c. 2nd century BC

Griffin, is a mythological creature with a lion’s body & a bird’s head, usually that of an eagle. The griffin was a favourite decorative motif in the ancient Middle Eastern & Mediterranean lands. Probably originating in the Levant in the 2nd millennium BC, the griffin had spread throughout western Asia and into Greece by the 14th century BC. The Asiatic griffin had a crested head, whereas the Minoan and Greek griffin usually had a mane of spiral curls. It was shown either recumbent or seated

In regards to birthmarks, Seleucus I Nicator, the first Greek Macedonian king of Syria, who bore the titles 'Thousandman', 'King of Kings of Persia', 'King of the Universe' and 'Lord of Asia' was said to have recieved from Apollo an anchor-shaped birthmark on his thigh, which was also borne by his descendants.

In one account, it is said that Apollo, the true father of Seleucus, left a ring for his son which had the device of an anchor carved into the bezel. By this token the young man first learned of his divine parentage and had a glimpse of the great

3000-2700 BCE: An Overview.

During the Last half of the fourth millennium BCE, the world’s first civilizations arose, first in Western Asia, then North Africa and South Asia. Civilization also appeared in China in the early second millennium BCE. By 3000 BCE, the world’s first urban culture had begun to develop in southern Mesopotamia, in what is now Iraq. By 3500 BCE, farming communities were growing into towns and then cities such as Ur, Uruk, and Eridu. In Egypt, one of the world’s most complex ancient civilizations was forming along the banks of

In the beginning, there were myths.

The earliest societies told themselves outlandish stories in order to make sense of the world. Then came the philosophers. Before the philosophers, people had worked under the assumption that human beings were the centre of all things. The... Ancient Greeks had even imagined their gods as essentially people (albeit people with superpowers); always arguing and fighting among themselves, and indulging in interpersonal dramas like a sort of cosmic soap opera. With the arrival of philosophy, however, this began to change.

Ancient Perfumes.

Many sources confirm the use of perfume in Antiquity. Theophrastus, a philosopher, describes age-old rituals, especially the use of incense for funerals, as well as practices for the living to take care of their bodies. The Greeks had developed distillation techniques to create essences for their favorite scents, such as laurel, marjoram, iris, and cardamom. Perfume manufacturing combined a ground aromatic essence that was soaked in water or wine along with a plant-based oil. These materials were combined either by soaking them at

Pyrrho
Dates 360-270 BCE
Birthplace: Elis

Pyrrho, born around 360 BCE, is known as the father of Greek Skepticism. He believed that nothing could be known about the nature of the universe, because our senses cannot be relied upon to be accurate or trustworthy. Suspending judgements on all subjects was therefore, for Pyrrho, the path to tranquillity. While his contemporaries argued and debated, he remained calm and serene: confident that all theses can be refuted meaning none are important. He was born in Elis, on the Ionian Sea, and

The Emperor comes home.

When Napoleon died in 1821, his request to be buried in Paris was rejected. Nineteen years later things had changed. King Louis-Philippe wanted to boost his popularity by associating himself with Napoleon’s memory, while the British wanted to make a gesture to gain French support over a crisis in the Middle East. The French duly asked for the return of Napoleon’s remains and the British agreed. In October 1840, a French expedition led by Louis-Philippe’s own son sailed to St Helena and the caskets containing Napoleon’s body

Artemis of Gabii, Roman copy of the 14-37 CE after a Greek original, 4th century BC attributed to Praxiteles.

In the late 4th century B.C., the Romans initiated a policy of expansion that in 300 years made them the masters of the Mediterranean world. Impressed by the wealth, culture, and beauty of the Greek cities, victorious generals returned to Rome with booty that included works of art in all media. Soon, educated and wealthy Romans desired works of art that evoked Greek culture. To meet this demand, Greek & Roman artists created marble and bronze

MURDER ON ST HELLENA?

Was Napoleon murdered? The doctors who attended his autopsy certainly didn’t think so. As far as they were concerned, Napoleon had died of stomach cancer,but rumours that Napoleon might have been a target for something more sinister had been round for years – since 1818, when Barry O’Meara, the Royal Navy surgeon who had been Napoleon’s doctor, insinuated that Sir Hudson Lowe had once asked him to shorten Napoleon’s life. The British authorities took a dim view of O’Meara’s claims and he was dismissed, but the idea that Napoleon

DIDIUS JULIANUS
MARCH - JUNE 193 CE

In one of the most grotesque and shameful moments in the history of the Roman Empire, after murdering Pertinax, the Praetorian Guard decided there was no need to bother appointing a successor, and they simply auctioned the title off. One wealthy businessman made the riskiest investment of them all, and came up short. Among the various bidders for the 'honour' was Didius Julianus, a wealthy businessman with a loose purse, whose ambition had led Commodus to exile him to