Who are the Kurds?
The Kurds in the Bronze Age As far back as the Bronze Age, the Kurds seem to have lived in the mountain areas between West Asia (today's Turkey, Syria, and Iraq) and [...]
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10, 2019
2
10, 2017
Where did alphabet letters come from?
The first alphabet letters: the Canaanite alphabet Early Canaanite alphabet Each of the letters of the early Canaanite alphabet was the first sound of the most ordinary words in their language. The [...]
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09, 2017
West Asian sewage – Mesopotamia and Iran
A sewer from ancient Urartu (800s BC, now in eastern Turkey) As early as 800 BC, people in West Asia were digging ditches that led from their houses through the city streets [...]
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09, 2017
West Asian numbers – Ancient Mesopotamia
Neolithic counting tokens Counting with tally sticks and tokens The earliest way of writing down numbers was to carve notches in tally sticks, and this method spread from Africa all over Europe and [...]
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09, 2017
Babylonian math problem – West Asian science
A real Babylonian math problem on a clay tablet What math problems did Babylonian kids do? This is a real math problem assigned to Babylonian kids in Iraq about 1900 BC. See if [...]
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09, 2017
West Asian mathematics – history of math
History of math: Sumerian multiplication table (2700 BC) Cuneiform multiplication table Once people in West Asia figured out how to write down numbers, about 3500 BC, they quickly began to want to use cuneiform to [...]
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09, 2017
West Asian science – Mesopotamia and Iran
The constellation Orion What did Mesopotamians invent? From the Stone Age through the Islamic empires, great scientific discoveries have streamed out of West Asia. West Asia is one of the places where farming got started, [...]
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09, 2017
Hanging Gardens of Babylon – West Asian science
Assurbanipal in the garden (see his enemy's head hanging in the tree?) One of the Seven Wonders Nobody knows for sure when or where the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were [...]
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09, 2017
Zoroastrianism – Iran – West Asian religion
An Iranian fire sacrifice Zoroaster/Zarathustra himself Around 1000 BC (probably), about the same time that people in India were writing the Rig Veda, a man named Zoroaster (also called Zarathustra) was a priest in a small [...]
15
09, 2017
Who is Tammuz? Mesopotamia – West Asian religion
The god Tammuz (probably) with grain growing from his shoulders A West Asian god Tammuz (or Dumuzi) was a West Asian god who personified growing food, like Persephone in Greece or Osiris in Egypt. [...]
