monument
Gothic rebus
One of the most beautiful buildings of Paris, praised by Victor Hugo, the legends and myths. A mystical image of Notre-Dame-de-Paris became an international symbol of the middle Ages, where magic is intertwined with faith and the deeper meaning of the true doctrine eternally encoded in the unique sculptures and stained glass Windows.
Notre Dame Cathedral, a magnificent structure, is able to simultaneously accommodate up to nine thousand members, is built on the Western edge of the île de La Cité in the XII century.
1. On the site of a pagan temple
For a thousand years before Christ there lived a small Gallic tribe. 400 years later the Romans came here, for which island surrounded by the waters of the Seine, was a natural fortress. On the spot where now stands the Cathedral, they erected the temple of Jupiter. Continue reading
The BRONZE AGE (around the 2nd Millennium BC)
With the improvement of method of production, there are new tools made of copper and bronze. Occurs the first major social division of labor, increasing wealth inequality. Then the craft separated from agriculture, is the second major division of labor. All this played a crucial role in the development of civilization. In the Nile valley, in Mesopotamia and China established a slave system, the first class of the state. All this led to the development of different spheres of human spiritual activity.
The overwhelming significance of monumental architecture associated with the development of religious beliefs, the cult of ancestors and nature. These were megalithic structures – menhirs (gr. meg). – a large, lit – rock) – single cigar-shaped stone pillars with a height up to 20 m (Brittany, France); sometimes they stretched in parallel rows for several miles (“the Stone army” – the Caucasus, Armenia; the alley of menhirs in Brittany); Continue reading
Early megalithic structures of Asia Minor
Large ceremonial structures IX Millennium BC have been discovered in Asia Minor. They belong to the era of the emergence of agriculture and animal husbandry in the society, under the influence of or directly from it happened later middle Eastern and European Neolithic. Structures are a large circle patterns, based on megalithic columns (3 m or more) of solid hewn stone. The most ancient of nowadays known are the temples of Göbekli Tepe and Nevali-Chori. In the Göbekli Tepe thus far excavated only four churches out of about two dozen. The diameter reaches some 30 m. On the columns there are bas-relief images of animals (foxes, boars, lions, birds, snakes and Scorpions) [6]. Although these temples are the oldest megalithic structures on Earth, it is unknown how they are related to European megaliths [7] .
European megaliths
Megaliths are prevalent worldwide mainly in coastal areas. In Europe they mostly date back to the Eneolithic and bronze age (3rd — 2nd mill B. C.), with the exception of the British Isles. Continue reading
