Another ancient sculpture is the Reliquary of St. Maurus.
Just like the Shrine of the Three Kings these are sarcophagi, coffins with people's bones in them.
Inside the silver plated golden covered boxes are the bones of St. Maurus, St. John the Baptist, and St. Timothy.
During World War II, this reliquary was buried underneath a church to protect it from armies that would steal it.
It was buried for around 40 years and forgotten, until someone went looking for it and dug it up.
red - Hold up your pointer finger in front of your chin below your mouth, and pull it down two times, almost like you are scratching your chin.
orange - Hold your hand out like a fist in front of and below your mouth, and squeeze it two times, almost like you are squeezing a bottle of orange juice into your mouth.
yellow - Hold up your hand in the finger spelling sign for "Y" and spin your hand two times.
Sometimes when a snake has to eat a really big meal, it has to open up it's mouth very large.
Some people say that the snake has to unhinge or unhook it's jaw.
This is not really true, because the snake's jaw is already split open at the bottom middle, even before eating anything.
So when they have to eat something big, their bottom jaw spreads out to the left and the right to get big enough for their meal.
(from: wikipedia - snake skeleton)
Another mountain range in the Pacific Coast Belt is the Olympic Mountains.
These mountains have water on three sides, with the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Seattle to the east.
Because they are surrounded by so much water, the western slopes are the wettest place in the lower 48 states, which doesn't include Alaska and Hawaii.
The tallest mountain in this range is Mount Olympus, which is different from the famous mountain in Greece.
We just learned about the person from the Bible named Rachel.
Another person from the Bible is Leah.
Leah was Rachel's older sister, and when Jacob asked to marry Rachel, her father said he had to marry Leah first.
She was sad that Jacob loved Rachel, but she had six sons (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun) and one daughter (Dinah).
Her son Judah would be the ancestor of David, who was the ancestor of Jesus.
Rachel died in childbirth of her son Benjamin, so when Jacob was laid to rest in his tomb he was put next to Leah.
Another famous sculpture is the Gloucester Candlestick.
This candlestick is made of bronze, which is a mixture of a bunch of metals like copper, tin and silver.
People believe this candlestick was made up of a bunch of old melted coins.
It has many sculpted little statues on it from the bottom to the top.
There are dragons at the bottom, and at the top are the four people who wrote the Bible gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
The candlestick has words written on it in Latin. Translated to English they are:
"This flood of light, this work of virtue, bright with holy doctrine instructs us, so that Man shall not be benighted in vice."
This means that sculpture can remind people to follow the teachings of the Bible and live a good life full of light, and not do bad things and live in the darkness.
There are some sculpted figures on the candlestick that are trying to climb up toward the light, and others that are trying to crawl away from it toward the bottom.
Snakes only have a skull, backbone and ribs, and a few small bones left over from when snakes used to be lizards and had legs.
They can have 200 to 400 vertebrae in their backbone, depending on the type of snake.
We just learned about the Autonomic Nervous System, which is part of the Peripheral Nervous System.
One part of the Autonomic Nervous System is the Sympathetic Nervous System.
This part of our nervous system gives us what we call the fight-or-flight feelings.
That means when something happens that scares you or hurts you, this helps make your decision for whether you run away or whether you fight back.
We just learned about the Coast Mountains in the Pacific Coast Belt, in the North American Cordillera.
Another mountain range in that belt is the Insular Mountains in British Columbia, Canada.
These mountains were made from lava, and created the Vancouver Islands and the Haida Gwaii Islands.
The bottom of these mountains goes below the sea level, which is called not fully exposed.
We just learned about the person from the Bible named Jacob.
Another person from the Bible is Rachel.
Rachel was one of the wives of Jacob.
While Jacob was running away from his brother Esau because he had stolen Esau's birthright and blessing, he was working for a man named Laban.
He saw Laban's daughter Rachel and thought she was very beautiful, so he asked Laban if he could marry her.
Laban said he had to work for him for 7 years before he could marry her, and he agreed.
After 7 years he had the wedding, but Laban tricked him and made Jacob marry Rachel's older sister Leah first.
He agreed to work for Laban for another 7 years and then married Rachel also, so he had two wives.
Rachel was very upset for a long time because she could not have babies, but then after a long time she was able to have two children, Joseph and Benjamin.
(from: wikipedia - rachel)
Another ancient roman sculpture is the Stavelot Triptych.
We learned before that a triptych is like a sculpted book that opens and closes.
This triptych opens up, and has two smaller triptychs in the middle.
The smaller triptychs are much older, and are said to have held small pieces of the cross that Christ died on, as well as some dirt from Christ's tomb, and a piece of his mother Mary's robe.
The triptychs are made of gold, jewels and glass, and have pictures showing saints, mother Mary, and the story of the Christian Emperor Constantine's mother when she traveled to find the cross that Christ died on.
Remember for 1-5 your palm was facing toward you.
For 6-9, hold your hand out in front of you, with your palm facing away from you.
Hold up all your fingers, but hold down one for each number:
6 - Pinky finger.
7 - Ring finger.
8 - Tall finger.
9 - Index finger.
For 10, close your fist, put your thumb up, and wiggle your hand around.
This is iron after it has gone through a blast furnace, it is stirred and stirred while heated.
There are a lot of things called impurities in the metals, that make the iron harder to work with or not look as nice.
After heating and stirring, the metal can be cooled and turned into little metal bricks nicknamed "pigs".
They got this nickname because the way the iron was made in molds, it looked like a bunch of little piglets with a larger mother pig.
When they broke off the small pieces from the mother sow, they called them pigs.
Another part of snake biology is when snakes shed their skin, called molting, sloughing or ecdysis.
Snake skin cane get dirty, worn out, and even covered with bugs like mites or ticks.
So to keep their skin fresh they will peel off the outside layer and have fresh skin and scales underneath.
Usually when a snake is getting ready to shed its skin, it goes and hides somewhere safe.
Then the new layer of skin underneath the old layer gets gooey and slippery.
The snake finds a rough or sharp thing to catch the dry outer skin on, then they keep slithering along.
Just like pulling a sock off, the snake pulls its old skin off and then goes on its way with a nice clean fresh skin.
Younger snakes can shed their skin 4 times a year, and an older snake may only shed their skin 1 or 2 times a year.
We just learned about the Yukon Ranges in the Pacific Coast Belt of the North American Cordillera.
Another mountain range in the Pacific Coast Belt is the Coast Mountains.
On the west side of these ranges is a temperate rainforest, which then leads to ice fields and glaciers in the middle, and on the east side is plateaus and forests.
This mountain range has the largest bunch of ice fields in the world.
Jacob was Esau's younger twin brother.
The Bible says that when Jacob was born, he was holding on to Esau's leg.
One time when Esau came back starving from hunting, he was so hungry he gave Jacob his birth right in trade for a bowl of stew.
Jacob was always his mother Rebekah's favorite, because he helped out around the camp while Esau was out hunting.
One day when his father Isaac was going to give his blessing to Esau, Jacob went in and tricked his father into giving him the blessing instead.
Isaac was blind, but Esau was very hairy, so Jacob put on some fur to pretend to be him, and Isaac gave him the blessing.
Esau was so mad at Jacob that he wanted to kill him, so Jacob ran away from home, and didn't come back to see Esau again for a long time.
All of these are with your hand out in front of you, and your palm facing toward you.
Hold up these fingers for each number:
1 - Index finger.
2 - Index finger and tall finger.
3 - Index finger, tall finger and thumb. (not ring finger!)
4 - Index finger, tall finger, ring finger and pinky.
5 - All five fingers.
Another tool for metal working is the Blast Furnace.
A blast furnace is like a giant bloomery, so it's a big chimney with ore going in the top, fire and air getting blown into the bottom, and it burns for a long time.
Another thing that makes snakes different is their scales.
Snakes scales are used to help them slither along the ground, or even to climb trees.
The scales help them feel vibrations on the ground, meaning that an animal is near.
They help them stay warm and hold in the water so they can live in hot places, and they help the snake hide.
Even though snake scales have some color, they are mostly see through, and the color comes from the skin underneath their scales.
Their scales have many different shapes depending on where the scales are on their body, like their head, belly, back or tail.
We just learned about the Talkeetna Mountains in the Pacific Coast Belt of the North American Cordillera.
Another famous mountain range is the Yukon Ranges in Alaska and Canada.
There are a bunch of other smaller "sub ranges" inside the Yukon ranges, called the Anvil Range, Dawson Range, Miners Range, Nisling Range, Ogilvie Mountains, Nahoni Range, Pelly Mountains, Big Salmon Range, Glenlyon Range, Saint Cyr Range, Ruby Range, Russel Range and Wrangell Mountains.
The Wrangell Mountains are mostly from volcanoes, and are some of the largest shield volcanoes in the US.
Another famous sculpture is the Brunswick Lion, made in the year 1166 in Brunswick Germany.
The statue was made for the Duke Henry the Lion who lived at Dankwarderode castle.
It weighs almost 2,000 lbs, is almost 6 feet tall and is over 9 feet long.
The statue is a hollow bronze sculpture, and was the first large hollow casting like that in a very long time.
There is an old folk tale about the Duke Henry the Lion, saying that he went on a trip and saw a lion battling a dragon.
He helped the lion and together they killed the dragon.
So the lion became his friend, and came home with him.
To say dog in ASL, first pat your thigh a few times with your hand, like you are calling your dog over.
Then hold your hand out with your fingers closed and your palm facing up.
Snap your fingers twice, but it doesn't matter if it makes sound.
These motions are like if you were calling your dog over.
To say cat in ASL, you make the hand shape for the letter F, which also looks like the sign for OK.
Hold it up by the side of your mouth, but with your pointer and thumb not closed yet.
Pinch your fingers together, and pull them to the side.
This motion is like if you were a cat and had whiskers, and you were pulling on your whiskers.
We just learned about Sponge Iron made in a bloomery.
Sponge iron is then turned into wrought iron.
After the sponge iron is made, it has a bunch of holes in it and is very messy.
A blacksmith can take the sponge iron, hammer it a lot, reheat it and keep hammering away at it to get it in better shape, and that is called wrought iron.
When it is all finished, the iron looks nicer and is easier to work with and shape.
The parts inside a snake body called the internal orgas all work a lot like a human's, but in a snake they are spread out along it's body.
Because snakes eat big meals and their body stretches out, their organs have to be able to move around or get squished when they are trying to eat something really big.
Another mountain range in the Pacific Coastal Belt is the Talkeetna Mountains.
There is a glacier on this mountain called the Mint Glacier, and there is a Mint Valley, and even mountain peaks called the Troublemint and Doublemint peaks.
To ask if someone speaks ASL, you might first want to find out if they are deaf or if they are hearing.
The sign for "deaf" is to use your right hand, with your index finger pointing up, touch it to your temple, and then just below your mouth.
The sign for "hearing" is with your right hand, and your index finger pointing to the left, move it in front of your mouth almost like you are brushing your teeth.
The sign for "sign" is with two hands, using your fingers pointing left and right at each other, spin them around each other like a wheel going backwards.
Remember the sign for "you" is just pointing your finger at someone, and the sign for "I" or "me" is pointing at your chest.
ASL is very different than other languages because you would simply say "you deaf", "you hearing" or "you sign".
It's very important to use your face and body to also show what you are saying.
If you are asking a question, make a face like you are asking a question, or lean forward toward the person.
Also many people who are deaf are very good at reading lips, so you can still move your lips or even speak out loud if you are speaking to a deaf person.
To answer "yes" in ASL, you make a fist with your hand, and move it up and down, almost like a puppet's head nodding.
To answer "no" you put your first and second fingers with your thumb, almost like a puppet's mouth, and open and close them twice.
When they stick their wet tongue out, it gets covered with smelly stuff from the air and the ground.
They bring their tongue back in their mouth, and a part of their body called the Jacobson's organ, the vomeronasal organ or just VNO tells the snake what smells are on the tongue.
Because their tongue is forked, they can tell which smells were from the left, and which were from the right.
So in a way, they smell with their tongue, but their tongue really just gets covered in smells and brings those smells back to a sort of inside nose in their head.
Another mountain range in the Pacific Coast Belt in Alaska is the Chugach Mountains.
These mountains are right by the Gulf of Alaska, and because of that they get more snowfall than anywhere else in the world, usually getting over 600 inches (50 feet!) of snow per year.
We just learned about the person from the Bible named Sarah.
Another person from the Bible is Isaac.
Isaac was the only son of Abraham and Sarah.
When Isaac was young, God told Abraham to take him up to a mountain and offer him as a sacrifice.
This was very scary for Abraham because he loved Isaac, but he feared God so much that he did what God told him to do.
He took Isaac up to the mountain, but when God saw how much Abraham feared him and would follow his orders, he had Abraham sacrifice a sheep instead.
Because he was so faithful to God, he promised that he would bless all of Abraham and Isaac's children and grandchildren.
The Bible tells of Isaac's life in Genesis chapters 21 - 35.
To say please in ASL you make the "5" handshape with your hand, then put it flat on your chest, and make a circle, like you are rubbing your chest.
There are a few different ways to say you're welcome.
The word welcome in ASL really means more like welcome to my home, so you don't want to sign that.
The easiest way is just to do the ASL sign for thank you again.
You can also do the sign for fine which is the "5" handshape, with your fingers pointed up, touch your thumb to your chest two times.
Another way is to do the sign for nothing, to say "it's nothing". For this sign, you put both your hands in the ASL "O" handshape, and shake them in front of you.
