Monday, November 2, 2015

Aligning the Drums

 A text only post, and about history, afield from fauna and flora, sort of...and grim, so dear readers, a caution to read on...

I'll put the search strings in bold, these are the beginning of a quote; and the link(s),  the ulrs, which are highlighted too, will be the quote's end(s)...

greek temple column drum assembly

Aligning the drums
Stacking and aligning column drums is another challenge. When Korres's crew separates two original drums for the first time in 2,500 years, they discover the ancients' ingenious solution. When mating two drums, the Athenians carved two pieces of cedar, one fitting inside the other like a key into a lock. These were set into holes cut in the center of each drum; when one drum was lowered onto the other, the cedar ensured proper alignment.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/parthenon/rest-nf.html

hmmph...I was looking for link to the clip about the Parthenon, which was the midnight youtube show a few days back, and in looking happened just now on another, which I took the time to watch too!...it's about the Egyptian's animal mummies...here's link:


animal mummies

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/animal-mummies.html

In the animal clip, it's mentioned that the Persian invasion of Egypt, and others, was stressing the population, and so the votive prayer offerings of mummified animals became wildly popular as a way to fine favor with the Egyptian gods...

the Parthenon was destroyed by the Persians, the first one...there were two, like the Jewish temples on the prominence in Jerusalem...Persians destroy the First Temple there as well...there's a bracketing time frame of events that involve the Persians and their conquests, and it's an important period in history, and it's a time frame when history actually began to be recorded in modern fashion by such as Herodotus and Thucydides...let me see if I can illustrate this time bracket...

first Parthenon destroyed

The Older Parthenon or Pre‐Parthenon, as it is frequently referred to,[1] constitutes the first endeavour to build a sanctuary for Athena Parthenos on the site of the present Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens. It was begun shortly after the battle of Marathon (c. 490–88 BC) upon a massive limestone foundation that extended and leveled the southern part of the Acropolis summit.[2] This building replaced a hekatompedon (meaning "hundred‐footer") and would have stood beside the archaic temple dedicated to Athena Polias.
The Old Parthenon was still under construction when the Persians sacked the city in 480 BC and razed the acropolis.

Older Parthenon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
first temple destroyed Jerusalem
 
According to the Bible, Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the Holy Temple (Hebrew: בֵּית־הַמִּקְדָּשׁ‎: Bet HaMikdash) in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount (also known as Mount Zion), before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE. There is no archaeological evidence for the existence of Solomon's Temple.[1]
The Hebrew Bible states that the temple was constructed under Solomon, King of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah and that during the kingdom of Judah, the temple was dedicated to Yahweh, and is said to have housed the Ark of the Covenant. Josephus claims that "the temple was burnt four hundred and seventy years, six months, and ten days after it was built," (Jew. Ant. 10.8.5), though Rabbinic sources state that the First Temple stood for 410 years and, based on the 2nd-century work Seder Olam Rabbah, place construction in 832 BCE and destruction in 422 BCE (3338 AM), 165 years later than secular estimates.

Solomon's Temple

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
I grabbed a long quote there to show the two dates...587 BCE and 422 BCE...the Persian kings came one right after another, and that's another date check...so, when was Nebuchadnezzar II?
 
Nebuchadnezzar II reign
 
 reigned c. 605 BC – 562 BC
 

Nebuchadnezzar II

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
Well, there's a puzzle here, Nebuchadnezzar II is King of Babylon, and the Bible story of Esther goes on about a Persian King...
 
Esther Persian king
 
According to the Hebrew Bible, Esther was a Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus is traditionally identified with Xerxes I during the time of the Achaemenid empire.
 

Esther

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
Xerxes I reign
 
He ruled from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC at the hands of Artabanus,
 

Xerxes I

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
Persian rule of Egypt
 
The history of Persian Egypt is divided into three eras:
  • Achaemenid Egypt (525–402 BCE and 343–332 BCE), referring to two periods of Achaemenid rule punctuated by an interval of independence

History of Persian Egypt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
Persian rule of Babylon
 
After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
 

Babylon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
Cyrus Persian king
 
reign: 559-530 BC
 
The reign of Cyrus the Great lasted between 29 and 31 years. Cyrus built his empire by conquering first the Median Empire, then the Lydian Empire and eventually the Neo-Babylonian Empire.
 
Cyrus the Great liberated the Jews from the Babylonian captivity to resettle and rebuild Jerusalem, earning him an honored place in Judaism.
 

Cyrus the Great

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
neo-Babylonian empire
 
The Neo-Babylonian period ended with the reign of Nabonidus in 539 BC. To the east, the Persians had been growing in strength, and eventually Cyrus the Great conquered the empire.
 

Neo-Babylonian Empire

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
Well, there's one thing to square away, first a Babylonian king destroyed the Jerusalem First Temple, and later on, after Babylon was conquered by Persia, a Persian king permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem...some remained behind in Babylon, which is Esther's story.
 
The date for the First Parthenon destruction is exact and known, but the date of the First Temple destruction at Jerusalem is an estimate until the archaeologists can dig on the Temple Mount, which they are forbidden to do at present. 
 
First Parthenon destruction: 480 BC
First Temple destruction: 587 BCE, and 422 BCE...proposed dates...
 
hmmph...
 
Seder Olam Rabbah
 
After devoting the 21st chapter to the prophets that lived before the conquest of the land, to the seven prophetesses, and to the seven prophets of the Gentiles, the author resumes the chronology of the Kings. He continues it to the end of ch. xxvii., where he reaches the destruction of the Temple, which, according to his computation, occurred after it had existed 410 years, or 3,338 years after the creation of the world. Then follow the 70 years of the Captivity and the 420 years of the Second Temple, which was destroyed, as may be seen, in the year 3828 of the Creation.
 

Seder Olam Rabbah

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
Well, that chronicle was written in 160 CE, or thereabout, according to wiki...
 
And what I was reaching for at the beginning of the post was that I noticed the similarity between the Parthenon and the First Temple...they were both destroyed by the Persians, or so I thought...I had to check and find that the Temple was destroyed by a Babylonian king, not a Persian one...and I wanted to see how close in time were the destructions, and they are not close if the reign of the Babylonian king corresponds to the Temple's destruction...it's way earlier...587 BCE...but if the captivity of the Jews lasted seventy years...brb...
 
Jews captivity Babylon
 
After the fall of Babylon to the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE, exiled Jews began to return to the land of Judah. According to the biblical book of Ezra, construction of a second temple in Jerusalem began at this time. All these events are considered significant in Jewish history and culture, and had a far-reaching impact on the development of Judaism.
 

Babylonian captivity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
Xerxes I is the Persian king that destroys the First Parthenon, and his predecessor Darius is the opponent to the 300 Spartans at Marathon...Hollywood's portrayal of Darius has made modern day Iranians very unhappy!
 
Xerxes I is Esther's husband?
 

17And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.
 
Book of Esther
 
The Parthenon is being carefully restored...as one restorer explains, 'we could build a completely new one, but have rather decided to incorporate the marble remains of the Parthenon with new marble pieces, old and new blended together'...a paraphrase...here's link to NOVA clip..a must see:
 
Nova - Secrets of the Parthenon (PBS Documentary)  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLXtN_oMJt8

tomorrowmorrow, Pericles and the Second Parthenon
 
DavidDavid
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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