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Mesopotamian Life

Welcome to our exploration of Mesopotamian life, where we delve into the intricacies and daily experiences of the people who inhabited the ancient land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

In this section of our website, we invite you to step into the world of Mesopotamian life, where each article unveils a different facet of the ancient society. From social structures and family life to economy, art, and education, we uncover the tapestry of daily existence that shaped the lives of Mesopotamians.

Eve tempted by the serpent in a paradise illustrated according to the texts of the Bible. An image showing good and evil in one scene.
3 March, 2024 - 21:54 Natalia Klimczak

Lilith: Ancient Demon, Dark Deity or Sensual Goddess?

Lilith, an ancient mythological figure and one of the oldest known female spirits in the world, has embodied various roles across cultures. In some sources she has been described as a demon, while in...
Sumerian priestess. Source: Oleksandr / Adobe Stock.
4 October, 2023 - 18:50 Joanna Gillan

Sumerian King Iddin-Dagan Copulated with a Priestess in a Public Annual Ritual

In the annals of history, we have witnessed a myriad of unique, and at times, bizarre traditions that have defined civilizations and their leaders. One such tradition that stands tall in its peculiar...
Aerial view of the structure at Tel Shimron supporting the passageway to the corbelled vault. Credit: Eyecon. Source: Eyecon
23 August, 2023 - 22:55 Nathan Falde

Israel's Tel Shimron Excavations Reveal Ancient Architectural Marvel Dating to 1,800 BC

Archaeologists participating in the ongoing Tel Shimron excavations in the Jezreel Valley of northern Israel recently unearthed the first section of an arched, vaulted passageway with steps that they...
Babylonian clay model showing a nude couple on a couch engaged in sex and kissing. Date: 1800 BC. Source: © The Trustees of the British Museum/ CC BY-NC-SA
18 May, 2023 - 19:00 Gary Manners

Humans Were Kissing in Mesopotamia As Early As 4,500 Years Ago

Humanity's love affair with kissing goes way back, but just how far? Recent research has revealed that the art of smooching was already in full swing a staggering 4,500 years ago in Mesopotamia, and...
The Royal Game of Ur.
21 December, 2018 - 14:02 dhwty

The Enigmatic Ancient Royal Game of Ur – Will We Ever Understand It?

The Royal Game of Ur (known also as the Game of Twenty Squares) is a board game from ancient Mesopotamia. This two-player game is one of the oldest known board games and was immensely popular in the...
The Mythical Dilmun and The Island of the Dead
11 October, 2016 - 21:57 Jason Jarrell

The Mythical Dilmun and The Island of the Dead

In Sumerian mythology, the mythical Dilmun was known as the bright and pure land, a paradise where sickness and death did not exist. The land of Dilmun was filled with divinely ordained and abundant...
‘Crossing the River Styx’ (circa 1520-1524) by Joachim Patinir. Many ancient people imagined the edges of the earth as strange and magical places.
16 September, 2018 - 13:56 Mark Oliver

What Did Ancient Civilizations Believe Lay at The Edges of the Earth?

The first civilizations didn’t have satellites in the sky, mapping every inch of the world in real time. They only knew the parts of the world they’d seen. Everything beyond that, they had to imagine...
The “Burney Relief,” which is believed to represent either Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war, or her older sister Ereshkigal, Queen of the underworld (c. 19th or 18th century BC).
25 April, 2018 - 01:48 ancient-origins

In Ancient Mesopotamia, Sex among the Gods Shook Heaven and Earth

Sexuality was central to life in ancient Mesopotamia, an area of the Ancient Near East often described as the cradle of western civilisation roughly corresponding to modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, and...
15th century the basement of a "market house" used as a prison
25 October, 2015 - 13:21 dhwty

Prisons and Imprisonment in the Ancient World: Punishments Used to Maintain Public Order

One of the most well-known forms of punishment today is imprisonment. One could argue that for any society to function properly, public order has to be maintained. This is an important function of...
Nabu: Ancient Mesopotamian God of Scribes and Wisdom
15 February, 2021 - 22:10 Aleksa Vučković

Nabu: Ancient Mesopotamian God of Scribes and Wisdom

Nestled in the fertile region around the River Tigris and Euphrates, the historical region of ancient Mesopotamia has long been regarded as one of the earliest cradles of civilization. Home to...
The 3700-year-old Babylonian tablet with the ‘Pythagorean theorem.’
25 August, 2017 - 19:01 Alicia McDermott

3700-year old Babylonian Tablet Confirms Pythagoras Did Not Invent the Theorem Bearing His Name

An unknown Babylonian mathematician beat Pythagoras to the discovery of trigonometry by more than 1000 years, claim experts studying the piece. That Babylonian genius marked down the famous theorem...
The Burning of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar’s Army (1630-1660)
9 May, 2018 - 18:44 Mark Oliver

By the Rivers of Babylon: Life in Ancient Babylon’s Thriving Jewish Community

In the 6th-century BC, the armies of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah. They tore down the city walls, burned the temples, and ran down every person who tried to escape. The few...
A seedhead of an opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, with white latex. (Public Domain) Cylinder-seal of the "Lady" or "Queen" (Sumerian NIN) Puabi, one of the defuncts of the Royal Cemetery of Ur, c. 2600 BC. Banquet scene, typical of the Early Dynastic Period.
21 April, 2018 - 01:42 Alicia McDermott

New Research Provides First Peek at Ancient Mesopotamian Drug Use

Medical usage? Ritual practice? Or perhaps the drugs served both purposes? Researchers are asking what the recently recovered psychoactive drug residues from ancient Mesopotamia mean. But not...
Marduk
17 August, 2018 - 02:04 Veronica Parkes

Marduk: Babylonian King of Gods and Reportedly Liberator of the Jews

Most people have heard of Zeus, Odin, or Jupiter, but not many have heard of Marduk. Born to the mother and father of all Babylonian gods, Marduk clawed his way to the top becoming the head of the...
Relief image on the Tablet of Shamash, British Library room 55. Found in Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah), in Ancient Babylonia; it dates from the 9th century BC and shows the sun god Shamash on the throne, in front of the Babylonian king Nabu-apla-iddina (888-855 BC) between two interceding deities. The Babylonian language text tells how the king made a new cultic statue for the god and gave privileges to his temple.
29 November, 2018 - 18:59 ashley cowie

Ancient Babylonian Reborn After Having Been Silenced for 2000 Years

Almost 2,000 years after falling out of use, a Cambridge University linguistics specialist, Dr. Martin Worthington has learned how to speak ancient Babylonian and is not only campaigning to revive it...
Example of a lamb stew with vegetables. (Jo del Corro/CC BY 2.0) “Hen with Herbs”. Laura Kelley recreates Recipe 2 from Yale tablet 8958. (Laura Kelley) Lamb shanks in a stew. (E4024/CC BY SA 4.0) YBC 4644, a tablet with a Babylonian recipe, ca. 1750 BC. (Yale University Library)
12 August, 2018 - 19:02 Mark Oliver

Three Babylonian Recipes From 1600 BC You Can Make At Home Today

Ever wanted a taste of life in an ancient civilization? The oldest cookbook ever found was made sometime around 1600 BC in the ancient city of Babylon. It’s a set of cracked tablets engraved by an...
A cylinder seal impression, ca. 2100 BC, sometimes interpreted as Ur-Nammu (seated) bestowing governorship on Ḫašḫamer, ensi of Iškun-Sin.
15 September, 2021 - 02:00 dhwty

The Code of Ur-Nammu: When Ancient Sumerians Laid Down the Law, Everyone Obeyed

The Code of Ur-Nammu is the oldest surviving law code. This text was written on clay tablets in the Sumerian language and is reckoned to have been produced towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC...
Detail of a modern depiction of the goddess Ishtar.
25 June, 2017 - 14:04 ancient-origins

Love is a Battlefield: The Legend of Ishtar, First Goddess of Love and War

Louise Pryke / The Conversation As singer Pat Benatar once noted, love is a battlefield . Such use of military words to express intimate, affectionate emotions is likely related to love’s capacity to...
Plimpton 322 clay tablet. Source: Public Domain.
9 June, 2023 - 20:52 Robbie Mitchell

Were the Ancient Babylonians Far More Advanced Than We Thought? (Video)

Plimpton 322 , a 3,800-year-old ancient clay tablet, stands as a testament to the astounding mathematical prowess of the Babylonians. Dating back centuries before ancient Greece, this artifact...
Babylonian relief carving. Credit: Andrea Izzotti / Adobe Stock
18 November, 2019 - 14:01 Ed Whelan

Eat Like a Mesopotamian: Experts Reconstruct 4000-Year-Old Recipes

Mesopotamia is considered to be home to one of the first civilizations and it decisively shaped world history. Now thanks to some of the oldest culinary recipes, inscribed on clay tablets, we now...
Relief representing a two-headed eagle on the sphinx located at the right of the Sphinx Gate, Alaca Höyük, Turkey.
24 January, 2019 - 13:59 Carly Silver

How a Two Headed Bird of Prey Ruled Ancient Mesopotamia and Hatti

Several infamous empires of the early modern period and current modern periods bore curious insignia. The Byzantine, Austrian, and Russian Empires all adopted the symbol of a mythical creature, a...
Detail of Tiamat.
28 May, 2019 - 01:53 dhwty

Tiamat, Mesopotamian Mother Goddess: From Chaos to Creation

Tiamat is an ambiguous deity who played an important role in the creation myth of ancient Mesopotamia . She was their personification of the primordial sea, from which the first generation of gods...
Deriv; Stone statue of Gilgamesh (CC BY 2.0), used here as a representation of an ancient Mesopotamian man. Background: Solar event. (CC0) Information provided by ancient Assyrian astrologers can help modern scientists predict future solar storms.
17 October, 2019 - 22:58 Alicia McDermott

Ancient Assyrian Astrologers Teach Us About Solar Storms

What exactly goes on high above our heads? Why do the stars and celestial spheres seem to dance around the sky? What is the sun up to when it seems to “randomly” disappear in the day, or when it...
Medieval stargazers. People have been fascinated by the stars and their possible influence over our lives, long before and after the time of Babylonian astrology.
24 February, 2019 - 23:15 ashley cowie

Complex Astronomical and Astrological Systems Detailed on Ancient Assyrian Tablets

Archaeologists studying a group of five unique stone tablets dating to the first millennium in Babylonia and Assyria have announced that they reveal a hitherto unknown level of astronomical...

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