#ancient civlizations

[everydayesterday]

photo by sue fleckner [flickr].  licensed via creative commons.  color adjustment made to photo.  

Vulture Stone, Gobekli Tepe, Sanliurfa, South-east Anatolia, Turkey  

"The Vulture Stone is thought to be the world's first pictograph. It depicts a human head in the wing of a vulture and a headless human body under the stela."  

When I die, instead of burning my corpse or burying me in the ground, leave me to the vultures like they used to do.

[indo-europeans]

Hittite prosperity was mostly dependent on control of the trade routes (Cilician gates with Mesopotamia) and metal sources

Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II storming Hittite fortress of Dapur

[indo-europeans]

The end of Babylon, Mesopotamia

Hittite Mursili. Not even to extend their empire.

When he returned to his kingdom, he was assassinated by his own brother in law Hantili I, leading to unrest and loss of empire