The SIS Building also commonly known as the MI6 Building, is the headquarters of the British Secret Intelligence Service (otherwise known as "MI6"). The building was designed by Terry Farrell, built by John Laing and resembles an ancient Babylonian ziggurat.
Before Europeans arrived in the Great Lakes area, in the 16th century, people were living in societies that were getting more and more complex. In 1000 AD they were living in year round villages. By 1500 AD these villages were up to five hectares large and lined with rows of palisades. Furthermore they were banding together into political alliances that Europeans called “confederacies” for defensive purposes.
The question I posed, to four prominent Great Lakes archaeologists, is this – if Europeans, for whatever reason, had not landed on these shores, would the native people of the Great Lakes have built cities and created a written language? Just like we saw in Mesopotamia or the Indus Valley?
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I think you would have seen greater confederacies, larger entities, joining together
Submitted by Sean Williams on Fri, 12/04/2009 - 19:53
The lights are up, Noddy Holder's voice is ringing in your ears and you've already eaten all your advent chocolate in a gluttonous frenzy. Yes it's Christmas; that time of year reserved for frantic last-minute shopping, burnt turkeys and half-drunk carols in the front room. It's also the Christian celebration of Jesus' birth, of course: and even that bears more than a passing similarity to the ancient god Mithra. So where did some of the Christmas traditions we take for granted actually come from? The truth stretches back a lot longer than you might think. Here are ten yuletide customs born in the ancient world.
Nippur is an extremely important ruined ancient Mesopotamian city, situated in modern Iraq. While never an especially powerful political centre, it was a hugely influential religious centre as the base of the cult of Enlil, the supreme god of the Sumerian pantheon, whom the Mespotamians believed created mankind. It is also one of the most ancient cities in human history, at around 7,000 years old.
During its peak, around 2500 BC, Nippur boasted multiple large temples, government buildings and businesses. Its inhabitants were very literate for the time - over 40,000 inscribed clay Sumerian and Akkadian tablets have been found there, bearing all from epic tales such as the Creation Story to legal documents, medical records and school texts. Powerful trading connections have been revealed in the range of objects originating from such other civilizations as Babylonia, Egypt, Persia, the Indus Valley, and Greece.
