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The Rt Hon Sir Austen Henry Layard GCB (5 March 1817 – 5 July 1894) was an English traveller, archaeologist, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, author, politician and diplomat, best known as the excavator of Nimrud and of Niniveh, where he uncovered a large proportion of the Assyrian palace reliefs known, and in 1851 the library of Ashurbanipal.
The Rt Hon Sir Austen Henry Layard GCB (5 March 1817 – 5 July 1894) was an English traveller, archaeologist, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, author, politician and diplomat, best known as the excavator of Nimrud and of Niniveh, where he uncovered a large proportion of the Assyrian palace reliefs known, and in 1851 the library of Ashurbanipal.
The Rt Hon Sir Austen Henry Layard GCB (5 March 1817 – 5 July 1894) was an English traveller, archaeologist, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, author, politician and diplomat, best known as the excavator of Nimrud and of Niniveh, where he uncovered a large proportion of the Assyrian palace reliefs known, and in 1851 the library of Ashurbanipal.
Nimrud is the later Arab name for an ancient Assyrian city located 30 kilometres (20 mi) south of the city of Mosul in the Nineveh plains in northern Mesopotamia. It was a major Assyrian city between approximately 1250 BCE and 610 BCE.
Babylon (Arabic: Babil) was a significant city in ancient Mesopotamia, in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city was built upon the Euphrates, and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods.<br/><br/> Babylon was originally a small Semitic Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c. 2300 BCE. The town attained independence as part of a small city state with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BCE. Claiming to be the successor of the more ancient Sumero-Akkadian city of Eridu, Babylon eclipsed Nippur as the 'holy city' of Mesopotamia around the time Amorite king Hammurabi created the first short lived Babylonian Empire in the 18th century BC. Babylon grew and South Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia.<br/><br/> The empire quickly dissolved after Hammurabi's death and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BCE. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rules of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid empires.
Nimrud is the later Arab name for an ancient Assyrian city located 30 kilometres (20 mi) south of the city of Mosul in the Nineveh plains in northern Mesopotamia. It was a major Assyrian city between approximately 1250 BCE and 610 BCE.
Ctesiphon was the capital city of the Parthian and Sasanian Empires (247 BCE–224 CE and 224–651 CE respectively). It was one of the great cities of late ancient Mesopotamia. Its most conspicuous structure remaining today is the great archway of Ctesiphon.<br/><br/> It was situated on the eastern bank of the Tigris across from where the Greek city of Seleucia stood and northeast of ancient Babylon. Today, the remains of the city lie in Baghdad Governorate, Iraq, approximately 35 km (22 mi) south of the city of Baghdad.<br/><br/> Ctesiphon was the largest city in the world from 570 CE, until its fall in 637 CE, during the Muslim conquests.<br/><br/> The arched <i>iwan</i> hall at Taq Qasra, open on the facade side, was about 37 m high, 26 m across and 50 m long, the largest man-made, free standing vault constructed until modern times.
Shamash (Akkadian: Samas, 'Sun') was a native Mesopotamian deity and the Sun god in the Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Hebrew pantheons. <br/><br/> Shamash was the god of justice in Babylonia and Assyria, corresponding to Sumerian Utu. Akkadian <i>samas</i> is cognate to Syriac <i>semsa</i>, Hebrew <i>semes</i> and Arabic <i>sams</i>, 'sun'.
The Rt Hon Sir Austen Henry Layard GCB (5 March 1817 – 5 July 1894) was an English traveller, archaeologist, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, author, politician and diplomat, best known as the excavator of Nimrud and of Niniveh, where he uncovered a large proportion of the Assyrian palace reliefs known, and in 1851 the library of Ashurbanipal.
Nimrud is the later Arab name for an ancient Assyrian city located 30 kilometres (20 mi) south of the city of Mosul in the Nineveh plains in northern Mesopotamia. It was a major Assyrian city between approximately 1250 BCE and 610 BCE.
Nimrud is the later Arab name for an ancient Assyrian city located 30 kilometres (20 mi) south of the city of Mosul in the Nineveh plains in northern Mesopotamia. It was a major Assyrian city between approximately 1250 BCE and 610 BCE.
Nimrud is the later Arab name for an ancient Assyrian city located 30 kilometres (20 mi) south of the city of Mosul in the Nineveh plains in northern Mesopotamia. It was a major Assyrian city between approximately 1250 BCE and 610 BCE.
Allat, the Arab goddess of war, is the central figure on this stone relief from Hatra (once covered with thin sheets of gold or silver). She is flanked by two smaller female figures, most probably her daughters al-Izza and Al-Manat, with right hands raised up, palms forward, in the typical Hatrene manner indicating benediction or respectful prayer.<br/><br/> Although these deities are of Arab origin, Allat is shown with the attributes of the Greek goddess Athena: a gorgon head on her breastplate, armed with a spear, a helmet, and carrying a shield marked with her lunar symbol. The eyes and the costume are rendered in the local Parthian fashion.<br/><br/> The goddesses are perched on a lion - Al-Lat's sacred animal - portrayed with an extravagant flame-like mane.
The Rt Hon Sir Austen Henry Layard GCB (5 March 1817 – 5 July 1894) was an English traveller, archaeologist, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, author, politician and diplomat, best known as the excavator of Nimrud and of Niniveh, where he uncovered a large proportion of the Assyrian palace reliefs known, and in 1851 the library of Ashurbanipal.
Ctesiphon was the capital city of the Parthian and Sasanian Empires (247 BCE–224 CE and 224–651 CE respectively). It was one of the great cities of late ancient Mesopotamia. Its most conspicuous structure remaining today is the great archway of Ctesiphon.<br/><br/> It was situated on the eastern bank of the Tigris across from where the Greek city of Seleucia stood and northeast of ancient Babylon. Today, the remains of the city lie in Baghdad Governorate, Iraq, approximately 35 km (22 mi) south of the city of Baghdad.<br/><br/> Ctesiphon was the largest city in the world from 570 CE, until its fall in 637 CE, during the Muslim conquests.<br/><br/> The arched <i>iwan</i> hall at Taq Qasra, open on the facade side, was about 37 m high, 26 m across and 50 m long, the largest man-made, free standing vault constructed until modern times.
Dur-Sharrukin, present day Khorsabad, was the Assyrian capital in the time of Sargon II of Assyria. Khorsabad is a village in northern Iraq, 15 km northeast of Mosul. The great city was entirely built in the decade preceding 706 BCE. After the unexpected death of Sargon in battle, the capital was moved 20 km south to Nineveh.<br/><br/> On 8 March 2015 the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) reportedly started the plunder and demolition of Dur-Sharrukin, according to a Kurdish official from Mosul. The Iraqi Tourism and Antiquities Ministry launched the related investigation on the same day.
The Great Mosque of al-Nuri is a historical mosque in Mosul, Iraq famous for its leaning minaret. Tradition holds that Nur ad-Din Zangi built the mosque in 1172-73, shortly before his death. According to the chronicle of Ibn al-Athir, after Nur ad-Din took control of Mosul he ordered his nephew Fakhr al-Din to build the mosque.<br/><br/> The structure was targeted by ISIS militants who occupied Mosul on June 10, 2014 and previously destroyed the Tomb of Jonah. However residents of Mosul incensed with the destruction of their cultural sites protected the mosque by forming a human chain and forming a resistance against ISIS.
Nimrud is the later Arab name for an ancient Assyrian city located 30 kilometres (20 mi) south of the city of Mosul in the Nineveh plains in northern Mesopotamia. It was a major Assyrian city between approximately 1250 BCE and 610 BCE.
Ctesiphon was the capital city of the Parthian and Sasanian Empires (247 BCE–224 CE and 224–651 CE respectively). It was one of the great cities of late ancient Mesopotamia. Its most conspicuous structure remaining today is the great archway of Ctesiphon.<br/><br/> It was situated on the eastern bank of the Tigris across from where the Greek city of Seleucia stood and northeast of ancient Babylon. Today, the remains of the city lie in Baghdad Governorate, Iraq, approximately 35 km (22 mi) south of the city of Baghdad.<br/><br/> Ctesiphon was the largest city in the world from 570 CE, until its fall in 637 CE, during the Muslim conquests.<br/><br/> The arched <i>iwan</i> hall at Taq Qasra, open on the facade side, was about 37 m high, 26 m across and 50 m long, the largest man-made, free standing vault constructed until modern times.
Babylon (Arabic: Babil) was a significant city in ancient Mesopotamia, in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city was built upon the Euphrates, and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods.<br/><br/> Babylon was originally a small Semitic Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c. 2300 BCE. The town attained independence as part of a small city state with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BCE. Claiming to be the successor of the more ancient Sumero-Akkadian city of Eridu, Babylon eclipsed Nippur as the 'holy city' of Mesopotamia around the time Amorite king Hammurabi created the first short lived Babylonian Empire in the 18th century BC. Babylon grew and South Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia.<br/><br/> The empire quickly dissolved after Hammurabi's death and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BCE. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rules of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid empires., Babylon (Arabic: Babil) was a significant city in ancient Mesopotamia, in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city was built upon the Euphrates, and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods.<br/><br/> Babylon was originally a small Semitic Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c. 2300 BCE. The town attained independence as part of a small city state with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BCE. Claiming to be the successor of the more ancient Sumero-Akkadian city of Eridu, Babylon eclipsed Nippur as the 'holy city' of Mesopotamia around the time Amorite king Hammurabi created the first short lived Babylonian Empire in the 18th century BC. Babylon grew and South Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia.<br/><br/> The empire quickly dissolved after Hammurabi's death and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BCE. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rules of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid empires.
Nimrud is the later Arab name for an ancient Assyrian city located 30 kilometres (20 mi) south of the city of Mosul in the Nineveh plains in northern Mesopotamia. It was a major Assyrian city between approximately 1250 BCE and 610 BCE.
Nineveh (Akkadian: Ninua) is an ancient Mesopotamian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.<br/><br/> It was the largest city in the world for some fifty years until, after a bitter period of civil war in Assyria itself, it was sacked by an unusual coalition of former subject peoples, the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Chaldeans, Scythians and Cimmerians in 612 BCE. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq.<br/><br/> In early 2015 the jihadist group ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) announced their intention to destroy the walls of Nineveh if the Iraqis try to liberate the city, they also threatened to destroy artifacts. On February 26 they destroyed several items and statues in the Mosul Museum, and are believed to have plundered others to sell overseas. The items were mostly from the Assyrian exhibit, which ISIL declared blasphemous and idolatrous.
The Great Mosque of al-Nuri is a historical mosque in Mosul, Iraq famous for its leaning minaret. Tradition holds that Nur ad-Din Zangi built the mosque in 1172-73, shortly before his death. According to the chronicle of Ibn al-Athir, after Nur ad-Din took control of Mosul he ordered his nephew Fakhr al-Din to build the mosque.<br/><br/> The structure was targeted by ISIS militants who occupied Mosul on June 10, 2014 and previously destroyed the Tomb of Jonah. However residents of Mosul incensed with the destruction of their cultural sites protected the mosque by forming a human chain and forming a resistance against ISIS.
Nimrud is the later Arab name for an ancient Assyrian city located 30 kilometres (20 mi) south of the city of Mosul in the Nineveh plains in northern Mesopotamia. It was a major Assyrian city between approximately 1250 BCE and 610 BCE.
Ctesiphon was the capital city of the Parthian and Sasanian Empires (247 BCE–224 CE and 224–651 CE respectively). It was one of the great cities of late ancient Mesopotamia. Its most conspicuous structure remaining today is the great archway of Ctesiphon.<br/><br/> It was situated on the eastern bank of the Tigris across from where the Greek city of Seleucia stood and northeast of ancient Babylon. Today, the remains of the city lie in Baghdad Governorate, Iraq, approximately 35 km (22 mi) south of the city of Baghdad.<br/><br/> Ctesiphon was the largest city in the world from 570 CE, until its fall in 637 CE, during the Muslim conquests.<br/><br/> The arched <i>iwan</i> hall at Taq Qasra, open on the facade side, was about 37 m high, 26 m across and 50 m long, the largest man-made, free standing vault constructed until modern times.
Babylon (Arabic: Babil) was a significant city in ancient Mesopotamia, in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city was built upon the Euphrates, and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods.<br/><br/> Babylon was originally a small Semitic Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c. 2300 BCE. The town attained independence as part of a small city state with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BCE. Claiming to be the successor of the more ancient Sumero-Akkadian city of Eridu, Babylon eclipsed Nippur as the 'holy city' of Mesopotamia around the time Amorite king Hammurabi created the first short lived Babylonian Empire in the 18th century BC. Babylon grew and South Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia.<br/><br/> The empire quickly dissolved after Hammurabi's death and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BCE. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rules of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid empires.
Dur-Sharrukin, present day Khorsabad, was the Assyrian capital in the time of Sargon II of Assyria. Khorsabad is a village in northern Iraq, 15 km northeast of Mosul. The great city was entirely built in the decade preceding 706 BCE. After the unexpected death of Sargon in battle, the capital was moved 20 km south to Nineveh.<br/><br/> On 8 March 2015 the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) reportedly started the plunder and demolition of Dur-Sharrukin, according to a Kurdish official from Mosul. The Iraqi Tourism and Antiquities Ministry launched the related investigation on the same day.
Larsa was an important city of ancient Sumer, the center of the cult of the sun god Utu. It lies some 25 km southeast of Uruk in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate, near the east bank of the Shatt-en-Nil canal at the site of the modern settlement Tell as-Senkereh or Sankarah.<br/><br/> The city became a political force during the Isin-Larsa period (3rd Century BCE).
Nimrud is the later Arab name for an ancient Assyrian city located 30 kilometres (20 mi) south of the city of Mosul in the Nineveh plains in northern Mesopotamia. It was a major Assyrian city between approximately 1250 BCE and 610 BCE.
Nimrud is the later Arab name for an ancient Assyrian city located 30 kilometres (20 mi) south of the city of Mosul in the Nineveh plains in northern Mesopotamia. It was a major Assyrian city between approximately 1250 BCE and 610 BCE.
The Ishtar Gate (Persian: دروازه ایشتار‎)(Arabic: بوابة عشتار‎) was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city.<br/><br/> Dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the gate was constructed using glazed brick with alternating rows of bas-relief mušá¸«uššu (dragons) and aurochs.<br/><br/> The roof and doors of the gate were of cedar, according to the dedication plaque. Through the gate ran the Processional Way, which was lined with walls covered in lions on glazed bricks (about 120 of them). Ishtar Gate has only gods and goddesses which include Ishtar Adad and Marduk. Statues of the deities were paraded through the gate and down the Processional Way each year during the New Year's celebration.<br/><br/> Originally the gate, being part of the Walls of Babylon, was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the world until it was replaced by the Lighthouse of Alexandria; in the 3rd century BC.
In Mesopotamian Religion (Sumerian, Assyrian, Akkadian and Babylonian), Tiamat is a chaos monster, a primordial goddess of the ocean, mating with Abzû (the god of fresh water) to produce younger gods.<br/><br/> Marduk was the Babylonian name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi (18th century BCE), started to slowly rise to the position of the head of the Babylonian pantheon, a position he fully acquired by the second half of the second millennium BCE.
The city-state of Lagash produced a remarkable number of statues of its kings as well as Sumerian literary hymns and prayers under the rule of Gudea (c. 2150–2125 BCE) and his son Ur-Ningirsu (c. 2125–2100 BCE).<br/><br/> This sculpture belongs to a series of diorite statues commissioned by Gudea, who devoted his energies to rebuilding the great temples of Lagash and installing statues of himself in them.<br/><br/> Many inscribed with his name and divine dedications survive. Here, Gudea is depicted in the seated pose of a ruler before his subjects, his hands folded in a traditional gesture of prayer. The Sumerian inscription on his robe lists the various temples that he built or renovated in Lagash and names the statue: 'Gudea, the man who built the temple; may his life be long'.
Sargon of Akkad, also known as Sargon the Great (Akkadian Šarru-kÄ«nu, meaning 'the true king' or 'the legitimate king'), was a Semitic Akkadian emperor famous for his conquest of the Sumerian city-states in the 23rd and 22nd centuries BC.<br/><br/> The founder of the Dynasty of Akkad, Sargon reigned in the last quarter of the third millennium BCE. He became a prominent member of the royal court of Kish, killing the king and usurping his throne before embarking on the quest to conquer Mesopotamia. He was originally referred to as Sargon I until records concerning an Assyrian king also named Sargon (now usually referred to as Sargon I) were unearthed.<br/><br/> Sargon's vast empire is thought to have included large parts of Mesopotamia, and included parts of modern-day Iran, Asia Minor and Syria. He ruled from a new, but as yet archaeologically unidentified capital, Akkad (Agade), which the Sumerian king list claims he built (or possibly renovated). He is sometimes regarded as the first person in recorded history to create a multiethnic, centrally ruled empire. His dynasty controlled Mesopotamia for around a century and a half.
Mari (modern Tell Hariri, Syria) was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city, located 11 km north-west of the modern town of Abu Kamal on the western bank of the Euphrates river, some 120 km southeast of Deir ez-Zor, Syria. It is thought to have been inhabited since the 5th millennium BCE, although it flourished with a series of superimposed palaces that span a thousand years, from 2900 BCE to 1759 BCE, when it was sacked by Hammurabi.<br/><br/> The citizens of Mari were well known for elaborate hair styles and dress, and are considered to be part of Mesopotamian culture, despite being 240 km (150 mi) upriver from Babylon. It is theorized by some that Mari functioned as a trading post for southern Mesopotamia.<br/><br/> The inhabitants of Mari worshipped a vast array of gods and goddesses. Dagan, the deity of storms, had an entire temple dedicated to him, as did Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, and Shamash, the Sun god. Shamash was believed to be all-knowing and all-seeing, and in many seals he is seen standing between two large doors. According to the Epic of Gilgamesh, these doors are between Mount Mashu, and are the eastern doors to heaven. Through Mari's extensive trade network, Sumerian gods and goddesses were taken to non-Sumerian cities such as Ebla and Ugarit and incorporated into their native religions.
The Standard of Ur survived in only a fragmentary condition, as the effects of time over the last several millennia had decayed the wooden frame and bitumen glue which had cemented the mosaic in place. The weight of the soil had crushed the object, fragmenting it and breaking the end panels. The present form of the artifact is a reconstruction, presenting a best guess of its original appearance.<br/><br/> It has been reconstructed as a hollow wooden box measuring 21.59 centimetres (8.50 in) wide by 49.53 centimetres (19.50 in) long, inlaid with a mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli. The box has an irregular shape with end pieces in the shape of truncated triangles, making it wider at the bottom than at the top.<br/><br/> Inlaid mosaic panels cover each long side of the Standard. Each presents a series of scenes displayed in three registers, upper, middle and bottom. The two mosaics have been dubbed 'War' and 'Peace' for their subject matter, respectively a representation of a military campaign and scenes from a banquet. The panels at each end originally showed fantastical animals but they suffered significant damage while buried, though they have since been restored.
This ancient clay tablet is dated to the 14th-13th century BCE, and on it is inscribed a map of the countryside around the Mesopotamian city of Nippur, located in the middle of the southern Mesopotamia floodplain, near the modern city of Diwaniyah. The inscription on the tablet is in cuneiform.<br/><br/> It may be the oldest city map in the world.
Khafajah was occupied during the Early Dynastic Period, through the Sargonid Period, then came under the control of Eshnunna after the fall of the Ur III Empire. Later, after Eshnunna was captured by Babylon, a fort was built at the site by Samsu-iluna of the First Babylonian Dynasty and named Dur-Samsuiluna.<br/><br/> The history of Khafajah is known in somewhat more detail for a period of several decades as a result of the discovery of 112 tablets in a temple of the god Sin. The tablets constitute part of an official archive and include mostly loan and legal documents.
Tiglath-Pileser III was a prominent king of Assyria in the eighth century BCE (ruled 745–727 BCE) and is widely regarded as the founder of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.<br/><br/> Tiglath-Pileser III seized the Assyrian throne during a civil war and killed the royal family. He made sweeping changes to the Assyrian government, considerably improving its efficiency and security. Assyrian forces became a standing army. Tiglath-Pileser III subjected Babylonia to tribute, severely punished Urartu (Armenia), and defeated the Medes and the Hittites. He reconquered Syria (destroying Damascus) and the Mediterranean seaports of Phoenicia. Tiglath-Pileser III also occupied Philistia and Israel. Later in his reign, Tiglath-Pileser III assumed total control of Babylonia.<br/><br/> Tiglath-Pileser III discouraged revolts against Assyrian rule, with the use of forced deportations of thousands of people all over the empire. He is considered to be one of the most successful military commanders in world history, conquering most of the world known to the Assyrians before his death.
Ashurbanipal (685 BCE – c. 627 BCE), also spelled Assurbanipal or Ashshurbanipal, was an Assyrian king, the son of Esarhaddon and the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (668 BCE – c. 627 BCE). He established the first systematically organized library in the ancient Middle East, the Library of Ashurbanipal, which survives in part today at Nineveh.<br/><br/> In the Bible he is called Asenappar (Ezra 4:10). Roman historian Justinus identified him as Sardanapalus.
Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium (the Uruk IV period), cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. In the three millennia the script spanned, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use also grew gradually smaller, from about 1,000 unique characters in the Early Bronze Age to about 400 unique characters in Late Bronze Age (Hittite cuneiform).<br/><br/> The original Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, and Urartian languages, and it inspired the Ugaritic and Old Persian alphabets. Cuneiform writing was gradually replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and by the 2nd century AD, the script had become extinct.<br/><br/> Cuneiform documents were written on clay tablets, by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped, thus giving rise to the name cuneiform ('wedge shaped', from the Latin cuneus, meaning 'wedge').
The Standard of Ur survived in only a fragmentary condition, as the effects of time over the last several millennia had decayed the wooden frame and bitumen glue which had cemented the mosaic in place. The weight of the soil had crushed the object, fragmenting it and breaking the end panels. The present form of the artifact is a reconstruction, presenting a best guess of its original appearance.<br/><br/> It has been reconstructed as a hollow wooden box measuring 21.59 centimetres (8.50 in) wide by 49.53 centimetres (19.50 in) long, inlaid with a mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli. The box has an irregular shape with end pieces in the shape of truncated triangles, making it wider at the bottom than at the top.<br/><br/> Inlaid mosaic panels cover each long side of the Standard. Each presents a series of scenes displayed in three registers, upper, middle and bottom. The two mosaics have been dubbed 'War' and 'Peace' for their subject matter, respectively a representation of a military campaign and scenes from a banquet. The panels at each end originally showed fantastical animals but they suffered significant damage while buried, though they have since been restored.
Ashurnasipal II succeeded his father, Tukulti-Ninurta II, in 883 BC. During his reign he embarked on a vast program of expansion, first conquering the peoples to the north in Asia Minor as far as Nairi and exacting tribute from Phrygia, then invading Aram (modern Syria) conquering the Aramaeans and neo Hittites between the Khabur and the Euphrates Rivers.<br/><br/> His harshness prompted a revolt that he crushed decisively in a pitched, two-day battle. According to his monument inscription while recalling this massacre he says 'their men young and old I took prisoners. Of some I cut off their feet and hands; of others I cut off the ears, noses and lips; of the young men's ears I made a heap; of the old men's heads I made a marinet. I exposed their heads as a trophy in front of their city. The male children and the female children I burned in flames; the city I destroyed, and consumed with fire'.<br/><br/> Following this victory, he advanced without opposition as far as the Mediterranean and exacted tribute from Phoenicia. On his return back home he moved his capital to the city of Kalhu (Nimrud).
The Standard of Ur survived in only a fragmentary condition, as the effects of time over the last several millennia had decayed the wooden frame and bitumen glue which had cemented the mosaic in place. The weight of the soil had crushed the object, fragmenting it and breaking the end panels. The present form of the artifact is a reconstruction, presenting a best guess of its original appearance.<br/><br/> It has been reconstructed as a hollow wooden box measuring 21.59 centimetres (8.50 in) wide by 49.53 centimetres (19.50 in) long, inlaid with a mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli. The box has an irregular shape with end pieces in the shape of truncated triangles, making it wider at the bottom than at the top.<br/><br/> Inlaid mosaic panels cover each long side of the Standard. Each presents a series of scenes displayed in three registers, upper, middle and bottom. The two mosaics have been dubbed 'War' and 'Peace' for their subject matter, respectively a representation of a military campaign and scenes from a banquet. The panels at each end originally showed fantastical animals but they suffered significant damage while buried, though they have since been restored.
Sargon of Akkad, also known as Sargon the Great (Akkadian Šarru-kÄ«nu, meaning 'the true king' or 'the legitimate king'), was a Semitic Akkadian emperor famous for his conquest of the Sumerian city-states in the 23rd and 22nd centuries BC.<br/><br/> The founder of the Dynasty of Akkad, Sargon reigned in the last quarter of the third millennium BCE. He became a prominent member of the royal court of Kish, killing the king and usurping his throne before embarking on the quest to conquer Mesopotamia. He was originally referred to as Sargon I until records concerning an Assyrian king also named Sargon (now usually referred to as Sargon I) were unearthed.<br/><br/> Sargon's vast empire is thought to have included large parts of Mesopotamia, and included parts of modern-day Iran, Asia Minor and Syria. He ruled from a new, but as yet archaeologically unidentified capital, Akkad (Agade), which the Sumerian king list claims he built (or possibly renovated). He is sometimes regarded as the first person in recorded history to create a multiethnic, centrally ruled empire. His dynasty controlled Mesopotamia for around a century and a half.
Sargon of Akkad, also known as Sargon the Great (Akkadian Šarru-kÄ«nu, meaning 'the true king' or 'the legitimate king'), was a Semitic Akkadian emperor famous for his conquest of the Sumerian city-states in the 23rd and 22nd centuries BC.<br/><br/> The founder of the Dynasty of Akkad, Sargon reigned in the last quarter of the third millennium BCE. He became a prominent member of the royal court of Kish, killing the king and usurping his throne before embarking on the quest to conquer Mesopotamia. He was originally referred to as Sargon I until records concerning an Assyrian king also named Sargon (now usually referred to as Sargon I) were unearthed.<br/><br/> Sargon's vast empire is thought to have included large parts of Mesopotamia, and included parts of modern-day Iran, Asia Minor and Syria. He ruled from a new, but as yet archaeologically unidentified capital, Akkad (Agade), which the Sumerian king list claims he built (or possibly renovated). He is sometimes regarded as the first person in recorded history to create a multiethnic, centrally ruled empire. His dynasty controlled Mesopotamia for around a century and a half.
The Burney Relief (also known as the Queen of the Night relief) is a Mesopotamian terracotta plaque in high relief of the Isin-Larsa- or Old-Babylonian period, depicting a winged, nude, goddess-like figure with bird's talons, flanked by owls, and perched upon supine lions. The relief is displayed in the British Museum in London, which has dated it between 1800 and 1750 BCE. It originates from southern Iraq, but the exact find-site is unknown. Apart from its distinctive iconography, the piece is noted for its high relief and relatively large size, which suggests that is was used as a cult relief, which makes it a very rare survival from the period.<br/><br/> The relief depicts a naked female figure with tapering feathered wings and talons, standing with her legs together; shown full frontal, wearing a headdress consisting of four pairs of horns topped by a disc; wearing an elaborate necklace and bracelets on each wrist; holding her hands to the level of her shoulders with a rod and ring in each; figure supported by a pair of addorsed lions above a scale-pattern representing mountains or hilly ground, and flanked by a pair of standing owls.
Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BCE, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium (the Uruk IV period), cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. In the three millennia the script spanned, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use also grew gradually smaller, from about 1,000 distinct characters in the Early Bronze Age to about 400 distinct characters in Late Bronze Age (Hittite cuneiform).<br/><br/> The original Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, and Urartian languages, and it inspired the Ugaritic and Old Persian alphabets. Cuneiform writing was gradually replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and by the 2nd century CE, the script had become extinct.<br/><br/> Cuneiform documents were written on clay tablets, by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped, thus giving rise to the name cuneiform ('wedge shaped', from the Latin cuneus, meaning 'wedge').
Nineveh (Akkadian: Ninua) is an ancient Mesopotamian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.<br/><br/> It was the largest city in the world for some fifty years until, after a bitter period of civil war in Assyria itself, it was sacked by an unusual coalition of former subject peoples, the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Chaldeans, Scythians and Cimmerians in 612 BCE. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq.<br/><br/> In early 2015 the jihadist group ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) announced their intention to destroy the walls of Nineveh if the Iraqis try to liberate the city, they also threatened to destroy artifacts. On February 26 they destroyed several items and statues in the Mosul Museum, and are believed to have plundered others to sell overseas. The items were mostly from the Assyrian exhibit, which ISIL declared blasphemous and idolatrous.
Nineveh (Akkadian: Ninua) is an ancient Mesopotamian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.<br/><br/> It was the largest city in the world for some fifty years until, after a bitter period of civil war in Assyria itself, it was sacked by an unusual coalition of former subject peoples, the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Chaldeans, Scythians and Cimmerians in 612 BCE. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq.<br/><br/> In early 2015 the jihadist group ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) announced their intention to destroy the walls of Nineveh if the Iraqis try to liberate the city, they also threatened to destroy artifacts. On February 26 they destroyed several items and statues in the Mosul Museum, and are believed to have plundered others to sell overseas. The items were mostly from the Assyrian exhibit, which ISIL declared blasphemous and idolatrous.
Nineveh (Akkadian: Ninua) is an ancient Mesopotamian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.<br/><br/> It was the largest city in the world for some fifty years until, after a bitter period of civil war in Assyria itself, it was sacked by an unusual coalition of former subject peoples, the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Chaldeans, Scythians and Cimmerians in 612 BCE. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq.<br/><br/> In early 2015 the jihadist group ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) announced their intention to destroy the walls of Nineveh if the Iraqis try to liberate the city, they also threatened to destroy artifacts. On February 26 they destroyed several items and statues in the Mosul Museum, and are believed to have plundered others to sell overseas. The items were mostly from the Assyrian exhibit, which ISIL declared blasphemous and idolatrous.
Ishtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility, war, love, and sex. She is the counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate north-west Semitic goddess Astarte.<br/><br/> Ishtar was the god of love and war above all associated with sexuality: her cult involved sacred prostitution; her holy city Uruk was called the 'town of the sacred courtesans', and she herself was the 'courtesan of the gods'.<br/><br/> Ishtar was the daughter of Sin or Anu. She was particularly worshipped at the Assyrian cities of Nineveh, Ashur and Arbela (Erbil).
Ashurnasirpal II succeeded his father, Tukulti-Ninurta II, in 883 BC. During his reign he embarked on a vast program of expansion, first conquering the peoples to the north in Asia Minor as far as Nairi and exacting tribute from Phrygia, then invading Aram (modern Syria) conquering the Aramaeans and neo Hittites between the Khabur and the Euphrates Rivers.<br/><br/> His harshness prompted a revolt that he crushed decisively in a pitched, two-day battle. According to his monument inscription while recalling this massacre he says 'their men young and old I took prisoners. Of some I cut off their feet and hands; of others I cut off the ears, noses and lips; of the young men's ears I made a heap; of the old men's heads I made a marinet. I exposed their heads as a trophy in front of their city. The male children and the female children I burned in flames; the city I destroyed, and consumed with fire'.<br/><br/> Following this victory, he advanced without opposition as far as the Mediterranean and exacted tribute from Phoenicia. On his return back home he moved his capital to the city of Kalhu (Nimrud).
Nimrud is the later Arab name for an ancient Assyrian city located 30 kilometres (20 mi) south of the city of Mosul in the Nineveh plains in northern Mesopotamia. It was a major Assyrian city between approximately 1250 BCE and 610 BCE.
Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium (the Uruk IV period), cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. In the three millennia the script spanned, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use also grew gradually smaller, from about 1,000 unique characters in the Early Bronze Age to about 400 unique characters in Late Bronze Age (Hittite cuneiform).<br/><br/> The original Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, and Urartian languages, and it inspired the Ugaritic and Old Persian alphabets. Cuneiform writing was gradually replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and by the 2nd century AD, the script had become extinct.<br/><br/> Cuneiform documents were written on clay tablets, by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped, thus giving rise to the name cuneiform ('wedge shaped', from the Latin cuneus, meaning 'wedge').
A cuneiform temple hymn from the 19th Century BCE; the hymn is addressed to the Lugal Iddin-Dagan of Larsa.<br/><br/> Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium (the Uruk IV period), cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. In the three millennia the script spanned, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use also grew gradually smaller, from about 1,000 unique characters in the Early Bronze Age to about 400 unique characters in Late Bronze Age (Hittite cuneiform).<br/><br/> The original Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, and Urartian languages, and it inspired the Ugaritic and Old Persian alphabets. Cuneiform writing was gradually replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and by the 2nd century AD, the script had become extinct.<br/><br/> Cuneiform documents were written on clay tablets, by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped, thus giving rise to the name cuneiform ('wedge shaped', from the Latin cuneus, meaning 'wedge').
Nineveh (Akkadian: Ninua) is an ancient Mesopotamian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.<br/><br/> It was the largest city in the world for some fifty years until, after a bitter period of civil war in Assyria itself, it was sacked by an unusual coalition of former subject peoples, the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Chaldeans, Scythians and Cimmerians in 612 BCE. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq.<br/><br/> In early 2015 the jihadist group ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) announced their intention to destroy the walls of Nineveh if the Iraqis try to liberate the city, they also threatened to destroy artifacts. On February 26 they destroyed several items and statues in the Mosul Museum, and are believed to have plundered others to sell overseas. The items were mostly from the Assyrian exhibit, which ISIL declared blasphemous and idolatrous.
Nineveh (Akkadian: Ninua) is an ancient Mesopotamian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.<br/><br/> It was the largest city in the world for some fifty years until, after a bitter period of civil war in Assyria itself, it was sacked by an unusual coalition of former subject peoples, the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Chaldeans, Scythians and Cimmerians in 612 BCE. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq.<br/><br/> In early 2015 the jihadist group ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) announced their intention to destroy the walls of Nineveh if the Iraqis try to liberate the city, they also threatened to destroy artifacts. On February 26 they destroyed several items and statues in the Mosul Museum, and are believed to have plundered others to sell overseas. The items were mostly from the Assyrian exhibit, which ISIL declared blasphemous and idolatrous.
Mari (modern Tell Hariri, Syria) was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city, located 11 km north-west of the modern town of Abu Kamal on the western bank of Euphrates river, some 120 km southeast of Deir ez-Zor, Syria. It is thought to have been inhabited since the 5th millennium BCE, although it flourished with a series of superimposed palaces that span a thousand years, from 2900 BCE to 1759 BCE, when it was sacked by Hammurabi.<br/><br/> The citizens of Mari were well known for elaborate hair styles and dress, and are considered to be part of Mesopotamian culture, despite being 240 km (150 mi) upriver from Babylon. It is theorized by some that Mari functioned as a trading post for southern Mesopotamia.<br/><br/> The inhabitants of Mari worshipped a vast array of gods and goddesses. Dagan, the deity of storms, had an entire temple dedicated to him, as did Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, and Shamash, the Sun god. Shamash was believed to be all-knowing and all-seeing, and in many seals he is seen standing between two large doors. According to the Epic of Gilgamesh, these doors are between Mount Mashu, and are the eastern doors to heaven. Through Mari's extensive trade network, Sumerian gods and goddesses were taken to non-Sumerian cities such as Ebla and Ugarit and incorporated into their native religions.