Perfume has complex and fascinating links to ancient chemistry.
Esther denouncing Haman, who, according to the Purim story, attempted to have all Jews within the Persian Empire massacred.
Hutchinson's History of the Nations/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Whether thousands of years ago or right now, fans have always created new stories based on familiar characters, weaving their own experiences into the tale.
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.
An incantation bowl with an Aramaic inscription around a demon from Nippur, Mesopotamia.
Wikimedia Commons
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.
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’.
Cylinder seal (left) and modern impression (right) showing two people drinking beer through long straws. Khafajeh, Iraq (Early Dynastic period, c. 2600–2350 B.C.).
Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
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.
Intentionally mutilated head of Egyptian Pharaoh Hatshepsut.
Elizabeth Ellis
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.
Ashurbanipal, last major ruler of the Assyrian Empire, couldn’t outrun the effects of climate change.
British Museum
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.
The National Museum of Iraq photographed in February 2018. Many of the pieces discovered at the ruins of Ur, arranged and labelled by Ennigaldi-Nanna, can be found here.
Wikimedia Commons
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.
The connection between the gardens of Versailles, and your backyard garden, are closer than you might think.
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