Temples, ancient

Doreal. The emerald tablets of Thoth-the-Atlantean a literal translation of one of the most ancient and secret of the great works of the ancient wisdom / translated by Doreal. Together with An interpretation of the emerald tablets / by Dr. Doreal. Sedalia (CO) Brotherhood of the White Temple, 2002. 192p. 

Nibley, Hugh.Temple and cosmos beyond this ignorant present / Hugh Nibley edited by Don E. Norton illustrations directed by Michael P. Lyon. Edited by Don E. Norton. Salt Lake City (UT) Provo (UT) Deseret Book Co. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1992. xix, 597 p. 

Bible, therefore, the concept of emanation was left out. The menorah in the ancient Temple of Jerusalem was said to symbolize the burning bush but its seven oil lamps also symbolized the seven days of creation. 

Figure 2.4 The gods supposedly built the ancient temple Etemenanki, which was dedicated to Marduk. The seven steps on the temple are probably related to the seven days of creation or the seven emanations of the Enuma Elish. (Robert M. Place)...

Figure S.l. Mayan priest smoking tobacco, 1000 bc. Ancient temple carvings depict Mayan priests in Central America smoking tobacco through a pipe. Tobacco leaves became widespread in medicine for use on wounds as a means of reducing pain. Later the Aztecs incorporated smoke inhalation into religious rituals.

Because natural gold is never pure, ancient technologists had to develop impressive metallurgical skills to separate it from impurities such as silver. In Egypt and Mesopotamia, where these methods were devised, metalworking was sacred and metallurgists commonly laboured in compounds attached to temples. The Babylonian god Marduk was Lord of Gold . 

From the painted walls of tombs, temples and other structures which have been protected from exposure to weather, and from the decorated surfaces of pottery, chemical analysis often is able to give us knowledge of the materials used for such purposes. Such data also serve at times to assist in the interpretation of the often unclear or incomplete descriptions given by extant ancient writers. 

In the early centuries of our era, Rome and Athens contained temples of Egyptian Isis, and shrines to Mitlira, the Persian sun god, were frequent in Greek and Roman cities, symptoms of a decline in the power of the ancient religions in the centers of civilization under the Empire. 

It is difficult today to determine what value such coins had in ancient times, but it is certainly apparent that these were the small change of their era and locale. Roman coins were available and used throughout the Roman Empire, but these coins were used within the smaller, localized area of influence of the Herodian kings (2). Whether Herodian coins were used in other transactions besides those involving the Temple treasury is also difficult to determine exactly. But it seems logical to conclude that there was most likely other local, commercial uses for such coinage as well (I, 2). 

The ancient Egyptians were adept at creating water paints, which were used to decorate the interiors of their pyramids, temples, and palaces. Much like the cave painters paints, their colors were earth tones—yellow ochre, sienna, red, black, and white—but two new colors were added blue and green. Later, between A.D. 117 and 161, the early Christians in Egypt made paints of pigment particles suspended in hot beeswax. Their works, called encaustic paintings, are still well preserved and brilliant in color. In the eighth century, the Phoenicians obtained a vibrant purple dye from a particular kind of oyster. 

This place is in an ancient aqueduct that formerly supplied a precinct of Jerusalem with water. The water, it is said, was turned aside in order to enable the priests to enter and secrete the golden vessels of the Temple, this place is believed to be known to this day by a rare few, and when the present war is ended an attempt may be made to induce the government of Turkey to allow an excavation to find these treasures, which will be restored to the Jews, who are about to reinvest Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. The rediscovery of the Great Art comes about, it seems, about at the same time as the rediscovery of these ancient golden vessels. 

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