Still life

The morning after a group dinner, or party, or impromptu gathering (with this many people, it's always a party), the house seems especially quiet. The flowers I plucked during a walk with T are still open, my laundry hangs waiting for the clouds to burn away, and Scout hasn't barked yet today. 

Babylon, City Maps, Neolithic Art

It's been a whole month since my last post, but with good reason and I am spending so much neck-cramping time bent over books, watching historical documentaries, and organizing color coded flashcards (yes!) in my pursuit of a passing score on an important test. Ancient History is something I barely understood when it was compulsory in elementary school and barely heeded in college when my focus was on more modern eras. I am astonished at each truth I encounter, from the first forms of writing and art to engineering of humans who had only recently developed language. 

Here are some cool things you might find fascinating too:

• Babylonian gates (second civilization out of the Fertile Crescent):

• Museum of the City (particularly Mesoamerican sustainability)

• Development of writing, and the first sound-symbol "true" alphabet from the Phoenicians

• Pacal the Great, Mayan ruler / self-described God, Alien encounter?