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BABYLONIA
Babylonia is an ancient state in Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers; corresponding approximately to modern Iraq. Babylonia is the Greek form of the name babili — sometimes translated as "gate of God" — known from cuneiform texts. The city of Babylon was the main city and capital of Babylonia. The Babylonians were people that lived in Babylonia. They were a mixture of different peoples with different origins.
The Babylonians ruled Mesopotamia from 1792 to 1595 B.C. Babylon endured over a 1000 years, until 689 B.C., when it was sacked by the Assyrians in 689 B.C. It was reborn under the Neo-Babylonians. Babylon is mentioned in the Biblical Book of Genesis (11:9) as the home of the notorious Tower of Babel (See Below). But the city's reputation as the center of sin and vice is undeserved. It was actually the source of the worlds' first legal code and one referred to by the prophet Jeremiah as a "golden cup in the Lord's hand.” Most of the debauchery associated with it occurred under Neo-Babylonians.
Babylon city became a power during the time of Hammurabi (1792–1750 B.C.) when it extended its influence over most of southern Mesopotamia, as well as over parts of northern Mesopotamia. Later rulers of the area were the Hittites, Kassites and the Assyrians. The Assyrian kingdom was overthrown in 612 B.C. and succeeded by the Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) kingdom of which the most noteworthy figure was Nebuchadnezzar II (604–562 B.C.). However, 25 years after his death, the country was captured by Cyrus, king of Persia, and ceased to exist as an independent kingdom.
Babylonia was situated on the lower courses of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. It was so named by the Greeks of the Hellenistic period after its capital city, Babylon; the Babylonians themselves called the land Sumer and Akkad, after its southern and northern portions, respectively. In the Old Testament the land is termed Sennaar (Gn 10.10; Is 11.11; Dn 1.2; Zec 5.11) or the land of the Chaldeans (Jer 24.5; Ez 12.13) after its later Aramaic-speaking conquerors. A richly fertile land, Babylonia was the site of the earliest civilization known — that of the Sumerians, and remained a cultural center of the Near East throughout the pre-Christian period. In addition by Babylon, other famous cities of Babylonia were Nippur, Ur, and Uruk. [Source: R. I. Caplice, New Catholic Encyclopedia]
RELATED ARTICLES:
OLD BABYLONIANS: THEIR HISTORY, ACHIEVEMENTS, RISE AND FALL africame.factsanddetails.com ;
BABYLON GOVERNMENT: RULERS, LAWS, HAMMURABI africame.factsanddetails.com ;
OLD BABYLON AND THE BIBLE africame.factsanddetails.com ;
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Websites on Mesopotamia: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Mesopotamia sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, University of Chicago isac.uchicago.edu ; University of Chicago Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations nelc.uchicago.edu ; University of Pennsylvania Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (NELC) nelc.sas.upenn.edu; Penn Museum Near East Section penn.museum; Ancient History Encyclopedia ancient.eu.com/Mesopotamia ; British Museum britishmuseum.org ; Louvre louvre.fr/en/explore ; Metropolitan Museum of Art metmuseum.org/toah ; Ancient Near Eastern Art Metropolitan Museum of Art metmuseum.org; Iraq Museum theiraqmuseum ABZU etana.org/abzubib; Archaeology Websites Archaeology News Report archaeologynewsreport.blogspot.com ; Anthropology.net anthropology.net : archaeologica.org archaeologica.org ; Archaeology in Europe archeurope.com ; Archaeology magazine archaeology.org ; HeritageDaily heritagedaily.com; Live Science livescience.com/
Babylon
Reconstructed Babylon Babylon (80 kilometers south of modern Baghdad), is one of the most famous cities of antiquity. Founded on the west bank of the Euphrates by King Hammurabi, around 1800 B.C., it is where the biblical Tower of Babel was reportedly built; where the Babylonians created the first legal code and 360̊ circle; where Nebuchadnezzar built his hanging gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the World; where the Jews were enslaved and freed; and where the Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. The Bible reads:"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept..."
Babylon is regarded as one of the world’s first major cities. it was established as a city around the 23rd century B.C.. according to early records. Babylon’s name is derived from “Bab-Ilu” meaning “Gateway of the Gods.” The Hebrews called it Babel. The Greek historian Herodotus described it as a city “that surpasses in its splendor everything in the known world.” Important discoveries made at Babylon include early evidence of kingship, banking, astronomy. Today, the word Babylon conjures up images of “decadence, glory and prophetic doom.”
The earliest evidence of habitation at Babylon has been dated to around 3000 B.C. Later it was part of the Akkadian empire. But until King Hammurabi arrived it was little more than a village. Under the Babylonians it became the richest and largest city in the world in its time, boasting palaces, temples and towers. The city declined under the Assyrians but was reborn and expanded to the east bank of the Euphrates under King Nebuchadnezzar II (ruled 604-561 B.C.) and the Neo-Babylonians.
Babylon has received some pretty shoddy treatment in recent years. Saddam Hussein gave it a tacky facelift with parts of some buildings rebuilt with bricks with Saddam’s name on them. After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, U.S. and allied troops parked their tanks and weapons on the site and used earth containing ancient fragments to fill their sandbags. Looters have taken treasures. In 2009, the World Monuments Fund and the U.S. Embassy launched “The Future of Babylon” project to “map the current conditions of Babylon and develop a master plant for its conservation, study and tourism.”
Babylon Archaeological Site
The site of Babylon was first identified in the 1800s. Juan Luis Montero Fenollós wrote in National Geographic History: Excavations undertaken by the German archaeologist Robert Koldewey in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, established most notably on a lavish scale by its king, Nebuchadrezzar II (reigned 605-561 B.C.). Koldewey’s finds revealed an ancient locus of culture and political power. These excavations unearthed what was to become one of the most magnificent Babylonian landmarks built by Nebuchadrezzar II: the dazzling blue Ishtar Gate, now reconstructed and on display at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. [Source: Juan Luis Montero Fenollós, National Geographic History, January/February 2017]
According to UNESCO: “The Sacred Complex of Babylon, comprising the Esagila temple dedicated to the God of Marduk and the ziggurat Etemenanki (the legendary Tower of Babylon), constituted the spiritual and political hearth of Babylon, capital of the Old Kingdom of Babylonia. With an extension of ca. 180x125 meters of the major temple Esagila (the "House of the Headraising"), and ca. 460x410 meters of the tower complex Etemenanki, meaning "the foundation of heaven and earth", this was the most massive walled-in space within the city. Out of the substructure of approximately 90 x 90 meters, the height of which was in the original of about 15 meters, the tower developed in all together five more levels, one smaller than the other. [Source: UNESCO World Heritage Sites, =]
Both of these Mesopotamian architectural components formed one unit, so that the low temple Esagila, is neither in its construction nor in its content to be separated from Etemenanki. Their cultic connection was established by the procession street Aj-ibur-shapu running between them, which allowed equal access to both sanctuaries. The ruins of Esagila have been partially excavated. On the other hand, for the tower archaeologists discovered a core consisting of the ruins of previous ziggurats, which had been levelled and enlarged several times, before Nebuchadnezzar added a casing of burnt brick 15m thick. Of this structure, the ground plan and traces of the three stairs leading up to the upper levels have been preserved. The above structures were at the core of the city of Babylon, mentioned in documents of the late third millennium BC and which became important early in the 2nd millennium under the kings of the First Dynasty. =
“The sixth king of this dynasty was Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE) who made Babylon the capital of a vast empire and is best remembered for his code of laws. Sacked by the Hittites in 1595 BCE, during the Second Dynasty of Isin (1157-1026 BCE), Babylon became the capital of southern Mesopotamia and its patron deity Marduk became the national god. In the Neo-Babylonian period (7th-6th century BC), the city once again achieved pre-eminence. Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BCE) rebuilt Babylon, which became the largest ancient settlement in Mesopotamia. There were two sets of fortified walls and massive palaces and religious buildings, including the central ziggurat tower. =
Geography of Babylonia
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia:“The country lies diagonally from northwest to southeast, between 30° and 33° N. lat., and 44° and 48° E. long., or from the present city of Bagdad to the Persian Gulf, from the slopes of Khuzistan on the east to the Arabian Desert on the west, and is substantially contained between the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris, though, to the west a narrow strip of cultivation on the right bank of the Euphrates must be added. Its total length is some 300 miles, its greatest width about 125 miles; about 23,000 square miles in all, or the size of Holland and Belgium together. Like those two countries, its soil is largely formed by the alluvial deposits of two great rivers. A most remarkable feature of Babylonian geography is that the land to the south encroaches on the sea and that the Persian Gulf recedes at present at the rate of a mile in seventy years, while in the past, though still in historic times, it receded as much as a mile in thirty years. In the early period of Babylonian history the gulf must have extended some hundred and twenty miles further inland. [Source: J.P. Arendzen, transcribed by Rev. Richard Giroux, Catholic Encyclopedia |=|]
“According to historical records both the towns Ur and Eridu were once close to the gulf, from which they are now about a hundred miles distant; and from the reports of Sennacherib's campaign against Bît Yakin we gather that as late as 695 B.C., the four rivers Kerkha, Karun, Euphrates, and Tigris entered the gulf by separate mouths, which proves that the sea even then extended a considerable distance north of where the Euphrates and Tigris now join to form the Shat-el-arab. Geological observations show that a secondary formation of limestone abruptly begins at a line drawn from Hit on the Euphrates to Samarra on the Tigris, i.e. some four hundred miles from their present mouth; this must once have formed the coast line, and all the country south was only gradually gained from the sea by river deposit. In how far man was witness of this gradual formation of the Babylonian soil we cannot determine at present; as far south as Larsa and Lagash man had built cities 4,000 years before Christ. It has been suggested that the story of the Flood may be connected with man's recollection of the waters extending far north of Babylon, or of some great natural event relating to the formation of the soil; but with our present imperfect knowledge it can only be the merest suggestion. It may, however, well be observed that the astounding system of canals which existed in ancient Babylonia even from the remotest historical times, though largely due to man's careful industry and patient toil, was not entirely the work of the spade, but of nature once leading the waters of Euphrates and Tigris in a hundred rivulets to the sea, forming a delta like that of the Nile. |=|
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Mesopotamian irrigation
“The fertility of this rich alluvial plain was in ancient times proverbial; it produced a wealth of wheat, barley, sesame, dates, and other fruits and cereals. The cornfields of Babylonia were mostly in the south, where Larsa, Lagash, Erech, and Calneh were the centres of an opulent agricultural population. The palm tree was cultivated with assiduous care and besides furnishing all sorts of food and beverage, was used for a thousand domestic needs. Birds and waterfowls, herds and flocks, and rivers teeming with fish supplied the inhabitants with a rural plenty which surprises the modern reader of the cadastral surveys and tithe-accounts of the ancient temples. The country is completely destitute of mineral wealth, and possesses no stone or metal, although stone was already being imported from the Lebanon and the Ammanus as early as 3000 B.C.; and much earlier, about 4500 B.C., Ur-Nina, King of Shirpurla sent to Magan, i.e. the Sinaitic Peninsula, for hard stone and hard wood; while the copper mines of Sinai were probably being worked by Babylonians shortly after 3750, when Snefru, first king of the Fourth Egyptian dynasty, drove them away. It is remarkable that Babylonia possesses no bronze period, but passed from copper to iron; though in later ages it learnt the use of bronze from Assyria. |=|
Towns and Cities of Babylonia and Their References in the Bible
Babylonia is often used to describe the region around the Euphrates River, which occupies a large chunk of Mesopotamia, and includes city-states frpm the Sumerian and Assyrian periods as well as the Babylonian period. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia:“The towns of ancient Babylonia were the following: southernmost: 1) “Eridu, Semitic corruption of the old name of Eri-dugga, "good city", at present the mounds of Abu-Sharain; 2) Ur, Abraham's birthplace, about twenty-five miles northeast of Eridu, at present Mughair. Both of the above towns lay west of the Euphrates. 3) East of the Euphrates, the southernmost town was Larsa, the Biblical Ellasar (Gen., xiv; in Vulg. and D.V. unfortunately rendered Pontus), at present Senkere; 4) Erech, the Biblical Arach (Gen., x, 10), fifteen miles northwest of Larsa, is at present Warka; |=|
“5) eight miles northeast from the modern Shatra was Shirpurla, or Lagash, now Tello. Shirpurla was one of Babylon's most ancient cities, though not mentioned in the Bible; probably "Raventown" (shirpur-raven), from the sacred emblem of its goddess and sanctuary, Nin-Girsu, or Nin-Sungir, which for a score of centuries was an important political centre, and probably gave its name to Southern Babylonia — Sungir, Shumer, or, in Gen., x, 10, Sennaar. Gishban (read also Gish-ukh), a small city a little north of Shirpurla, at present the mounds of Iskha, is of importance only in the very earliest history of Babylonia. |=|
“6) The site of the important city of Isin (read also Nisin) has not yet been determined, but it was probably situated a little north of Erech. 7) Calneh, or Nippur (in D.V., Gen., x, 10, Calanne), at present Nuffar, was a great religious centre, with its Bel Temple, unrivaled in antiquity and sanctity, a sort of Mecca for the Semitic Babylonians. Recent American excavations have made its name as famous as French excavations made that of Tello or Shirpurla. |=|
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19th century European view of Babylon
“7) In North Babylonia we have again, southernmost, the city of Kish, probably the Biblical Cush (Gen., x, 8); its ruins are under the present mound El-Ohemir, eight miles east of Hilla. 8) A little distance to the northwest lay Kutha, the present Telli Ibrahim, the city whence the Babylonian colonists of Samaria were taken (IV Kings, xvii, 30), and which played a great role in Northern Babylonia before the Amorite dynasty. 9) The site of Agade, i.e. Akkad (Gen., x, 10), the name of whose kings was dreaded in Cyprus and in Sinai in 3800 B.C., is unfortunately unknown, but it must have been not far from Sippara; it has even been suggested that this was one of the quarters of that city, which was scarcely thirty miles north of Babylon and which, as early as 1881, was identified, through British excavations, with the present Abu-Habba. |=|
“10) Lastly, Babylon, with its twin-city Borsippa, though probably founded as early as 3800 B.C., played an insignificant role in the country's history until, under Hammurabi, about 2300 B.C., it entered on that career of empire which it maintained for almost 2000 years, so that its name now stands for a country and a civilization which was of hoary antiquity before Babylon rose to power and even before a brick of Babylon was laid.” |=|
Babylon and Its Succession of Occupiers
Babylon was built and rebuilt several times, Juan Luis Montero Fenollós wrote in National Geographic History: Babylon first rose to prominence in the late Bronze Age, around the beginning of the second millennium B.C., when it was occupied by people known as the Amorites. A series of strong Amorite kings—including King Hammurabi, famous for compiling the world’s first legal code—enabled Babylon to eclipse the Sumerian capital, Ur, as the region’s most powerful city. Although Babylon declined after Hammurabi’s death, its importance as the capital of southern Mesopotamia, now known as Babylonia, would linger for millennia. [Source: Juan Luis Montero Fenollós, National Geographic History, January/February 2017]
For the rest of the second millennium B.C., constant struggles popped up over control of Babylon. It was successively occupied by Hittites and Kassites; later, Chaldean tribesmen fought for dominance with another tribe, the Aramaeans from Syria (a tribe that had also sparred with Israel). By 1000 B.C., the Assyrians, who had established a powerful empire in northern Mesopotamia, gained the upper hand. But despite periods of stable rule, Babylon would always fall to someone else. Given this pattern of constant conquest—Cyrus the Great in the sixth century B.C., and Alexander the Great two hundred years later—it is perhaps more helpful to see the city not as one Babylon, but as several Babylons, the product of traditions built over thousands of years.
The Babylonians themselves were keenly aware of the great antiquity of their civilization. One of Nebuchadrezzar’s successors, Nabonidus, is now known to modern historians as “the archaeologist king.” A learned man, he restored the region’s ancient architectural and cultural traditions, especially those from the Akkadian Empire, which had dominated Mesopotamia in the third millennium B.C.—a period that, from the perspective of his own era, would have already seemed in the distant past.
![](https://africame.factsanddetails.com/archives/001/202406/07803f4da4b44e9f.png)
extent of the First Babylonian Empire at the start and end of Hammurabi of Babylon's reign (1792 BC – 1750 BC)
Fall of the First Babylonian Empire to the Hittites
After Hammurabi’s death, the Babylonians were harassed by Indo-European tribes in the northern mountains. The Babylon empire came to an end when the Indo-European Hittites sacked Babylon in 1595 B.C. Around the same time the Hykos invaded Egypt and the Hurrians occupied Syria. The late second millennium B.C. has been called “the first international age.” It was a time when there was more interaction between kingdoms.
Around the second millennia B.C. the Indo Europeans tribes from north of India similar to the Aryans invaded Asia Minor. The Hittites, and later the Greeks, Romans, Celts and nearly all Europeans and North Americans descended from these tribes. They carried bronze daggers. The Hittite Empire dominated Asia Minor and parts of the Middle East from 1750 B.C. to 1200 B.C. Once regarded as a magical people, the Hittites were known for their military skill, the of development of an advanced chariot, and as one of the first cultures to smelt iron and forge it weapons and tools. They fought with spears from chariots and did not possess more advanced composite bow.
The Hittites were an Indo-European people that served as a conduit and bridge for the cultures of Asia, the Middle East and Europe. They created a society with a government and laws, similar to those in Sumer. The Hittites fought against Kings of Babylonians and the Pharaohs of Egypt for possession what is now Israel, Lebanon and Syria. In the 12th century their empire fell to the Assyrians. The Hittites were charioteers who wrote manuals on horsemanship. Ninth century B.C. stone reliefs show Hittite warriors in chariots. "Charioteers were the first great aggressors in human history," writes historian Jack Keegan. They had an easy time conquering the nomads and farmers that inhabited the region. Donkeys were their fastest animal.
Around 2000 B.C. the Hittites were unified under a king named Labarna. A later king pushed their domain into Mesopotamia and Syria. The empire lasted into 1650 B.C. A more powerful kingdom rose in 1450 B.C. This kingdom possessed iron. The Battle of Kadesh in 1288 B.C. between the ancient Egyptians and the Hittites marked the beginning of a decline for the Hittites. After the fall of the empire a number of small Hittite states were created. By the 8th century they were absorbed by the Assyrians.
Aaron Skaist wrote in the Encyclopaedia Judaica: The Hittite ruler Hattusilis i (c. 1650–1620) felt strong enough to rebuild the city of Hattusas (from which he took his throne name) in spite of the curse laid on it a century earlier by its Hattic conqueror, and to rule a growing Anatolian kingdom from this relatively remote northern base inside the great bend of the Halys River. Soon his ambitions extended beyond the Anatolian highlands southward to the fertile plains that beckoned from across the Taurus Mountains. Cilicia fell into his power first, and the Cilician gates opened the way through the Amanus Mountains, the last natural barrier on the way south. However, the Mediterranean coastal route was barred by the Amorite kingdom of Yam ad, centered on Haleb (Aleppo) and still retaining some of its vigor. [Source: Aaron Skaist, Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2005, Encyclopedia.com]
After neutralizing this threat, Hattusilis, and more particularly his adopted son Mursilis i, therefore directed their principal efforts against the Hurrian kingdom of Carchemish which controlled the Euphrates. After a long and apparently successful siege of the Hurrian stronghold at Urshu, the Hittites found that they could march unopposed down the rest of the Euphrates all the way to Babylon itself. Here they put an end to the rule of Samsu-ditana (c. 1625–1595), last of the descendants of Hammurapi, and to the Amorite dynasty (or First Dynasty) of Babylon. The great city was sacked and its humiliation completed when the cult statues of its god Marduk and his consort Sarpanitum were carried into captivity.
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Hittite relief
Kassites Take Over Babylon
After a period of increasing turmoil and internal weakness, Babylon was taken over by Kassites, an Iranian people, in about 1575 B.C. Their rule seems to have had little discernable effect on Babylon’s political structure, but the lack of written records from this period makes certainty impossible. [Source: Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments, Encyclopedia.com]
The Kassites, a tribe from the Zagros mountains in present-day Iran, arrived in Babylonia and filled a vacuum left by the Hittite invasion. The Kassites, controlled Mesopotamia from 1595 to 1157 B.C. They introduced war chariots, The Kassites were defeated by the Elamites in 1157 B.C. A 300-year Middle Eastern Dark lasted from 1157 to 883 B.C. During this period the Assyrians in what is now northern Syria gained strength.
Aaron Skaist wrote in the Encyclopaedia Judaica: The Hittites themselves did not press their advantage: 750 miles in a straight line away from Hattusas, Mursilis had overextended himself, and hastened home only to meet his death at the hands of a palace conspiracy that plunged the Hittite kingdom into several generations of turmoil and weakness. The immediate beneficiaries of the sack of Babylon were rather the rulers of the Sealand, who moved north from their independent stronghold in the old Sumerian south and, in the wake of the withdrawing Hittites, seized Babylon for themselves and thus qualified for inclusion in the Babylonian King List as the Second Dynasty of Babylon. [Source: Aaron Skaist, Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2005, Encyclopedia.com]
However, their occupation, too, was destined to be transitory: within a couple of years the city was occupied by the Kassites, who moved downstream from their foothold in the Kingdom of Hana on the Middle Euphrates. With their arrival in Babylonia proper, a curtain of silence descended over the documentation from that area; for the first time since the invention of writing, there is a nearly total eclipse of cuneiform textual evidence, and for the rest of the 16th century, the Asiatic Near East was plunged into a true dark age.
In the meantime the Amorite kingdoms of the Mediterranean littoral also reacted to the stirrings set in motion by the Hittites. Cut off from their kinsmen in the east, they evolved distinct variations of the common cultural traditions. In the north, these crystallized around *Ugarit, a strategically located center of commerce and industry which was also a seat of learning. It devised an alphabet with an order of letters ancestral to, and essentially identical with, the order of the letters of the Hebrew and Western alphabets. Using this script, Ugarit produced a rich religious and mythological literature, with many features that show up later in biblical poetry. Further south, the biblical corpus itself enshrined much of the common heritage in the distinctive medium of the Hebrew language and Israelite conceptions.
See Separate Article: KASSITES: THE MAIN MESOPOTAMIAN POWER AFTER THE FIRST BABYLONIAN EMPIRE africame.factsanddetails.com
Babylon’s Rebirth Under the Neo-Babylonians
By the middle of the twelfth century, power had passed to another Iranian people, the Elamites, though the powerful Assyrians were soon threatening from the north. They would dominate Babylon for the next five hundred years, until their downfall in about 625 B.C. at the hands of Nabopolassar (d. 605B.C.), the leader of the Chaldean people, who came from what is now Kuwait. During their rule some of the most familiar events of Babylonian history occurred, including the construction of the Hanging Gardens and the conquest of Jerusalem, both of which were the work of Nabopolassar’s son, Nebuchadrezzar II (c. 630–562B.C.). [Source: Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments, Encyclopedia.com]
In 539 B.C. the Persians, in concert with the priests of Marduk, seized Babylon without a fight. The city’s economic and cultural prominence continued until the Persian king Xerxes I (c. 519–465B.C.) plundered it and destroyed its walls after a failed rebellion in 482 B.C. The effects of Xerxes’ revenge were permanent.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Mesopotamia sourcebooks.fordham.edu , National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, especially Merle Severy, National Geographic, May 1991 and Marion Steinmann, Smithsonian, December 1988, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
Last updated June 2024