Images

Pazuzu amulet has two rings for suspension. Pazuzu is a creature from Mesopotamian mythology with a human body, four wings, lion fore-paws, vulture's feet, and a rattlesnake tail. Pazuzu was the demon of the southwest wind. Despite his fearsome...

Amulet depicting a Lamashtu standing on a donkey and suckling a jackal and a wild pig, from Northern Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, c. 800-550 BCE. Lamashtu prayed on women in childbirth and newborn infants. She has a lion's head...

Tomb of Inherkau no. 359 Second chamber, South wall "The great cat of Heliopolis" killing the enemy of the sun, Apophis.

Book of the Dead of Nestanebtasheru (sheet 87): Geb is shown as a semi-recumbent figure stretching out his limbs while the elongated body of Nut arches above him. Her feet touch the ground at the eastern horizon and her fingers at the western...

"The wretched, weary person weeps..." The Crown Prince, son of Nebuchadnezzar II, wrote this anguished poem in prison. Once freed, he attributed his rescue to the god Marduk, by changing his name to Amel-Marduk (the Biblical Evil-Merodach...

"He looks at those effigies and utters blasphemes...". During the reign of Nabonidus (556-539 BCE), Babylon fell to the Persian king Cyrus the Great. Nabonidus' reign was a troubled one. His unpopularity led to this poem, ridiculing Nabonidus...

The fall of a dynasty! Nabonidus' faults and absence were recorded alongside events of his reign. By the autumn of 539 BCE,, Babylon has surrendered to the army of king Cyrus to become part of the growing Achaemenid Empire. From Babylon...

This is a diorite mina weight in the shape of a sugar loaf. The inscriptions state that this was a copy of a weight made for Nebuchadnezzar, following the standard of Shulgi, "The Old Sumerian King" (reigned 2094-2047 BCE). It was the property...

These weights are in the range of 8.7 to 24.7 grams, roughly between 1 and 3 Babylonian shekels. Weights had been made in this characteristic duck-shape since around 2000 BCE. From Southern Mesopotamia, Iraq. Circa 700-500 BCE. (The British...

Clay cylinder with Babylonian characters, recording the restoration of Sin's ziggurat at Ur and also asking him to protect Nabonidus and his son Belshazzar. From Ur, Southern Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq. Neo-Babylonian Period, reign of Nabonidus...