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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 hidden mysteries and ancient understandings of Tarot and the Bembine tablet.
20 August, 2018 - 18:49 David Halpin

Cracking the Code to Discover Ancient Tarot Symbolism and Forgotten Universal Knowledge

How old is the Tarot? This is a question that seems easy to answer today. As playing cards, we can confidently map the Tarot to the early 15th century. Mystery solved? Well, it’s not quite that...
Colossal statue of Amenhotep III in the British Museum. (Public Domain) Background: Detail of Amarna letter: Royal Letter from Abi-milku of Tyre to the king of Egypt. (CC0)
18 July, 2018 - 13:59 dhwty

To the King, My Sun, My God, the Breath of My Life… Amarna Letters Paint Remarkable Picture of Ancient Egyptian Rulership

“Your city weeps, and her tears are running, and there is no help for us. For 20 years we have been sending to our lord, the king, the king of Egypt, but there has not come to us a word from our lord...
A clay tablet with an engraved inscription has been discovered at the archaeological site of Olympia in Greece. It contains 13 verses of a rhapsody from Homer’s Odyssey.
10 July, 2018 - 22:53 Alicia McDermott

Clay Tablet Found at Olympia May Be the Oldest Excerpt from Homer’s Odyssey

Archaeologists excavating the ancient site of Olympia, one of the largest archaeological sites in Greece, have found a rare and important artifact – a clay tablet inscribed with 13 verses of a...
Using Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), this picture of the Antioch tablet was compiled. Source: Paula Artal-Isbrand, conservator at the Princeton Art Museums, with permission of Alexander Hollman
24 May, 2018 - 19:00 Ed Whelan

First Jewish Curse Found: Chariot Racer Hexed by Calling on Balaam’s Angel

Experts have made the remarkable discovery of a curse on a lead amulet from the Eastern Roman Empire. According to the Jerusalem Times, experts were shocked when they finally deciphered the message...
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...
A modern representation of Humbaba
21 April, 2018 - 18:48 dhwty

Humbaba: A Monstrous Foe for Gilgamesh or a Misunderstood Guardian?

Humbaba (Huwawa) is a guardian creature found in the Epic of Gilgamesh , which is generally considered to be the earliest surviving great work of literature. Although Humbaba is traditionally...
Tablet hypothesized to be the oldest writing ever discovered.
1 March, 2018 - 22:35 ashley cowie

An 8,000-year-old Slab Holds the “Oldest Writing” Ever Discovered! Or Does It?

A tiny ceramic slab dated to around 6000 BC with “written signs” has been discovered by archaeologists at a prehistoric settlement near the town of Nova Zagora in Southeast Bulgaria. And, they...
A curse tablet wrapped around a chicken bone.
24 February, 2018 - 18:48 Riley Winters

Ancient Sex Curse Revealed: May Your Penis Hurt When You Make Love!

Curse tablets in the ancient world are like Facebook posts today—they were everywhere, created by almost everyone, and can still be found in the strangest of places. They could be broadly vague or...
Fragment of talisman used to exorcise the sick, Assyrian era.
14 February, 2018 - 14:00 Alicia McDermott

Mixing Magic and Medicine: New Study Shows Mesopotamian Doctors Had to Battle Demons

Analysis of a collection of clay tablets confirms that a Mesopotamian doctor had to deal with more than just physical ailments. The ancient healer was expected to exorcise demons, ward off witchcraft...
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...
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...
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 5th century BC Amathus sarcophagus found in Amathus integrates Greek, Cypriot, and Oriental features. (Public Domain) Background: Detail of the Idalion Decree, a Bronze plaque engraved on both faces with a Cyprian inscription.
15 September, 2017 - 13:59 pkoutoupis

Exploring an Ancient and Undeciphered Language: Eteocypriot and the Amathus Bilingual Inscription

An English architect by profession and self-trained in the discipline and studies of linguistics and ancient history, Michael Ventris would be the first to identify the Mycenaean written Linear B...
Detail of Painting of Hopi man returning home. By Homer Coayama, ‘Hopi Man Coming Home From the Field’ (From author’s collection)
9 September, 2017 - 18:52 Thomas O. Mills

Help Find the Missing Corner of the Hopi Tablet To Prove Their Creation Story: Seeking Answers in the Chapel of the Tablet, Africa

[Editorial by Thomas O Mills, Hopi Cultural Center in Second Mesa, Arizona, USA ] I am sometimes asked, “How can we help the Hopi People?” Having lived with the Hopi for a number of years, I can...

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