Definitions

Assur (also Ashur, Anshar) is the god of the ancient Assyrians who was elevated from a local deity of the city of Ashur to the supreme god of the Assyrian pantheon. His attributes were drawn from earlier Sumerian and Babylonian deities, and...

Mahmud II was one of the most influential sultans of the Ottoman Empire. As a radical reformer, he strove to implement military and governmental reforms to prevent the empire from collapsing. His removal of the Janissary corps, the establishment...

The Fourteenth Amendment is one of the most important and consequential additions to the United States Constitution. Ratified in 1868, it defines American citizenship as belonging to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States"...

Pazuzu is a Babylonian/Assyrian demon who was most popular in the first millennium BCE. He was the son of Hanbi (also Hanba), king of the demons of the underworld, and brother of Humbaba, the demon-god protector of the cedar forest in The...

Nergal (also known as Erra and Irra) is the Mesopotamian god of death, war, and destruction. He began as a regional, probably agricultural, god of the Babylonian city of Kutha in the Sumerian Early Dynastic I period (circa 2900-2750/2700...

The Predynastic Period in ancient Egypt is the time before recorded history, from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic Age and on to the rise of the First Dynasty, and is generally recognized as spanning the era from circa 6000 to 3150 BCE (though...

In Greek mythology, Penelope is the wife of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, and the mother of Telemachus. She is best known for her unwavering loyalty and fidelity to her husband during his 20-year-long absence and her clever plan to elude...

Ninurta (identified with Ningirsu, Pabilsag, and the biblical Nimrod) is the Sumerian and Akkadian hero-god of war, hunting, and the south wind. He first appears in texts in the early 3rd millennium BCE as an agricultural god and local deity...

The Late Period of Egypt (525-332 BCE) is the era following the Third Intermediate Period (1069-525) and preceding the brief Hellenistic period (332-323 BCE) when Egypt was ruled by the Argead officials installed by Alexander the Great prior...

The Maginot Line was an extensive series of fortifications built by France through the 1930s to protect its eastern borders from German attack. Stretching for over 200 miles (322 km), and including massive gun emplacements and extensive underground...