Shulgi: Did you mean...?

The convex and carved surfaces of the earrings. Each earring is composed of nine lunar-shaped segments forming a flattened half- ball. The cuneiform signs run vertically from above downward, starting from the right end. A pair of gold earrings...

The lower surface of the earring . Six gold spheres were lost and were not replaced. The cuneiform text is read vertically, from the upper surface downwards on each segment, and it continues from right to left. One of a pair of gold earrings...

The interior hollow surface of the earring. Note how the carved cuneiform signs appear on this side and how the goldsmith joined the “lunar-shaped” segments of the earring. One of a pair of gold earrings, 24 carats. Gift from Shulgi to a...

Mesopotamia is the ancient Greek name (meaning "the land between two rivers," the Tigris and Euphrates) for the region corresponding to modern-day Iraq and parts of Iran, Syria, and Turkey. It is considered the "cradle of civilization" for...

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...

Sargon and Ur-Zababa is a Sumerian poem, date of composition unknown, relating the rise to power of Sargon of Akkad (reign 2334-2279 BCE), founder of the Akkadian Empire. The work is classified as a Mesopotamian folktale, relying on motifs...

The Kesh Temple Hymn (c. 2600 BCE) is the oldest work of literature in the world, sometimes referenced as the oldest extant religious poem. It is a Sumerian praise song to the goddess Ninhursag and her temple in the city of Kesh, composed...

A curator is doing a routine and regular preservation work on a pair of gold earrings at the lab of the Sulaymaniyah Museum of Iraqi Kurdistan. October 18, 2017; exclusive photo. Ur III Period, reign of Shulgi, 2093-2046 BCE. Probably from...

This stone bowl has two sets of cuneiform inscriptions. The first one says that the bowl was booty brought to Mesopotamia from Magan (modern Sultanate of Oman) by the Akkadian king Naram-Sin (2254-2218 BCE). The second inscription mentions...

Gilgamesh is the semi-mythic King of Uruk best known as the hero of The Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2150-1400 BCE) the great Babylonian poem that predates Homer's Iliad and Odyssey by 1500 years and, therefore, stands as the oldest piece of epic...