From Part III of The Urantia Book
With Related Historical Information
David Kantor
Note: In the following timeline, "Review" suggests
referencing a direct link to a resource. "See" means use a search
engine to search on the terms provided. Wikipedia provides some excellent
expansive information. Unless otherwise noted, numbers indicate years BC until
the times of Jesus, and then years AD. Number bounded by [ ]
characters, such as [23:4.6] refer to Paper, Section, and Paragraph of the
Uversa Press edition of The Urantia Book. Many entries in this timeline
are brief, assuming that the interested reader will check Google or Wikipedia for
the related terms.
- First North American glaciation
- Second period of glaciation
- Urantia registered as
inhabited planet
- Birth of Andon and Fonta
- Life Carriers
relinquish planetary sovereignty
- Third glacial advance
- Continuing dispersion
of Andonites
- Onagar and the development of
the first high spiritual civilization on the planet
- Foxhall descendants of Andon and Fonta have
migrated west and east; in the west they passed over Europe to France and
England. To the east, as far as Java, where their bones are so recently
found — the so-called Java man — and then journeyed on to Tasmania.
[64:1.6]
- Review "Foxhall Peoples: An Encounter Between Archaeology and The
Urantia Book
," Scott Forsythe, Scientific Symposium
I, 1986.
-
- Adamson
migrates north to the southern Caspian region. The Adamsonites maintained a high culture for almost 7,000
years from the times of Adamson and Ratta.
Later on they became admixed with the neighboring Nodites
and Andonites and are also included among the
"mighty men of old." And some of the advances of that age
persisted to become a latent part of the cultural potential which later
blossomed into European civilization. 77:5.9
- Note:
Does "Ratta" = "Ararat" =
"Urartu" ="Aratta
Kingdom" ? See; www.arattakingdom.com
- The
history of Mt. Ararat goes back to the Urartian,
or Ararat Kingdom. Urartu was the The first Armenian Kingdom in South-Eastern Anatolia.
The modern Armenian name for the country was Hayq,
later Hayastan. Hayasa,
combined with the Sanskrit suffix '-stan'
(land). Haik was one of the great Armenian
leaders after whom the The Land of Haik was named. According to legend, Haik was a great-great-grandson of Noah (son of Togarmah, who was a son of Gomer,
who was a son of Japheth, who was a son of Noah), and according to an
ancient Armenian tradition, a forefather of all Armenians. He is said to
have settled at the foot of Mount Ararat, travelled to assist in building
the Tower of Babel, and, after his return, defeated the Babylonian king Bel (believed by some researchers to be Nimrod) in
2492 BC near the mountains of Lake Van, in the southern part of historic
Armenia (present-day eastern Turkey).
- Appearance
of the Andites; See Paper 78, section 4; Papers
79, 80.
- For
over 25,000 years, on down to nearly 2000 BC, the heart of Eurasia was
predominantly, though diminishingly, Andite. In
the lowlands of Turkestan the Andites make the
westward turning around the inland lakes into Europe, while from the
highlands of this region they infiltrated eastward. Eastern Turkestan
(Sinkiang) and, to a lesser extent, Tibet, are the ancient gateways
through which these peoples of Mesopotamia penetrated the mountains to
the northern lands of the yellow men. The Andite
infiltration of India proceeded from the Turkestan highlands into the
Punjab and from the Iranian grazing lands through Baluchistan. 79:1.1
- The Andite migrations 78:3.9
- Increasing
population pressure throughout Turkestan and Iran provoke the first
really extensive Andite movement toward India.
For over fifteen centuries Andites poured in
through the highlands of Baluchistan, spreading out over the valleys of
the Indus and Ganges and slowly moving southward into the Deccan. 79:2.4
- The
Chinese are aggressive militarists; they have not been weakened by an overreverence for the past, and numbering less than
12,000,000, they formed a compact body speaking a common language. 79:6.9
- As the
period of the early Adamic migrations ends,
there are already more descendants of Adam in Europe and central Asia
than anywhere else in the world, even than in Mesopotamia. The European
blue races have been largely infiltrated. Russia and Turkestan are
occupied throughout their southern stretches by a great reservoir of the Adamites mixed with Nodites,
Andonites, and red and yellow Sangiks. Southern Europe and the Mediterranean fringe
are occupied by a mixed race of Andonite and Sangik peoples—orange, green, and indigo—with a
sprinkling of the Adamite stock. Asia
Minor and the central-eastern European lands are held by tribes that are
predominantly Andonite. 78:3.5
- It is
the great climatic and geologic changes in northern Africa and western
Asia that terminate the early migrations of the Adamites,
barring them from Europe by the expanded Mediterranean and diverting the
stream of migration north and east into Turkestan. By the time of the
completion of these land elevations and associated climatic changes
civilization has settled down to a world-wide stalemate except for the
cultural ferments and biologic reserves of the Andites
still confined by mountains to the east in Asia and by the expanding
forests in Europe to the west. 81:1.2
- The
ancestors of the Japanese people are driven off the mainland, dislodged
by a powerful southern-coastwise thrust of the northern Chinese tribes.
Their final exodus is not so much due to population pressure as to the initiative
of a chieftain whom they came to regard as a divine personage. 79:6.3
- The
climatic destruction of the rich, open grassland hunting and grazing
grounds of Turkestan compels the men of those regions to resort to new
forms of industry and crude manufacturing. Some turn to the cultivation
of domesticated flocks, others became agriculturists or collectors of
water-borne food, but the higher type of Andite
intellects chose to engage in trade and manufacture. It even becomes the
custom for entire tribes to dedicate themselves to the development of a
single industry. From the valley of the Nile to the Hindu Kush and from
the Ganges to the Yellow River, the chief business of the superior tribes
is the cultivation of the soil, with commerce as a side line. 81:3.1;
- Three
quarters of the Andite stock of the world is
resident in northern and eastern Europe, and when the later and final
exodus from Mesopotamiatakes place, 65 per cent
of these last waves of emigration enter Europe. 78:5.4
- A tribe
of Andites migrates to Crete. This is the only
island settled so early by such a superior group, and it is almost 2,000
years before the descendants of these mariners spread to the neighboring
isles. This group is the narrow-headed, smaller-statured Andites who have intermarried with the Vanite division of the northern Nodites.
They are all under 6 feet in height and have been literally driven off
the mainland by their larger though inferior fellows. These emigrants to
Crete are highly skilled in textiles, metals, pottery, plumbing, and the
use of stone for building material. They engage in writing and carry on
as herders and agriculturists. 80:7.2
- Oldest
identified walls at Jericho
- Projected
time frame for origin of Indo-European language family (within
Anatolian farming communities). The main competing theory to the
Anatolian farmer theory is that these languages originated 6000 years ago
among nomadic Kurgan horsemen sweeping down from the Russian Steppes.
(Nature; June 22, 2008)
- See:
"Did Indo-European Languages Spread Before Farming?" -- http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/Indo2.html
- Climate:
(+/- 200 years) “Younger Dryas” ends suddenly
over a few decades, back to warmth and moist climates (Holocene, or
Isotope Stage 1). The late Glacial record of vegetation and
climate suggests that major changes in hunter-gatherer population density
might have occurred across Europe and Asia as a result of extreme climate
fluctuations. It is possible that a reduction in population density across
most of the region during the coldest part of the Younger Dryas (around 12,800-11,400 cal. y.a.)
may have been followed by a sudden rebound phase, when climate switched
back to warm, moist Holocene conditions over only a few decades. A
'sparse wave' of hunter-gatherers migrating rapidly out of a refugial area (possibly located in southern Europe
and/or the Near East) would have made a disproportionate contribution to
the genetic and linguistic legacy of the region. This may explain part of
the initial prehistoric dispersal pattern of the Indo-European languages.
Other smaller and somewhat later climate changes, such as the cold event
around 6,200 BC, are also candidates for this process of regional
depopulation followed by repopulation from a restricted source region.
The possibility should be considered in addition to hypotheses invoking
spread of these languages by early farmers or warlike cultures. (Current
Anthropology, 40, Number 1, February 1993)
- The
last three waves of Andites poured out of Mesopotamia.
These three great waves of culture are forced out of Mesopotamia by the
pressure of the hill tribes to the east and the harassment of the
plainsmen of the west. The migratory conquests of the Andites
continue on down to their final dispersions. As they poure
out of Mesopotamia, they continuously deplete the biologic reserves of
their homelands while markedly strengthening the surrounding peoples. And
to every nation to which they journeyed, they contributed humor, art,
adventure, music, and manufacture They are skillful domesticators of
animals and expert agriculturists. Their presence usually improves the
religious beliefs and moral practices of the older races. And so the
culture of Mesopotamia quietly spread out over Europe, India, China, northern
Africa, and the Pacific Islands. 78:6.1; 78:5.8
- The
slowly increasing aridity of the highland regions of central Asia begin
to drive the Andites to the river bottoms and
the seashores. This increasing drought not only drives them to the
valleys of the Nile, Euphrates, Indus and Yellow Rivers, but it produces
a new development, a new class of men, the traders. 79:1.3
- Early
Egyptians (evidence at Nabta Playa) imported
goats and sheep from southwest Asia by the end of the 7th millenium.
- Ancestors
to the Nordic races: The whole inhabited world, outside of china and the
Euphrates region, had made very limited cultural progress for 10,000
years when the hard-riding Andite horsemen made
their appearance in the sixth and seventh millenniums before Christ. As
they moved westward across the Russian plains, absorbing the best of the
blue race and exterminating the worst, they became blended into one
people. These are the ancestors of the so-called Nordic races, the
forefathers of the Scandinavian, German, and Anglo-Saxon peoples. 80:4.5
- The
Dravidians are among the earliest peoples to build cities and to engage
in an extensive export and import business, both by land and sea. Camel
trains make regular trips to distant Mesopotamia; Dravidian shipping is
pushing coastwise across the Arabian Sea to the Sumerian cities of the
Persian Gulf and is venturing on the waters of the Bay of Bengal as far
as the East Indies. An alphabet, together with the art of writing, is
imported from Sumeria by these seafarers and
merchants. 79:3.7
- Founding
of Eridu. Eridu
is the earliest known city in southern Mesopotamia, founded circa 5,400
BCE. Located seven miles (12 km) southwest of Ur, Eridu
was the southernmost of a conglomeration of Sumerian cities that grew
about temples, almost in sight of one another. In Sumerian mythology, Eridu was founded by the Sumerian deity Enki, later known by the Akkadians
as Ea. Robert Sarmast provides
compelling literary links between Enki and
Adam.
- Babylonian
texts also talk of the creation of Eridu by the
god Marduk as the first city, "the holy
city, the dwelling of their [the other gods] delight". The
Urantia Book coorelates Marduk
with Adam. According to the Sumerian kinglist,
Eridu was the first city in the world. The
opening line reads, "When kingship from heaven was lowered, the
kingship was in Eridu." See: Eridu
- Period
of severe flooding in Mesopotamia.
- Evolving
white races dominant throughout all of northern Europe including northern
Germany, northern France and the British Isles. Central Europe is
controlled by the blue race and the round-headed Andonites.
[80:5.8; 80:9.1]
- The
three purest strains of Adam's descendants are in Sumeria,
northern Europe, and Greece. The whole of Mesopotamia is being slowly
deteriorated by the stream of mixed and darker races which filtered in
from Arabia. And the coming of these inferior peoples contributed further
to the scattering abroad of the biologic and cultural residue of the Andites. 80:7.9
- A host
of progressive Mesopotamians moved out of the Euphrates valley and
settled upon the island of Cyprus; this civilization was wiped out about
2,000 years later by barbarian hordes from the north. 80:7.10
- Begin Merimde cultural period in Egypt; primary site at the
edge of the western delta; clear signs of links to Palestine. Also El Omari and Maadi cultures in
lower Egypt. In upper Egypt Tasian, Badarian, Amratian, and Gerzean cultures developed. There are clear contacts
between Badarian and Syrian cultures. Gerzean culture evolved into the foundations for
dynastic Egypt. Gerzean culture was a
further development of Amratian. There
are clear links to Mesopotamia in the Gerzean.
Distinctly foreign objects and art forms entered Egypt during this
period, indicating contacts with several parts of Asia, Mesopotamia, and
Asia Minor. In addition, Egyptian objects are created which clearly
mimic Mesopotamian forms, although not slavishly. Cylinder seals appear
in Egypt, as well as recessed paneling architecture, the Egyptian reliefs
on cosmetic palettes are clearly made in the same style as the
contemporary Mesopotamian Uruk culture, and the
ceremonial mace heads which turn up from the late Gerzean
and early Semainean are crafted in the
Mesopotamian "pear-shaped" style, instead of the Egyptian
native style.
- Archaeoastronomical stone
megalith in Nabta Playa, world's earliest known
astronomy.
- The Andites of Turkestan are the first peoples to
extensively domesticate the horse and this is another reason why their
culture is for so long predominant. Mesopotamian, Turkestan, and
Chinese farmers begin the raising of sheep, goats, cows, camels, horses,
fowls, and elephants. They employed as beasts of burden the ox,
camel, horse, and yak. 81:2.8
- Peoples
raising horses also developed wagons and chariots used in commerce and
war. 81:3.6
- For
thousands of years after the submergence of the first Eden the mountains
about the eastern coast of the Mediterranean and those to the northwest
and northeast of Mesopotamia continued to rise. This elevation of the
highlands is greatly accelerated and this, together with greatly
increased snowfall on the northern mountains, caused unprecedented floods
each spring throughout the Euphrates valley. These spring floods grew
increasingly worse so that eventually the inhabitants of the river
regions were driven to the eastern highlands. For almost 1,000 years scores
of cities were practically deserted because of these extensive deluges.
With the later diminution of these floods, Ur became the center of the
pottery industry. Ur was on the Persian Gulf, the river deposits having
since built up the land to its present limits. 78:7.2; 78:8.2
- The
reckoning of time by the 28 day month persisted long after the days of
Adam. The Egyptians undertook to reform the calendar with great accuracy,
introducing the year of 365 days. 77:2.12
- Extensive
trade contacts; Saharan dwellers had imported domesticated animals from
Asia between 6,000 and 4,000 BC.
- Ubaidians established settlements in the
region known later as Sumer; these settlements gradually developed into
the chief Sumerian cities, namely Adab, Eridu, Isin, Kish, Kullab, Lagash, Larsa,
Nippur, and Ur. Several centuries later, as the Ubaidian
settlers prospered, Semites from Syrian and Arabian deserts began to
infiltrate, both as peaceful immigrants and as raiders in quest of booty.
After about 3250 bc, another people migrated
from its homeland, located probably northeast of Mesopotamia, and began
to intermarry with the native population. The newcomers, who became known
as Sumerians, spoke an agglutinative language unrelated apparently to any
other known language.
- Uruk See: Uruk,
Inanna, Ishtar
- Reference
to Saraswati (Eve) in the Golden Radiance
Sutra; in the Vedic system, Saraswati is the
goddess of knowledge, music, and the arts. She is considered the
consort of Brahma, the god of creation. Saraswati's
children are the Vedas, which are the oldest sacred texts of
Hinduism. She is also referred to as Shonapunya,
a Sanskrit word meaning ‘one purified of blood’. In Bhurma, where she is still worshipped today, she is
known as Thuyathadi, the patroness of
literature, books, libraries and students. She is traditionally
represented sitting on the back of Hintha, a
mythical sacred bird, and with a pile of books in her hands.
- For
almost 20,000 years the Andonites had been
pushed farther and farther to the north of central Asia by the Andites. By 3,000 BC increasing aridity drove
the Andonites back into Turkestan. This Andonite push southward continued for over 1,000
years and, splitting around the Caspian and Black seas, penetrated Europe
by way of both the Balkans and the Ukraine. 80:9.6
- Melchizedek
receivers petition Most Highs of Edentia for
help
- First
mention of Dilmun in Sumerian cuneiform
tablets, found in the temple of the goddess Innana
in the city of Uruk. Dilmun
is also described in the epic story of Enki and
Ninhursag as the site at which the Creation
occurred. Ninlil, the Sumerian goddess of air
and south wind had her home in Dilmun. It is
also featured in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and has been speculated to be the
true location of the Garden of Eden. To date (2008) archaeology has
failed to find a site in existence from 3300 B.C.(Uruk
IV) to 556 B.C.(Neo-Babylonian Era) when Dilmun
(Telmun) appears in texts.
- Troy I
Culture, 3,000 to 2,500 BC
- Possible
beginning of the first dynasty at Kish
- First
indications of a cult of Osiris in Gerzean
culture in Egypt. (Greek language, also Usiris;
the Egyptian language name is variously transliterated Asar, Aser, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, Usire,or Ausare) Osiris is
one of the oldest gods for whom records have been found; one of the
oldest known attestations of his name is on the Palermo Stone of around
2500 BC. He was widely worshiped until the suppression of the Egyptian
religion during the Christian era. The information we have on the myths
of Osiris is derived from allusions contained in the Pyramid Texts (ca.
2400 BC), later New Kingdom source documents such as the Shabaka Stone and the Contending of Horus and Seth,
and much later, in narrative style from the writings of Greek authors
including Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus.[4] Osiris was not only a merciful judge of
the dead in the afterlife, but also the underworld agency that granted
all life, including sprouting vegetation and the fertile flooding of the
Nile River. He is described as the "Lord of love", "He Who
is Permanently Benign and Youthful", and the "Lord of
Silence". The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death —
as Osiris rose from the dead they would, in union with him, inherit
eternal life through a process of imitative magic. By the New Kingdom all
people, not just pharaohs, were believed to be associated with Osiris at
death if they incurred the costs of the assimilation rituals. Osiris was
at times considered the oldest son of the Earth god Geb,
and the sky goddess, Nut as well as being brother and husband of Isis,
with Horus being considered his posthumously begotten son. He was later
associated with the name Khenti-Amentiu, which
means "Foremost of the Westerners" a reference to his kingship
in the land of the dead. Through the hope of new life after death Osiris
began to be associated with the cycles observed in nature, in particular
vegetation and the annual flooding of the Nile, through his links with
Orion and Sirius at the start of the new year. Osiris was viewed as the
one who died to save the many, who rose from the dead, the first of a
long line that has significantly affected man's view of the world and expections of an afterlife.
- Silk
route between Egypt and China in use.
- Oldest
evidence of ship building in Egypt;
- Final
absorption of the Andites; the second Andite penetration of India was the Aryan invasion
during a period of almost five hundred years in the middle of the third
millennium before Christ. This migration marked the terminal exodus of
the Andites from their homelands in Turkestan.
79:4.1
- Troy
II, 2,500 to 2,000 BC
- Fall of
Lagash
- Fall of
Akkad
- Fall of
Erech
- Apogee
of Ebla
- First
Dynasty of Ur
- Fifth
Dynasty in Egypt
- Rise of
Indus River civilization
- Development
of compound bow and chariot warfare techniques in Asia Minor
- By the
time of the establishment of the rule of Hammurabi the Sumerians had
become absorbed into the ranks of the northern Semites and the
Mesopotamian Andites passed from the pages of
history. 78:8.10
- The
westward thrust of the Andonites reached
Europe. And this overrunning of all Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and the
Danube basin by the barbarians of the hills of Turkestan constituted the
most serious and lasting of all cultural setbacks up to that time. These
invaders definitely Andonized the character of
the central European races, which have ever since remained
characteristically Alpine. The Mediterranean coastlands did not become
permeated by the Andites until the times of
these great nomadic invasions. Land traffic and trade were nearly
suspended during these centuries when the nomads invaded the eastern
Mediterranean districts. This interference with land travel brought about
the great expansion of sea traffic and trade; Mediterranean sea-borne
commerce was in full swing. And this development of marine traffic
resulted in the sudden expansion of the descendants of the Andites throughout the entire coastal territory of
the Mediterranean basin. 80:9.7; 80:9.9
- Hattian civilization in Turkestan,
2,500 to 2,000; earliest date established from Akkadian
tablets with the term "Hattian" being
used until about 630 BC. For some 1,500 years Anatolia was known as
"the land of Hatti." (Akurgal, Hattian and
Hittite Civilizations, pg 4). The Hittite god Telipinu
and his wife Hatepinush came from the Hattians, as well as the Hittite legends of Illuyankas and Telipinu.
See "The Myth of the Moon God Who Fell From the Sky."
- First
written mention of Isis in Egypt; ancient Egyptians believed that the
Nile River flooded every year because of her tears of sorrow for her dead
husband, Osiris. This occurrence of his death and rebirth was relived
each year through rituals. Fifth dynasty.
- Climate:
Climates fairly similar to present
- Troy
III - V; 2,200 to 1,800
- The
tribes belonging to the Indo-European language group which we now call
the Hittites began to arrive in Anatolia between 2,200 and 2,000
BC. Between 2,000 and 1,700 BC, having lived sometimes in peace and
sometimes at war with the native principalities such as the Hattians, the Hurrians, and
the Kadka folk, they founded the state that we
term the Old Hittite Kingdom at the beginning of the 16th century
BC. The cuneiform of the Hittites is of a type older than that
used by the Assyrians in Anatolia during the same time period. From
a typological standpoint the cuneiform of the Hittites is derived from a
variety of script that must belong to the 3rd Dynasty of Ur preceding Old
Babylon (2150 to 2050 BC). For this reason it is disputed whether the
Hittites acquired their cuneiform before coming to Anatolia or
afterwards. (Akurgal)
- Hyksos domination of Egypt
- Continuing
barbarian invasions of Europe and the Levant
- Rig
Veda compiled; It is one of the oldest extant texts of any Indo-European
language. Philological and linguistic evidence indicate that a widely
scattered collection of Vedic hymns was compiled in the north-western region
of the Indian subcontinent, roughly between 1700–1100 BC (the early Vedic
period). There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the
early Iranian Avesta, deriving from the
Proto-Indo-Iranian times, often associated with the early Andronovo (Sintashta-Petrovka)
culture of ca. 2200-1600 BC. Historian N.J. Rajaram
places their conversion to written form circa 3,500 BC or 4,000 BC.
- Enuma Elish:
The Enûma Eliš"
has about a thousand lines and is recorded in Old Babylonian on seven
clay tablets, each holding between 115 and 170 lines of text. This epic
is one of the most important sources for understanding the Babylonian
worldview, centered on the supremacy of Marduk
and the creation of mankind for the service of the gods. Its primary
original purpose, however, is not an exposition of theology or theogony, but the elevation of Marduk,
the chief god of Babylon, above other Mesopotamian gods. The version from
Ashurbanipal's library dates to the 7th century BC. The story itself
probably dates to the 18th century BC, the time when the god Marduk seems to have achieved a prominent status,
although some scholars give it a later date (14th to 12th centuries BC.)
[Note: From a Urantia Book perspective this might represent an
effort by Sumerian priests to restore the memory of Adam (Marduk) to dominance following a period of
deterioration into polytheism.]
- Beginning
of Mycenaean period in Greece
- Beginning
of Mitannian state in Levant, founded bythe Hurrians; Mitanni
gradually grew from the region around Khabur
valley and became the most powerful kingdom of the Near East in
c.1450-1350 BC. By the thirteenth century BC all of the Hurrian states had been vanquished by other peoples.
The heart of the Hurrian lands, the Khabur river valley, became an Assyrian province. It
is not clear what happened to the Hurrian people
at the end of the Bronze Age. Some scholars have suggested Hurrians lived on in the country of Subartu north of Assyria during the early Iron Age.
The Hurrian population of Syria in the
following centuries seems to have given up their language in favor of the
Assyrian dialect of Akkadian or, more likely,
Aramaic. This was around the same time that an aristocracy speaking Urartian, similar to old Hurrian,
seems to have first imposed itself on the population around Lake Van, and
formed the Kingdom of Urartu.
- The
question of Indo-Aryan cultural influences, or even a ruling aristocracy,
among the Hurrians is an ambiguous issue. Early
scholars (Belardi, Burrow, Kammenhuber,
Lesný) were convinced the Hurrians
were dominated by an elite of foreign rulers. These foreigners spoke an
Indo-Iranian language from Central Asia related to Avestan
and even more closely related to Vedic Sanskrit (for example, the word
for "one" in this language was aika,
similar to Sanskrit eka vs. Avestan
aeva). The presence of an Indo-Aryan people
among the Hurrians was put in doubt by Manfred Mayrhofer (1966), and called in question by Gernot Wilhelm (1982). They introduced the cremation
of their dead, and introduced the use of the horse and chariot in the
battlefield — a situation that has obvious similarities to the events in
northern India at about the same time. While this foreign aristocracy
eventually abandoned their language in favor of that of their Hurrian subjects, they retained Indo-Iranian names,
they invoked Vedic gods in some of their treaties, and some words from
their Indo-Iranian language survived as loanwords in Hurrian,
particularly technical terms related to horses and their training (Mayrhofer, 1974). Particularly the state of Mitanni,
itself believed to be an Indo-Aryan word, was connected with the
Indo-Aryan culture. Most rulers of Mitanni seem to have had Indo-Aryan
names, and the ruling aristocracy was called maryanni,
meaning "young warrior" in Sanskrit marya.
- Hittite
"Old Kingdom" period, 1660-1460
- Ashurbanipal
of Assyria initiates search for ancient tablets and establishes the
palace library; The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after
Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, is a
collection of thousands of clay tablets and fragments containing texts of
all kinds from the 7th century BC. The materials were found in the
archaeological site of Kouyunjik (then ancient
Nineveh, capital of Assyria) in northern Mesopotamia. The site would be
found in modern day Iraq. It is an archaeological discovery credited to
Austen Henry Layard; most texts were taken to England and can now be
found in the British Museum. It actually comprised several smaller
collections. A first discovery was made in late 1849 in the so-called
South-West Palace, which was the Royal Palace of king Sennacherib (705 –
681 BC). Three years later, Hormuzd Rassam, Layard's assistant, discovered a similar
"library" in the palace of King Ashurbanipal (668 - 627 BC), on
the opposite side of the mound. Unfortunately, no record was taken for
the findings, and soon after reaching Europe, the tablets appeared to
have been irreparably mixed with each other and with tablets originating
from other sites. Thus, it is almost impossible today to reconstruct the
original contents of each of the two main "libraries".
Ashurbanipal was literate, and a passionate collector of texts and
tablets. He sent scribes into every region of the Neo-Assyrian Empire to
collect ancient texts. He hired scholars and scribes to copy texts,
mainly from Babylonian sources. The fragments from the royal library
include royal inscriptions, chronicles, mythological and religious texts,
contracts, royal grants and decrees, royal letters, and various
administrative documents. Some of the texts contain divinations, omens,
incantations and hymns to various gods, others relate to medicine,
astronomy, and literature. The epic of Gilgamesh, a masterpiece of
ancient Babylonian poetry, was found in the library as was the Creation
story and myth of Adapa the first man, and
stories such as the Poor Man of Nippur. The texts were principally
written in Akkadian in the cuneiform script.
- Ashurbanipal
was literate, and a passionate collector of texts and tablets. He sent
scribes into every region of the Neo-Assyrian Empire to collect ancient
texts. He hired scholars and scribes to copy texts, mainly from
Babylonian sources. The fragments from the royal library include royal
inscriptions, chronicles, mythological and religious texts, contracts,
royal grants and decrees, royal letters, and various administrative
documents. Some of the texts contain divinations, omens, incantations and
hymns to various gods, others relate to medicine, astronomy, and
literature. The epic of Gilgamesh, a masterpiece of ancient Babylonian
poetry, was found in the library as was the Creation story and myth of Adapa the first man, and stories such as the Poor Man
of Nippur. The texts were principally written in Akkadian
in the cuneiform script.
- Nineveh
was destroyed in 612 BC by a coalition of Babylonians, Sythians and Medes, an ancient Iranian people. It is
believed that during the burning of the palace, a great fire must have
ravaged the library of Ashurbanipal, causing the clay cuneiform tablets
to become partially baked. Paradoxically, this potentially destructive
event helped preserve the tablets. As well as texts on clay tablets, some
of the texts may have been inscribed onto wax boards which because of
their organic nature have been lost. The British Museum’s collections
database counts 30,943 "tablets" in the entire Nineveh library
collection, and the Trustees of the Museum propose to issue an updated
catalog as part of the Ashurbanipal Library Project (phase 1) from the
British Museum. If all smaller fragments that actually belong to the same
text are deducted, however, it is likely that the "library"
originally included some 10,000 texts in all. The original library
documents however, which would have included leather scrolls, wax boards,
and possibly papyri, contained perhaps a much broader spectrum of
knowledge than what we know from the surviving clay tablet cuneiform
texts. See The Ashurbanipal Library Project of the British Museum,
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_projects/ashurbanipal_library_phase_1.aspx
- Assyrian
empire destroyed
600
- Cyrus
the Great, the first Zoroastrian Persian Emperor; founded the Persian
Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty.
The reign of Cyrus lasted twenty nine to thirty years. It was under his
own rule that the empire embraced all previous civilized states of the
ancient Near East, expanded vastly, and eventually conquered most of
Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia, from Egypt and the Hellespont in
the west to the Indus River in the east, to create the largest empire the
world had yet seen. Cyrus built his empire by fighting and conquering
first the Median Empire then Lydian Empire and the Neo-Babylonian Empire.
Either before or after Babylon, he led an expedition into central Asia,
which resulted in major campaigns that brought "into subjection
every nation without exception." Cyrus did not venture into Egypt,
as he himself died in battle, fighting the Scythians along the Syr Darya in August 530 BC. He was succeeded by his
son, Cambyses II, who managed to add to the empire by conquering Egypt, Nubia, and Cyrenaica during his short rule. As a
military leader, Cyrus left an everlasting legacy on the art of
leadership and decision-making and he attributed his success to
"Diversity in counsel, unity in command." Cyrus the Great
respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered. It is said
that, in universal history the role of the Achaemenid
empire founded by Cyrus lies in its very successful model for centralized
administration and establishing a government working to the advantage and
profit of its subjects. In fact, the administration of the empire through
satraps and the vital principle of forming a government at Pasargadae
were the work of Cyrus. Aside from his own nation, Iran, Cyrus also left
a lasting legacy on Jewish religion (through his Edict of Restoration),
human rights, politics, and military strategy, as well as on both Eastern
and Western civilizations.
- Climate:
Relatively wet/cold event of unknown duration in many areas.
- The
sixth century before Christ, one of the greatest centuries of religious
awakening ever witnessed on Urantia. Among these should be recorded
Gautama, Confucius, Lao-tse, Zoroaster, and the Jainist
teachers. The teachings of Gautama have become widespread in Asia, and he
is revered as the Buddha by millions. Confucius was to Chinese morality
what Plato was to Greek philosophy, Lao-tse envisioned more of God in Tao
than did Confucius in humanity or Plato in idealism. Zoroaster, while
much affected by the prevalent concept of dual spiritism,
the good and the bad, at the same time definitely exalted the idea of one
eternal Deity and of the ultimate victory of light over darkness. 92:5.10
- Ninth
Crusade, 1271 to 1272
Note: The Crusades had an enormous influence on the European
Middle Ages. At times, much of the continent was united under a powerful
Papacy, but by the 14th century, the development of centralized
bureaucracies (the foundation of the modern nation-state) was well on
its way in France, England, Spain, Burgundy, and Portugal, and partly
because of the dominance of the church at the beginning of the crusading
era. Although Europe had been exposed to Islamic culture for centuries
through contacts in Iberian Peninsula and Sicily, much knowledge in
areas such as science, medicine, and architecture was transferred from
the Islamic to the western world during the crusade era.
1400s
1929