The Babylonian Akītu Festival and the Ritual Humiliation of the King
September 2022 | Vol. 10.9 By Sam Mirelman Many Mesopotamian festivals are known, but only one involved a priest striking the king. The akītu was one of the most importa
The Biblical Scale of Gustave Doré
September 2022 | Vol. 10.9 By Sarah C. Schaefer The publication of Gustave Doré’s (1832-1883) Bible illustrations in 1865-1866 represents a watershed moment in the history of bi
Camels in the Biblical World of the Ancient Near East
One hump or two, the camel was known in Mesopotamia from the third millennium BCE onward as the “elephant of the caravan” or “elephant of the mountain.” “Camel” came la
Medieval Sugar Production in the Southern Levant: A Sweet Story
September 2022 | Vol. 10.9 By Richard Jones The arrival of sugar into the Near East is well known in outline: the technical ability to make a crude crystalline sweet from sugar can
Breaking the Code: Ancient Iran’s Linear Elamite Script Deciphered
september 2022 | Vol. 10.9 By François Desset, Kambiz Tabibzadeh, Matthieu Kervran, Gian Pietro Basello, and Gianni Marchesi Research in the humanities achieves definitive results
