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The Maya "Murals" Structure at San Gervasio
Aptly named, this Maya structure contains fragmented murals that were painted with vivid colors of red, blue, ochre, and black. They were originally covered with geometric motifs, stepped lines, Grecians frets, and spirals. This structure...

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Classical Maya Incense Container
This painted incense container is made from cut stone and dates from c. 600-900 CE. Maya artisans created it in what is present-day Guatemala during the Classical era. (Musée du Cinquantenaire, Brussels)

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Statue of Maya
Seated figure of Maya. He was the a governor and chief of the priests in the 10th District of Egypt, who was appointed by Thutmose III (the birth and throne cartouches of Thutmose III appear on the right shoulder). He wears the "gold of honor"...

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Maya Ossuary Structure at San Gervasio
This structure located at the Maya archaeological site of San Gervasio on the Mexican island of Cozumel was so named as numerous human remains were found inside during archaeological excavation. The temple no longer exists, but it originally...

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Maya Noble Relief from Tabasco
This Maya relief depicting a nobleman is made from chalkstone, and it comes from what is present-day Tabasco, Mexico. It dates from the Late Classic Period around the year 780 CE. (Museum Rietberg, Zürich).

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Cuneiform: The Earliest Form of Writing from Ancient Mesopotamia
Cuneiform is a writing system or script which was developed by the ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia between 3500 and 3000 BCE. It is the earliest form of writing in the world and is thought to have developed so people could communicate long-distance...

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Cracking Ancient Codes: Cuneiform Writing - with Irving Finkel
Writing is generally agreed to be among the greatest inventions in human history, perhaps the greatest invention, since it made history possible. Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe You can read more about...

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Writing Old Norse in Runes (remake/improved)
Writing in runes isn't a simple one-to-one conversion of one letter to one rune. This video shows how Old Norse was written using the runes of the Younger Futhark, and then looks at examples of real inscriptions from the Viking Age. Contents...

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The day the Greeks invented vowels - History of Writing Systems #8 (The Alphabet)
Your vowels were invented in Greece, giving birth to the first "true" alphabet. Watch as your new toga-clad friend turns your consonant abjad into a consonant-vowel alphabet. It's such a useful mapping of letters to sounds that neighbor...

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Ghosts in the Ancient World
A belief in an afterlife was central to every major civilization of the ancient world and this encouraged the recognition of the reality of ghosts as the spirits of the departed who, for one reason or another, either returned from the realm...