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Ancient Mesopotamia

Welcome to our comprehensive section on Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization! Situated in the fertile land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Mesopotamia is a region of immense historical significance. Often referred to as the "land between the rivers," this ancient region of civilization emerged around 3500 BC and flourished for thousands of years, leaving an indelible mark on human history.

In this dedicated section, we invite you to embark on a journey through time, delving into the rich tapestry of Mesopotamian culture, society, and achievements. From the earliest Sumerian city-states to the mighty Babylonian empire, Mesopotamia witnessed the rise and fall of numerous civilizations, each contributing unique innovations and advancements that shaped the course of human development.

Explore the extraordinary achievements of Mesopotamia's remarkable people, who pioneered fundamental elements of civilization such as writing, law, architecture, mathematics, and astronomy. Discover the awe-inspiring ziggurats that reached towards the heavens, the meticulous cuneiform script that chronicled daily life, and the visionary rulers whose ambitions reshaped the region's destiny.

Uncover the intricate social structure of Mesopotamia, where kings, priests, warriors, and farmers played distinct roles in a complex societal framework. Learn about the religious beliefs that permeated every aspect of life and the intricate mythologies that captivated the hearts and minds of ancient Mesopotamians.

As you navigate this section, you will gain a deeper understanding of the legacy left by Mesopotamia, as its inventions and cultural achievements continue to resonate throughout history. Our aim is to provide you with a comprehensive resource that unveils the marvels of Mesopotamian civilization, allowing you to appreciate the profound impact it has had on the world we inhabit today.

History & Chronology of Ancient Mesopotamia

Sumer

Akkad

Babylon

Assyria

Achaemenid

Mesopotamian Figures

Sumerians

Akkadians

Babylonians

Achaemenids

Assyrians

Mesopotamian Places

Mesopotamian Cities

Mesopotamian Temples & Monuments

Mesopotamian Palaces

Mesopotamian Life

Mesopotamian Society & Culture

Mesopotamian Gods & Religion

Mesopotamian Knowledge

Mesopotamian Military & Warfare

Mesopotamian Artifacts

Mesopotamian Technology

Mesopotamian Writings

Other Mesopotamian Artifacts
‘The Tower of Babel’ (1595) by Lucas van Valckenborch.
10 May, 2018 - 18:57 Mark Oliver

Inside Etemenanki: The Real-Life Tower of Babel

If there was a tower of Babel, it was Etemenanki: a massive, stone ziggurat at the center of Babylon built to be a passageway up to heaven. The Babylonians didn’t see their tower of Babel as a...
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 cuneiform tablet seized from Hobby Lobby. This tablet contains economic/administrative information.
2 May, 2018 - 13:58 Alicia McDermott

450 Stolen Sumerian Tablets are on Their Way Back to Iraq, but it is Just the Tip of the Iceberg

450 Stolen Sumerian tablets are being repatriated to Iraq with a ceremony in Washington D.C. on May 2. Many of the cuneiform texts come from a mysterious city called Irisagrig – a land from which...
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...
Shaman, Shaman and Chief from Father Crespi tablets photos. Images provided by the author.
19 April, 2018 - 13:58 Clyde Winters

Representation of Sumerian Elites Detected in the Crespi Gold Tablets

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Sumerians had established a colony in South America called Kuga-Ki. Kuga-Ki was the "Tin Land of the West" or the "Sunset Land", in Sumerian inscriptions...
Alexander the Great trust to physician Phillip by Henryk Siemiradzky (1870)
13 April, 2018 - 15:17 David Grant

Alexander the Great: Bleeding Asia Dry – Part II

A famous Roman aphorism was used well by Tacitus: “They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal; this they falsely name Empire, and when they create a desert, then they call it peace”. It is a...
One of the buildings uncovered at the Sumerian port town of Abu Tbeirah, its function is still unknown.
23 March, 2018 - 21:49 Alicia McDermott

4,000-Year-Old Sumerian Port Shows the Famed Civilization Excelled at Sea Too

Now it’s a desert, but 4000 years ago the ancient site of Abu Tbeirah in southern Iraq was a thriving Sumerian port town. It was a hub where ships set sail for distant lands such as the Indus Valley...
Cult scene: the worship of the sun-god, Shamash. Limestone cylinder-seal, Mesopotamia.
13 March, 2018 - 01:04 Clyde Winters

Reading the So-Called Sumerian Seals Relating to Gods from Outer Space

In a recent article on Ancient Origins , Jason Jarrell and Sarah Farmer discussed the possibility that Zecharia Sitchin mistranslated several Sumerian Texts. According to Sitchin, there were a number...
The now destroyed Nebi Yunus in Nineveh. Iraqi archaeologists excavate the monumental entrance to a late Assyrian building. The large head of a bull-man sculpture lies in a passageway.
20 February, 2018 - 19:01 ashley cowie

Lost Codes Discovered in Terrorist’s Treasure Tunnel

Hidden deep beneath the ancient Iraq city of Nineveh, archeologists assessing the destruction of Isis treasure hunters have uncovered 2,700-year-old inscriptions describing the rule of an ancient...
The broken top and bottom sections of the Assyrian stele.
10 February, 2018 - 22:11 aprilholloway

British Museum Decided Against Uniting a Cursed Assyrian Stele and Bad Luck Fell to the Police

“Whoever discards this image from the presence of Salmanu puts it into another place, whether he throws it into water or covers it with earth or brings and places it into a taboo house where it is...
A shepherd (Jesus? Tammuz? Other?) with his flock.
8 February, 2018 - 22:48 Caleb Strom

Tammuz and Jesus: More Than a Distant Connection?

Christianity has its origins in a Middle Eastern religion, Judaism, so it is little surprise that there are some residual similarities between Christian theological thought and ancient Middle Eastern...
Photo of Zecharia Sitchin (left)(CC0)Akkadian cylinder seal dating to circa 2300 BC depicting the deities Inanna, Utu, and Enki, three members of the Anunnaki.(right)
15 January, 2018 - 18:44 Jason Jarrell

Zecharia Sitchin and the Mistranslation of Sumerian Texts

In a previous 2-part article (1), the authors wrote about the faulty associations of the Sumerian deities known as the Anunnaki as they are portrayed in the books, television series, and other media...
Artist’s representation of the Hittite city of Hattusa in Anatolia.
20 December, 2017 - 18:50 Kartal Kaya

The Anatolian Histories Part 1: Emerging Empires and Lands Changing Hands

What comes to the mind when one says Anatolia? Does the phrase “land of the rising sun” (as the ancient Greeks called it) appear? Or, because it technically belongs to the Middle East, do you think...
Cuneiform tablet known as Letter ZTT 22. (Credit: Ziyaret Tepe Archaeological Project)
18 December, 2017 - 22:56 Theodoros Karasavvas

Archaeologists Uncovered an Archive that Narrates Ancient Assyria’s Fall

A group of archaeologists digging at the site of Ziyaret Tepe in southeastern Turkey, has uncovered a unique cuneiform tablet that narrates a tale of exasperation and disappointment reported by an...
Plate 1: Australian eastern seaboard (Google Earth), Statue of Garuda (Hyougushi / Hideyuki KAMON from National Museum in Delhi, India/CC BY-SA 2.0) and Tamil inscriptions, Tamil Nadu. (Shivz Photography/CC BY 2.0) Deriv.
6 December, 2017 - 22:49 William James Veall

History’s Lost Transoceanic Voyages: Tamils and Sumerians Among the FIRST to Reach Australia and Antarctica?— PART II

Regarding interesting inscriptions and shapes found by satellite archaeology, revealing what might be ancient human occupation on the continent of Antarctica, author William James Veall writes that...
Plate 1: Australian eastern seaboard (Google Earth), statue of a Sumerian woman c. 2400 BC
6 December, 2017 - 18:57 William James Veall

Tamils and Sumerians Among the FIRST to Reach Australia and Antarctica? PART I

Guest Author, Satellite Archaeologist, and Independent Researcher, William James Veall updates his recently published article on "Antarctica Writings" on Ancient Origins , to include an alternative...
Ordered universe and cuneiform (Public Domain) and statue of Gilgamesh.
16 November, 2017 - 18:56 Jason Jarrell

Anunnaki Revealed: Finding the Nephilim in Myth, Giants Among Men– Part II

READ PART I Central to Ancient Astronaut Theory and author Zecharia Sitchin’s narrative, is a group of mythic beings known as the Anunnaki, whom he claimed crossed their own DNA with that of Homo...
Cuneiform tablet containing details about infertility. Credit: Istanbul Archaeology Museum
10 November, 2017 - 19:00 aprilholloway

4,000-Year-Old Assyrian Tablet Makes First Known Infertility Diagnosis and Recommends Slave Surrogate

A 4,000-year-old Assyrian tablet discovered in central Kayseri province, Turkey, is an ancient marriage contract with the first known diagnosis of infertility. The clay record says that the wife...
60 of the almost 100 cuneiform clay tablets were found at the archaeological site of Bassetki in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.
25 October, 2017 - 13:58 Alicia McDermott

Almost 100 Cuneiform Clay Tablets Unearthed and Archaeologists Cannot Wait to Decipher Them

The discovery of ancient writing is always exciting for researchers. Documented events, letters, lists, literature – it is all helpful in reconstructing the story of our predecessors. Thus, the...
The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Pieter Paul Rubens
15 October, 2017 - 02:04 Rob Mcroberts

Do the Four Rivers Lead Us to the Garden of Eden?

In the Biblical Book of Genesis, chapter 2, the description of the Four Rivers of Eden provides clues for locating the lost garden of paradise. Following these clues leads to a connection between the...
relief at the ancient Persian city of Persepolis (now in modern Iran), including inscriptions in cuneiform, the world’s oldest form of writing.
6 October, 2017 - 22:56 ancient-origins

The Controversial Road to the Recovery of Cuneiform Texts

It is a little-known piece of history that Saddam Hussein was a great fan of ancient Mesopotamian literature. His enthusiasm for epics written in cuneiform – the world’s oldest known form of writing...
The Giza Pyramids - CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, and Egyptian god Thoth – CC0)
2 October, 2017 - 18:55 Armando Mei

Who Really Built the Pyramids of Giza? Thoth’s Enigmatic Emerald Tablets May Provide the Answer

The Emerald Tablets are one of the greatest enigmas of archaeology. They can be considered an obscure side of Egyptian mythology, characterized by events where myth seems to meet history. Scholars...
Coin of Mithridates I of Parthia (Classical Numismatic Group, Inc.and illustration depicting a sacrifice being made on behalf of a family, by the chief priest Conon and two assistants, first century AD. Graeco-Iranian style
29 September, 2017 - 15:36 Cam Rea

Mithridates Clashes with Kings and Swallows up Territory: The ‘King of Kings’ of Ancient Iran — Part II

Mithridates (“The Gift of Mithra) exhibited qualities that most kings rarely have: experience and maturity. He understood that a king could retain his power only as long as the people and nobles were...
Double headed androgynous Herm statue, Athens.
28 September, 2017 - 01:48 Jim Vieira

Edgar Cayce, Six-fingered Giants and the Supernatural Creation Gods of Atlantis: Part 2

This is the second part of a two-part article. Read Part 1 In Plato’s Symposium (189–190 AD), Aristophanes displays knowledge of an ancient myth of the androgyne, according to which our original...

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