#600bc

Rare and important Neo-Assyrian vessel, circa 800-600 BC, 

Cut and hollowed out from a single large piece of solid rock crystal, 

110mm x 90mm; weight 815g. 

Clay tablet, 

Table for the water clock signed by the scribe Nabû-apla-iddina,

Late Babylonian, 600BC-500BC,

Clay, Height: 8.20 cm, Thickness: 2.50 cm, Width: 11.80 cm.

Terracotta Figure, Cypro-Archaic II, ca. 600–480 B.C.

Terracotta, H. 4 1/16 in. (10.3 cm)

Was Vasco da Gama Really the First Around the World?

Most, if not all, textbooks will tell you that the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama was the first to sail around the world. Accounts from Greek historian Herodotus (c. 440 B.C.) say that Phoenician sailors, working for Pharaoh Necho (610-595 B.C.), were instead the first to sail around the world.

Because the Phoenicians lived on a few islands and a strip of land on the coast of the Lebanon, they didn't have many resources, but what they did have they made good use of. One of the things they had was a great deal of timber, they used the timber to make the boats that would transport the goods they made and, apparently, sail them around the world.

It was for that fact that Pharaoh Necho chose them to set sail on a voyage that he commissioned around 600 B.C. Herodotus says that Necho sent a Phoenician fleet to sail south from the Arabian Gulf, work westward, and then return to the Mediterranean by going through the Straits of Gibraltar. This voyage took over two years, because twice they had to stop and sow grain and wait to harvest, and then in the third year they returned.

Unfortunately, Herodotus is known as both the "Father of History" and the "Father of Lies", depending on who you ask, so, despite the many details pointing towards the truth, many chose to ignore or disregard this.

James, Peter, and Nick Thorpe. "Voyagers and Discoveries." Ancient Mysteries. New York: Ballantine Group, 1999. 368-369. Print.

The Cycle of the Phoenix  :

1B - 600B.C. to Era of the Ancient Teachers