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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Umm al-Hafriyet

Part of the Nippur program, a nearby site, occupied in the Uruk (ca. 3500 b.c.), Ur III to Old Babylonian (2200-1800 b.c.), Kassite (ca. 1250 b.c.), and Seleucid (ca. 300 b.c.) periods. Excavations from the Oriental Institute. [Archaeological Sites] [Iraq]...

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Sir Austen Henry Layard - Discoveries at Nineveh

Discoveries At Nineveh by Austen Henry Layard, Esq., D.C.L. Text source: A Popular Account of Discoveries at Nineveh. Austen Henry Layard. J. C. Derby. New York. 1854. [Archaeology]...

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Ur

From the University of Pennsylvania Museum, a bit of information on this Mesopotamian culture, in a site put together for a new travelling exhibit. [Archaeological Sites] [Iraq]...

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Assyrian Texts

- Provides a way to purchase texts of new translations of Assyrian texts [Electonic Text Sites]...

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University College at London

Department of Western Asiatic Archaeology, research in Bahrain, Yemen, Turkmenistan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. [Archaeological Sites] [Iraq] [University Programs]...

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Nineveh

A news brief from Archaeology Magazine describing the recent looting at this important archaeological site. [Archaeological Sites]...

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Assyrian and Babylonian Cuneiform Texts

Assyrian and Babylonian texts...

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