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Articles on Ancient Mesopotamia
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Invisible to the naked eye, the work of the wind often goes unnoticed. Yet, for millennia, this unseen force has shaped religion, trade, warfare, culture, science and more.
From snake-like creatures with claws to jealous virgin ghosts, female monsters have long been a part of women’s lore. Such figures were Intimately tied to childbirth, sexuality and child mortality.
ChatGPT threatens to change writing as we know it. But the Mesopotamians, who lived 4,000 years ago in modern-day Iraq, went through this kind of seismic change before us, when they invented writing.
A scholar of the ancient Near East explains how loan forgiveness was handled thousands of years ago in the Bible and royal decrees.
There are many nods to Mesopotamian myth in Marvel’s Eternals. The character of Gilgamesh is the first ancient Near Eastern hero with a leading role in a Marvel film.
Though often seen as placid, turtles have been depicted as powerful, fighting animals since ancient times. One of the most famous battleships, the Korean Geobukseon, was called the ‘Turtle Ship’.
Beer was extremely popular in ancient Mesopotamia. Sipped through straws, it differed from today’s beer and was enjoyed by people from all walks of life.
As US protesters deface monuments of once revered leaders, they are drawing from an ancient tradition used by both marginalized people and those in power.
What caused the rise and then collapse 2,600 years ago of this vast empire centered on Mesopotamia? Clues from a cave in northern Iraq point to abrupt climate change.
Ennigaldi-Nanna is largely unknown in the modern day. But in 530BC, this Mesopotamian priestess worked to arrange and label various artefacts in the world’s first museum.
From the Bible to Versailles, gardens are bound to their political and religious history.
Top contributors
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Honorary Research Associate, University of Sydney
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Associate Professor in Ancient History, Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Macquarie University
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Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences, California State University, Dominguez Hills
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Associate Professor of Global Environmental Change, Xi'an Jiaotong University
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Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of Dayton
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Assistant Professor of History, North Carolina State University
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Associate professor of Ancient History, University of Minnesota
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Honorary Professor, The University of Queensland
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Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder
