Audiobooks narrated by Ryan Moorhen

Demystifying the Origins of Mesoamerican Culture: Exploring Artifacts, Hieroglyphs and Astronomy

Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in North America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. The first civilization in central and north America develops in about 1200 BC in the coastal regions of the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico. Known as the Olmec civilization, its early site is at San Lorenzo. In Mesoamerica the Maya civilization made the greatest progress in science and technology. Among its innovations were the position-value number system with zero, the development of the most accurate known calendar, the invention of rubber and the corbelled arch.

Henry Romano (Author), Kevin Mcalister, Ryan Moorhen (Narrator)

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Legends of The Gods: The Egyptian Texts, edited with Translations

The text of the remarkable Legend of the Creation which forms the first section of this volume is preserved in a well-written papyrus in the British Museum, where it bears the number 10,188. This papyrus was acquired by the late Mr. A. H. Rhind in 1861 or 1862, when he was excavating some tombs on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes. He did not himself find it in a tomb, but he received it from the British Consul at Luxor, Mustafa Agha, during an interchange of gifts when Mr. Rhind was leaving the country. Mustafa Agha obtained the papyrus from the famous hiding-place of the Royal Mummies at Der-al-Bahari, with the situation of which he was well acquainted for many years before it became known to the Egyptian Service of Antiquities. When Mr. Rhind came to England, the results of his excavations were examined by Dr. Birch, who, recognising the great value of the papyrus, arranged to publish it in a companion volume to Facsimiles of Two Papyri, but the death of Mr. Rhind in 1865 caused the project to fall through. Mr. Rhind's collection passed into the hands of Mr. David Bremner, and the papyrus, together with many other antiquities, was purchased by the Trustees of the British Museum. In 1880 Dr. Birch suggested the publication of the papyrus to Dr. Pleyte, the Director of the Egyptian Museum at Leyden.

Asher Benowitz, Norah Romney (Author), John William, Ryan Moorhen (Narrator)

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Myths and Legends of Japan: Exploring the gods, goddesses, myths, creatures and cosmology of ancient

We are told that in the very beginning, 'Heaven and Earth were not yet separated, and the In and Yo not yet divided.' This reminds us of other cosmogony stories. The In and Yo, corresponding to the Chinese Yang and Yin, were the male and female principles. It was more convenient for the old Japanese writers to imagine them coming into creation not very remote from their manner of birth. In Polynesian mythology, we find pretty much the same conception, where Rangi and Papa represented Heaven and Earth, and further parallels may be found in Egyptian and other cosmogony stories. We find the male and female principles taking a prominent, and after all, very rational, place in nearly all. We are told in the Nihongi that these male and female principles 'formed a chaotic mass like an egg which was of obscurely defined limits and contained germs.' Eventually, this egg was quickened into life, and the purer and clearer part was drawn out and formed Heaven, while the heavier element settled down and became Earth, which was 'compared to the floating of a fish sporting on the surface of the water.' A mysterious form resembling a reed-shoot suddenly appeared between Heaven and Earth, and as suddenly became transformed into a God called Kuni-Toko-Tachi, ('Land-eternal-stand-of-august-thing'). We may pass over the other divine births until we come to the important deities known as Izanagi and Izanami ('Male-who-invites' and 'Female-who-invites'). About these beings has been woven an entrancing myth.

Henry Romano (Author), Bill Shanks, Ryan Moorhen (Narrator)

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Temples and Concepts of Ancient Egyptian Arcitecture: Understanding Egyptian Religious Monuments

The earliest form of temple was a mere hut of plaited wickerwork, serving as a shrine for the symbols of the god; the altar but a mat of reeds. The earliest temples evolve from a wall built round the name-stela, which was afterward roofed in. With the advent of the New Empire the temple-building became of a much more complicated character, though the essential plan from the earliest period to the latest remained practically unchanged. The simplest form was a surrounding wall, the pylon or entrance gateway with flanking towers, before which were generally placed two colossal statues of the king and two obelisks, then the innermost sanctuary, the naos, which held the divine symbols. This was elaborated by various additions, such as three pylons, divided by three avenues of sphinxes, then columned courts, and a hypostyle or columnar hall. In this way many of the Egyptian kings enlarged the buildings of their predecessors.

Ryan Moorhen (Author), Ryan Moorhen, Tom Kingsley (Narrator)

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The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Duat: The Book of the Dead

The objects found in the graves of the predynastic Egyptians, i.e., vessels of food, flint knives, and other weapons, etc., prove that these early dwellers in the Nile Valley believed in some kind of a future existence. However, as the art of writing was unknown to them, their graves contain no inscriptions, and we can only infer from texts of the dynastic Period what their ideas about the Other World were. They did not consider it of great importance to preserve the dead body in as complete and perfect state as possible, for in many of their graves, the heads, hands, and feet have been found severed from the trunks and lying at some distance from them. On the other hand, the dynastic Egyptians, either as the result of a difference in religious belief or under the influence of invaders who had settled in their country, attached supreme importance to the preservation and integrity of the dead body, and they adopted every means known to them to prevent its dismemberment and decay. They cleaned it and embalmed it with drugs, spices, and balsams; they anointed it with aromatic oils and preservative fluids; they swathed it in hundreds of yards of linen bandages; and then they sealed it up in a coffin or sarcophagus, which they laid in a chamber hewn in the bowels of the mountain.

Stacy Dalton (Author), Robbie Smith, Ryan Moorhen (Narrator)

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The Ancient Egyptian Old Kingdom: Exploring the Ancient Origins of The Egypts First Empire

Most Egyptians were probably descended from settlers who moved to the Nile valley in prehistoric times, with population increase coming through natural fertility. In various periods there were immigrants from Nubia, Libya, and especially the Middle East. They were historically significant and also may have contributed to population growth, but their numbers are unknown. Most people lived in villages and towns in the Nile valley and delta. Nearly all of the people were engaged in agriculture and were probably tied to the land. In theory all the land belonged to the king, although in practice those living on it could not easily be removed and some categories of land could be bought and sold.

Stacy Dalton (Author), Christian Neale, Ryan Moorhen (Narrator)

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The Ancient Mythologies of Peru and Mexico: Exploring Surviving Historical Accounts of the Americas

Regarding the origin of the American mythologies, it is difficult to discover traces of foreign influence in either Mexico or Peru's religion. At the time of their subjugation by the Spaniard's legends were ripe in both countries of beneficent white and bearded men, who brought a fully developed culture. The question of Asiatic influences must not altogether be cast aside as an untenable theory; but it is well to bear in mind that such influences, did they ever exist, must have been of the most transitory description, and could have left but few traces upon the religion of the peoples in question. If any such contact took place, it was merely accidental, and, when speaking of faiths carried from Asia into America at the period of its original settlement, it is first necessary to premise that Pleistocene Man had already arrived at that stage of mental development in which the existence of supernatural beings is recognized—a premise with which modern anthropology would scarcely find itself in agreement.

Henry Romano (Author), Robbie Smith, Ryan Moorhen (Narrator)

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The Discovery of the Ancient Flood: Mesopotamian Historical Accounts of the Biblical Flood as told b

In the spring of 1852, Layard was obliged to close his excavations for want of funds, and he returned to England with Rassam, leaving all the northern half of the great mound of Kuyûnjik unexcavated. He resigned his position as Director of Excavations to the British Museum's Trustees, and Colonel (later Sir) H. C. Rawlinson, Consul-General of Baghdâd, undertook to direct any further excavations that might be possible to carry out later on. During the summer, the Trustees received a further grant from Parliament for excavations in Assyria, and they dispatched Rassam to finish the exploration of Kuyûnjik, knowing that the lease of the mound of Kuyûnjik for excavation purposes which he had obtained from its owner had several years to run. When Rassam arrived at Môsul in 1853 and was collecting his men for work, he discovered that Rawlinson, who knew nothing about the lease of the mound which Rassam held, had given the French Consul, M. Place, permission to excavate the northern half of the mound, i.e., that part of it which he was most anxious to excavate for the British Museum. He protested but in vain and, finding that M. Place intended to hold Rawlinson to his word, devoted himself to clearing out part of the South West Palace which Layard had attacked in 1852.

Ryan Moorhen (Author), Robbie Smith, Ryan Moorhen (Narrator)

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The Historical Case for Atlantis: Exploring Ancient Origins of Humanity

Plato has preserved for us the history of Atlantis. If our views are correct, it is one of the most valuable records which have come down to us from antiquity. Plato lived 400 years before the birth of Christ. His ancestor, Solon, was the great law-giver of Athens 600 years before the Christian era. Solon visited Egypt. Plutarch says, 'Solon attempted in verse a large description, or rather fabulous account of the Atlantic Island, which he had learned from the wise men of Sais, and which particularly concerned the Athenians; but by reason of his age, not want of leisure (as Plato would have it), he was apprehensive the work would be too much for him, and therefore did not go through with it. These verses are a proof that business was not the hinderance.There he conversed upon points of philosophy and history with the most learned of the Egyptian priests. He was a man of extraordinary force and penetration of mind, as his laws and his sayings, which have been preserved to us, testify. There is no improbability in the statement that he commenced in verse a history and description of Atlantis, which he left unfinished at his death; and it requires no great stretch of the imagination to believe that this manuscript reached the hands of his successor and descendant, Plato; a scholar, thinker, and historian like himself, and, like himself, one of the profoundest minds of the ancient world. The Egyptian priest had said to Solon, 'You have no antiquity of history, and no history of antiquity;' and Solon doubtless realized fully the vast importance of a record which carried human history back, not only thousands of years before the era of Greek civilization, but many thousands of years before even the establishment of the kingdom of Egypt; and he was anxious to preserve for his half-civilized countrymen this inestimable record of the past.

Henry Romano (Author), Ryan Moorhen, Tyler Higgins (Narrator)

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The life and Times of Aknaton: Egypt’s Most Infamous Heretic Pharaoh, also known as Akhenaten and A

The reign of Akhnaton, for seventeen years Pharaoh of Egypt (from B.C. 1375 to 1358), stands out as the most interesting epoch in the long sequence of Egyptian history. We have watched the endless line of dim Pharaohs go by, each lit momentarily by the pale lamp of our present knowledge, and most of them have left little impression upon the mind. They are so misty and far off, they have been dead and gone for such thousands of years, that they have almost entirely lost their individuality. We call out some royal name, and in response a vague figure passes into view, stiffly moves its arms, and passes again into the darkness. With one there comes the muffled noise of battle; with another there is singing and the sound of music; with yet another the wailing of the oppressed drifts by. But at the name Akhnaton there emerges from the darkness a figure clearer than that of any other Pharaoh, and with it there comes the singing of birds, the laughter of children, and the scent of many flowers. For once we may look right into the mind of a king of Egypt and may see something of its workings; and all that is there observed is worthy of admiration. Akhnaton has been called “the first individual in human history”; but if he is thus the first historical figure whose personality is known to us, he is also the first of all human founders of religious doctrines. Akhnaton may be ranked in degree of time, and perhaps also in degree of genius, as the world’s first idealist; and, since in all ancient Oriental research there never has been, and probably never will be, brought before us a subject of such intellectual interest as this Pharaoh’s religious revolution, which marks the first point in the study of advanced human thought, a careful consideration of this short reign deserves to be made.

Norah Romney (Author), Ryan Moorhen, Tyler Higgins (Narrator)

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The Quest for Mars and the Search for a Second Earth

Mars is of particular interest for the study of the origins of life because of its similarity to the early Earth. This is especially so since Mars has a cold climate and lacks plate tectonics or continental drift, so has remained almost unchanged since the end of the Hesperian period. NASA's Curiosity rover has found new evidence preserved in rocks on Mars that suggests that the planet could have supported ancient life. It has also found evidence for methane in the Martian atmosphere that could hold a clue for current life on the red planet. In 2018, scientists reported the discovery of a subglacial lake on Mars, 1.5 km (0.93 mi) below the southern polar ice cap, with a horizontal extent of about 20 km (12 mi), the first known stable body of liquid water on the planet. However, doing this for the entire planet may not be feasible. NASA conducted a feasibility study in 1976 that concluded it would take at least a few thousand years for even extremophile organisms specifically adapted for the Martian environment to make a habitable atmosphere out of the Red Planet.

Henry Romano (Author), Bill Shanks, Ryan Moorhen (Narrator)

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The Relativistic Universe: Exploring The Einstein Concepts of Our Cosmology

From a time beyond the dawn of history, humanity has been seeking to explain the universe. At first, the effort did not concern itself further than to make a supposition as to the causes of the various phenomena presented to the senses. As knowledge increased, first by observation and later by experiment also, the ideas as to these causes passed progressively through three stages—the theological (the causes were thought to be spirits or gods); the metaphysical (the causes were thought in this secondary or intermediate stage to be some inherent, animating, energizing principles); and the scientific (the causes were finally thought of as simply mechanical, chemical, and magneto-electrical attractions and repulsions, qualities or characteristics of matter itself, or of the thing of which matter is itself composed.) With an increase of knowledge and the inquiry as to the nature of causes, there arose an inquiry into reality. What was the essential nature of the stuff of which the universe was made, what was the matter, what were things in themselves, what were the noumena (the realities), lying back of the phenomena (the appearances)? Gradually ideas explaining motion, force, and energy were developed. At the same time, an inquiry was made as to the nature of man, the working of his mind, the nature of thought, the relation of his concepts (ideas) to his perceptions (knowledge gained through the sense), and the relations of both to the noumena (realities).

Henry Romano (Author), Robbie Smith, Ryan Moorhen (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Ryan Moorhen