The Ancient Near East Today

Welcome to The Ancient Near East Today, a digital platform for public scholarship on the Ancient Near East and beyond. Whether you are a student, scholar, or enthusiast, you are bound to learn something new.

Subscribe to our Substack Newsletter!

Recent Articles

Close-up of a seal impression on a mudstopper from Saqqara tomb S3503 with serekhs (rectangular symbols that were used to frame an Egyptian king’s name in the Early Dynastic period). Courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society; used with permission from the author.

Digital Archaeology

Did Meretneith Rule Egypt as a Female King in the First Dynasty?

October 1, 2026

Nahal Omer textile collection: a. Supplementary weft cotton; b. Ikat cotton; b. Wool fragment; d. Green cotton with Ikat patch e. wool and cotton; f. Supplementary weft cotton; g. silk.

Archaeological Method

From Trash to Treasure: Nahal Omer and the Virtual Silk Road

September 17, 2026

Captured Sea People from wall relief in the mortuary temple of Ramses III, Medinet Habu. Photo by Rémih, CC By-SA 3.0.

Bronze Age

Who Were the Sea Peoples? And Did They Bring About the End of the Bronze Age?

September 3, 2026

Featured Articles

Sennacherib’s annals in the Taylor Prism. © The Trustees of the British Museum

Bible

The History of Isaiah and the Age of Empires

October 25, 2022

MDP 28, 405. Tehran, National Museum of Iran. Photo courtesy of Hossein Badamchi.

Daily Life

The Care of the Elderly in Susa: A Study in the Akkadian Documents from the Sukkalmah Period

October 17, 2019

A pair of gold earrings, 24-karrat. The overlying cuneiform inscription mentions the name of the Neo-Sumerian (Ur III) king Shulgi, son of Ur-Nammu. 21st century BCE. On display at the Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq. Photo courtesy of the author.

Archaeological Method

Photographing Iraq

December 15, 2020

Reconstruction of the horn fragment as a bucranion with a double axe. Image courtesy of Wolf-Dietrich Niemeir.

Aegean

What’s in a Style? Minoanizing Paintings in the Eastern Mediterranean

September 18, 2019

The Sabaic royal inscription of Yithaʿʾamar Watar (about 715 BC), discovered by the German Archaeological Institute in Sirwāh in 2005, is a meaningful example for the Ancient South Arabian script as used in written records on public display (© Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, photo I. Wagner).

Language & Writing

Carved, Signed, Crossed Out – Documents on Wooden Sticks from Ancient South Arabia

October 5, 2022

Jebel Aqra (north of Ugarit) where it meets the Mediterranean Sea at Samra beach, on the border between Syria and Türkiye. Photo by Kevorkmail via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Funerary Practices

“Lift the mountain on your hands,” or How to Cross a Netherworld Border

February 6, 2025

Search ANE Today

Explore the World of ANE Today

[open-user-map]