Shulgi: Did you mean...?

The interior hollow surface of the earring. Note how the carved cuneiform signs appear on this side and how the goldsmith joined the “lunar-shaped” segments of the earring. The cuneiform text is read vertically...

On the back of this piece, there are cuneiform inscriptions that mention that this headdress was commissioned by a Bau-Ninam on behalf of King Shulgi of Ur. It is most likely that this headdress was to be put...

This is the lower surface of the earring. The cuneiform text is read vertically, from the upper surface downwards on each segment, and it continues from right to left. One of a pair of gold earrings, 24 carats. Gift from...

Mesopotamia is the ancient Greek name (meaning "the land between two rivers," the Tigris and Euphrates) for the region corresponding to modern-day Iraq and parts of Iran...

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...

The Kesh Temple Hymn (circa 2600 BCE) is the oldest work of religious literature in the world, sometimes referenced as the oldest extant religious poem. It is a Sumerian praise song...

Sargon and Ur-Zababa is a Sumerian poem, date of composition unknown, relating the rise to power of Sargon of Akkad (reign 2334-2279 BCE), founder of the Akkadian Empire. The work is classified...

This stone bowl has two sets of cuneiform inscriptions. The first one says that the bowl was booty brought to Mesopotamia from Magan (modern Sultanate of Oman) by the Akkadian king Naram-Sin (2254-2218 BCE). The...

A curator is doing a routine and regular preservation work on a pair of gold earrings at the lab of the Sulaymaniyah Museum of Iraqi Kurdistan. October 18, 2017; exclusive photo. Ur III Period, reign of...

Gilgamesh is the semi-mythic King of Uruk, best known as the hero of The Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 2100 to circa 1200 BCE), the great Babylonian poem that predates Homer's Iliad and Odyssey by 1500 years and...