Images

Gypsum wall relief depicting a classical Assyrian lion-hunting scene. The striking feature is that the king wears a diadem with a rosette on it, instead of the typical conical headcap of the Assyrian kings. From the North-West Palace at Nimrud...

This clay tablet is a copy of a royal inscription of Hammurabi, King of Babylon (reigned 1792-1750 BCE), which was found in an ancient temple. The writer has tried to imitate the original script and has used clay of exceptional fineness...

An inscribed cross-shaped stone, later produced to look older than it is, which lists long-running grants and privileges supposedly bestowed on the temple priesthood of the sun-god Shamash by the Akkadian king Manushtushu (reigned 2269-2255...

This is the beginning of a cuneiform inscription, which was carved on the pair of human-headed and winged bulls flanking the main entrance to the throne room of King Sennacherib. This inscription is from the area under the stomach of the...

This hymn to the goddess Ishtar is written in Sumerian; after every line in Sumerian, the text is translated in Akkadian. Such translations have been invaluable to modern scholars. They reflect how the Sumerian language had become difficult...

Vocabulary giving the Akkadian equivalents of 48 Kassite words of the type found in personal names. The Kassite words are listed on the left of each column with their Babylonian equivalent to the right. 1200-800 BCE. From Babylon, Mesopotamia...

Etruscan male head from Latium. 3rd century BCE. (Antikensammlungen, Munich, Germany)

An Etruscan terracotta sarcophagus lid depicting one Larthia Seianti. 2nd century BCE, Near Chiusi, Italy. (Museo Archeologico Etrusco, Florence)

This gypsum door-sill was carved as a carpet; there are rosette and lotus flower designs. Neo-Assyrian Period, reign of Ashurbanipal II, 645-635 BCE. From room I, door b or d, the North Palace at Nineveh, Northern Mesopotamia, modern-day...

This clay tablet records the restoration of the temple of the sun god Shamash at Larsa (modern-day Sankarah or Tell as-Senkereh) by King Hammurabi. Old Babylonian Period, reign of Hammurabi, 1792-1750 BCE. From Larsa, Southern Mesopotamia...