Clay tablet: Did you mean...?

This tablet is written in cuneiform inscription and refers to the defeat of the Seleucid king Demetrius II Nicator by the Parthian ruler Mithradates I in 141 BCE. The Parthian ruler is referred to as Arshaka. The text also refers to market...

This tablet states the dimensions of each of the seven levels of Etemenanki, the ziggurat of Marduk at Babylon. This building is the Tower of Babel in the Book of Genesis. From Babylon, Southern Mesopotamia, Iraq. Circa 600-400 BCE. (The...

Written in Babylonian in the cuneiform inscription, this tablet lists the names and dates of several Seleucid kings. After Alexander's death, the Persian Empire fractured. Mesopotamia and Syria became part of the Seleucid Empire, with their...

A newly discovered partially broken tablet V of the Epic of Gilgamesh: "the episode of the journey of Gilgamesh and Enkidu." According to Professor Farouk Al-Rawi (of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), this...

The cuneiform inscription on this clay tablet (VAT 12890) narrates part of the Epic of Gilgamesh (written c. 2150 - 1400 BCE). The obverse of this tablet relates the second dream of Gilgamesh on the journey to the Forest of Cedar, and part...

Recipes were written in cuneiform inscriptions. They concern conditions such as infertility and pregnancy. Probably from Babylon, Mesopotamia, Iraq. Circa 600-400 BCE. (The British Museum, London)

Adult workers received standard rations of 30 to 40 pints of barley per month while children received 20; the barley was distributed as rations to about 200 workmen and their children. This scribe was clearly highly trained in this art. From...

Babylonian astronomical diaries recorded daily observation of the moon and planets from around the 7th century BCE onward. The diaries for 164-163 BCE contain observations of Halley's comet at its 1st and last visibility. This observation...

This adminsitrative document is dated to the "24th day of Kislimu in the 11th year Nabonidus, King of Babylon". It mentions "a slave of Bel-sharra-usur (Belshazzar),son of the king". Although Belshazzar is acting as regent, the formal date...

Schooldays (c. 2000 BCE) is a Sumerian poem describing the daily life of a young scribe in the schools of Mesopotamia. The work takes the form of a first-person narration and dialogue in relating the challenges the student faces and how he...