REVIEW BY TIMOTHY MATNEY The academic world inhabited by Sumerologists and Assyriologists is highly specialised and largely inaccessible for even the hardiest lovers of history. The texts themselves are fragmentary, often pieced together from disparate copies, deliberately anachronistic, and range…
A recent Netflix documentary, Secrets of the Neanderthals, has attracted a massive worldwide audience, and taken a major step forward in dealing with the widespread myth that Neanderthals were brutish and backward. As we now know from comparing their DNA and ours, we can count them among our remote ancestors.
In ‘Science Notes’, we often talk about how new technologies are revolutionising our approach to archaeology. And while this is most certainly still the case, the reliability of previous methods can sometimes be taken for granted. This month we are…
Taylor Downing reviews the latest film releases.
The location of a significant battle in the history of the Middle East has been pinpointed by archaeologists. Researchers have identified what they believe to be the location of the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah, which took place in AD 637 The…
Our Neanderthal cousins may now be extinct, but they are rarely out of the news. Writing in The Conversation, archaeologist Steven Mithen tackles the perennial question of why Homo sapiens flourished while Neanderthals died out by examining the differences between the brain cavities of the two species
REVIEW BY JONATHAN VALK Assyria stands out in history as the fountainhead of empire. It was perhaps the first state to subdue the bulk of its world, extending in every direction until its frontiers consisted almost entirely of sand, sea,…
Ancient bricks inscribed with the names of Mesopotamian kings are offering an important opportunity to identify variations in the Earth’s magnetic field thousands of years ago.
REVIEW BY ECKART FRAHM Mesopotamian history, Amanda Podany argues in the introduction to her new book, ‘is more of a weathered mosaic than a grand narrative’. What she provides in her long but never boring account, which covers events and…
It seems that every few months ‘Science Notes’ is covering another breaking story on advances in a DNA research, a testament to how quickly the field is evolving. After our reporting of the successful, non-invasive extraction of human DNA from…
Known today as Tello, Girsu is one of the oldest cities in the world.
The recently discovered tavern, dating to c.2,700 BC, consisted of an open-air public eating area and a kitchen
Finds from the palace include a large stone vase and inscribed fragments of ivory and of ostrich eggshell.
Review by Diana Bentley The ancient Near East has not always attracted the popular attention it deserves, especially in comparison with other cultures of the surrounding area, like Greece, Rome, and Egypt. This latest work by Amanda H Podany, Professor…
• Painting Pompeii: how Roman houses were decorated
• Silk Road oases: exploring ancient Uzbekistan
• Chariot kings: the evolving image of the pharaoh
• Shock and awe: the imaginative work of Henry Fuseli
• Persia and beyond: the mythical legend of Alexander the Great in the East
The reliefs depict details including mountains, grapevines, pomegranates, figs, palm trees, and warriors firing arrows in battle
Research suggests that, for Neanderthals and early modern humans, flavour was an important consideration during food preparation.
Analysis of Beveled Rim Bowls excavated from a Late Chalcolithic site in Iraq has challenged traditional interpretations that they were used for distributing cereal rations to state-dependent labourers.
Today, we live in a world of too much information: one in which a staggering 231,400,000 emails are sent out on average every single minute, according to the consumer data company Statista, along with countless million more text messages and…
Enheduanna, high priestess at the ancient city of Ur, is thought to be the world’s first named author. She was a poetic innovator, but she was not alone in Mesopotamian history as a prominent or a literate woman, as Lucia Marchini learns from Sidney Babcock.
Occupation of the fortress appears to have been relatively short-lived, with the main phase of activity probably dating to the 1st century BC.
Based on the architectural association between Rabana-Merquly’s rock reliefs, fortifications, and settlements, and some specific types of pottery, the team have tentatively dated the site’s main building phase to the 1st century BC.
Remains of a palace at the site emerged from the waters in 2010, and in 2018, when water levels were again low, archaeologists carried out a short campaign, documenting the palace.
Taken in the 1940s, Kersting's powerful black-and-white pictures document life among the much-persecuted Yazidi community in what is now the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. They include captivating portraits of individuals as well as stunning architectural views
Exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery: 'Anthony Kersting: Kurdistan in the 1940s'
Between which five present-day countries is the roughly defined geo-cultural territory of Kurdistan mostly now divided?
Important as commercial commodities and as symbols of wealth and power, the animals also appear to be associated with the pre-Islamic Arabian goddess, Allat.
Ancient Mesopotamian literature, written in cuneiform from around 3000 BC, is haunted by omens and ghosts. Most of the sources on ghosts come from the 1st millennium BC, written in Akkadian, but some texts and ideas hark back to even…
Graham Goodlad surveys the remarkable career of ancient history’s most successful warlord.
Neil Faulkner analyses one of history’s greatest tactical triumphs.
The history of the Mesopotamian city of Babylon had a powerful legacy even within antiquity. Today, many are familiar with the city, situated in modern Iraq, for its numerous appearances in the Bible and for the fabled wonder of the…
The first excavations began in April 2021, and were focused entirely upon Tell al-Duhalia, which is home to hundreds of archaeologically significant sites, such as the Great Ziggurat of Ur.
The carving depicts a clean-shaven, elite male figure, perhaps a high-priest or ruler, sitting on a decorated stool, wearing a kaunakes (a type of Sumerian long skirt).