Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient World

which supposedly started with the experiments of the king of Pontus, Mithridates VI Eupator (r. 120–63 b.c.e.), took root in Rom ...

Yaws leaves lesions on the skin and bone. Bejel aff ects the skin, bone, and cardiovascular system. Venereal syphilis in- volves ...

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831  ▶ religion and cosmology introduction When religion began is not known, but archaeologists, pa- leontologists, and histori ...

entertain the gods, who were present in their statues, observ- ing all. In ancient Mesopotamia statues of gods were paraded thro ...

clude those connected to birth and naming, coming of age, marriage, agriculture, change of seasons, and death. In many parts of ...

being. Not enough is known to say for sure how long this has been a general African belief. Complex early civilization, such as ...

homeland, not far away in Lower Egypt, where their kingdom had also to be administered. Nubians also interpreted the god Amon in ...

Saint Mary of Zion, is said to house the chest that contains the original Ten Commandments, the sacred Ark of the Cov- enant. Th ...

creation myth that developed at the cult center of Heliopolis during the Old Kingdom. Atum, the “complete one,” was fi rst creat ...

the sacred lake belonging to the temple. Certain texts suggest that this was performed twice each day and twice each night while ...

Th e idea of religion permeated all aspects of ancient Egyptian society. religion and cosmology: Egypt 839 ...

Fitting somewhere between the high and low clergy were the specialists, those who performed specifi c functions with the cult. S ...

Mesopotamians had no hope of any kind of reward of eternal life or paradise. During life each person was under the protection of ...

supremacy is generally thought to have been the inspiration for the Greek creation myth in Hesiod’s Th eogony. Th e epic is esse ...

practice of exorcism was) and fi nd the right ritual to pay for the particular off ense. Sometimes the immediate cause of evil w ...

in religious terms. A small portion of Zoroastrians refused to convert to Islam, and their descendents continue to live in prese ...

JAPAN Th e ancient Japanese had a complex set of animistic religious beliefs. Many historians and archaeologists have argued tha ...

Th e Vedic Period lasted from about 1500 to 600 b.c.e. Th e Vedic culture emphasized sacrifi cing to its gods, but it may not ha ...

cosmos, Brahma broke out of his shell, using half of the shell to make the sky and the other half to make the earth. He then cre ...