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An olive tree in Israel. Image credit: Doreen/Adobe Stock

A Symbol of Peace, Victory, and Abundance: The Millennia-Old History of the Olive Tree

People In many countries around the world cannot imagine their cuisine without olive oil. Apart from gastronomy, the gift of oil from the magnificent olive tree is also used today for other purposes...
Tell Brak, an ancient city in Syria

Ancient Syria: Another Cradle of Civilization?

Traditionally, it has been thought that civilization in the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean began in two centers, Sumer in the east between the Tigris and Euphrates, and Egypt in the west...
Justice, Myths, and Biblical Evidence: The Wealth of Information Held in the Ebla Clay Tablets

Justice, Myths, and Biblical Evidence: The Wealth of Information Held in the Ebla Clay Tablets

The Ebla clay tablets have provided researchers with a wealth of information regarding cultural practices and myths, judicial affairs, ancient languages, business, and foreign and domestic policies...
Mari, Syria - A ziggurat near the palace.

Nearly Lost from The Pages of History, Mari Is The Oldest Known Planned City in the World

The 7,000-year-old ancient city of Mari (known today as Tell Hariri) is one of the oldest known cities in the world, located on the west bank of the Euphrates River in what was once northern...
Inscribed Curse on the Sarcophagus of King Ahiram Displays Earliest Use of Phoenician Alphabet

Inscribed Curse on the Sarcophagus of King Ahiram Displays Earliest Use of Phoenician Alphabet

The Sarcophagus of King Ahiram (spelled also as Ahirom) is an incredible monument that was unearthed in Lebanon. As its name suggests, the sarcophagus belonged to a king by the name of Ahiram, who...
Why was Ancient Middle Eastern Bitumen Discovered in an Anglo-Saxon Boat Burial at Sutton Hoo, England?

Why was Ancient Middle Eastern Bitumen Discovered in an Anglo-Saxon Boat Burial at Sutton Hoo, England?

Sutton Hoo in East Anglia is one of the most important archaeological sites in England. The weapons, clothing and other objects buried in the Anglo-Saxon cemeteries show that trade networks in the...
How the 1,000-Year-Old Mystery of the Druze People’s Origin Was Solved

How the 1,000-Year-Old Mystery of the Druze People’s Origin Was Solved

For 1,000 years, the mysterious origin of the Druze people – who live almost exclusively in the mountains of Syria, Lebanon and Israel – has captivated linguists, historians, and sociologists. There...
The Military Campaigns of Tiglath-pileser III: Priest King and Conqueror – Part 1

The Military Campaigns of Tiglath-pileser III: Priest King and Conqueror – Part 1

The year is 745 BCE and much of the Middle East is about to be conquered and confiscated by the powerful Assyrian Empire under King Tiglath-pileser III. Tiglath-Pileser III: stela from the walls of...
View of Palmyra in 2010 showing the Temple of Bel.

The Ancient City of Palmyra: The Pearl of the Desert

Palmyra is an ancient city located in modern Syria which served as the capital of the Palmyrene Kingdom during the 3rd century AD. In May 2015, this city made the headlines and grabbed the attention...
One of the skeletons excavated by York Archaeological Trust at Driffield Terrace had his head positioned near his feet.

Animal-bitten, Wounded, and Decapitated—Who were these Roman-era Men Buried near York?

A team of researchers using DNA analysis has determined a group of decapitated, animal-bitten, injured men from Roman-era Britain were mostly of European origin, but one was from the Middle East,...
Anonymous Venetian Orientalist painting, The Reception of the Ambassadors in Damascus, 1511, the Louvre.

Damascus: The Ancient City that was Fought Over by Numerous Civilizations is Facing its Biggest Crisis Today

The city of Damascus, which lies in the southwestern part of Syria, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. This city is located in a desert oasis on the eastern foothills of...
Mitanni invaders

A Forgotten Empire: The Ancient Kingdom of Mitanni

Mitanni was a state that existed between the 16th and 13th centuries BC. This state occupied the land of the Hurrians. This area is located in the upper Tigris-Euphrates basin, and corresponds today...
This delicately elaborate mosaic has been excavated from a possible rich person’s villa in Roman Doliche, one of the few areas in Roman Syria where archaeologists can work.

War limits study of Roman Syrian sites, but one has yielded priceless treasures of the past

The war has so disrupted parts of the Near East that scholars have just a few Roman Empire sites to study in what was the Roman province of Syria. But archaeologists are able to work a few sites,...
The Royal Palace of Urkesh, built around 2250 B.C. by king Tupkish.

The Rediscovery of Urkesh: Forgotten City of the Hurrians

Ancient Urkesh was once a major hub of the ancient Near Eastern Hurrian civilization, known in mythology as the home of a primordial god. Little was known about Urkesh and the mysterious Hurrian...
Detail, The Conversion of St. Paul. Paul and companions are knocked to the ground during the profound event.

Ancient Signs in the Sky: Did a Meteorite Change the Course of Christianity 2,000 Years Ago?

Did an ancient meteor have such a life-changing impact on witnesses of the day that it shaped a religion and altered the course of history? Astronomers theorize that the dramatic flash and boom that...
Zenobia, the Warrior Queen of Palmyra, Syria

Zenobia, the Warrior Queen of Palmyra, Syria

In 30 BC, the last active Ptolemaic queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII, was dead. According to the written sources, she committed suicide by holding a poisonous snake to her breast, so as to avoid being...
Giant stone circles in the Middle East

Giant stone circles in the Middle East puzzle archaeologists

Huge stone circles in the Middle East have been imaged from the air, but researchers remain puzzled as to why they exist, and who made them. 11 Big Circles dot the landscape across Jordan and Syria...
Ancient Sumerian song - cuneiform tablets

The ancient song recreated from 3,400-year-old cuneiform tablets

In 2014, scholars from the University of California at Berkeley brought to life the ancient sounds of Mesopotamia following the decryption and study of a set of ancient cuneiform texts that date back...
Masyaf Castle, the Seat of the Assassins

Masyaf Castle, the Seat of the Assassins

Fans of the popular video game series Assassin’s Creed would be familiar with the castle of Masyaf in Syria. In the series, the castle of Masyaf was the headquarters of the notorious Assassins, and...
Eden - Paradise lost

A Paradise Lost: In Search of Eden

Nothing else has fascinated both archaeologists and theologians alike more than the identity to the location of man’s paradise lost; that is, the Garden of Eden. Throughout history, the idea of a...
6200-year-old ancient parasite egg

6200-year-old parasite egg may be first proof of early human technology spreading disease

Latest research shows that schistosomiasis, a disease caused by flatworm parasites, may have been spread by earliest crop irrigation in ancient Mesopotamia, suggesting early technology exacerbated...
The Ain Dara Temple

The Ain Dara Temple and the giant footsteps of the Gods

Ain Dara is a small village in the northwest of Aleppo, Syria, which boasts a remarkable structure – the Ain Dara Temple, located just west of the village. The temple was discovered in 1955, when a...
Old cities through satellite images

Old satellite images reveal lost cities and previously unknown ancient sites

Archaeologists have discovered numerous archaeological sites scattered across the Middle East thanks to work on the new Corona Atlas of the Middle East, which features Cold-War satellite images from...
Qanat Firaun - Underground aqueduct

Qanat Firaun, the most spectacular underground aqueduct of the ancient world

The Qanat Firaun, otherwise known as the Gadara Aqueduct, is an ancient aqueduct that was built to supply water to the Roman-Hellenistic Decapolis, which now lie in present-day Syria and Jordan...

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