I ended up making a Venn diagram on the treatment of the dead and looked at the Inca’s, Aztec’s, Paris catacombs and the San Francisco cemeteries. I ended up comparing and contrasting them all individually and then between one another. The main theme of my topic is that treatment of the dead is a religious practice that varies only slightly between time and place. Like everything else the more time that passes the more things evolve and change. With this passage of time, we tend to place less emphasis on the past or the dead and think more about the future or living.

As you can see from my diagram each topic has its own individual characteristics from the others but they all have similarities in the way they treated the dead right after death and as time passed. The Incas and Aztecs civilization are both further back in history where preservation of the dead, offerings and polytheism were prevalent. Religion played a much bigger role in the world and heritage and history was needed to show station. As time has passed religion isn’t as big of a driving force in how the world works, mostly there is only one god and we now believe in technology, innovation and progress. This is what shows in the Paris catacombs and San Francisco cemeteries, these events happened in a giant boom for the economy and expansion fueled our drive for a, ‘bigger and more” mentality. The world was growing at such a fast pace and it was no longer necessary to know your heritage, as your birth no longer dictated your station in life. With all of this, the treatment of the dead had to be moved out of the way into a place that would be less disturbing to progress but still enable the dead to be remembered.

Throughout the semester I found that I was really interested in the sections where talked about mausoleums or tombs.  The Hagia Sophia assignment was very interesting, and after watching the video about the Taj Mahal I thought this would be the most interesting topic for me to choose.  We have not gone over the Egyptian Pyramids but they are some of the most popular tombs in the world.

In all of these cultures the final resting places were for people to be buried with their loved ones.  These sites were often sacred to the culture, and often times are still sacred today.  However, not every person in these cultures had the pleasure of being buried in such elaborate tombs.  The people who were buried in these massive sites were noble and/or wealthy.  These elaborate exteriors bring people from all over the world to look at them in awe.

These mausoleums were often built for specific people.  The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan after his beloved wife died so she was have a gorgeous resting place. Sultan Selim II whose mausoleum is at the Hagia Sophia called in one of the best architects to build his resting place, knowing that it would be finished three years after his death.

Every person who commissioned these grand places wanted to pay tribute to themselves or others.  These architectures show the passion people have in their beliefs, and the dedication they have to completing such intense tasks.

Okay so looking at the prezi that is linked in this post you can see it is a bit vague, don’t worry I plan on going in depth with it. First off the point of the concept map, in true Agerbeck fashion, is to help me to write these few paragraphs all about what values and habits were in common between these three sacred locations. The values being looked at are those at the time of the sacred location’s use and how those values have changed to modern day.

Looking at the big picture first, they all have religion tightly involved in why they are what they are. The next step after that was to break it down into what I felt were good subtopics, sacred grounds or sacred structures. The reason for this break down is due to Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu isn’t a temple, mosque or a church, it is in fact a whole city that has values placed in each section it is divided into.  Shortly after that I needed to talk about the materials that are involved this is to help relate each building together with something that is a pivotal point of each location. Looking at the Hagia Sophia we can see that it is a large structure similar to the Aztec’s temples, where religious practices took place. Now on the flip side Machu Picchu isn’t just a place to pray it also came with the values of agriculture similar to how the Aztec temples are. Knowing that the values for the Inca’s Machu Picchu and the Aztec’s you can see that their religion was so similar even though comparing and contrasting, they are in two different continents.

Now lets look at the final bit, the values that are present today in these locations are all about the amazing feats. The Inca’s were amazing stone craftsmen, the Aztec’s were devoted natives, and the Hagia Sophia was a feat. with a value in its history. The commonalities are the values, for example the value we place in all of the locations, is for the fact that they are all standing artifacts that allow us to dive into the past with a promise to continue showing all their value as long as they stand.

Prezi/ Concept map