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Ancient Civilizations Music & World Music | Roman Music, Norse Music, Mesopotamian Music

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In 1932, the musicologist Wilfrid Perrett reported to an audience at the Royal Musical Association in London the words of an unnamed professor of Greek with musical leanings: "Nobody has ever made head or tail of ancient Greek music, and nobody ever will. That way madness lies."

Indeed, ancient Greek music has long posed a maddening enigma. Yet music was ubiquitous in classical Greece, with most of the poetry from around 750BC to 350BC - the songs of Homer, Sappho, and others - composed and performed as sung music, sometimes accompanied by dance. Literary texts provide abundant and highly specific details about the notes, scales, effects, and instruments used. The lyre was a common feature, along with the popular aulos, two double-reed pipes played simultaneously by a single performer so as to sound like two powerful oboes played in concert.

Despite this wealth of information, the sense and sound of ancient Greek music has proved incredibly elusive. This is because the terms and notions found in ancient sources - mode, enharmonic, diesis, and so on - are complicated and unfamiliar. And while notated music exists and can be reliably interpreted, it is scarce and fragmentary. What could be reconstructed in practice has often sounded quite strange and unappealing - so ancient Greek music had by many been deemed a lost art.

But recent developments have excitingly overturned this gloomy assessment. A project to investigate ancient Greek music that I have been working on since 2013 has generated stunning insights into how ancient Greeks made music. My research has even led to its performance - and hopefully, in the future, we'll see many more such reconstructions.

New approaches

The situation has changed largely because over the past few years some very well preserved auloi have been reconstructed by expert technicians such as Robin Howell and researchers associated with the European Music Archaeology Project. Played by highly skilled pipers such as Barnaby Brown and Callum Armstrong, they provide a faithful guide to the pitch range of ancient music, as well as to the instruments' own pitches, timbres, and tunings.

Central to ancient song was its rhythms, and the rhythms of ancient Greek music can be derived from the metres of the poetry. These were based strictly on the durations of syllables of words, which create patterns of long and short elements. While there are no tempo indications for ancient songs, it is often clear whether a metre should be sung fast or slow (until the invention of mechanical chronometers, tempo was in any case not fixed, and was bound to vary between performances). Setting an appropriate tempo is essential if music is to sound right.

What about the tunes - the melody and harmony? This is what most people mean when they claim that ancient Greek "music" is lost. Thousands of words about the theory of melody and harmony survive in the writings of ancient authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Aristoxenus, Ptolemy, and Aristides Quintilianus; and a few fragmentary scores with ancient musical notation first came to light in Florence in the late 16th century. But this evidence for actual music gave no real sense of the melodic and harmonic riches that we learn of from literary sources.

More documents with ancient notation on papyrus or stone have intermittently come to light since 1581, and now around 60 fragments exist. Carefully compiled, transcribed, and interpreted by scholars such as Martin West and Egert Pöhlmann, they give us a better chance of understanding how the music sounded.

Ancient Greek music performed

The earliest substantial musical document, found in 1892, preserves part of a chorus from the Athenian tragedian Euripides' Orestes of 408BC. It has long posed problems for interpretation, mainly owing to its use of quarter-tone intervals, which have seemed to suggest an alien melodic sensibility. Western music operates with whole tones and semitones; any smaller interval sounds to our ears as if a note is being played or sung out of tune.

But my analyses of the Orestes fragment, published earlier this year, led to striking insights. First, I demonstrated that elements of the score clearly indicate word-painting - the imitation of the meaning of words by the shape of the melodic line. We find a falling cadence set to the word "lament", and a large upward interval leap accompanying the word "leaps up".

Second, I showed that if the quarter-tones functioned as "passing-notes", the composition was in fact tonal (focused on a pitch to which the tune regularly reverts). This should not be very surprising, as such tonality exists in all the documents of ancient music from later centuries, including the large-scale Delphic Paeans preserved on stone.

With these premises in view, in 2016 I reconstructed the music of the Orestes papyrus for choral realisation with aulos accompaniment, setting a brisk tempo as indicated by the metre and the content of the chorus's words. This Orestes chorus was performed by choir and aulos-player at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, in July 2017, together with other reconstructed ancient scores.

It remains for me to realise, in the next few years, the other few dozen ancient scores that exist, many extremely fragmentary, and to stage a complete ancient drama with historically informed music in an ancient theatre such as that of Epidaurus.

Meanwhile, an exciting conclusion may be drawn. The Western tradition of classical music is often said to begin with the Gregorian plainsong of the 9th century AD. But the reconstruction and performance of Greek music has demonstrated that ancient Greek music should be recognised as the root of the European musical tradition.

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Ancient Greek music: now we finally know what it sounded like

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My investigations have generated stunning insights into how the ancient Greeks made music.

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Wikipedia Information about Thracian Warfare

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Wikipedia Information about Thracian Warfare

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The history of Thracian warfare spans from the 10th century BC up to the 1st century AD in the region defined by Ancient Greek and Latin historians as Thrace. It concerns the armed conflicts of the Thracian tribes and their kingdoms in the Balkans.

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Bronze head of Seuthes III from his tomb

The Thracians (; Ancient Greek: Θρᾷκες, Thrāikes; Bulgarian: Траки; Latin: Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history. Thracians resided mainly in Southeast Europe in modern-day Bulgaria, Romania and northern Greece, but also in north-western Anatolia (Asia Minor) in Turkey.

The exact origin of the Thracians is unknown, but it is believed that proto-Thracians descended from a purported mixture of Proto-Indo-Europeans and Early European Farmers, arriving from the rest of Asia and Africa through Asia Minor (Anatolia). The proto-Thracian culture developed also into the Getae and the Dacians, also several other smaller Thracian tribes. Writing in the sixth century BC, Xenophanes described Thracians as "blue-eyed and red-haired".

Thracian culture was described as tribal by the Greeks and Romans. They remained largely disunited, with their first permanent state being the Odrysian kingdom in the fifth century BC. They faced subjugation by the Achaemenid Empire around the same time. Thracians experienced a short period of peace after the Persians were defeated by the Greeks in the Persian Wars. The Odrysian kingdom lost independence to Macedon in the late 4th century BC, and regained independence following Alexander the Great's death.

The Thracians faced conquest by the Romans in the mid second century BC under whom they faced internal strife. They composed major parts of rebellions against the Romans along with the Macedonians until the Third Macedonian War. The last reported use of a Thracian language was by monks in the sixth century AD.

Thracians were described as " warlike" and " barbarians" by the Greeks and Romans and were favored as mercenaries. Ancient descriptions of a vicious people are disputed and archaeology has been used since the mid-twentieth century in southern Bulgaria to identify more about them. Both Romans and Greeks called them barbarians since they were neither Romans nor Greeks, and due to the perceived backwardness of their culture. The perceived primitiveness may be related to their living simple lives in open villages. Some authors noted that even after the introduction of Latin they still kept their "barbarous" ways. While the Thracians were perceived as unsophisticated by their contemporaries, they reportedly "had in fact a fairly advanced culture that was especially noted for its poetry and music."

Thracians spoke the extinct Thracian language and shared a common culture. The Thracians culturally interacted with the peoples surrounding them - Greeks, Persians, Scythians and Celts - although such interactions only affected the circles of the aristocratic elite, not Thracian culture as a whole. Among their customs was tattooing, common among both males and females. They followed a polytheistic religion. The study of the Thracians is known as Thracology.

The first historical record of the Thracians is found in the , where they are described as allies of the Trojans in the Trojan War against the Ancient Greeks. The ethnonym Thracian comes from Ancient Greek ( Thrāix; plural Θρᾷκες, Thrāikes) or Θρᾴκιος ( Thrāikios; Ionic: Θρηίκιος, Thrēikios), and the toponym Thrace comes from Θρᾴκη ( Thrāikē; Ionic: Θρῄκη, Thrēikē). These forms are all exonyms as applied by the Greeks.

In Greek mythology, (by his name simply the quintessential Thracian) was regarded as one of the reputed sons of the god Ares. In the , Euripides mentions that one of the names of Ares himself was "Thrax" since he was regarded as the patron of Thrace (his golden or gilded shield was kept in his temple at Bistonia in Thrace).

Illustration of 5th-4th century BC Thracian peltast

The origins of the Thracians remain obscure, in the absence of written historical records before they made contact with the Greeks. Evidence of proto-Thracians in the prehistoric period depends on artifacts of material culture. Leo Klejn identifies proto-Thracians with the multi-cordoned ware culture that was pushed away from Ukraine by the advancing timber grave culture or Srubnaya. It is generally proposed that a proto-Thracian people developed from a mixture of indigenous peoples and Indo-Europeans from the time of Proto-Indo-European expansion in the Early Bronze Age when the latter, around 1500 BC, mixed with indigenous peoples. According to one theory, their ancestors migrated in three waves from the northeast: the first in the Late Neolithic, forcing out the Pelasgians and Achaeans, the second in the Early Bronze Age, and the third around 1200 BC. They reached the Aegean islands, ending the Mycenaean civilization. They did not speak the same language. During the Iron Age (about 1000 BC) Dacians and Thracians began developing from proto-Thracians. The diverse topography did not make it possible for a single language to form.

Ancient Greek and Roman historians agreed that the ancient Thracians were superior fighters; only their constant political fragmentation prevented them from overrunning the lands around the northeastern Mediterranean. Although these historians characterized the Thracians as primitive partly because they lived in simple, open villages, the Thracians in fact had a fairly advanced culture that was especially noted for its poetry and music. Their soldiers were valued as mercenaries, particularly by the Macedonians and Romans.

The Odrysian kingdom in its maximum extent under Sitalces (431-424 BC)

Dacia during the reign of Burebista (82/61 BC - 45/44 BC)

Divided into separate tribes, the Thracians did not manage to form a lasting political organization until the Odrysian state was founded in the fifth century BC. A strong Dacian state appeared in the first century BC, during the reign of King Burebista. The mountainous regions were home to various peoples, including the Illyrians, regarded as warlike and ferocious Thracian tribes, while the plains peoples were apparently regarded as more peaceable. The most prominent tribe, the Moesians only achieved importance under Roman rule.

Thracians inhabited parts of the ancient provinces of Thrace, Moesia, Macedonia, Beotia, Attica, Dacia, Scythia Minor, Sarmatia, Bithynia, Mysia, Pannonia, and other regions of the Balkans and Anatolia. This area extended over most of the Balkans region, and the Getae north of the Danube as far as beyond the Bug and including Pannonia in the west. There were about 200 Thracian tribes.

Thucydides mentions about a period in the past (from his point), when Thracians have inhabited the region of Phocis, known also as the location of Delphi; he defines it by the lifetime of Tereus - mythological Thracian king and son of god Ares.

The Thracians are mentioned in Homer's , meaning that they were already present in the eighth century BC.

The first Greek colonies along the Thracian coasts (first the Aegean, then the Marmara and Black Seas) were founded in the eighth century BC. Thracians and Greeks lived side-by-side. Ancient sources record a Thracian presence on the Aegean islands and in Hellas (the broader "land of the Hellenes").

At some point in the 7th century BC, a portion of the Thracian Treres tribe migrated across the Thracian Bosporus and invaded Anatolia. In 637 BC, the Treres under their king Kobos ( Ancient Greek: Κώβος Kṓbos; Latin: Cobus), in alliance with the Cimmerians and the Lycians, attacked the kingdom of Lydia during the seventh year of the reign of the Lydian king Ardys. They defeated the Lydians and captured the capital city of Lydia, Sardis, except for its citadel, and Ardys might have been killed in this attack. Ardys's son and successor, Sadyattes, might possibly also have been killed in another Cimmerian attack on Lydia. Soon after 635 BC, with Assyrian approval the Scythians under Madyes entered Anatolia. In alliance with Sadyattes's son, the Lydian king Alyattes, Madyes expelled the Treres from Asia Minor and defeated the Cimmerians so that they no longer constituted a threat again, following which the Scythians extended their domination to Central Anatolia until they were themselves expelled by the Medes from Western Asia in the 600s BC.

Skudrian (Thracian) soldier of the Achaemenid army, c. 480 BC. Xerxes I tomb relief.

In the 6th century BC the Persian Achaemenid Empire conquered Thrace, starting in 513 BC, when the Achaemenid king Darius I amassed an army and marched from Achaemenid-ruled Anatolia into Thrace, and from there he crossed the Arteskos river and then proceeded through the valley-route of the Hebros river. This was an act of conquest by Darius I, who sought to create a new satrapy in the Balkans, and had during his march sent emissaries to the Thracians found on the path of his army as well as to the many other Thracian tribes over a wide area. All these peoples of Thrace, including the Odrysae, submitted to the Achaemenid king until his army reached the territory of Thracian tribe of the Getae who lived just south of the Danube river and who in vain attempted to resist the Achaemenid conquest. After the resistance of the Getae was defeated and they were forced to provide the Achaemenid army with soldiers, all the Thracian tribes between the Aegean Sea and the Danube river had been subjected by the Achaemenid Empire. Once Darius had reached the Danube, he crossed the river and campaigned against the Scythians, after which he returned to Anatolia through Thrace and left a large army in Europe under the command of his general Megabazus.

Following Darius I's orders to create a new satrapy for the Achaemenid Empire in the Balkans, Megabazus forced the Greek cities who had refused to submit to the Achaemenid Empire, starting with Perinthus, after which led military campaigns throughout Thrace to impose Achaemenid rule over every city and tribe in the area. With the help of Thracian guides, Megabazus was able to conquer Paeonia up to but not including the area of Lake Prasias, and he gave the lands of the Paeonians inhabiting these regions up to the Lake Prasias to Thracians loyal to the Achaemenid Empire. The last endeavours of Megabazus included his the conquest of the area between the Strymon and Axius rivers, and at the end of his campaign, the king of Macedonia, Amyntas I, accepted to become a vassal of the Achaemenid Empire. Within the satrapy itself, the Achaemenid king Darius granted to the tyrant Histiaeus of Miletus the district of Myrcinus on the Strymon's east bank until Megabazus persuaded him to recall Histiaeus after he returned to Asia Minor, after which the Thracian tribe of the Edoni retook control of Myrcinus. The new satrapy, once created, was named (), derived from Scythian the name Skuδa, which was the self-designation of the Scythians who inhabited the northern parts of the satrapy. Once Megabazus had returned to Asia Minor, he was succeeded in Skudra by a governor whose name is unknown, and Darius appointed the general Otanes to oversee the administrative division of the Hellespont, which extended on both sides of the sea and included the Bosporus, the Propontis, and the Hellespont proper and its approaches. Otanes then proceeded to capture Byzantium, Chalcedon, Antandrus, Lamponeia, Imbros, and Lemnos for the Achaemenid Empire.

The area included within the satrapy of Skudra included both the Aegean coast of Thrace, as well as its Pontic coast till the Danube. In the interior, the Western border of the satrapy consisted of the Axius river and the Belasica- Pirin- Rila mountain ranges till the site of modern-day Kostenets. The importance of this satrapy rested in that it contained the Hebros river, where a route in the river valley connected the permanent Persian settlement of Doriscus with the Aegean coast, as well as with the port-cities of Apollonia, Mesembria and Odessos on the Black Sea, and with the central Thracian plain, which gave this region an important strategic value. Persian sources describe the province as being populated by three groups: the Saka Paradraya ("Saka beyond the sea", the Persian term for all Scythian peoples to the north of the Caspian and Black Seas ); the Skudra themselves (most likely the Thracian tribes), and Yauna Takabara. The latter term, which translates as " Ionians with shield-like hats", is believed to refer to Macedonians. The three ethnicities (Saka, Macedonian, Thracian) enrolled in the Achaemenid army, as shown in the Imperial tomb reliefs of Naqsh-e Rostam, and participated in the Second Persian invasion of Greece on the Achaemenid side.

When Achaemenid control over its European possessions collapsed once the Ionian Revolt started, the Thracians did not help the Greek rebels, and they instead saw Achaemenid rule as more favourable because the latter had treated the Thracians with favour and even given them more land, and also because they realised that Achaemenid rule was a bulwark against Greek expansion and Scythian attacks. During the revolt, Aristagoras of Miletus captured Myrcinus from the Edones and died trying to attack another Thracian city.

Once the Ionian Revolt had been fully quelled, the Achaemenid general Mardonius crossed the Hellespont with a large fleet and army, re-subjugated Thrace without any effort and made Macedonia full part of the satrapy of Skudra. Mardonius was however attacked at night by the Bryges in the area of Lake Doiran and modern-day Valandovo, but he was able to defeat and submit them as well. Herodotus's list of tribes who provided the Achaemenid army with soldiers included Thracians from both the coast and from the central Thracian plain, attesting that Mardonius's campaign had reconquered all the Thracian areas which were under Achaemenid rule before the Ionian Revolt.

When the Greeks defeated a second invasion attempt by the Persian Empire in 479 BC, they started attacking the satrapy of Skudra, which was resisted by both the Thracians and the Persian forces. The Thracians kept on sending supplies to the governor of Eion when the Greeks besieged it. When the city fell to the Greeks in 475 BC, Cimon gave its land to Athens for colonisation. Although Athens was now in control of the Aegean Sea and the Hellespont following the defeat of the Persian invasion, the Persians were still able to control the southern coast of Thrace from a base in central Thrace and with the support of the Thracians. Thanks to the Thracians co-operating with the Persians by sending supplies and military reinforcements down the Hebrus river route, Achaemenid authority in central Thrace lasted until around 465 BC, and the governor Mascames managed to resist many Greek attacks in Doriscus until then.

Around this time, Teres I, the king of the Odrysae tribe, in whose territory the Hebrus flowed, was starting to organise the rise of his kingdom into a powerful state. With the end of Achaemenid power in the Balkans, the Thracian Odrysian kingdom, the kingdom of Macedonia, and the Athenian thalassocracy filled the ensuing power vacuum and formed their own spheres of influence in the area.

The Odrysian Kingdom was a state union of over 40 Thracian tribes and 22 kingdoms that existed between the 5th century BC and the 1st century AD. It consisted mainly of present-day Bulgaria, spreading to parts of Southeastern Romania ( Northern Dobruja), parts of Northern Greece and parts of modern-day European Turkey.

By the fifth century BC, the Thracian population was large enough that Herodotus called them the second-most numerous people in the part of the world known by him (after the Indians), and potentially the most powerful, if not for their lack of unity. The Thracians in classical times were broken up into a large number of groups and tribes, though a number of powerful Thracian states were organized, the most important being the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace, and also the short lived Dacian kingdom of Burebista. The , a type of soldier of this period, probably originated in Thrace.

During this period, a subculture of celibate ascetics called the " ctistae" lived in Thrace, where they served as philosophers, priests and prophets.

During this period, contacts between the Thracians and Classical Greece intensified.

The Thracians were typically not city-builders and their only polis was Seuthopolis.

Southeastern Europe in the second century BC

The conquest of the southern part of Thrace by Philip II of Macedon in the fourth century BC made the Odrysian kingdom extinct for several years. After the kingdom was reestablished, it was a vassal state of Macedon for several decades under generals such as Lysimachus of the Diadochi.

In western parts of Moesia, Celts ( Scordisci) and Thracians lived alongside each other, as evident from the archaeological findings of pits and treasures, spanning from the third century BC to the first century BC.

The province of Thracia within the Roman Empire, c. 116 AD

The next century and a half saw the slow development of Thracia into a permanent Roman client state. The Sapaei tribe came to the forefront initially under the rule of Rhascuporis. He was known to have granted assistance to both Pompey and Caesar, and later supported the Republican armies against Mark Antony and Octavian in the final days of the Republic.

The heirs of Rhascuporis became as deeply enmeshed in political scandal and murder as were their Roman masters. A series of royal assassinations altered the ruling landscape for several years in the early Roman imperial period. Various factions took control with the support of the Roman Emperor. The turmoil would eventually end with one final assassination.

After Rhoemetalces III of the Thracian Kingdom of Sapes was murdered in AD 46 by his wife, Thracia was incorporated as an official Roman province to be governed by Procurators, and later Praetorian prefects. The central governing authority of Rome was in Perinthus, but regions within the province were under the command of military subordinates to the governor. The lack of large urban centers made Thracia a difficult place to manage, but eventually the province flourished under Roman rule. However, Romanization was not attempted in the province of Thracia. The Balkan Sprachbund does not support Hellenization.

Roman authority in Thracia rested mainly with the legions stationed in Moesia. The rural nature of Thracia's populations, and distance from Roman authority, certainly inspired local troops to support Moesia's legions. Over the next few centuries, the province was periodically and increasingly attacked by migrating Germanic tribes. The reign of Justinian saw the construction of over 100 legionary fortresses to supplement the defense.

Thracians were regarded by other peoples as warlike, ferocious, bloodthirsty, and barbarian. They were seen as "barbarians" by ancient Greeks and Romans. Plato in his Republic groups them with the Scythians, calling them extravagant and high spirited; and his Laws portrays them as a warlike nation, grouping them with Celts, Persians, Scythians, Iberians and Carthaginians. Polybius wrote of Cotys's sober and gentle character being unlike that of most Thracians. Tacitus in his Annals writes of them being wild, savage and impatient, disobedient even to their own kings. The Thracians have been said to have "tattooed their bodies, obtained their wives by purchase, and often sold their children." Victor Duruy further notes that they "considered husbandry unworthy of a warrior, and knew no source of gain but war and theft," and that they practiced human sacrifice, which has been confirmed by archaeological evidence.

Polyaenus and Strabo write how the Thracians broke their pacts of truce with trickery. The Thracians struck their weapons against each other before battle, "in the Thracian manner," as Polyaneus testifies. Diegylis was considered one of the most bloodthirsty chieftains by Diodorus Siculus. An Athenian club for lawless youths was named after the Triballi.

According to ancient Roman sources, the Dii were responsible for the worst atrocities of the Peloponnesian War, killing every living thing, including children and dogs in Tanagra and Mycalessos. Thracians would impale Roman heads on their spears and rhomphaias such as in the Kallinikos skirmish at 171 BC.

Herodotus writes that "they sell their children and let their maidens commerce with whatever men they please".

The accuracy and impartiality of these descriptions have been called into question in modern times, given the seeming embellishments in Herodotus's histories, for one. Strabo treated the Thracians as barbarians, and held that they spoke the same language as the Getae. Archaeologists have attempted to piece together a fuller understanding of Thracian culture through study of their artifacts.

The ancient languages of these people and their cultural influence were highly reduced due to the repeated invasions of the Balkans by Romans, Celts, Huns, Goths, Scythians, Sarmatians and Slavs, accompanied by, hellenization, romanization and later slavicisation. However, the Thracians as a group only disappeared in the Early Middle Ages. Towards the end of the 4th century, Nicetas the Bishop of Remesiana brought the gospel to "those mountain wolves", the Bessi. Reportedly his mission was successful, and the worship of Dionysus and other Thracian gods was eventually replaced by Christianity. In 570, Antoninus Placentius said that in the valleys of Mount Sinai there was a monastery in which the monks spoke Greek, Latin, Syriac, Egyptian and Bessian. The origin of the monasteries is explained in a medieval hagiography written by Simeon Metaphrastes, in Vita Sancti Theodosii Coenobiarchae in which he wrote that Theodosius the Cenobiarch founded on the shore of the Dead Sea a monastery with four churches, in each being spoken a different language, among which Bessian was found. The place where the monasteries were founded was called "Cutila", which may be a Thracian name. The further fate of the Thracians is a matter of dispute. Gottfried Schramm derived the Albanians from the Christian Bessi, or Bessians, an early Thracian people who were pushed westwards into Albania. However, from a linguistic point of view it emerges that the Thracian-Bessian hypothesis of the origin of Albanian should be rejected, since only very little comparative linguistic material is available (the Thracian is attested only marginally, while the Bessian is completely unknown), but at the same time the individual phonetic history of Albanian and Thracian clearly indicates a very different sound development that cannot be considered as the result of one language. Furthermore, the Christian vocabulary of Albanian is mainly Latin, which speaks against the construct of a "Thracian-Bessian church language". Most probably the Thracians were assimilated into the Roman and later in the Byzantine society and became part of the ancestral groups of the modern Southeastern Europeans. A recent Bulgarian study on the heritage of Thracian mounds in Bulgaria claims historical, cultural and ethnic links between Thracians and Bulgarians.

Tribes in Thrace

One notable cult that existed in Thrace, Moesia, Phrygia and the lands of the Dacians and the Getae ( Scythia Minor, now Dobrudja) was that of the " Thracian horseman", also known as Sabazios or "Thracian Heros" known by a Thracian name as Heros Karabazmos, a god of the underworld, who was usually depicted on funeral statues as a horseman slaying a beast with a spear. Getae and Dacians potentially had a monotheistic religion based on the god Zalmoxis, though this is heavily debated in the anthropological community. The supreme Balkan thunder god Perkon was part of the Thracian pantheon, although cults of Orpheus and Zalmoxis likely overshadowed his.

The Thracians are considered the first to worship the god of wine called Dionysus in Greek or Zagreus in Thracian. Later this cult reached Ancient Greece. Some consider Thrace as the motherland of wine culture. The works of Homer, Herodotus and other historians of Ancient Greece also refer to the ancient Thracians' love for winemaking and consumption, also related to religion as early as 6000 years ago.

The Thracians were polygamous. Menander puts it: " All Thracians, especially us and the Getae, are not much abstaining, because no one takes less than ten, eleven, twelve wives, some even more. If one dies and has only four or five wives he is called ill-fated, unhappy and unmarried." According to Herodotus virginity among women was not valued, and unmarried Thracian women could have sex with any man they wished to. There were men perceived as holy Thracians, who lived without women and were called "ktisti". In myth, Orpheus rebuked the sexual advances of the Bistones women after the death of Eurydice, and was killed for not engaging in the debauchery promoted by the followers of Dionysus.

Hunting scene, Thracian tomb of Aleksandrovo, c. 4th century BC

The Thracians were a warrior people, known as both horsemen and lightly armed skirmishers with javelins. Thracian peltasts had a notable influence in Ancient Greece.

The history of Thracian warfare spans from c. 10th century BC up to the 1st century AD in the region defined by Ancient Greek and Latin historians as Thrace. It concerns the armed conflicts of the Thracian tribes and their kingdoms in the Balkans and in the Dacian territories. Emperor Traianus, also known as Trajan, conquered Dacia after two wars in the 2nd century AD. The wars ended with the occupation of the fortress of Sarmisegetusa and the death of the king Decebalus. Besides conflicts between Thracians and neighboring nations and tribes, numerous wars were recorded among Thracian tribes too.

Thracian king and queen. Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak, 4th century BC.

A fresco of a woman in the Ostrusha Mound, in central Bulgaria

Several Thracian graves or tombstones have the name Rufus inscribed on them, meaning "redhead" - a common name given to people with red hair which led to associating the name with slaves when the Romans enslaved this particular group. Ancient Greek artwork often depicts Thracians as redheads. Rhesus of Thrace, a mythological Thracian king, was so named because of his red hair and is depicted on Greek pottery as having red hair and a red beard. Ancient Greek writers also described the Thracians as red-haired. A fragment by the Greek poet Xenophanes describes the Thracians as blue-eyed and red haired:

...Men make gods in their own image; those of the Ethiopians are black and snub-nosed, those of the Thracians have blue eyes and red hair.

Bacchylides described Theseus as wearing a hat with red hair, which classicists believe was Thracian in origin. Other ancient writers who described the hair of the Thracians as red include Hecataeus of Miletus, Galen, Clement of Alexandria, and Julius Firmicus Maternus.

Hunting scene, Thracian tomb of Aleksandrovo, c. 4th century BC

Nevertheless, academic studies have concluded that people often had different physical features from those described by primary sources. Ancient authors described as red-haired several groups of people. They claimed that all Slavs had red hair, and likewise described the Scythians as red haired. According to Beth Cohen, Thracians had "the same dark hair and the same facial features as the Ancient Greeks." However, Aris N. Poulianos states that Thracians, like modern Bulgarians, belonged mainly to the Aegean anthropological type.

This is a list of historically important personalities being entirely or partly of Thracian and Dacian ancestry:

Orpheus, mythological figure considered chief among poets and musicians; king of the Thracian tribe of Cicones

Spartacus, Thracian gladiator who led a large slave uprising in Southern Italy in 73-71 BC and defeated several Roman legions in what is known as the Third Servile War

Amadocus, Thracian King, the Amadok Point was named after him

Teres I, Thracian King who united many tribes of Thrace under the banner of the Odrysian state

Seuthes III

Rhesus of Thrace

Sitalces, King of the Odrysian state; an ally of the Athenians during the Peloponnesian War

Burebista, King of Dacia

Decebalus, King of Dacia

Maximinus Thrax, Roman Emperor from 235 to 238.

Aureolus, Roman military commander

Galerius, Roman Emperor from 305 to 311; born to a Thracian father and Dacian mother

Licinius, Roman Emperor from 308 to 324

Maximinus Daia or Maximinus Daza, Roman Emperor from 308 to 313

Justin I, Eastern Roman Emperor and founder of the Justinian dynasty

Justinian the Great, Eastern Roman Emperor; either Illyrian or Thracian, born in Dardania

Belisarius, Eastern Roman general of reputed Illyrian or Thracian origin

Marcian, Eastern Roman Emperor from 450 to 457; either Illyrian or Thracian

Leo I the Thracian, Eastern Roman Emperor from 457 to 474

Bouzes or Buzes, Eastern Roman general active during the reign of Justinian the Great (r. 527-565)

Coutzes or Cutzes, general of the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Emperor Justinian I

The branch of science that studies the ancient Thracians and Thrace is called Thracology. Archaeological research on the Thracian culture started in the 20th century, especially after World War II, mainly in southern Bulgaria. As a result of intensive excavations in the 1960s and 1970s a number of Thracian tombs and sanctuaries were discovered. Most significant among them are: the Tomb of Sveshtari, the Tomb of Kazanlak, Tatul, Seuthopolis, Perperikon the Tomb of Aleksandrovo in Bulgaria and Sarmizegetusa in Romania and others.

Also a large number of elaborately crafted gold and silver treasure sets from the 5th and 4th century BC were unearthed. In the following decades, those were exhibited in museums around the world, thus calling attention to ancient Thracian culture. Since the year 2000, Bulgarian archaeologist Georgi Kitov has made discoveries in Central Bulgaria, in an area now known as "The Valley of the Thracian Kings". The residence of the Odrysian kings was found in Starosel in the Sredna Gora mountains. A 1922 Bulgarian study claimed that there were at least 6,269 necropolises in Bulgaria.

The dominant stance of history and archaeology as the two main disciplines dealing with the Thracians as a subject of research has been succeeded by a clear shift towards new multidisciplinary and more inclusive scientific perspectives. An example of this new trend was the large-scale multidisciplinary project "Thracians - Genesis and Development of the Ethnos, Cultural Identities, Civilization Relations and Heritage of the Antiquity", launched in 2016 in Bulgaria. The project was the first comprehensive study of the Thracian heritage including 72 scholars from 18 institutes of the Bulgarian Academy of Science, as well as researchers from Canada, Italy, Germany, Japan and Switzerland. The project studied 13 scientific themes among which: formation of the Thracian ethnos, outlining of its ethno-cultural territory, continuity of the gene pool and related DNA studies, architectural, botanical, microbiological, astronomical, acoustic and linguistic aspects, mining and ceramics technologies, food and drink customs, that resulted in an extensively illustrated book including 33 scientific articles.

A genetic study published in Scientific Reports in 2019 examined the mtDNA of 25 Thracian remains in Bulgaria from the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. They were found to harbor a mixture of ancestry from Western Steppe Herders (WSHs) and Early European Farmers (EEFs), supporting the idea that Southeast Europe was the link between Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.

Bulgarian study from 2013 claims genetic similarity between Thracians (8-6 century BC), medieval Bulgarians (8-10 century AD), and modern Bulgarians, highlighting highest resemblance between them and the ethnic groups in Northern and Middle Italy, Northern Greece and Romania.

Examinations of Iron Age and ancient Thracian remains in Bulgaria were found to mainly carry the Y-DNA haplogroup E-V13. The tested samples were further specifically listed as: E-BY3880 x 3, E-L618 x 2, E-M78 x 2, R-Z93, E-CTS1273, E-BY14160. Six of the samples were predicted for having brown eyes while two for having blue eyes, while majority of the samples were predicted for an intermediate skin color and hair color prediction ranged from majority brown on detailed, to light and dark.

Examinations of remains from the Roman era in Timacum Minus, in Eastern Serbia, and around the Naissus area of Eastern Dardania revealed the samples belonged to Y-DNA haplogroup E-V13. Brnjica culture is considered to be the Thracian/Dacian component that took part in the ethnogenesis of the Dardani.

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2. ^ Lemprière and Wright, p. 358. "Mars was father of Cupid, Anteros, and Harmonia, by the goddess Venus. He had Ascalaphus and Ialmenus by Astyoche; Alcippe by Agraulos; Molus, Pylus, Euenus, and oThestius, by Demonice the daughter of Agenor. Besides these, he was the reputed father of Romulus, Oenomaus, Bythis, Thrax, Diomedes of Thrace, &c."

3. ^ Schütz, István (2006). Fehér foltok a Balkánon [White spots in the Balkans] (PDF). Balassi Kiadó. p. 57.

4. The catalogue of ^ Kimbell Art Museum's 1998 exhibition Ancient Gold: The Wealth of the Thracians indicates a historical extent of Thracian settlement including most of Ukraine, all of Hungary and parts of Slovakia. (Kimbell Art - Exhibitions)

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9. ^ Grousset, René (1970). The Empire of the Steppes. Rutgers University Press. pp. 9. ISBN 0-8135-1304-9. A Scythian army, acting in conformity with Assyrian policy, entered Pontis to crush the last of the Cimmerians

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12. ^ Hammond, N. G. L. (1980). "The Extent of Persian Occupation in Thrace". Chiron: Mitteilungen der Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. 10: 53-61.

13. ^ Szemerényi, Oswald (1980). Four old Iranian ethnic names: Scythian - Skudra - Sogdian - Saka (PDF). Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. pp. 23-25. ISBN 978-3-7001-0367-7.

14. ^ Hammond, N. G. L.; Fol, Alexander. "Persia in Europe, apart from Greece". The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 4. Cambridge University Press. pp. 246-253. ISBN 978-0-521-22804-6.

15. ^ "Funerary Practices in Europe, before and after the Roman Conquest" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-18.

16. ^ Tonkova, Milenka (2010). "On human sacrifice in Thrace (on archaeological evidence)". In Cândea, Ionel; Sîrbu, Valeriu (eds.). Tracii şi vecinii lor în antichitate. Ed. Istros a Muzeului Brăilei. pp. 503-514. ISBN 978-973-1871-58-5. OCLC 844101517.

17. Archibald, Zofia (1998). The Odrysian Kingdom of Thrace: Orpheus Unmasked. Clarendon Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-19-815047-3. OCLC 1000881553.

18. ^ Friedrich Max Müller (1866). Lectures on the Science of Language Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in ... 1861 [and] ... 1863 : [first And] Second Series · Volume 1. Longmans Green. p. 111.

19. Gottfried Schramm: A New Approach to Albanian History 1994

20. ^ Linguistics Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 8 September 2012.

21. ^ Matzinger, Joachim (30 November 2016). "Die albanische Autochthonie hypothese aus der Sicht der Sprachwissenschaft" [Hypotheses on the Albanian origins by the perspective of linguistics] (PDF) (in German): 15-16.

22. T.N. Pollio (2021) The Art of Medieval Jewelry. An Illustrated History. McFarland, ^ ISBN 9781476681757, p. 70.

23. ^ Advertorial (2021-11-17). "Who Are the Thracians and Why Wine Was an Integral Part of Their Culture and Tradition 6000 Years Ago?". Wine Industry Advisor.

24. Hecataeus mentions a Thracian tribe called the ^ Xanthoi (Nenci 1954: fragment 191 ) apparently named for their fair (red) hair (Helm 1988: 145), quoted in Indo-European origins: the anthropological evidence Institute for the Study of Man, John v. day, 2001 p. 39.

25. ^ Matheseos Libri Octo, II. 1, quoted in Ancient Astrology Theory and Practice, Jean Rhys Bram 2005, pp. 14, 29.

26. Beth Cohen (ed.) ^ Not the Classical Ideal: Athens and the Construction of the Other in Greek Art. Leiden, 2000.

27. ^ Poulianos, Aris N., 1961, The Origin of the Greeks, Ph.D. thesis, University of Moscow, supervised by F.G.Debets

28. Most likely he was of ^ Thraco-Roman origin, believed so by Herodian in his writings,(Herodian, 7:1:1-2) and the references to his "Gothic" ancestry might refer to a Getae origin (the two populations were often confused by later writers, most notably by Jordanes in his ), as suggested by the paragraphs describing how "he was singularly beloved by the Getae, moreover, as if he were one of themselves" and how he spoke "almost pure Thracian".(Historia Augusta, Life of Maximinus, 2:5)

29. ^ "Bulgarian Archaeologists Uncover Story of Ancient Thracians' War with Philip II of Macedon". Novinite. June 21, 2011.

Best, Jan G. P. (1969). Thracian Peltasts: And Their Influence on Greek Warfare. Wolters-Noordhoff.

Cormack, James Maxwell Ross; Wilkes, John (2015). "Thrace". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.6417. ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5.

Diakonoff, I. M. (1985). "Media". In Gershevitch, Ilya (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 94-95. ISBN 978-0-521-20091-2.

Dumitrescu, VL. (1982). "The Prehistory of Romania from the earliest times to 1000 B.C.". In Boardman, John; Edwards, I. E. S.; Hammond, N. G. L.; Sollberger, E. (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History. pp. 1-74. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521224963.002. ISBN 978-1-139-05428-7.

Erdem, Zeynep Koçel; Şahin, Reyhan (2023). Thrace through the ages: pottery as evidence for commerce and culture from prehistoric times to the Islamic period. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Garašanin, M. (1982). "The Early Iron Age in the Central Balkan Area, c. 1000-750 B.C.". In Boardman, John; Edwards, I. E. S.; Hammond, N. G. L.; Sollberger, E. (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History. pp. 582-618. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521224963.015. ISBN 978-1-139-05428-7.

Howe, Timothy; Reames, Jeanne (2008). Macedonian Legacies: Studies in Ancient Macedonian History and Culture in Honor of Eugene N. Borza. Regina Books. ISBN 978-1-930053-56-4.

Loulanski, Tolina; Loulanski, Vesselin (2017). "Thracian Mounds in Bulgaria: Heritage at Risk". The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice. 8 (3): 246-277. doi:10.1080/17567505.2017.1359918. S2CID 134064117.

Marazov, Ivan, ed. (1998). Ancient gold: the wealth of the Thracians : treasures from the Republic of Bulgaria. Harry N. Abrams, in association with the Trust for Museum Exhibitions, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria. ISBN 978-1-882507-06-1.

Marinov, Tchavdar (2015). "Ancient Thrace in the Modern Imagination: Ideological Aspects of the Construction of Thracian Studies in Southeast Europe (Romania, Greece, Bulgaria)". In Daskalov, Roumen; Vezenkov, Alexander (eds.). Entangled Histories of the Balkans. pp. 10-117. doi:10.1163/9789004290365_003. ISBN 978-90-04-29036-5.

Best, Jan and De Vries, Nanny. Thracians and Mycenaeans. Boston, MA: E.J. Brill Academic Publishers, 1989. ISBN 90-04-08864-4.

Cardos, G.; Stoian, V.; Miritoiu, N.; Comsa, A.; Kroll, A.; Voss, S.; Rodewald, A. (2004). "Paleo-mtDNA analysis and population genetic aspects of old Thracian populations from South-East of Romania". Romanian Journal of Legal Medicine. 12 (4): 239-246.

Casson, Lionel (Summer 1977). "The Thracians". The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. 35 (1): 3-6. doi:10.2307/3258667. JSTOR 3258667.

Hoddinott, Ralph F. (1981). The Thracians. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-02099-X.

Modi, Alessandra; Nesheva, Desislava; Sarno, Stefania; Vai, Stefania; Karachanak-Yankova, Sena; Luiselli, Donata; Pilli, Elena; Lari, Martina; Vergata, Chiara; Yordanov, Yordan; Dimitrova, Diana; Kalcev, Petar; Staneva, Rada; Antonova, Olga; Hadjidekova, Savina; Galabov, Angel; Toncheva, Draga; Caramelli, David (December 2019). "Ancient human mitochondrial genomes from Bronze Age Bulgaria: new insights into the genetic history of Thracians". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 5412. Bibcode:2019NatSR...9.5412M. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-41945-0. PMC . PMID 30931994.

Samsaris, D. (1980). The Hellenization of Thrace during the Hellenic and Roman Antiquity. Thessaloniki (Doctoral thesis in Greek). doi:10.26268/heal.uoi.3216.

Webber, Christopher (2001). The Thracians, 700 BC - AD 46. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-329-3.

Webber, Christopher (2011). The Gods of Battle, The Thracians at War 1500 BC- 150 AD. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 978-1-84415-835-5.

The Yurta-Stroyno Archaeological Project. Studies on the Roman Rural Settlement in Thrace. P. Tušlová - B. Weissová - S. Bakardzhiev (eds.). Prague: Charles University, Faculty of Arts, 2022. ISBN 978-80-7671-068-9 (print), ISBN 978-80-7671-069-6 (online: pdf)

Kaul, Flemming (2011). "The Gundestrup Cauldron: Thracian Art, Celtic Motifs". Études Celtiques. 37 (1): 81-110. doi:10.3406/ecelt.2011.2326.

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The Thracians (; Ancient Greek: Θρᾷκες, Thrāikes; Bulgarian: Траки; Latin: Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history. Thracians resided mainly in Southeast Europe in modern-day Bulgaria, Romania and northern Greece, but also in north-western Anatolia (Asia Minor) in Turkey.

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By

Simon Anglim MA PhD MRUSI

The Bulgarian Cultural Institute London extends its gratitude to the author for writing this piece especially for our website.

The Romans said of the tribes of Thrace - modern south-eastern Bulgaria and neighbouring areas of Greece and Turkey - that if they ever stopped fighting among themselves, they would conquer the world. Thracian warriors were certainly different from what the Greeks or Romans were used to. Ancient Greek and Roman armies centred on disciplined armoured infantry trained for close combat - Greek hoplites of the sort romanticised in the film 300, or Roman legionaries. Thracians, though, had an individualist culture, and the hilly, heavily forested areas over which the Thracian tribes fought produced warfare based on raids and ambushes, making the Thracian peltast the most renowned light infantry soldier in the Classical world.

The peltast was named for his shield. The pelta was crescent-shaped, made of wicker covered with goat or sheepskin and carried by a central handgrip. Contemporary illustrations of Thracian peltasts show them wearing fox skin caps and simple tunics, or stripped for speed, and carrying pelta and javelins. Most also carried the traditional Balkan weapon, the rhomphaia or falx, a one or two-handed scythe with a curved iron blade, 120 cm long, which could behead a man, hamstring a horse or smash right through armour with a single blow. When, in the second century AD, the Romans fought the Dacians, the ancestors of today's Romanians, they had to deploy special units of legionaries with extra-heavy armour to face them.

Thracian tactics emphasised speed and evasiveness, contrasting with the shock action of hoplites or legionaries:
They came running down from the hills on all sides, hurling their javelins, falling back whenever the Athenian army advanced, and came on again as soon as it retired. So for some time the fighting went on this way, with alternate advances and retreats, in both of which the Athenians had the worse of it...the soldiers had become tired out with having to make constantly the same wearisome manoeuvres....The main body....rushed into the forest, where there were no paths by which they could escape and which was set on fire by the enemy so that it burned all around them...
(Thucydides III.98)

The Athenian commander in this action, Demosthenes, learned his lesson. Sent to destroy a Spartan force on the island of Pylos in 425 BC, he engaged 800 mercenary Thracian peltasts to support his hoplites. His experience against them taught Demosthenes how best to use them:

[They] occupied the highest points of ground, with the object of causing the enemy the greatest possible embarrassment; for he would be surrounded on all sides and have no single point against which to counter-attack; instead he would always be exposed to great numbers in every direction, and if he attacked those in front he would be shot at from the rear, if he attacked those on one flank, he would be shot at by those on the other. Wherever he went he would have enemies behind him, lightly armed and the hardest of all to deal with, since with their arrows, javelins, stones and slings they were effective at long range and it was impossible to come to close quarters with them; for...they had the advantage in speed...
(Thucydides IV.32)

From the Fourth Century BC onwards, peltasts became an integral part of Greek armies, and Thracians formed part of the army which Alexander took into Asia, where, at the Battle of the Jhelum in 326 BC they faced the most awesome weapon on the whole battlefield - Indian war elephants. The elephants came second best:

Alexander sent...the Thracian light-armed against the elephants, for they were better at skirmishing than fighting at close-quarters. They released a thick barrage of missiles on both elephants and drivers...
(Curtius VIII.14.24-25)

The javelin barrage soon told, a number of elephants going berserk and charging about aimlessly. The Thracians alternately chased and fled from the elephants, using typical skirmish tactics, sometimes closing to attack an elephant at close quarters when it became isolated from the rest, using falxes to hack off the elephant's feet.

No wonder the Spartans said that other Greeks were as afraid of peltasts as children were of the bogey man.

http://reading.academia.edu/SimonAnglim

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By Simon Anglim MA PhD MRUSI The Bulgarian Cultural Institute London extends its gratitude to the author for writing this piece especially for our website. The Romans said of the tribes of Thrace - modern south-eastern Bulgaria and neighbouring areas of Greece and Turkey - that if they ever stopped fighting among themselves, they would conquer the world.

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Background Information on Religion in Ancient Egypt

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Background Information on Religion in Ancient Egypt

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Religion influenced nearly every aspect of the ancient Egyptians' lives. As it was very important to them, they were bound by tradition and unwilling to change. The history of ancient Egyptian religion is rooted in Egypt's prehistory and it lasted for 3,000 years. With the exception of the Amarna Period (when King Akhenaten practiced monotheism), the ancient Egyptians believed in polytheism, or many gods.

Different gods rose and declined in popularity and importance over the millennia. There were 700 gods and goddesses and many were combined to create new deities. There was a hierarchy of gods, and Amun Ra (the Sun God) and Isis often juggled the supreme position.

The only instance of a drastic change was when King Akhenaten started his monotheistic religion. His Aten-centered cult lasted only about a decade and died with the pharaoh. Historians today, however, credit Akhenaten with being the first to practice monotheism.

Mythology

Gods were characters in myths the ancient Egyptians believed in that described and explained the universe as they knew it. These myths were strongly influenced by nature, especially patterns that they documented such as the path of the sun, the moon and the flooding and retreat of the Nile River.

Sunrise in the Creation Myth

Mythology influenced ancient Egyptian culture including religious rites, rituals and festivals. We know about these rites and rituals from symbols and scenes depicted on tombs and temple walls, in literature and even the jewelry that they wore.

The ancient Egyptians used mythology as a basis for everything they did, and as a means for securing a heavenly place in the afterlife.

Ancient Egypt Creation Myths

The lives of the ancient Egyptians centered on the Nile River. It gave them water to drink, water to bathe and swim in, fish to eat, water for crops, crocodiles to both worship and fear, and a trade route for exchanging goods. It could be serene and peaceful and it could be wicked and heartless when it flooded. It also became popular in many of their creation myths.

Nun lifting the solar barque

The main creation myth explained that before the beginning of time, Atum rose from out of the dark, roiling chaos called Nun (likely the Nile River). He created himself solely by the force of his will and his own thoughts. Once he rose, he created a hill because there wasn't anywhere to stand.

Standing alone in the world, Atum was neither male nor female. Atum did have an all-seeing eye that had the ability to roam the universe. Atum joined with his shadow to produce a daughter and a son. He named his son Shu, and he became the God of Air. He named his daughter Tefnut, and she became Goddess of Mist and Moisture.

The son and daughter were assigned the task to separate the roiling chaos into stability, law and order. They separated the chaos into light and dark. The order was called Maat and it formed the principles of life. Maat was a light and pure feather. Shu and Tefnut produced Nut, the sky, and Geb, the earth.

When they came into being, Geb and Nut were tangled together. Shu pushed Nut up into the sky where she looked over her mate, Geb. Even though they wanted to be together, Maat forced them to fulfill their earthly functions and be apart. Nut made rain for Geb and with it, Geb helped make things grow on the earth like flowers and trees. Nut gave birth to the sun every day at dawn where it would die at sunset at the end of the day.

Depiction of the Creation Myth

Shu and Tefnut produced other deities. They produced Isis, Queen of the Gods, Hathor, the Goddess of Love and Beauty, Osiris, the God of Wisdom and Justice and Seth, God of Evil. They produced Thoth, the God of Wisdom and Nephthys, Protector of the Dead.

Still, Maat was not fully realized and chaos was everywhere. Shu and Tefnut were lost inside Nu. Atum wanted to find his children so he sent out his all seeing eye. After some time, Shu and Tefnut returned with their father's eye. Atum was so happy to see his children that he wept tears of joy. When the tears hit the earth, they became the very first men.

The men who now populated the earth were bound to uphold the balance of Maat. It was man's job to tend to the earth and worship the gods. In return, the gods protected and loved the men.

Winged Ma'at

The Importance of the Afterlife

Ancient Egyptians loved life, but their life expectancy reached only 40 years old at best. They wanted their lives to continue beyond death, and strongly believed in preservation of the body and providing the deceased with all of the essentials they would need in the afterlife. To them, death was merely a brief disruption in life, and if the funeral practices were followed correctly, the deceased could live without pain in the Fields of Yalu.

However, a lot went into securing a person's right into the Fields of Yalu.

The person's heart had to be light.

Depiction of the Weighing of the Heart

The more good deeds a person participated in, the lighter their heart became. Ultimately, upon the person's death, Anubis weighed their heart against a feather from Ma'at's (Goddess of Truth and Justice) headdress. If the heart was heavy with bad deeds, it would be devoured by Ammut (soul eater), and the person would not live on in the afterlife. This belief ensured that the ancient Egyptians worked hard at making their souls light.

The ancient Egyptians believed there were two important aspects to everyone, the "ka" and the "ba." The ka was the person's life force, while the ba was their soul. Without the process of embalming, the ancient Egyptians believed a person couldn't pass into the afterlife successfully.

© Ashley Van Haeften - Ba Amulet

Religious Temples

Temples were built to honor the gods the ancient Egyptians worshiped. These temples contained features like enormous statues, gardens, crocodiles (on occasion), inscriptions and more. Some of the most impressive temples were the Temple of Amun at Karnak, Abu Simbel, the Temple of Isis at Philae and the Temple of Horus at Edfu.
Click here to learn more about The Temples of Ancient Egypt
© Walwyn - Edfu Temple

Rituals and Festivals

To honor and uphold Maat, the ancient Egyptians held many festivals and took part in many rituals. Some of these included:

Wepet Renpet: A celebration to mark the beginning of the year or "opening of the year". This date varied, because it directly corresponded with the Nile's annual flooding. The celebration usually took place in July. The festival ensured fertility of the farmlands.

The Sed Festival: This festival honored the Pharaoh's kingship. It was held every third year during the Pharaoh's reign. The festival included many rituals, including offering the spine of a bovine, which represented the pharaoh's strength.

The Festival of Khoiak: This festival honored Osiris' death and revival. When the Nile River receded, Egyptians planted seeds in Osiris beds to help ensure that their crops would flourish and revive, just as Osiris had.

© Captmondo - Fragment of Reliefs describing the Sed Festival

Divine Pharaohs

One of the strongest traditions in ancient Egyptian life was Divine Kingship. This was the belief that the Pharaoh (King) didn't just hold the title as political ruler of Egypt, he was also a God. The divine pharaoh was closely associated with Horus, who was the son of Ra, the Sun God.

Because of this, the pharaoh was very powerful, as were the priests. In times of plenty, ancient Egyptians believed it meant that the priests and the pharaoh were doing their job, while during bad times; it meant that the pharaoh and the priests were to blame.

© Tjflex2 - Golden Mask indicating
royal and godly status

The belief in divine pharaohs likely rose from one of two occurrences:

1. The king, fearful that his power and influence would be taken away, told his people and the public that the gods told him he was to be their earthly delegate. This would make the king untouchable in the eyes of the public and others, securing his position on the throne.

2. The second likely occurrence is that upon a king's return home after a long absence, he found his queen pregnant. She may have said that a god impregnated her to continue the succession of godly kings. The ancient Egyptians' lives were wound so tightly with their religion, that neither idea would be challenged. Nobody wanted to incur the wrath of the gods.

Documents of Religion

The Pyramid Texts: The Pyramid Texts are the oldest collection of religious inscriptions dating back to 3100 B.C. These texts are funerary inscriptions and were eventually divided and categorized. They eventually became part of The Book of the Dead.

The Rosetta Stone: Carved in 196 B.C., the Rosetta Stone was found in 1799 A.D. by French soldiers in a town called Rosetta. The Rosetta Stone is important because a man by the name of Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered it in 1822, allowing Egyptologists from there on to be able to read hieroglyphics. Although not itself a religious document, the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone enabled historians to read other religious documents of ancient Egypt.

The Coffin Texts: Partially derived from the Pyramid Texts, the Coffin Texts contain nearly 1,200 spells. Identified first during the First Intermediate Period, the Coffin Texts signified that those who were wealthy enough (not just the Pharaohs) could have an afterlife.

The Book of the Dead: Containing some of the information from the Pyramid Texts, the Book of the Dead was used as a funerary text in the New Kingdom to about 50 B.C. It can be translated to "Book of coming Forth by Day or "Book of the Emerging forth into the Light."

© rob koopman - Book of the Dead extract

Ancient Egypt Religion Facts

The most worshiped gods were Isis, Osiris, Horus, Anubis, Re, Nu and Seth.

Villages often chose a specific god to represent.

Individuals sometimes chose gods to support their profession.

Gods were often represented by animals like crocodiles, rams, lions and cats.

Afterlife rituals included the process of embalming (so the spirit would have a place to reside), the "opening of the mouth" ritual (to invoke the senses so they could be used in the afterlife), wrapping the body in cloth that contained jewels and amulets, and placing a mask over the face that closely resembled the deceased.

Local village gods were worshiped at shrines and privately in people's houses.

Polytheism was practiced for 3,000 years, with a brief stint when the Heretic Pharaoh, Akhenaten, worshiped only Aten.

Many creation myths were developed over time and throughout Egypt.

Important religious centers were called cult centers and included the Ogdoad of Hermopolis (8 gods), the Ennead of Heliopolis (9 gods), the Triad of Thebes and the Elephantine Triad of Memphis.

Only the pharaoh, the queen, priests and priestesses were allowed inside temples. Others could only go as far as the temple gates.

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Religion influenced nearly every aspect of the ancient Egyptians' lives. As it was very important to them, they were bound by tradition and unwilling to change. The history of ancient Egyptian religion is rooted in Egypt's prehistory and it lasted for 3,000 years.

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Background Information on what life (economics, social, political, etc...) was like in Cleopatra's Egypt

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Background Information on what life (economics, social, political, etc...) was like in Cleopatra's Egypt

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Misunderstood Moments in History - Cleopatra's Egypt

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The Roman Civil Wars that Included Egypt and Cleopatra After the Death of Julius Caesar  

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The Roman Civil Wars that Included Egypt and Cleopatra After the Death of Julius Caesar  

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Battle of Actium (31 BC) - Final War of the Roman Republic DOCUMENTARY

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Here is a simulated tour of Ancient Rome.

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"HISTORY IN 3D" - ANCIENT ROME 320 AD - 1st trailer

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An Artist Rendering of Building the Pyramids

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How to train as a gladiator

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Guide to Gladiator fight training - BBC History

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A historian analyzes a gladiator helmet artifact

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Mary Beard Shows Us a Roman Gladiator's Helmet - Meet the Romans with Mary Beard - BBC Two

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This is clips shows what Pompeii looks like today.

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Here are some brief facts about the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.

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Painting of Mt. Vesuvius Erupting.

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Ancient Roman Gladiator Fresco

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Map of the Roman Empire

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A brief guide into making an Ancient Egyptian Mummy.

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A list of a few Ancient Egyptian Gods and how they would have been depicted.

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General Map of Ancient Egypt

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A bust of Cleopatra. This provides an idea of what she most likely looked like.

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This brief video provides an overview of the life of Cleopatra

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A sample of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics

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Here is a cool website that will provide information and images of what the Ancient Olympic games were like.

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Here is a cool website that will provide information and images of what the Ancient Olympic games were like.

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The Greeks loved sport and the Olympic Games were the sporting event in the ancient calendar.

The Olympic Games began over 2,700 years ago in Olympia, in south west Greece. Every , around 50,000 people came from all over the Greek world to watch and take part. The ancient games were also a religious festival, held in honour of , the king of the gods.

There were no gold, silver and bronze medals. Winners were given a wreath of leaves and a hero's welcome back home. Athletes competed for the glory of their city and winners were seen as being touched by the gods.

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The Greeks loved sport and the Olympic Games were the sporting event in the ancient calendar. The Olympic Games began over 2,700 years ago in Olympia, in south west Greece. Every , around 50,000 people came from all over the Greek world to watch and take part.

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A brief overview on what daily life for a Spartan would be like.

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This is Sparta: Fierce warriors of the ancient world - Craig Zimmer

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Here is a brief video that gives some insight into what the day in the life of an Athenian would be like.

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A day in the life of an ancient Athenian - Robert Garland

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Here is a brief video that mentions some of the major cities and monuments that were developed during the age of Ancient Greece.

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Discovery Channel Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece

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YouTube Discovery Channel Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece

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The Ancient Greek World, the birthplace of western civilization, when man built extraordinary wonders to honor the gods. Greek culture took a giant leap, as architecture realized some extraordinary creations that were out of this world. The religious center of Olympia would become the worlds greatest sporting venue, beginning a tradition of world games, still celebrated today.

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This is a chart of the main Ancient Greek Gods. The chart also includes the Gods Roman name.

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Brief and fun summary of how the Trojan War began.

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A Map of some of the key places mentioned during the Trojan War.

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Real life model of what the Trojan Horse would have looked like.

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A Diagram of the Trojan Horse and a theory of how it was used.

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Ancient Greece

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10 Things You Might Not Know About Gladiators

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10 Things You Might Not Know About Gladiators

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Beloved by the masses and sometimes scorned by the elites, Roman gladiators were the working class heroes of antiquity. For more than 650 years, people flocked to arenas across the empire to watch these armed and highly trained warriors engage in a blood-soaked spectacle equal parts sport, theater and cold-blooded murder. Get the facts on the enigmatic men-at-arms behind Ancient Rome's most notorious form of entertainment.

They weren't always slaves.

Not all gladiators were brought to the arena in chains. While most early combatants were conquered peoples and slaves who had committed crimes, grave inscriptions show that by the 1st century A.D. the demographics had started to change. Lured by the thrill of battle and the roar of the crowds, scores of free men began voluntarily signing contracts with gladiator schools in the hope of winning glory and prize money. These freelance warriors were often desperate men or ex-soldiers skilled in fighting, but some were upper-class patricians, knights and even senators eager to demonstrate their warrior pedigree.

Gladiatorial bouts were originally part of funeral ceremonies.

Many ancient chroniclers described the Roman games as an import from the Etruscans, but most historians now argue that gladiator fights got their start as a blood rite staged at the funerals of wealthy nobles. When distinguished aristocrats died, their families would hold graveside bouts between slaves or condemned prisoners as a kind of macabre eulogy for the virtues the person had demonstrated in life. According to the Roman writers Tertullian and Festus, since the Romans believed that human blood helped purify the deceased person's soul, these contests may have also acted as a crude substitute for human sacrifice. The funeral games later increased in scope during the reign of Julius Caesar, who staged bouts between hundreds of gladiators in honor of his deceased father and daughter. The spectacles proved hugely popular, and by the end of the 1st century B.C., government officials began hosting state-funded games as a way of currying favor with the masses.

They didn't always fight to the death.

Hollywood movies and television shows often depict gladiatorial bouts as a bloody free-for-all, but most fights operated under fairly strict rules and regulations. Contests were typically single combat between two men of similar size and experience. Referees oversaw the action, and probably stopped the fight as soon as one of the participants was seriously wounded. A match could even end in a stalemate if the crowd became bored by a long and drawn out battle, and in rare cases, both warriors were allowed to leave the arena with honor if they had put on an exciting show for the crowd.

Since gladiators were expensive to house, feed and train, their promoters were loath to see them needlessly killed. Trainers may have taught their fighters to wound, not kill, and the combatants may have taken it upon themselves to avoid seriously hurting their brothers-in-arms. Nevertheless, the life of a gladiator was usually brutal and short. Most only lived to their mid-20s, and historians have estimated that somewhere between one in five or one in 10 bouts left one of its participants dead.

The famous "thumbs down" gesture probably didn't mean death.

If a gladiator was seriously wounded or threw down his weapon in defeat, his fate was left in the hands of the spectators. In contests held at the Colosseum, the emperor had the final say in whether the felled warrior lived or died, but rulers and fight organizers often let the people make the decision. Paintings and films often show the throngs giving a "thumbs down" gesture when they wanted a disgraced gladiator to be finished off, but this may not be accurate. Some historians think the sign for death may have actually been the thumbs up, while a closed fist with two fingers extended, a thumbs down, or even a waved handkerchief might have signaled mercy. Whatever gesture was used, it was typically accompanied by ear-piercing cries of either "let him go!" or "slay him!" If the crowd willed it, the victorious gladiator would deliver a grisly coup de grace by stabbing his opponent between the shoulder blades or through the neck and into the heart.

They were organized into different classes and types.

By the time the Colosseum opened in 80 A.D., gladiator games had evolved from freewheeling battles to the death into a well-organized blood sport. Fighters were placed in classes based on their record, skill level and experience, and most specialized in a particular fighting style and set of weaponry. Most popular were the "thraeces" and "murmillones," who fought with sword and shield, but there were also the "equites," who entered the arena on horseback; the "essedarii," who battled from chariots; and the "dimachaerus," who may have wielded two swords at once. Of all the popular gladiator types, perhaps the most unusual was the "retiarius," who was armed with only a net and a trident. These warriors tried to ensnare their opponents with their net before moving in for the kill, but if they failed, they were left almost entirely defenseless.

They only rarely fought against animals.

The Colosseum and other Roman arenas are often associated with gruesome animal hunts, but it was uncommon for the gladiators to be involved. Tangling with wild beasts was reserved for the "venatores" and "bestiarii," special classes of warrior who squared off against everything from deer and ostriches to lions, crocodiles, bears and even elephants. Animal hunts were typically the opening event at the games, and it wasn't unusual for scores of unfortunate creatures to be slaughtered in a single exhibition. Nine thousand animals were slain during a 100-day ceremony to mark the opening of the Colosseum, and another 11,000 were later killed as part of a 123-day festival held by the Emperor Trajan in the 2nd century A.D. While most animals were merely slaughtered for sport, others were trained to do tricks or even pitted against one another in fights. Wild animals also served as a popular form of execution. Convicted criminals and Christians were often thrown to ravenous dogs, lions and bears as part of the day's entertainment.

Women also fought as gladiators.

Female slaves were regularly condemned to the arena alongside their male counterparts, but a few citizens took up the sword of the own free will. Historians are not sure when women first suited up to fight as gladiators, but by the 1st century A.D. they had become a common fixture at the games. These lady warriors may not have been taken seriously in the patriarchal Roman culture-the Emperor Domitian enjoyed pitting women against dwarves-but a few appear to have proven themselves in single combat. A marble relief dating to around the 2nd century A.D. depicts a bout between two women dubbed "Amazon" and "Achillia," whom the inscription says fought to an honorable draw. Women also joined in the animal hunts, but their stint in the arena may have come to an end around 200 A.D., when the Emperor Septimius Severus banned their participation in the games.

Some gladiators organized themselves into trade unions.

Though they were regularly forced to come to blows in life-or-death combat, gladiators viewed themselves as a kind of brotherhood, and some even organized into unions, or "collegia," with their own elected leaders and protector deities. When a warrior fell in battle, these groups would ensure that their comrade received a proper funeral and grave inscription honoring his achievements in the arena. If the deceased had a wife and children, they would also see that the family received monetary compensation for their loss.

Several Roman emperors participated in staged gladiatorial bouts.

Hosting gladiator games was an easy way for Roman emperors to win the love of the people, but a few took it a step further and actually participated in combat. Several rulers performed in the arena including Caligula, Titus and Hadrian-though most likely under highly controlled conditions or with dull blades. A deadeye with a spear, the deranged Emperor Commodus often tried to wow the crowds by killing bears and panthers from the safety of a raised platform. He also competed in a few gladiator fights, though usually against inexperienced fighters or even terrified and poorly armed members of the audience. When he inevitably won the contests, Commodus made sure to reward himself with the massive sum of one million Roman sesterces.

Gladiators often became celebrities and sex symbols.

Though often dismissed as uncivilized brutes by Roman historians, the gladiators won massive fame among the lower classes. Their portraits graced the walls of many public places; children played with gladiator action figures made of clay; and the most successful fighters even endorsed products just like the top athletes of today. They were also renowned for their ability to make Roman women swoon. Graffiti from Pompeii describes one fighter who "catches the girls at night in his net" and another who is "the delight of all the girls." Many women wore hairpins and other jewelry dipped in gladiator blood, and some even mixed gladiator sweat-then considered an aphrodisiac-into facial creams and other cosmetics.

Watch BARBARIANS RISING Mondays at 9/8c on HISTORY.

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10 Things You May Not Know About Roman Gladiators

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Beloved by the masses and sometimes scorned by the elites, Roman gladiators were the working class heroes of antiquity. For more than 650 years, people flocked to arenas across the empire to watch these armed and highly trained warriors engage in a blood-soaked spectacle equal parts sport, theater and cold-blooded murder.

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Join us, ancient explorers, as we head 5,000 years back in time to discover fascinating facts about Ancient Egypt, from its ancient beginnings to Egypt today...

Facts about Ancient Egypt

1) Most Ancient Egyptian pyramids were built as tombs for pharaohs (rulers of Ancient Egypt) and their families. To date, over 130 pyramids have been discovered in Egypt.

2) The afterlife was incredibly important to the Egyptians. They believed that by preserving a dead person's body - which they did through the process of mummification - their soul would live on in the after-life forever.

3) The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. This incredible structure weighs as much as 16 Empire State buildings!

4) Both Egyptian men and women wore make-up. The eye-paint was usually green (made from copper) or black (made from lead). As well as offering protection from the sun, the Egyptians believed make-up had magical healing powers, too!

5) Unwrapped, the bandages of an Ancient Egyptian mummy could stretch for 1.6km. Yikes!

6) The Egyptian alphabet contained more than 700 hieroglyphs! Uncover the meaning behind these ancient symbols by checking out our awesome hieroglyphics feature.

7) Ancient Egyptians believed in more than 2,000 deities! They had gods for everything, from dangers to chores! Each had different responsibilities and needed to be worshipped so that life could be kept in balance.

8) Cats were considered to be a sacred animal by the Ancient Egyptians. It's thought that most families kept a cat as a pet, which they believed would bring the household good luck!

9) Love playing boardgames with your pals? Well, gang, so did the Ancient Egyptians! One popular game was , which was played for over 2,000 years! The game involved throwing sticks (in the same way we throw dice) to see how many squares to move your piece forward on the board.

10) The Ancient Egyptians invented lots of things we still use today, such as paper, pens, locks and keys and - believe it or not - toothpaste!

Did you know that we have a FREE downloadable Ancient Egypt primary resource? Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike!

Country fact file: Egypt today

Incredible ancient monuments, scorching deserts and bustling cities - this ancient country is now a sprawling, modern landscape! Read on to learn about the Egypt of today...

Egyptian flag

OFFICIAL NAME: Arab Republic of Egypt
FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Republic
CAPITAL: Cairo
POPULATION: 87, 562, 261
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: Arabic
MONEY: Egyptian pound, guinay
AREA: 1,001,449 square kilometres
MAJOR MOUNTAIN RANGES: Eastern Highlands
MAJOR RIVER: Nile
FLAG:

Map of Egypt

Egypt: geography and landscape

Without the Nile River, all of Egypt would be desert. Only about an 2.5cm of rain falls throughout Egypt each year. But each summer, the Nile river rises because of rains at its source, far to the south in Ethiopia. When this happens, floods cover the river's valleys, leaving sediments needed for trees, plants and crops to grow.

Egypt is often divided into two sections - Upper Egypt in the south and Lower Egypt in the north. The sections are named this way because the Nile flows from south to north. The river empties into the Mediterranean Sea, on the country's north coast.

Southern Egypt's landscape contains low mountains and desert. Northern Egypt has wide valleys near the Nile, and desert to the east and west. North of Cairo (Egypt's capital city) is the sprawling, triangular Nile River Delta. This fertile land is completely covered with farms.

Egypt's incredible nature

Egypt is home to a wide variety of animals and plants, including cheetahs, hyenas, crocodiles and cobras. The best places to see Egypt's wildlife are in its 21 protected regions, which include oases, deserts, mountains, coastal areas, river islands and wetlands.

Egyptians have always been close to the natural world. The ancient Egyptians left paintings and carvings (which can still be seen today!) of large animals like elephants, hippos, leopards and cheetahs. These animals were once common in Egypt, but they are now rare or extinct because of hunting and habitat loss.

The history of Egypt

The first people to live on the banks of the Nile were hunters and fishermen, who settled there over 8,000 years ago. They learned to grow crops and raise animals, and they began to build villages and towns. They traded with their neighbours and learned to sail boats. By 3000 B.C., a civilisation was established.

Around 3100 B.C., the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt were unified under a powerful king, later called a pharaoh. These kings built huge pyramids, temples and other impressive monuments. They also conquered other lands.

By 1000 B.C., Egypt had split into smaller parts and the kingdom was in decline. Strong neighbours attacked and took over Egyptian territory - in 31 B.C., Egypt fell under Roman control and centuries later, in A.D. 640, Muslim warriors took over Egypt. These Arab forces ruled Egypt for several centuries and founded the modern capital, Cairo.

In 1882, the British invaded and occupied Egypt. The British wanted control of the Suez Canal, which linked the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea and greatly shortened the sailing trip from Asia to Europe. The British stayed until Egypt declared independence in 1952.

Egyptian people and culture

About 90 percent of Egyptians are Muslim, which means they are followers of the Islam religion. About ten percent of Egyptians are Copts, one of the oldest branches of the Christian religion.

Egypt's population is growing rapidly. This puts strain on Egypt's resources, since most people live in a narrow strip of land along the Nile River. Having so many people in such a small area causes overcrowding everywhere, from schools and hospitals to apartment buildings and public transport.

Children are highly valued in Egypt, especially in rural areas where they help on family farms. Children are also expected to look after their parents in their old age.

Egyptian government and economy

Egypt's geography, population, history and military strength have made it highly influential in the region. Egypt is a democratic republic, although some critics claim that it is not truly democratic. Until 2005, there was never more than one presidential candidate to vote for.

Egypt's most valuable resources are oil and gas, which are exported to other countries. Other exports include metals, textiles, livestock and chemical products. Tourism is also an important part of Egypt's economy, with visitors flocking to see the famous ancient monuments and to enjoy the country's beautiful beaches.

Want more fascinating facts about Ancient Egypt? Then make sure you check out our other Ancient Egyptian features!

Image credits: Egypt map: National Geographic Maps. Mosque in Egypt: Rraheb, Dreamstime. Man pouring juice, Cairo, Egypt: Jackmalipan, Dreamstime. Outdoor cafe in Cairo, Egypt: Jackmalipan, Dreamstime. Sphinx and pyramid at Giza, Egypt: Javarman, Dreamstime. All other photographs and illustrations: Getty Images UK

Did you enjoy our facts about Ancient Egypt article? Discover more amazing facts about our planet in National Geographic Kids magazine!

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Ten Facts About Ancient Egypt | National Geographic Kids

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Join us, ancient explorers, as we head 5,000 years back in time to discover fascinating facts about Ancient Egypt, from its ancient beginnings to Egypt today... 1) Most Ancient Egyptian pyramids were built as tombs for pharaohs (rulers of Ancient Egypt) and their families. To date, over 130 pyramids have been discovered in Egypt.