Ancient Near East

Yale Babylonian Collection

Some 5000 years ago, writing developed in the lower valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and spread from there to the rest of ancient Mesopotamia, approximately present-day Iraq. The writing, called cuneiform ("wedge-shaped"), spread from there over the entire Near East. The Babylonian Collection houses the largest assemblage of cuneiform ins...

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Copper bowl with a procession of animals

Period: Sumerian or Elamite, early 3rd Millennium B.C. Culture: Mesopotamian Category: Metalwork, Vessels Dimensions: Height: 9.2 cm, Diameter: 16.2 cm (max.) Price: POR Provenance: Ex-M. de Sancey Collection, Switzerland. Condition: Slightly crackled at the edge, the external surface has been cleaned and is in a remarkable state of preservatio...

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Gudea of Lagash

2141-2122 B.C.; Mesopotamian, Neo-Sumerian period; Paragonite; 41 cm (16 1/8 in.); Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund; 82.64. Of all the rulers of ancient Mesopotamia, Gudea, ensi (governor) of Lagash, emerges the most clearly across the millennia due to the survival of many of his religious texts and statues. He ruled...

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Aerial Survey Flights

PERSEPOLIS AND ANCIENT IRAN, Multiple images (with high resolution photos) Oriental Institute, University of Chicago http://www-oi.uchicago.edu...

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The Gate of Xerxes

PERSEPOLIS AND ANCIENT IRAN, Multiple images (with high resolution photos) Oriental Institute, University of Chicago http://www-oi.uchicago.edu...

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Cuneiform Tablets

PERSEPOLIS AND ANCIENT IRAN, Multiple images (with high resolution photos) Oriental Institute, University of Chicago http://www-oi.uchicago.edu...

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Miscellaneous Finds

PERSEPOLIS AND ANCIENT IRAN, Multiple images (with high resolution photos) Oriental Institute, University of Chicago http://www-oi.uchicago.edu...

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Cylinder Seal with Images of Dieties

Cylinder Seal with Watergod, Birdman, and Deities Mesopotamia; Akkadian Period, 2300 - 2200 B.C. Serpentine. Ea: Ea and attendant deities. Ea (seated) and attendant deities, Sumerian cylinder seal, c. 2300 bc; in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York....

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The Jerablus - Tahtani Project, Syria

The Jerablus Tahtani Project, North Syria, is an interdisciplinary research programme designed to investigate four key themes: the precocious expansion of the Uruk civilisation in the 4th millennium BC, secondary state formation in Early Bronze Age Syria, environmental and political reasons for widespread urban recession in the late 3rd millennium ...

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