Mesopotamian Sculpture in Color
Like other ancient sculpture, Mesopotamian statues were painted. Small traces can now be analyzed with scientific techniques and help explain Mesopotamian concepts such as “posit
Glass: Lapis Lazuli from the Kiln
Like other ancient sculpture, Mesopotamian statues were painted. Small traces can now be analyzed with scientific techniques and help explain Mesopotamian concepts such as “posit
#MeToo-potamia (or systemic gender inequality in Mesopotamia)
The contributions of Mesopotamian women must be pieced together from texts. The evidence indicates more than two thousand years of increasing marginalization.
Epidemics in Mesopotamia
Epidemics have been with us since long before the dawn of history. Three collections of documents record some of the ways ancient Near Eastern societies suffered and coped.
Concepts and Metaphors in Sumerian
The Sumerian language is unrelated to any other language past or present. While it can be read, making sense of things requires understanding how Sumerians used metaphors. Some are
How Two Historians Reconstruct the Lives of Ancient Children
Children often seem missing from accounts of the past, including ancient Israel. Two new books describe ways to put children back in the picture and to understand their many meanin
Marvel Meets Mesopotamia: How Modern Comics Preserve Ancient Myths
Superheroes fight the battles the rest of us never could, but that idea is surprisingly ancient. So it’s not surprising that the original superhero, Gilgamesh, has teamed up with
How Eclipses Were Regarded as Omens in the Ancient World
Humans have long been fascinated by celestial events. In the ancient world, eclipses were regarded as signs of things to come.
Sunlight and Shade in the First Cities – A Sensory Archaeology of Early Iraq
There are two periods of about five days each, in the Spring and in the Autumn, when the weather in southern Iraq is quite nice. Otherwise it’s cold, windy and rainy, or roasting
Trash and Toilets in Mesopotamia: Sanitation and Early Urbanism
For much of the world sanitary disposal of human and other waste remains a critical issue. What do the first cities of ancient Mesopotamia have something to teach us about this ver