Mesopotamian Inventions: Did you mean...?

This adminsitrative document is dated to the "24th day of Kislimu in the 11th year Nabonidus, King of Babylon". It mentions "a slave of Bel-sharra-usur (Belshazzar),son of the king". Although Belshazzar is acting as regent, the formal date...

Three rounded ceramic objects with saw-teeth-like margins. They have small holes on both the ventral and the dorsal aspects. Upon moving them, a sound comes out as if there is a small object inside them. May have been used in religious settings...

Clay plaque showing a man shooting at a monkey. The monkey is in the branches of a tree, in the centre. There is a boar at the foot of the right side of the tree. A kneeling man assists the shooter. This is possibly a scene from an Indian...

Festivals in ancient Mesopotamia honored the patron deity of a city-state or the primary god of the city that controlled a region or empire. The earliest, the Akitu festival, was first observed in Sumer in the Early Dynastic period (circa...

Mesopotamian female deity wearing a horned headdress and sitting on a chair or a throne, probably goddess Ishtar or goddess Bau. The lunar symbol of the moon god Sin appears at the upper part, flanking the headdress. Elaborate dress and braided...

Mesopotamian amulet covered with a quotation from a poem, the Akkadian Erra Epic, thought suitable to ward off plague. From Ashur, Northern Mesopotamia, Iraq. Neo-Assyrian Period, 800-612 BCE. The British Museum, London.

Among the many contributions to world culture credited to Mesopotamia is an object so familiar to people in the modern world that few pause to consider its origin: the dog collar. Throughout the ancient world, from China to Rome, dogs are...

This article documents and elaborates on the many critical behind-the-scenes events, unknown to the public, before the history leaves us. The author The bulk of the “the land between the two rivers” lies in what we call today the Republic...

Enlil (also known as Ellil and Nunamnir) was the Sumerian god of the air in the Mesopotamian pantheon, but he was more powerful than any other elemental deity and eventually was worshiped as King of the Gods. He is featured in a number of...

Naram-Sin (reign 2254-2218 BCE) was the last great king of the Akkadian Empire and the grandson of Sargon the Great (reign 2334-2279 BCE), who founded the empire. He is considered the most important Akkadian king after Sargon (or, according...