Images

A Pazuzu is a creature from Mesopotamian mytholgy which has a human body, four wings, lion fore-paws, vulture's feet, and rattle snake tail. This amulet has two rings for suspension. Pazuzu was the demon of the southwest wind. Despite his...

This amulet depicts a Lamashtu standing on a donkey and suckling a jackal and a wild pig. Lamatshu prayed on women in childbirth and newly-born infants. She has a lion head, wings, and eagle's talons. Amulet images show suckling animals and...

Tomb of Inherkau no. 359 Second chamber, South wall "The great cat of Heliopolis" killing the enemy of the sun, Apophis.

Book of the Dead of Nestanebtasheru (sheet 87): Geb is shown as a semi-recumbent figure stretching out his limbs while the elongated body of Nut arches above him. Her feet touch the ground at the eastern horizon and her fingers at the western...

"The wretched, weary person weeps..." The Crown Prince, son of Nebuchadnezzar II, wrote this anguished poem in prison. Once freed, he attributed his rescue to the god Marduk, by changing his name to Amel-Marduk (the Biblical Evil-Merodach...

"He looks at those effigies and utters blasphemes...". During the reign of Nabonidus (556-539 BCE), Babylon fell to the Persian king Cyrus the Great. Nabonidus' reign was a troubled one. His unpopularity led to this poem, ridiculing Nabonidus...

The fall of a dynasty! Nabonidus' faults and absence were recorded alongside events of his reign. By the autumn of 539 BCE,, Babylon has surrendered to the army of king Cyrus to become part of the growing Achaemenid Empire. From Babylon...

This is a diorite mina weight in the shape of a sugar loaf. The inscriptions state that this was a copy of a weight made for Nebuchadnezzar, following the standard of Shulgi, "The Old Sumerian King" (reigned 2094-2047 BCE). It was the property...

These weights are in the range of 8.7 to 24.7 grams, roughly between 1 and 3 Babylonian shekels. Weights had been made in this characteristic duck-shape since around 2000 BCE. From Southern Mesopotamia, Iraq. Circa 700-500 BCE. (The British...

Nabonidus' preoccupation with the moon god Sin led to building work outside Babylon. This clay cylinder (with very well preserved and beautifully written Babylonian characters) records the restoration of Sin's ziggurat at Ur and also asks...