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Mesopotamian Male Worshiper Votive Figure
Mesopotamian male worshiper votive figure, from Eshnunna, Mesopotamia (modern-day Tell Asmar), 2750-2600 BCE.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
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Lost Treasures From Iraq: Revisited & Identified
For how long do we build a household? For how long do we seal a document? For how long do brothers share the inheritance? For how long is there to be jealousy in the land(?)? The Epic of Gilgamesh, chapter 10, Tablet X. I have always...
Definition
Gutians
The Gutians were a West Asiatic people who are thought to have lived around the Zagros Mountains in a region referred to as Gutium. They had no written language and all that is known of them comes from their enemies, including the Akkadians...
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Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia - Mirroring the Modern World
Daily life in ancient Mesopotamia cannot be described in the same way one would describe life in ancient Rome or Greece. Mesopotamia was never a single, unified civilization, not even under the Akkadian Empire of Sargon of Akkad (the Great...
Definition
Ancient Syria
Syria is a country located in the Middle East on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea and bordered, from the north down to the west, by Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, and Lebanon. It is one of the oldest inhabited regions in the world with archaeological...
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Mesopotamian Spells Against Sorcerers
The first tablet of Maqlu (Akkadian, which means burning), the Akkadian series of incantations directed against demons and witches. The spells involved the manufacturer of wax figurines; these would then be burned in certain ceremonies. From...
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Mesopotamian Ceramic Objects Used in Magical Liturgy
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...
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Mesopotamian Beer Rations Tablet
The temples issued workers with daily rations of barley beer, the staple drink of Mesopotamia. The tablet was impressed with five different types of numerical symbol. From Mesopotamia, Iraq. Late Uruk Period, 3100-3000 BCE. (The British Museum...
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Festivals in Ancient Mesopotamia - Courting the Goodwill of the Gods
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...
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Mesopotamian Record of Barley
On this clay tablet, barley appears 4 times, depicted as a single stalk with ears at the top. Emmer wheat is different from barley, by writing numbers with extra strokes. Three different types of numerical symbol were used. From Mesopotamia...