Problems that are difficult for scientists to understand

Chapter 15 Ancient Civilization Tracing (3)
It is not easy to prevent the internal organs of the human body from rotting, so they simply took these organs out of the body, blotted the water inside with salt, soaked them in cooking oil or liquid rosin, and then used a kind of ka Nopic's jar-like container was preserved and buried with the mummy in the mausoleum (later, the organs were buried inside the body after being wrapped in linen).They also often used a long tube through the nostrils to drain the fluid from the corpse's head.The ancient Egyptians believed that these things were of little value. The heart is the source of human wisdom and emotion. Only the heart is the measure of time, so they kept the heart in their bodies and dug out other organs with knives. .

After emptying the internal organs, they began to smear the body with palm oil, and sometimes added some embalming substances such as pitch or rosin before sewing the body.Then put this clean corpse on a bed covered with a layer of natron, dehydrated salt and other preservatives, and then put more natron on the corpse.Table salt is originally very corrosive to the skin and is also the cause of hair loss, but the refined table salt has completely different special effects, which can protect the skin and hair.

After soaking in natron for 40 days, after the water in the corpse was completely drained, the raw materials on the surface of the corpse were washed with Nile water, and finally wrapped in linen.

Burialists also often applied rosin and ointment directly on the skin of the corpse, making it as smooth and shiny as seal skin, and at the same time exuding a refreshing fragrance.In the No. 20th Dynasty, the burialists pre-placed things such as sand, sawdust, and flax under the skin.These things prevent the body from shrinking and deforming due to dehydration.

From the time of Ramses III, an artificial eyeball was used.The tomb masters put a baked rhyme porcelain eyeball into the eye socket so that the eyelids would not sink, and some eyeballs were ground out of stone.But by the time of Ramses IV, small onions became a cheap and easy-to-find alternative.

In addition to these procedures, the burialists have to spend a lot of effort to remove the nails of the corpse, and then wrap each toe with cloth.What's even more amazing is that some pharaohs even wore golden jade garments sewn from pieces of gold leaf.A total of 70 days is required for the entire mummy × production process.

In addition, they have to collect together the fragments from the body that would otherwise be thrown away.They even left rags with bodily fluids on.They are going to bury these sorted things next to the body like internal organs.Because they think that these are the things of the Pharaohs during their lifetime, and they also need these things in their lives after death.

An ancient book recorded a description of resurrection after death: "Your body will come to life, your bones will support your body, and all parts of your body will be reorganized!"

The murals on the walls of some tombs excavated vividly show the ancient Egyptians' beautiful imagination of resurrection after death.The corpse's legs began to bend slowly, the torso also began to swell and swell, and the soul and body re-integrated together.

So the once living king began to worship the sun god to express his gratitude to him for giving him another life.

Can the soul really be immortal?Can mummies give pharaohs eternal life?Maybe only the pharaohs themselves know.

Why the Harappan Civilization Declined
No one knows exactly when the Harappan civilization began, and the time of its decline is inferred.The archaeological work on the Harappan civilization only started in modern times. We can only speculate on the degree of its civilization, and more information needs to be discovered in the future.

It is generally believed that the civilization era of ancient India began in the Vedic era in the late 1000 BC.Yet new archaeological evidence proves that ancient India was inhabited throughout prehistoric times up to the eve of civilization. In the 19s, British archaeologists discovered a new ancient civilization in the Indus River Basin—the Harappan civilization. This civilization had flourished for several centuries and then suddenly declined.

So how did this ancient civilization be destroyed?

In the early 19th century, many ancient objects and two seals were unearthed in Harappa, Punjab, India, which attracted people's attention. In 1922, Indian archaeologists discovered Mohenjo-daro, an ancient city ruins submerged in dust and sleeping for thousands of years, under an ancient stupa in the Sindh area. Similar seals and ancient objects were also unearthed.

The ruins of these two ancient cities unearthed in the Indus River Basin, with complex designs and colorful cultural relics, are like fascinating scrolls, allowing people to see the highly developed culture of ancient India, one of the cradles of world civilization.Later, a number of cultural sites were unearthed one after another. According to the habit of naming the first discovered place in the archaeological circle, they are collectively called "Harapa culture".

The Harappan culture is a long forgotten culture.There is not even a legend about it in the surviving documents, and of course there are no historical records about that era.Since the seals of the Indus Valley were found in the ruins of the Mesopotamia, archaeologists speculate that between 2350 BC and 1770 BC, people in the Indus Valley and the Mesopotamia had commercial exchanges.Based on this, it can be generally inferred that the Indus Valley Civilization, the Harappan Civilization, existed from 2300 BC to 1750 BC.

On the more than 2000 seals that have been discovered, there are more or less inscriptions, which shows that the Harappan culture has entered the civilization period.Some of the symbols in the text are pictographic, and some may represent syllables.

Scholars have different statistics on the total number of these characters, and there are four to five hundred in total.Scholars have tried to interpret this text in various related languages, but so far have not been able to draw a generally accepted conclusion.Therefore, at present, we can only understand this civilization from archaeological materials.

The main economic sector of the Harappan culture is agriculture.Archaeologists have found agricultural implements such as sickles.

The crops cultivated at that time included barley, wheat, beans, sesame, vegetables, cotton and so on.Although no rice was found in the sites in the Indus Valley, rice husks were found in the Lothar site (in present-day Gujarat), so it is possible that early Indians had already started to grow rice in places with abundant water sources.

In addition to some field crops, dates and fruits are also commonly eaten by people.People at that time also ate beef, mutton, pork, poultry, and fish.They have domesticated cattle (including buffalo), goats, sheep, pigs, donkeys, dogs and various poultry. It is not yet possible to determine whether horses have been domesticated, because horse bones have only been found on the surface of Mohenjo Daro.

Although there are still many stone tools in the Harappa cultural sites, such as stone knives, stone mortars, stone pots, stone weighing hammers, etc., there are also a large number of copper and bronze tools, such as sickles, saws, axes, chisels, fishhooks and other tools, as well as daggers , arrowheads, spearheads and other weapons.In addition to copper and bronze, people also mastered the technology of processing gold, silver, lead, tin and other metals.The discovered gold, silver, and copper jewelry include necklaces, rings, bracelets, arm bracelets, ankle bracelets, earrings, etc., showing the exquisite skills of craftsmen at that time.

Weaving and pottery are two important handicraft sectors of the Harappan culture.Spindles and spinning wheels have been found in many ruins, and they were important tools for spinning wool and cotton at that time.Dyeing vats were found in the ruins, which shows that the technology of dyeing textiles was mastered at that time.The blanks of pottery are basically made on pottery wheels, and some are also made by hand.Pottery is fired in a kiln to make pottery.Pottery kilns have been discovered, and they are all circular, divided into upper and lower layers: the upper layer places the pottery blanks, and the lower layer burns fire, and the middle layer has gaps so that the flame can burn to the upper layer.A large number of pottery vessels have been found, including various daily utensils without decoration, and some exquisite ones decorated with pictures.

Based on the development of agriculture and handicrafts, Harappan culture also had a fairly developed business.At that time, gold was probably imported from South India, silver was probably imported from Afghanistan and Lang, and copper was probably imported from South India and Baluchistan.The main means of land transportation is bullock carts.Several seals of the Harappa culture have been found in the ancient sites of the Mesopotamia, and some cylindrical seals and metal products from the Mesopotamia have also been found in the Harappa cultural sites. The trade with the Mesopotamia is probably by sea. ongoing.Some of the seals of Harappan culture are engraved with the figure of a ship, which was probably the tool of sea transportation at that time.

The hundreds of ruins of the Harappan culture include many small village ruins, but it is still the city that can embody this cultural feature.Cities, regardless of size, have one thing in common, that is, they include two parts, the Acropolis and the Lower City.Among the many urban ruins, there are only a few larger ones, among which Harappa and Mohenjo-daro are the largest, and the site is better preserved and the most clearly discovered so far is Mohenjo-daro.Therefore, Mohenjo-Daro can be seen a glimpse of the urban structure of Harappan culture.

In the west of Mohenjo-daro is the Acropolis built on a high brick platform, and in the east is the lower city where residences, industries and commerce are located.These two parts are surrounded by a thick brick wall to form a whole.The center of the Acropolis is a large public bath, 12 meters long, 7 meters wide, and 2.4 meters deep, built with bricks and coated with asphalt to prevent water leakage.What are these baths used for?People have different opinions.Some say it was built for bathing, while others think it was built for performing some kind of religious ceremony.There is a well near the bath as a source of water supply, and a drainage channel is also built in the bath.This is probably the place where people bathed before holding important ceremonies at that time.

To the west of the baths there are 27 rows of brick buildings with ventilation ducts, apparently barns.

The houses at the ruins are mainly built of red bricks. The size, height and equipment of the houses are very inconsistent. There are more than a dozen buildings and simple thatched huts. The streets and alleys form a complete set of well-organized transportation network.

There are still many lampposts on the street, and street lights are probably illuminated at night.Beneath the network of streets there is a whole network of sewers.Larger buildings usually have their own wells, and almost every building has a bathroom.The bathroom floor is watertight and sloped so that the water flows to a corner of the house where pipes are installed to direct the water outside to the street sewer.

The cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa are both large in size, with a total area of ​​about 85 square meters each.The number of residents, according to scholars' estimates, each has about 3.5 people.The rich cultural relics preserved in the two cities have shown the high creativity of the ancient Indian people.The splendid Harappan culture is rare in the world, and it shows that the Indus Valley was already highly civilized at that time.

Since the text has not been successfully interpreted, the creator of this civilization has not yet been identified.Scholars have put forward various hypotheses.Some people say that they are Sumerians, but there is no real evidence; some people say that they are Aryans, but the culture of Aryans is obviously different from that of Harappa; many scholars believe that they are Dravids. Tu people, but it cannot be confirmed from their language; some scholars believe that they are of mixed race, which is only a speculation.

However, after such a splendid culture flourished for several centuries, it suddenly declined in 1750 BC. Since then, the light of the Harappan civilization in the Indus Valley has been extinguished.How did this ancient civilization be destroyed?Scholars also have various speculations.

Some scholars believe that due to the decrease in rainfall, the Sindh area has become increasingly dry and even desertified, and the residents have had to move elsewhere.Some scholars believe that the decline of the Harappan culture was the result of catastrophes such as earthquakes, mudslides, and cyclones.Some scholars believe that due to the diversion of the Indus River, the original fertile soil of the valley became sandy soil, and people were forced to leave.

The above speculations all attribute the decline of Harappan culture to various natural disasters, but the natural disasters are not enough to explain-why did the cities distributed on such a vast land decline together?
Some scholars believe that due to over-cultivation of the land, neglect or destruction of water conservancy facilities, and long-term deforestation, digging, and burning bricks, the soil gradually deteriorated, resulting in the decline of the Harappan culture.Some scholars believe that the prosperity of urban civilization in the Indus Valley attracted the invasion of hill tribes, resulting in the destruction of civilization.

Some scholars believe that the decline of the Harappan culture was the result of the Aryan invasion.Although this theory was popular for a while, the Aryan invasion occurred after 1500 BC, and it has now been determined that the Harappan culture had declined before then.Therefore, the reasons for the decline of the Harappan culture remain an open question.

The Mystery of the Rise and Fall of Minoan Civilization
Cretan civilization is the origin of ancient Greek civilization.The difference from the ancient civilizations in the East is that the ancient civilizations in the East were slave societies under the village communal system, with a self-sufficient and closed nature, while the ancient Greek civilization was a slave society with a very developed city-state commodity economy.This difference will bring about great differences in the development and outcome of these two civilizations.

The Aegean civilization first originated in Crete, and then spread to mainland Greece and Asia Minor.From 1700 BC to 1400 BC, the Minoan civilization developed to its heyday, and soon declined suddenly, and the center of Aegean civilization moved to Mycenae on the Greek peninsula.

The Bronze Age culture was distributed in the Aegean region from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. In the 19s and 80s of the 20th century, under the inspiration of "Homer's Epic" and other legends, the German archaeologist Schliemann successfully excavated the ancient city of Trox in the northwest of Asia Minor and Mycenae, The relics such as Tailinsi have brought back to the world the long-lost Aegean culture. In the early [-]th century, the British archaeologist × Wensi excavated important sites such as the ancient city of Nossus in Crete and the palace of Deminos, which greatly enriched the content of this culture.

The earliest Neolithic cultural sites in Crete began around 6000 BC, and then developed relatively steadily, and most of the residents lived in caves.After 2500 BC, the number of bronze wares and bronze wares gradually increased, and the manufacture of daggers accounted for a large proportion. "Golden art probably came from Asia Minor and the Cyclades Islands. The production of stone vases, seals, and gold ornaments is eye-catching. The development of handicraft production leads to further division of labor, commodity exchange and social differentiation. From a large number of private seals, Judging from the luxurious gold and silver jewelry and the large L-shaped buildings found in Eastern Crete, private ownership and the polarization between rich and poor had developed considerably in the late 3000s BC.

The culture of Crete was deeply influenced by West Asia and also influenced by Egypt.Around 2500 BC, immigrants from North Africa moved to South Crete and mixed with the local residents.Blue-glazed pottery beads, colored vases, ivory, and ornaments were imported from Egypt.But Cretan culture was not a copy and imitation of foreign cultures from the very beginning, but absorbed and transformed them to gradually form its own style.

Around 2000 BC, the first state appeared in Crete.The biggest feature of the Cretan civilization is the construction of palaces, and each city-state is mostly formed around the palace.The court is the political, economic and cultural center of the country.The Crete area is prone to earthquakes. Due to natural and man-made disasters, many palaces have been destroyed and rebuilt.

学者们根据这一特点将克里特文化的发展分成前王宫时期（约公元前3000年代）、古王宫时期（公元前2000—前1700年）、新王宫时期（公元前1700—公元前1450或公元前1380年）和后王宫时期（公元前1450或公元前1380—前1100年）。

The period of the ancient royal palace was the formation and initial development period of Cretan civilization.The earliest writing in Europe appeared in Crete at this time.

Crete is densely forested, and the eastern plains are suitable for farming.Agriculture is dominated by the cultivation of grains, olives, and grapes.In addition to food, olive oil and wine were also bulk items produced. The royal palaces had specially set up storage rooms to store oil and wine in huge urns. Often the warehouses were connected in rows, and there were thousands of urns.It can be seen that oil and wine are important in agricultural production and daily life.

Crete's main achievements in economic development include industry, commerce and maritime trade.Its handmade products are famous for their exquisite beauty, and the daily necessities and handicrafts made of copper, gold and silver are quite exquisite.Pottery is particularly outstanding.A kind of painted pottery called Camares produced in the ancient palace period is delicate and lovely, with elegant painting, and is recognized as the most exquisite painted pottery in the ancient world.Crete's shipbuilding industry is also very developed. Merchant ships travel to and from various parts of the Mediterranean Sea. There are also a considerable number of naval ships, which have become the main defense forces of various cities. Therefore, the cities and royal palaces of Crete do not have thick walls and high fortifications. The ancient civilization's emphasis on city defense architecture is completely different.Crete traded widely in various parts of the Mediterranean with its agricultural and industrial products, and had a particularly close relationship with Egypt. Most of the gold, ivory, soapstone, seals and high-end luxury goods used were obtained from Egypt.

(End of this chapter)