The painted caves of Lascaux in the Dordogne region of FranceCategories
Online Works
The Vatican Apostolic Library houses a priceless collection of over 1.6 million books, 8,300 incunabile, 75,000 manuscripts; and several archival documents (ca. 75,000 volumes), engravings (ca. 100,000), coins and medals (ca. 300,000). The collection includes the Codex Vaticanus, the oldest known manuscript of the Bible. The Vatican Library was set up around 1451 by Pope Nicholas V, who provided the first several hundred manuscripts from his personal collection because the libraries of the previous popes had been dispersed. In 1475, with the bull Ad Decorem Militantis Ecclesiae, Pope Sixtus IV gave the institution formal status, a regular budget, and a librarian. In 1587, Pope Sixtus V commissioned architect Domenico Fontana to design the building that still stands today.
Concepts to Ponder
68:2.5 History is but the record of man's agelong food struggle. Primitive man only thought when he was hungry; food saving was his first self-denial, self-discipline. With the growth of society, food hunger ceased to be the only incentive for mutual association. Numerous other sorts of hunger, the realization of various needs, all led to the closer association of mankind. But today society is top-heavy with the overgrowth of supposed human needs. Occidental civilization of the twentieth century groans wearily under the tremendous overload of luxury and the inordinate multiplication of human desires and longings. Modern society is enduring the strain of one of its most dangerous phases of far-flung interassociation and highly complicated interdependence.
68:2.6 Hunger, vanity, and ghost fear were continuous in their social pressure, but sex gratification was transient and spasmodic. The sex urge alone did not impel primitive men and women to assume the heavy burdens of home maintenance. The early home was founded upon the sex restlessness of the male when deprived of frequent gratification and upon that devoted mother love of the human female, which in measure she shares with the females of all the higher animals. The presence of a helpless baby determined the early differentiation of male and female activities; the woman had to maintain a settled residence where she could cultivate the soil. And from earliest times, where woman was has always been regarded as the home.
68:2.7 Woman thus early became indispensable to the evolving social scheme, not so much because of the fleeting sex passion as in consequence of food requirement; she was an essential partner in self-maintenance. She was a food provider, a beast of burden, and a companion who would stand great abuse without violent resentment, and in addition to all of these desirable traits, she was an ever-present means of sex gratification.
68:2.8 Almost everything of lasting value in civilization has its roots in the family. The family was the first successful peace group, the man and woman learning how to adjust their antagonisms while at the same time teaching the pursuits of peace to their children.
Some material presented will contain links, quotes, ideologies, etc., the contents of which should be understood to firstly, in their whole, reflect the views or opinions of their editors, and secondly, are used in my personal research as "fair use" sources only, and not espousement one way or the other. Truth seeking leads one all over the place...a piece here, a piece there. As a seeker, I hunt, gather and disassemble resources, trying to put all the pieces into a coherent and logical whole. I encourage you to do the same. And please remember, these pages are only my effort to collect all the pieces I can find and see if they properly fit into the aggregate.
History - Studying the past to gather knowledge for the future.
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Mankind Before The Written Word
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Cradle of Civilization
- Going Where Darwin Feared to Tread by David Brown
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Ancient History
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Through the Middle Ages
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Moving Toward The Future
- War Is A Racket by Major General Smedley Butler
- Israel - The Jewel-Box of the World
- David Wilcock and Drake - "The Plan" Has Been Activated
- New Order Of Barbarians Lecture given by Dr. Richard Day (who died in 1989). At the time, Dr. Day was Professor of Pediatrics at Mount Sinai Medical School in New York. Previously he had served as Medical Director of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. WARNING - This material is disturbing and has NOTHING to do with pediatrics or medicine!
- Report From Iron Mountain: On The Possibility And Desirability of Peace Early in August of 1963, he said, he found a message on his desk that a "Mrs. Potts" had called him from Washington. When he returned the call, a MAN answered immediately, and told Doe, among other things, that he had been selected to serve on a commission "of the highest importance." Its objective was to determine, accurately and realistically, the nature of the problems that would confront the United States if and when a condition of "permanent peace" should arrive, and to draft a program for dealing with this contingency. The man described the unique procedures that were to govern the commission's work and that were expected to extend its scope far beyond that of any previous examination of these problems.
- The Hidden Tyranny -- The Rosenthal Document
- Benjamin Freedman Speaks on Zionism - 1961 speech at the Willard Hotel
- Things Christians Need To Know About Jews, Judaism and Zionism
- The Jewish Ritual Murder
- The Fierce Urgency of Pork by Charles Krauthammer
Review: From Publishers Weekly
Bauer (author of the four-volume The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child) guides readers on a fast-paced yet thorough tour of the ancient worlds of Sumer, Egypt, India, China, Greece, Mesopotamia and Rome. Drawing on epics, legal texts, private letters and court histories, she introduces individuals who lived through the famines, plagues, floods, wars and empire building of the ancient world: the marvelous array of characters includes Gilgamesh, Sumer's first epic hero; Yü, the founder of the Xia dynasty in China; and Tiglath-Pileser III, who restored the Assyrian empire's fortunes. Because Bauer covers so much time and territory, she focuses on the Western cultures with which she seems most comfortable; the chapters on Asia and India are the least developed. In addition, some of her assertions—for instance, that the biblical book of Joshua is the clearest guide we possess to the establishment of an Israelite kingdom in Canaan—contradict general scholarly opinion or are simply wrong. However, Bauer's elegant prose and her command of much of the material makes this a wonderful starting point for the study of the ancient world. 80 maps.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review:
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2007
"Blackwell has rendered an excellent service to the study of the Ancient Near East by undergraduates – and, indeed, to those of the general public with anything more than superficial interest in the subject ... Chavalas provides a solid textual basis for a better understanding of this area."
"Mark W. Chavalas has gathered an excellent ensemble of scholars and doctoral candidates to edit and translate representative historical texts from the major cultures of the ancient Near East into English ... Students and non-specialists who are embarking on the study of the ancient Near East would do well to consult The Ancient Near East for a quick reference to Near Eastern historical documents."
"An invaluable reference for most academic and large public libraries."
"An extremely full selection of texts of historical import and an invaluable resource for college and university teaching. The extensive commentaries make it accessible for anyone interested in investigating the manner in which the peoples of the ancient Near East represented their past."
"Chavalas has assembled a sterling cast of translators. The historical introductions bristle with insights and the book gives us 'history from above' in the best sense."
"Mark Chavalas has gathered an impressive international group of scholars, who offer a judicious sampling of texts from Mesopotamia and related ancient Near Eastern cultures. The texts are carefully translated and liberally provided with illuminating introductions and commentary. In all, a volume that should become a prized resource for students and scholars alike."
"A welcome and affordable anthology in English and the editor and the contributors deserve our thanks for their efforts. It is extremely readable, the translations are admirably put into context and by and large excellent."
"This much-needed, well-done primary sourcebook … is a must for anyone teaching the history of the ancient Near East."
Product Description:
This book presents new translations of Mesopotamian and ancient Near Eastern historiographic texts, providing the reader with the primary sources for the history of the ancient Near East.
- A primary source book presenting new translations of Mesopotamian and ancient Near Eastern historiographic texts, and other related materials.
- Helps readers to understand the historical context of the Near East.
- Covers the period from the earliest historical and literary texts (c.2700 B.C.) to the latest Hellenistic historians who comment on ancient Near Eastern history (c.250 B.C.)
- Texts range from the code of Hammurabi to the Assyrian royal inscriptions.
- A detailed commentary is provided on each text, placing it in its historical and cultural context.
- Maps, illustrations and a chronological table help to orientate the reader.
Ancient Near East: Historical Sources in Translation Softcover: 472 pages