Burials
Leonard Wooley published a drawing of the burial of the retinue of a king of Ur, ostensibly to serve him in the afterlife. The drawing is titled `Death Pit, PG 1237'. It is approximately square with 2 parallel sides an the other 2 sides are uneven in length. In all 74 bodies are drawn in a crouched position. The pagan belief in an immortal soul was especially advanced in ancient Egypt. Original Hebrew believes taught that man has no advantage over animals in death but that there would be a resurrection at the end of time. (Genesis 7:21, 22; Job 4:17 - man is mortal; Job 14:12-14; 19:25; Psalm 104:29) However, many Hebrews probably had no clear understanding of these doctrinal points. [Ovid R. Sellers, `Israelite Belief in Immortality' in BA, Vol. VIII, Feb. 1945, p. 1-(7)-16; From Wooley, `Ur Excavations', Vol. II, plate 71.]

Ziggurats, Pyramids and Mayan Pyramid Temples

Southern Mexico in its Yucatan peninsula was the location where the ancient Mayas built the well known temples of Uxmal and Chichen Itza. Other Mayan cities like Tikal and Palenque in the state of Chiapas not far from the Tabasco border are perhaps less traveled but contain well known examples of Mayan art. Before the city spread the lush, tropical green stretches 80 miles away to the Gulf of Mexico. Surrounded as it was by 120 foot tall trees, among them mahagonies, red cedars and sapodillas, known for their sap, the humid region can be tryingly hot for tourists.

Some have assumed that the overall similarity or lack thereof of the step pyramid of Zoser and the 79 foot tall Mayan El Castillo pyramid suggest architectural ties and therefore there ought to be a tie between the Egyptian and the Mayan people. The similarity seems to be only roughly speaking and not in detail. But the images of the Mayan king Chan-Bahlum and his father Pacal in connection with the Aztec Calendar are certainly interesting subjects and presented by H.W.Goodkind, `Lord Kingsborough Lost His Fortune Trying to Prove the Maya were Descendants of the 10 Lost Tribes', in BAR, Sep/Oct 1985, p. 54ff.

Even if one would grant some kind of connection or knowledge between Mesopotamia or Egypt and the Inca or Mayan culture it seems amazing why the system of writing in the old world was not adopted in the new world. Instead the Incas for example used a system of knotted strings called the quipu which was made in various sizes, colors and configurations in order to pass on data dealing with taxes, crop yields and such things. But an alphabetic system did apparently not develop.

For older and new colorful images and the story of the 1883 expedition of A.P. Maudslay to Quirigua, Guatemala, the sacred water hole of Cenote, the 1910 discovery of the Mayan `Pyramid of the Moon' in the ancient city of Teotihuacan, Mexico and the Monte Alban ceremonial center of Zapotec see `The Adventure of Archaeology', Nat. Geogr. Book, p. 187-197.
Another intersting site to study is the old Mayan city of Copán in Honduras first found by European (Spanish) priests in 1576.

For images of Inca, Chimu and Mochica, gold objects see John Hemming's, `The Lost Cities of the Incas' in Discovery of Lost Worlds, p. 246-271. The article features a 16 inch ceremonial knife with a copper blade and gold handle in the shape of a man inlaid with round turquoise buttons; a 3 inch Mochica ear disk adorned with a warrior, combines turquoise, gold and shell; a 14 inch long hammered golden Mochica vessel in the form of a puma (lion) hide; a life size Chimu arm and hand of beaten gold and a 6 inch Inca statue of electrum - gold and silver alloy.

Chichén Itzá

See K.M. Romey, `Diving the Maya Underworld' in Archaeology, May/Jun 2004, p. 16-23; The article shows images of the skull and rocks found at the bottom of the cenote, the water hole itself with a schematic drawing, jaw bones found in the well, and an image with the cenote in the foreground and the Mayan Chichen Itza ziggurat in the background.

For information on `The Sacred Well of the Maya' showing a drawing of a reconstruction of the ancient Mayan town of Chichén Itzá with the sacred well in the foreground and its appearance in more recent times including the dredge work carried on there in and around the turn of the 18th/19th centuries see J.J. Thorndike, `The Discovery of Lost Worlds', American Heritage 1979, p. 52-55.

The ziggurat of:

1. Abu Habbah
2. Akar Kuf
3. Ashur: The ruins of this ziggurat were ca. 150 feet high in the late 19th century.
4. Bel
5. Babil
6. Bir
7. Borsippa
8. Etemenaki
9. Nabu
10. Nimrud (Calah)
11. Nippur
12. Ur

The Discoveries
The extent and importance of the ruins of Kalat Sharkat were first pointed out in modern times by C.J. Rich, Consul General of Baghdad. They lie about 40 miles from the mouth of the Great Zab, 50 miles from Nimrud, and 75 miles from Mossul. Layard visited them in 1840 and found there the headless statue of Shalmaneser II (BM#849). H. Rassam under the direction of H.C. Rawlinson discovered there three terra-cotta cylinders of Tiglath-Pileser I (BM#91.033-91.035). These mention the rebuilding of the temple of Anu and Ramman by Shamshi-Ramman. When the cylinder inscriptions were read it was generally accepted that the ruins of Kalat Sharkat contained the remains of the city of Ashur, the oldest capital of Assyria.