Discoveries recently made of old Biblical manuscripts in Hebrew and Greek and other ancient writings, some by the early church fathers, in themselves called for a restudy of the Bible.

There are similarities and differences between such figures in reports about Basilides ' teaching, ancient Gnostic texts, the larger Greco-Roman magical traditions, and modern magical and esoteric writings.

The first mention of aeronautics in history was in the writings of ancient Egyptians who described the flight of birds.

" And did those feet in ancient time " is a short poem by William Blake from the preface to his epic Milton a Poem, one of a collection of writings known as the Prophetic Books.

The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2200 BC to AD 421.

The Book of Mormon is the earliest of the unique writings of the Latter Day Saint movement, the denominations of which typically regard the text not only as scripture but also as a historical record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas.

The history of botany includes many ancient writings and classifications of plants found in several early cultures.

Examples of early botanical works have been found in ancient sacred texts from India, ancient Zoroastrian writings, and ancient Chinese works.

The earliest bestiary in the form in which it was later popularized was an anonymous 2nd century Greek volume called the Physiologus, which itself summarized ancient knowledge and wisdom about animals in the writings of classical authors such as Aristotle's Historia Animalium and various works by Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, Solinus, Aelian and other naturalists.

In addition, Conan speaks many languages, including advanced reading and writing abilities: in certain stories, he is able to recognize, or even decipher, certain ancient or secret signs and writings ; for example, in " Jewels of Gwahlur " Howard states, " In his roaming about the world the giant adventurer had picked up a wide smattering of knowledge, particularly including the speaking and reading of many alien tongues.

The Roman author Vitruvius, relying on the writings ( now lost ) of Greek authors, tells us that the ancient Greeks believed that their Doric order developed from techniques for building in wood in which the earlier smoothed tree trunk was replaced by a stone cylinder.

It left behind numerous religious writings and monuments, along with significant influences on cultures both ancient and modern.

Translations of the Discourses ( e. g. by Elizabeth Carter, George Long ) have included the Enchiridion, and it has often been included with other moral writings from the ancient world, most notably the Tablet of Cebes.

This is in accordance with several ancient Jewish writings about Jonah being the son of the woman from " Zarephath " ( Sarafand ) mentioned in the stories of Elijah.

According to some of these sources, the Koh-i-Noor was originally found more than 5000 years ago, and is mentioned in ancient Sanskrit writings under the name Syamantaka.

From various ancient writings, historians have gathered that a group of young women were left in Sappho's charge for their instruction or cultural edification.

Non-biblical writings about Jews, with references to the role of Moses, first appear at the beginning of the Hellenistic period, the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world, from 323 BCE to about 146 BCE.

The Old Testament is a Christian term for a collection of religious writings of ancient Israel that form the major and first section of Christian Bibles, in contrast to the Christian New Testament which deals explicitly with the 1st century Christianity.

Opium is mentioned in the most important medical texts of the ancient world, including the Ebers Papyrus and the writings of Dioscorides, Galen, and Avicenna.

These documents provide important information on ancient writings ; they give us the only extant copy of Menander, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Egyptian treatises on medicine ( the Ebers Papyrus ) and on surgery ( the Edwin Smith papyrus ), Egyptian mathematical treatises ( the Rhind papyrus ), and Egyptian folk tales ( the Westcar papyrus ).

The earliest description of " force " in the current sense of vital energy is found in the Vedas of ancient India ( circa 1500 – 1000 BCE ), and from the writings of the Chinese philosopher Mencius ( 4th century BCE ).

The concept of resurrection is found in the writings of some ancient non-Abrahamic religions in the Middle East.

The term apocrypha is used with various meanings, including " hidden ", " esoteric ", " spurious ", " of questionable authenticity ", ancient Chinese " revealed texts and objects " and " Christian texts that are not canonical ".

The ancient Chinese called the substance " dragon's spittle fragrance ".

According to ancient Chinese, Indian and Javanese manuscripts, western coastal cities of Borneo had become trading ports, part of their trade routes, since the first millennium.

The 28 lunar mansions are one of the most important and also the most ancient structures in the Chinese sky, attested from the 5th century BC.

Parallels to the earliest Babylonian ( Sumerian ) star catalogues suggest that the ancient Chinese system did not arise independently from that of the Ancient Near East.

The findings at Anyang include the earliest written record of Chinese past so far discovered: inscriptions of divination records in ancient Chinese writing on the bones or shells of animals – the so-called " oracle bones ", dating from around 1200 BC.

Although much of Chinese philosophy begins in the Warring States period, elements of Chinese philosophy have existed for several thousand years ; some can be found in the Yi Jing ( the Book of Changes ), an ancient compendium of divination, which dates back to at least 672 BCE.

Although the People's Republic of China has been historically hostile to the philosophy of ancient China, the influences of past are still deeply ingrained in the Chinese culture.

Yin and yang are ancient Chinese concepts which can be traced back to the Shang dynasty ( 1600 – 1100 BC ).

Yin, Yang, and the five elements are associated with themes in the I Ching, the oldest of Chinese classical texts which describes an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy.

Nevertheless, the ancient Chinese concept of Qi or chi is believed to be close to that of air.

Water is one of the elements in ancient Greek philosophy, in the Asian Indian system Panchamahabhuta, and in the Chinese cosmological and physiological system Wu Xing.

The Wu Xing, ( 五行 wŭ xíng ) also known as the Five Phases, the Five Agents, the Five Movements, and the Five Steps / Stages, are chiefly an ancient mnemonic device, in many traditional Chinese fields.

In 307 BC, King Wuling of Zhao, the ancient Chinese ruler of the former State of Jin territory, ordered his military commanders and troops to adopt the trousers of the nomads as well as practice the nomads ' form of mounted archery to hone their new cavalry skills.

The adoption of massed cavalry in China also broke the tradition of the chariot-riding Chinese aristocracy in battle, which had been in use since the ancient Shang Dynasty ( c. 1600 BC-1050 BC ).

According to Needham, though there is no way of answering the question of whether the crossbow first arose among the cultures neighboring ancient China before the rise of Chinese culture in their midst, or whether it spread outwards from China to all the environing peoples, the former seems the more probable hypothesis given linguistic evidence, which posits that the Chinese word for ' crossbow ' came from an Austroasiatic language.

Despite the limitations imposed on ancient Chinese concubines, history and literature have examples of concubines achieving great power and influence.

Zhan Guo Ce was a renowned ancient Chinese historical work and compilation of sporadic materials on the Warring States Period compiled between 3rd century to 1st century BCE.

He believed that the reform of the civil service into a meritocratic system and the disappearance of the ancient Chinese nobility from the bureaucracy constituted a modern society.