Shepherd story – Epic of Gilgamesh – Mesopotamia
Shepherd on a cylinder seal (Berlin Museum) When the Sumerian king Gilgamesh refused to fall in love with the goddess Ishtar, he gave her a lot of reasons why not, and he was [...]
Epic of Gilgamesh – Mesopotamian writing
Epic of Gilgamesh: Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu fight the monster Humbaba, on an Assyrian cylinder seal from the 600s BC The real king Gilgamesh The Epic of Gilgamesh is [...]
Who was Enheduanna? Akkadian literature
Enheduanna wrote this poem - this is a later copy of it, in cuneiform on a clay tablet Was Enheduanna her name? Nobody knows Enheduanna's real name, if she had [...]
What is Aramaic? An old West Asian language
Aramaic language: Comparing different ancient alphabets When did Aramaic get going? As people began to settle down in towns in West Asia, about 4000 BC, they began to speak differently from their [...]
History of the Alphabet – West Asia
Egyptian temple to Hathor at Serabit in the Sinai Early Writing Before about 1800 BC, all people in the world wrote using pictures that each stood for a word or a [...]
Third Dynasty of Ur – Mesopotamia – West Asian history
Standard of Ur This is the Middle Bronze Age in West Asia, about 2100 BC to 1700 BC. It corresponds roughly to the First Intermediate Period in Egypt, and just as in Egypt this [...]
Who were the Trojans? – West Asian history
A reconstruction of what Troy VI might have looked like. For thousands of years, people read Homer's Iliad and learned the story of the Trojan War. But nobody knew if it had really happened, [...]
Who were the Sumerians? Mesopotamia – West Asian history
Sumerians - Head of a woman from Warka, about 3000 BC When did the Sumerians get started? About the same time as the first Pharaohs were coming to power in Egypt, around 3100 BC, [...]
West Asia in the Stone Age
Stone Age West Asia: A building at Gobekli Tepe (ca. 9000 BC) Stone Age West Asia By around 10,000 BC, people in West Asia were beginning to settle down in one place [...]
Who were the Sassanians? Iran – West Asian history
Ardashir, the first ruler of the Sassanians Rulers of the Parthian Empire In 211 AD, a group of Iranians called the Sassanians (the descendants of Sassan) took over control of the Parthian Empire from [...]
