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The ancient Hittite tablet features cuneiform text in both Hittite and Hurrian languages, with the Hittite inscription recounting the onset of war and the Hurrian inscription constituting a prayer for victory.	Source: Kimiyoshi Matsumura/Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology

Clay Tablet From 3,300-Years Ago Tells Story of the Siege and Plunder of Four Hittite Cities

A 3,300-year-old clay tablet unearthed in central Turkey has painted a tale of a devastating foreign invasion of the Hittite Empire during a period of internal strife and civil war. As the civil war...
Ernst Stötzner during scanning a cuneiform tablet in order to decipher the text.  Source: Maike Glöckner/Uni Halle

Ancient Cuneiform Tablets Instantly Deciphered By Revolutionary Methods

New artificial intelligence software is now able to decipher difficult-to-read texts on cuneiform tablets, almost in an instant. Instead of photos, the AI system uses 3D models of the tablets,...
Hattusa ivory ornament, dating back 2,800 years has been recently discovered and showcases depictions of sphinxes, lions, and trees of life on its ivory surface.    Source: Anadolu Agency

2,800-Year-Old ‘One of a Kind’ Ivory Object Unearthed At Hattusa

During excavations at Hattusa, capital of the Hittite kingdom during the late Bronze Age, archaeologists discovered a one-of-a-kind object crafted from Hattusa ivory, estimated to be around 2,800...
Representational image of a cuneiform tablet from Hattusa, Turkey. Source: torocat / Adobe Stock

Previously Unknown Language Found on Ancient Hittite Tablets in Turkey

In the midst of artificial intelligence and cutting-edge language models, a significant archaeological discovery has unfolded in Boğazköy-Hattusha ( Hattusa ), the old Hittite capital in Turkey...
Votive stele of Gudea, ruler of Lagash, to the temple of Ningirsu. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul. Source: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP (Glasg)/CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Rule of Ensi Gudea and the Golden Age of Lagash

Ancient Mesopotamia, called by many the “cradle of civilization”, is in many ways enigmatic and mysterious. There is plenty about it that we are still to uncover, as it reaches so far back in time...
The Taylor Prism was discovered in 1830 at Nineveh and is currently housed at the British Museum in London. It tells the story of King Sennacherib’s third campaign and his conquests in Judah. Source: Public domain

Sennacherib's Prisms Reveal the Glorious Reign of an Assyrian King

Imagine if all of the world’s ancient cultures and civilizations had had well-developed writing systems. Then envision the marvels we would know about today, the hidden secrets and remarkable tales...
One version of the Sumerian King List was previously interpreted as stating that King Dumuzid the Fisherman of Uruk captured Enmebaragesi, but a new translation exchanges Enmebaragesi as the one who captured Dumuzid. Source:  Paolo Gallo/Adobe Stock

Enmebaragesi, the Semi-Mythical King of Kish

Sumer is regarded by many scholars as the cradle of human civilization. Its history - although veiled in enigma - is so intriguing and offers a wealth of new discoveries. From the first writing...
Ancient Sumerian city of Eridu, early city in southern Mesopotamia, close to the Persian Gulf near the mouth of the Euphrates River. Source: Rick/Adobe Stock

15 Fascinating Facts About The Sumerians

The ancient civilization of Sumer never ceases to captivate and intrigue. Scholars and historians are constantly busy uncovering new details and aspects of this civilization, even centuries after the...
Representational image depicting ancient text being brought to life by artificial intelligence, such as the newly announced Fragmentarium AI. Source: Надежда Семироз / Adobe Stock

The Fragmentarium: New AI Tool Pieces Together Ancient Babylonian Texts

Artificial intelligence has now officially seeped into ancient history. Linguists at the Institute for Assyriology at Ludwig Maximilian University in Germany have created an artificial intelligence (...
Recently, a team of Turkish scientists have recreated a 1200-BC Mesopotamian perfume made by the "world's first female chemist" Tapputi. These glass bottles are full of “modern” perfumes that all benefited from the first scent pioneers of the ancient world. Source: gal2007 / Adobe Stock

3,200-Year-Old Mesopotamian Perfume Recreated from Ancient Text

A woman named Tapputi carried the distinction of being the first female chemist in Mesopotamia and the first female perfume maker anywhere in the world, approximately 3,200 years ago. Working with a...
Res Gestae Sargonis: Sargon The Great King Of Akkad

Res Gestae Sargonis: Sargon The Great King Of Akkad

The Akkadian Empire, founded by Sargon the Great, was the very first empire the world had seen, established in ancient Mesopotamia in about 2370 BC. This empire was remembered as having been...
Aerial view of the excavations revealing the Mittani Empire settlement at Kemune with Bronze Age architecture partly submerged in the lake.	Source: © Universities of Freiburg and Tübingen, KAO

Drought in the Tigris River Uncovers Hidden Mittani Empire City

Extreme drought and heat in Iraq has caused the historical Tigris River’s water levels to rapidly drop, revealing a 3400-year-old Mittani empire-era city. Water being diverted. Climate change,...
Three wise men and star ( losw100 / Adobe Stock)

Unveiling The Star Of Bethlehem Amid The Celestial Tableau Of Jesus’ Nativity

The ‘Star of Bethlehem’ described in the Gospel of Matthew remains one of astronomy’s greatest mysteries. Matthew 2:1-12 explains how magi or astrologer-priests observed the rising of a certain star...
Dr. Martin Worthington, who was hired to attain authenticity in Marvel’s Eternals, in the Library of Trinity College Dublin pictured with a collection of cuneiform tablets written in ancient Babylonian language. Source: Trinity College Dublin

Irish Academic Adds Ancient Babylonian Authenticity to Eternals Movie

When Irish academic, Dr. Martin Worthington, embarked on learning how to speak the now-extinct Babylonian language of ancient Mesopotamia, little did he know that his knowledge would be used in a...
The British Museum’s long misunderstood 3500-year-old Babylonian tablet reveals a male ghost image on the left led by a woman on the right.	Source: The British Museum

3500-year-old Babylonian Ghost Image Discovered in British Museum Vaults!

What is believed to be the world’s oldest depiction of a ghost has recently been found on a Babylonian tablet, neglected in the vaults of the British Museum in London since its acquisition in the...
Cuneiform tablet from Van fortress, Turkey    Source: Konstantin / Adobe Stock

AI Model Is Solving 4,500-Year-Old Cuneiform Translation Mysteries

Archaeologists just got infinitely smarter. AI is now successfully predicting lost passages of ancient texts, meaning 4,500-year-old cuneiform tablets, with missing sections, can now read. A deep-...
A cylinder seal impression, ca. 2100 BC, sometimes interpreted as Ur-Nammu (seated) bestowing governorship on Ḫašḫamer, ensi of Iškun-Sin.

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...
More “Anti-Ten Commandment” Theft at the Museum of the Bible

More “Anti-Ten Commandment” Theft at the Museum of the Bible

The United States Department of Justice has ordered the forfeiture of a rare cuneiform tablet, seized from Hobby Lobby’s controversial Museum of the Bible back in 2019. The 3,000-year-old...
Inscription on one of the basalt rocks depicting the Babylonian king Nabonidus holding a scepter in his hand.  Source: Saudi Heritage Commission

Archaeologists Find Inscribed Stone Honoring Babylonian King Nabonidus

Archaeologists from the Saudi Heritage Commission discovered a remarkable ancient artifact while exploring a fertile archaeological site in northwestern Saudi Arabia, the Commission has announced ...
Nabu: Ancient Mesopotamian God of Scribes and Wisdom

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...
Mesopotamian relief of Assyrian warriors. Credit: kmiragaya / Adobe Stock

Ancient Mesopotamia and the Rise of Civilization

In ancient times, Mesopotamia, meaning ‘land between two rivers’, was a vast region that lay between the Tigris and Euphrates river systems, and it is where civilization emerged over 7,000 years ago...
A Frenchman Solves Linear Elamite Puzzle And Rewrites Writing History

A Frenchman Solves Linear Elamite Puzzle And Rewrites Writing History

Every once in a while a scientist goes rogue, and it’s happened to a French archaeologist in Tehran who claims the Iranian plateau was the shared birthplace of writing with Mesopotamia, based on his...
A collection of fake artifacts (figurines) seized by customs at Heathrow.         Source: Trustees of the British Museum

Trunks of Fake Artifacts from the Middle East Seized at Heathrow

Sent from the underworld of the Kingdom of Bahrain , the sovereign state in the Persian Gulf, to a private address in the U.K., the stash of apparently ancient, but in reality, fake artifacts,...
Left: Front angle of the reconstructed Bull Headed Lyre found in the Sumerian Royal Tombs of Ur in Mesopotamia, c. 2500 BC. Source: Penn Museum

Satire in Mesopotamia: Unravelling the Bull Headed Lyre of Ur

Many of us tend to think that the people of early cultures were less sophisticated than us. The wealthiest people may have lived lives of luxury with gold and slaves, but admittedly we cannot really...

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