Like innumerable peoples before them, pre-Columbian Native American tribes practiced a form of sacred architecture for ritualistic purposes. Unlike the Pyramids of Giza or Stonehenge, these monuments didn’t require herculean feats of strength to construct. They were, however, enormously complex.
Due their loose construction and centuries of exposure to the elements, only a handful of medicine wheels can definitively classified as astronomical observatories today (though the distinct possibility that some may have acted solely as ceremonial centers remains.) Saskatchewan’s Moose Mountain Medicine Wheel is one of those select few, and displays solstice alignments every bit as striking as those at Big Horn. Moreover, radiocarbon dating indicates that it is at least 2400 years old — evidence that early North Americans may have been more technologically sophisticated that previously thought.
The Inca empire reached its peak in the 1500s, after emerging in under a century. From 1470 they ruled from their capital Cuzco, a vast area that reached the practicable limits of its expansion with the Amazonian rainforest to the east and the Andes to the south.
The empire was highly organized, divided into geographical, social and hierarchical groups. The empire, Taluantinsuys (Land of the Four Quarters), was divided into four provinces, or suyu, called Chinchaysuyu, Antisuyu, Cuntisuyu and Collasuyu. These quarters were then further divided into smaller provinces whose boundaries often reflected the pre-Inca divisions. This was especially so with the Empire’s rapid expansion and integration of other cultures.
At the head of the organization was the royal family ruled by the Emperor, or Child of the Sun. The Incas believed that their royal family were direct descents from the Sun god through their ancestor Manco Capac, and therefore they ruled with divine right. Each member of the royal family was known by their title, used solely by the Inca royal family. These included Auqui for an unmarried son of the Emperor and Inca for a married son. It was necessary to make this strict legal hierarchical system to define the next heir to the throne; the Emperor’s wives could number into the hundreds and illegitimate sons by his concubines were not eligible for the succession.
Anyone who wanted an audience with the Emperor had to take off his sandals and carry a “token burden” on his back, both signs of respect. The organization of the empire was so strict that everyone knew their position in the society. Under the royal family were the nobles of royal blood or nobles by Inca privilege; both groups belonged to the elite and helped govern the provinces. To help with decisions the Emperor would discuss matters with his advisers, a group of men made up of royal relatives or men who held important social positions in their native lands.
Administration of the empire revolved around the taxpayers, or ‘commoners’. This social group made up the majority of the Inca population and were mainly agriculturalists. These subjects were expected to pay their taxes as energy or labour. The tight social categories were rigorously enforced because they dictated who was liable to pay tribute.
Each province was expected to provide agreed upon amounts of tribute to the Inca government warehouses made up of the supplied energy of every agriculturalist in that area. In return the government was supposed to adjust its demands depending on the seasonal capacity of the provinces. In addition, male individuals who possessed a particular skill were exempt from contributing to the province tribute and instead was required to complete local works. These could include repairing bridges, building roads, or serving time in the army, the public work force or the mines. In this way, it was more common for towns to be build around specialist’s skills which relied on supplies from other specialists skills, for example, a bridge builder living in a town with a carpenter.
On the other hand, the agriculturists retained enough land to feed themselves but were close to government and the religious owned land to work on also. When it was sowing or harvesting time all other tasks, but urgent government business such as warfare, were postponed so the taxpayers could focus on the land.
First the lands of the Religion were worked, the community land, or Emperor’s; and, and then the taxpayers personal land. The Emperor would start the work using a golden hand plough. He would, of course, stop working after the initial ceremonial beginning, leaving the land to be worked on by the taxpayers. Each man supervised the work of his family on his appointed land plot and the first who finished his part was considered a rich man. After the harvest, the produce from the Emperor’s land was then transported and stored in warehouses for future redistribution.
For further reading see ‘Everyday life of the Incas’ by A. Kendall
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About the Author
Charlotte Gardner, a guest blog writer, is currently studying archaeology at the Australian National University. In her spare time she likes to read and write about eccentric historical moments. Her love of old buildings and older stories was sparked when she visited Italy. One of Charlotte’s greatest wishes is that in a few thousand years her skeleton will be dug up by an archaeological investigation team and put on display in a national museum. You may contact Charlotte via email at: charlotteg86@gmail.com.
Of the dozens of texts held sacred by the school of Judaic mysticism known as Kabbalah, perhaps the most important is the Sefer Hazohar, (literally the Book of Splendor. Indeed, students of this collection of several lengthy Kabbalistic commentaries on the Torah — most commonly known in the West as the Holy Zohar – often assign it the same stature as Judaism’s two most holy books, the Torah and the Talmud. 
And there was good reason for Jewish scholars to keep to the Zohar away from public scrutiny. The book maintains that the Torah and, by extension, all of reality exists on two distinct levels: the exoteric and the esoteric. It further posits that there is no one true interpretation of the Old Testament and that every soul is given – and, more importantly, encouraged — to make its own unique reading of scripture. 
Though oracles were commonplace throughout ancient Greece and Rome, the most famous dwelled at Delphi, a limestone temple on the western face of Mount Parnassus. Built in the 6th century BC, the complex was presided over by a chaste and elderly priestess called the Ptyhia who channeled the “breath” of the sun god Apollo into prophecy.
Those seeking divination at Delphi came from all social strata. From criminals to kings, many sought advice from the Oracle, though how they interpreted her predictions differed wildly. Legend holds that King Croesus of Lydia went to war over the Oracle’s prediction that if he battled the Persians a great army would fall. Unfortunately for him, the army in question turned out to be his own.
A Greek transcription of the Hebrew molech, meaning king, Moloch was one of the prominent pagan deities of ancient Mesopotamia. As many Israelites burned their children alive in tribute to this idol, modern thinking holds that the name in fact derives from the Punic root MLK, meaning offering or sacrifice, and suggests that Moloch refers not to the name of a god but to a particular form of ritual sacrifice.
Several Biblical accounts record the followers’ belief that by appeasing Moloch with the lives of burnt children and animals, he would renew the vitality of their king, who in turn could then reap a plentiful harvest. That, however, is not to say that it was a tidy affair – on days of sacrifice, drums and cymbals had to be played at maximum ferocity to drown out screams of burning children. 
In the 11th century, famed Talmudic commentator and rabbi Rashi stated that sacrifices to Moloch had taken place in a large brass cauldron that would have been heated to cook its victims alive. Later historians embellished this detail have the oven become a bull-shaped effigy of Moloch himself — recalling the form of the golden calf fashioned by Aaron to appease the Hebrews during Moses’ tribulation on Mount Sinai.
