Baghdad: Did you mean...?

Two terracotta lions found at the entrance to the Dagan Temple at Tell Harmal (ancient Shaduppum), in the eastern outskirt of Baghdad, Old Babylonian period, c. 1800 BCE. The temple was a typical Old-Babylonian one, with a short staircase...

This terracotta lion was found at the entrance to the Dagan Temple at Tell Harmal (ancient Shaduppum), in the eastern outskirt of Baghdad. The temple was dedicated to Nisaba (goddess of the grain and writing) and her consort, Haja. The...

Small marble jar which was found at Tell es-Sawwan, Iraq. Tell es-Sawwan is an ancient archaeological site in Saladin Province (about 110 Km north of Baghdad) and is associated with the Samarra culture. 6000-5800 BCE. On display at the Iraq...

This pottery vessel was found at Al-Masihli (Arabic: المسيحلي), north of Baghdad, Iraq. The surface is painted and decorated with different geometric shapes. 3500-2800 BCE. On display at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.

The great cities of Mesopotamia ("the land between two rivers") developed prior to the late 4th millennium BCE along two rivers – the Tigris and Euphrates – and were fully established by the Early Dynastic period (circa 2900 to circa 2350/2334...

The widespread use of paper and printing were features of ancient China which distinguished it from other ancient cultures. Traditionally, paper was invented in the early 2nd century CE, but there is evidence it was much earlier. As a cheaper...

Persian literature derives from a long oral tradition of poetic storytelling. The first recorded example of this tradition is the Behistun Inscription of Darius I (the Great, r. 522-486 BCE), carved on a cliff-face c. 522 BCE during the period...

Saladin (c. 1137 – 1193 CE), the Muslim ruler who crushed the mighty Crusader army at the Horns of Hattin (1187 CE) and re-took Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader control, was born in a world where the disunity of the Muslims had allowed...

Cyrus the Great (558-530 BCE) built the first universal empire, stretching from Greece to the Indus River. This was the famous Achaemenid Empire of Persia. An inscription at Naqsh-i-Rustam, the tomb of his able successor Darius I (521-486...

The spices clove, nutmeg, and mace originated on only a handful of tiny islands in the Indonesian archipelago but came to have a dramatic, far-reaching impact on world trade. In antiquity, they became popular in the medicines of India and...