Ancient Mesopotamia: Did you mean...?

The great cities of Mesopotamia ("the land between two rivers") developed prior to the late 4th millennium BCE along two rivers – the Tigris and Euphrates – and were fully established by the Early Dynastic period (circa 2900 to circa 2350/2334...

Burial in ancient Mesopotamia was the practice of interring a corpse in a grave or tomb while observing certain rites, primarily to ensure the passage of the soul of the deceased to the underworld and prevent its return to haunt the living...

Festivals in ancient Mesopotamia honored the patron deity of a city-state or the primary god of the city that controlled a region or empire. The earliest, the Akitu festival, was first observed in Sumer in the Early Dynastic period (circa...

Ghosts in ancient Mesopotamia were understood as a reality of life, just as they were in other civilizations of antiquity. Although the cultures of the various Mesopotamian civilizations differed between circa 5000 BCE and 651 CE, the belief...

Scribes in ancient Mesopotamia were highly educated individuals trained in writing and reading on diverse subjects. Initially, their purpose was to record financial transactions through trade, but in time, they were integral to every aspect...

The lives of women in ancient Mesopotamia cannot be characterized as easily as with other civilizations owing to the different cultures over time. Generally speaking, though, Mesopotamian women had significant rights, could own businesses...

During the 21st century BCE, an era known as the Ur III period in Mesopotamia, many records of court hearings were drawn up in Umma, a city in what is now southern Iraq. One court record relates a dispute between two women. The name of one...

A ziggurat is an artificial mountain built by the ancient Mesopotamians to elevate the clergy toward the realm of the gods. A form of monumental architecture, the ziggurat had a rectangular base from which a series of steps rose to a flat...

The ancient Mesopotamians pioneered many strategies, tactics and policies in warfare that would be used for thousands of years to come, some of which continue to this day. The Akkadian Empire was the first to build a standing army and the...

The long-term development of Mesopotamia traces one of the earliest and most influential trajectories in world history, spanning from small Stone Age settlements (c. 10,000 BCE) to the political and cultural upheavals of the Late Bronze Age...