Visual history of the Middle East
(Visited 6199 times) Misc
Jan 062007
I am so happy to see this animated map of the history of the Middle East, because for many years I’ve dreamed about seeing a map like this for the history of the world. This only covers the major empires and other large developments, not each small country or tribe (hmm, how hard would the four-color problem be with a time axis? Automatic switching of colors?), but it’s still a wonderful and illuminating 90 second history lesson.
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Visual history of the Middle East
That was spiffy!
Good stuff. I didn’t know about a hand full of those empires so either public school or the history channel has failed me. Or both.
Sadly, the only thing I can think about as I watch it are how many nations got left out. Sumeria, the successor states, the Parthians…
I agree Isaac. Not only that, but alot of very important stuff pertaining to the conflict there isn’t even hinted at. Still, it does serve a basic purpose as a foundation to build off of in any effort to understand that region. And that’s probably the thing it was made for. Now back to search for what more might be included by the site.
A world map of geographical expansion of whatever would be extremely great and something to contribute work for, but I think it only works not “hardcoded” but via a web-based tool that gives basic functionality of flash with an as easy as necessary interface into users hands. So that basically everyone can contribute data into it, like wikipedia. Users would “paint” borders in keyframes (minute, day, year) on a zoomable map (later it would use google earth satellite data). What if you can not only see kingdoms grow, but also spreading of ideas (philosophy, science, theology), how a particular invention spreads or even how rockmusic conquered earth. I see the design and would seriously do it as an academia project but I (totally) suck at actionscript (flashs programming language). Well, there it goes 😉
Appropriately, the song “Montage” from Team America came on my playlist while watching this. The only way to experience it, I assure you!
Only somewhat related (global data visualization-wise), but worth looking at is this TED talk:
http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=hans_rosling
Yep, first came the Caliphate, then the Ottoman Empire, THEN came European colonialism. So many people tune into this when they find it convenient…
The same site has a very similar map on religion:
http://mapsofwar.com/ind/history-of-religion.html
The history of man is so full of conflict that anyone can pull a single part out and use it to support a claim. I hope no one ever clones a Neanderthal, because then he could sue and own Europe or something.
Palestinians? The name came from the Romans during their conquest of the region, and was pulled from an ancient people called the Philistines (as a whole), who came from Greece. The people currently called “Palestinians” mostly came to Israel shortly after WWII looking for jobs as Israel was draining swamps and other projects. The region was sparcely populated before that, and worth so little that no country even bothered to claimed the territory. They have no leg to stand on in this. Yet does that mean these people have no rights? Of course not. The religious conflict (and that’s what it’s all about) runs very deep, and both sides have made bad moves. All the religions (Jewish, Muslim, Christian) have a foundation of faith that says “don’t worship false idols”, i.e. things. And yet, so much conflict over “sacred” land and places. All sides have been known to destroy ancient artifacts and relics of the other religions. So much lost to religious fervor, and so the fighting continues.
And there are some in Israel now who plan to tear down the Dome of the Rock, a most sacred mosque to the muslims, in order to rebuild the Temple Mount (Salomon’s Temple). is an interesting and in depth look at this. So much destruction and death, all in Gods name. I doubt that this is really his grand design, other than maybe to teach us idiots a lesson…..whenever we’re ready to learn it.