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An ancient trilingual inscription has surfaced on a hillside near the tomb of Persian king Darius the Great (Darius I) in Naqsh-e Rustam, the necropolis (“city of the dead”) 4 miles northwest of Persepolis, Iran. Written in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian, the inscription records the title of an official who was close to the royal court. Unfortunately, his name has not been preserved. Not only does this inscription shed light on the elite families who associated with the Persian kings, some of them even serving as advisors, but it also adds a new verb to all three languages—the act...

FULL TITLE: Alexander the Great ‘was ALIVE while his body was prepared for burial’ – after rare disease left him paralysed for six days ===================================================================== It has baffled boffins for decades, but we may finally know what killed one of history's finest military minds ====================================================================== HE mystery over the death of Alexander the Great may have finally been solved – and his passing was grislier than historians had ever imagined. The fearsome military genius succumbed to a rare disease that left him paralysed for six days, gradually robbing him of his ability to move, speak and breath, claims a new...

SJackson It was on the Acre plain that Cambyses assembled his army that would sweep down to Egypt, in the 520s BCE. Why were the Persians so adamant about conquering Egypt, aside from the usual human weakness for building empires? One reason is because the various empires in the Levant and Middle East considered Egypt to be a major threat. That is just one more reason for their desire to control the land of Israel—a fertile land with a long coast, and a convenient [place from which to launch] attacks on Egypt. Or, at least, to contain Egypt’s influence over...

Aramaic was the language of Semitic peoples throughout the ancient Near East. It was the language of the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Hebrews and Syrians. Aram and Israel had a common ancestry and the Hebrew patriarchs who were of Aramaic origin maintained ties of marriage with the tribes of Aram. The Hebrew patriarchs preserved their Aramaic names and spoke in Aramaic.The term Aramaic is derived from Aram, the fifth son of Shem, the firstborn of Noah. See Gen. 10:22. The descendants of Aram dwelt in the fertile valley, Padan-aram also known as Beth Nahreen.The Aramaic language in Padan-aram remained pure, and in...

Military equipment has been unearthed in the ancient city of Sardis in the western province of Manisa's Salihli district. Officials believe they might have been used in an ancient war between the Lydians and the Persians. The ancient city of Sardis, which was the capital of the Lydian Kingdom in the ancient ages and had been home to many civilizations from seventh B.C. to seventh A.D., is now undergoing excavation works. This year's works continue in an area called the "Palace" region... The military equipment is believed to have been used in the war that caused the end of the...

More than a thousand years before the first European explorer reached Korea’s shores, the Persian Empire was writing love stories about Korean princesses. Recently, historians took a second look an old Persian epic written around 500 AD and realized that, at the center of the tale, was the unusual story of a Persian prince marrying a Korean princess. It’s an incredible discovery. Up until recently, we weren’t sure that the Persians of that time even knew Korea existed. This new revelation shows Persia didn’t just make contact with Korea – these countries were intimately connected. The story is called the...

In 1979, after a long campaign of political pressure applied by the Carter administration in the United States, the Shah of Iran fell to the Islamic Revolution, ending a tradition of monarchic rule that had persisted in Iran for thousands of years since the rule of Cyrus the Great. The stage was set for the rise of the Ayatollah, and the establishment of a theocracy in Iran that, today, most Iranians do not even want. But what if none of that had ever happened? While a momentous departure from actual history, it is not nearly so far-fetched as it sounds....

Excavations at Idalion, Cyprus: Crossing Cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean 8 p.m. JCCGW Theatre 6125 Montrose Road Rockville, MD Ann-Marie Knoblauch | Virginia Tech University Co-Sponsored by the Hellenic Society Prometheas Cyprus was an important trade center and cultural ‘crossroad’ in antiquity, controlled and influenced in different periods by the Mycenaean civilization, the sea-faring Phoenicians and Philistines of the Bible, Archaic Greece, the Persians in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Roman Empire, and even Christian Byzantium. The ancient site of Idalion is fortuitously situated near the copper-rich mountains of Cyprus and the harbors of the coast.  This prime location led to the...

Cyrus the Great was the founder of the Archaemenian dynasty and the Persian Empire. Cyrus' military victories eventually put him in possession of the largest empire in the world at that time. No doubt he was a remarkably humane ruler for his time. Certainly he has achieved his greatness not by words but by hard and difficult choices, actions, and sacrifice. Without any doubt all the above selected criteria in regard to Cyrus the Great is true. Even the Greeks, who for a long time considered the Persian Empire to be the chief threat to their own independence, never ceased...

Ever since Donald Trump began to surge as a candidate last year, Christians have been pointing to the book of Isaiah and comparing Trump with the ancient Persian King Cyrus. Some have even claimed that God has revealed to them that He will use Trump for the good of America just as He used Cyrus for the good of the Jewish people, even though Cyrus was a "pagan" king. Could this be true? Let's first look at the biblical and ancient Near Eastern evidence. Cyrus (whose name was pronounced "ko-resh" in Hebrew) became king of Persia in 559 B.C. and...

Maybe Donald Trump isn't invincible, after all. On Saturday, Ted Cruz nuked Trump from orbit in Kansas, pantsed him in Maine, and almost scored coups in the other two states, Kentucky and Louisiana, where he fell short of Trump by just two delegates in the first case and one in the second. Overall, the Texas senator trails Trump in the delegate race by a very manageable 378-295. There's an awfully long way to go to get to the 1,237 needed for the nomination. It's enough to launch a thousand think pieces on what's become of the GOP's once-unstoppable frontrunner. But...

WASHINGTON -- The presidential candidates have been talking about God lately, which is understandable because most of them haven't a prayer of being elected. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who was raised in the Jewish faith and rarely discusses his religious views, was compelled to talk about it this week as he campaigned in Iowa -- a state heavily populated by evangelical voters who will pick the winner of next week's nominating caucuses. The Vermont Democrat, who went to Hebrew school in his youth and was bar-mitzvahed, is drawing big crowds in the state, as he does everywhere he goes. But he's...

Sometimes a picture is worth a ten thousand word essay.

It’s a bromance with a payoff—the senator has been developing the billionaire’s support and their aides are even discussing joint events, but if Trump drops out, Cruz aims to clean up.Donald Trump and Ted Cruz’s mutual admiration is turning into a conservative bromance—one that could have a huge strategic payoff for the Texas senator’s presidential campaign. Behind the scenes, Cruz has been methodologically developing Trump’s support. The two candidates have met in person at least five times and talk by phone occasionally. And in the future, they may even hold events together. The two campaigns privately discussed a possible joint...

For a Christian faith speaker, however, Trump is serving as an instrument of God and a modern "prophetic voice" to wake up America, which some prominent pastors have described as having strayed from Christian values. In an editorial published on Charisma News, Os Hillman, president of Marketplace Leaders, said Trump was sent by God "to uncover the veil of the current political leadership and culture in America." Hillman, who is an internationally recognised speaker on the subject of faith at work, said Trump is exposing the morally corrupt ways of America's current leaders. "Trump is articulating what we all felt...

Ever since Sir Robert Anderson published his seminal work, The Coming Prince at the turn of the 20th century, prophecy watchers have been trying to figure out who he is. Sir Robert took his title from Daniel 9:26’s identification of the antichrist as a prince of the Roman Empire: “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.” Of...

Rag and bone cup dates to 300BC Last Updated: 9:40PM BST 27/05/2008 The grandson of a rag and bone man who acquired a small metal cup is in line for a windfall after discovering it is a pure gold vessel dating back to the third or fourth century BC. A rag and bone man gave his grandson the pure gold vessel, which is from the third or fourth century BC The piece could be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. The 5½ in cup, believed to be from the Achaemenid empire, has two female faces looking in opposite directions, their...

Greek Style Architecture Found in the Ancient Achaemenid City Achaemenid city of Istakhr in Fars Province Tehran , 25 June 2008: Archaeologists have used geological surveys in the south of Iran to reveal rectangular formations inspired by Greek architecture dating to the Sassanid era. Archeologists have said that the structures located in Fars Province are part of the urban planning of the ancient Achaemenid city of Istakhr during the Sassanid period (226-651 CE). The design is loaned from Hippodamus style of urban planning during a series of armed conflicts with Persias great rival to the west, the Roman Empire, said...

British scholar Timothy Mitford believes he has found the spot from which a Greek army first sighted the Black Sea during its flight from the forces of the Persian king Artaxerxes II in 401 B.C. Earlier that year Artaxerxes had defeated his brother Cyrus at Cunaxa on the Euphrates, crushing the latter's bid for the throne. Among Cyrus' forces was a contingent of Greek mercenaries known as the Ten Thousand, led by the Athenian general and historian Xenophon, who recounts the event in his Anabasis. After the battle Xenophon led his troops through the Tigris and upper Euphrates valleys,...

ISLAM arose with remarkable speed and mystery. Patricia Crone’s well-stocked mind, clear prose and unflinching intellectual honesty were devoted to explaining why. She had little time for Islam’s own accounts of its origins: “debris” as far as historians were concerned, and hopelessly inconsistent. Far better, she reckoned, to fill the gap with contemporary sources and knowledge of other cultures, from messianic Maoris to Icelanders. That required both personal and intellectual bravery. The central beliefs of Islam, such as the way the Koran took shape, the life of Muhammad and Islam’s relations with other religions, are sensitive subjects. Outside scrutiny can...