Images

This clay tablet dates back to the reign of the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great, who ruled Iran between 550-530 BCE. The cylinder describes the king's peaceful capture of the city of Babylon in the year 539 BCE and he how built the main temple...

Here the goddess Aphrodite/Venus is surprised as she bathes, her water jar resting under her left thigh. She crouches naked and attempts to cover herself with her arms and expressive hands. Her beautiful head, with its top-knot hair style...

From the mountain region; found in a hoard with 4 other similar figurines. The hands might have held a weapon. From Gezzine (Jezzine), modern-day Lebanon. Middle Bronze Age, 2400-2000 BCE. (The British Museum, London)

This extraordinary statue is one of the earliest large-scale representations of the human form. It was found as part of a cache of up to 25 statues buried in a pit under the floor of an abandoned house. All of these statues have naturallistically...

These 2 small fragments once belonged to a large clay tablet inscribed with a duplicate of the Cyrus Cylinder text. They were identified among The British Museum extensive collections of clay tablets in December 2009 and January 2010. The...

This extraordinary statue is one of the earliest large-scale representations of the human form. It was found as part of a cache of up to 25 statues buried in a pit under the floor of an abandoned house. All of these statues have naturalistically...

During the late 3rd millennium BCE, the area of the middle Euphrates developed a distinctive regional culture. Between 1963-1973 CE, an international rescue mission excavated a large number of sites in this region which were threatened by...

This fine decorated pottery takes its name from the modern name of Tell Atchana, Alalakh. It was defined by the excavator Sir L. Woolley as a locally produced variant of the so-called "Nuzi ware", a similarly fine and elaborated decorated...

This fine decorated pottery takes its name from the modern name of Tell Atchana, Alalakh. It was defined by the excavator Sir L. Woolley as a locally produced variant of the so-called "Nuzi ware", a similarly fine and elaborated decorated...

This head belongs to a well-known statue, identified as Meleager, the ancient Greek hero who took part in the hunt for the Caledonian boar. Full length versions which survive show the hero standing with his hunting dog, spear, and the boar's...