Mesopotamian Mythology: Did you mean...?

Sumerian schools (known as edubba, “House of Tablets”) trained the scribes of ancient Mesopotamia in reading, writing, interpretation of texts, general knowledge, and the specifics of whatever field they would eventually work in. The Sumerian...

The myths and legends of ancient Greece included a wide variety of fearsome creatures and monsters, such as dragons, giants, demons, and multiformed beings like the sphinx, minotaur, centaurs, and griffins. These terrifying entities often...

Ancient Persian religion developed in the region of Greater Iran by the 3rd millennium BCE and corresponds to what is known today as ancient Persian mythology. This belief system informed the Persian Achaemenid Empire, even after the acceptance...

Local trade in ancient Mesopotamia began in the Ubaid Period (c. 5000-4100 BCE), had developed into long-distance trade by the Uruk Period (c. 4100-2900 BCE), and was flourishing by the time of the Early Dynastic Period (2900-2334 BCE). Developments...

Elam was a region in the Near East corresponding to the modern-day provinces of Ilam and Khuzestan in southern Iran (though it also included part of modern-day southern Iraq) whose civilization spanned thousands of years from c. 3200 - c...

Nanna (also known as Nannar, Nanna-Suen, Sin, Asimbabbar, Namrasit, Inbu) is the Mesopotamian god of the moon and wisdom. He is one of the oldest gods in the Mesopotamian pantheon and is first mentioned at the very dawn of writing in Sumer...

An Arab folio on which is depicted a pharmacist preparing an elixir. From the manuscript of the De Materia Medica by Dioscorides, 1st century CE. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Two boxers are fighting while two musicians are playing the drum and are beating clappers together. Old Babylonian Period, 2000-1600 BCE. From Larsa, Southern Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq. (The British Museum, London).

The literary genre of Mesopotamian Naru Literature first appeared in the region around the second millennium BCE and the stories not only became very popular, but seemed to replace the actual historical events in the minds of the people...

Certain types of figurines were commonly placed within foundations of buildings during the third dynasty of Ur (2100-2000 BCE) of the Neo-Sumerian Period, to commemorate the building of temples by the ruler. These three peg-shaped copper...