West Asian economy – the Bronze Age
West Asian economy: Bronze Age tin ingots from a shipwreck near Haifa Trading for tin When people first began to use bronze, about 3000 BC, they had to trade a lot more [...]
What did people wear for underwear?
Assyrian working man on a boat Underneath their linen tunics or dhotis, most West Asian men probably wore a strip of linen cloth wrapped around their hips like modern underwear, with the end tucked in [...]
West Asian clothing – Mesopotamia and Iran
Tel Asmar, ca. 3000 BC Most likely people were already wearing clothing about 60,000 years ago when they first walked or sailed out of Africa to West Asia. Clothing must have been invented about this time [...]
Sumerian art history – Mesopotamia
Sumerian clay figures from Tell Asmar (about 2900 BC - compare them to these earlier Indian ones) Sumerian art is the art that Sumerian people made. The Sumerians lived in what is now [...]
Stone Age art from West Asia
Building D, Gobekli Tepe. Southern Turkey, about 9000 BC The earliest art known from West Asia is from about 9000 BC, soon after the end of the last Ice Age. It's from [...]
Scythian art history – Central Asian art
Scythian deer from about 700-500 B.C. It is made out of gold, and it's now in St. Petersburg. The Scythians were horse-riding nomads, who traveled around the western part of Central Asia taking care of [...]
Phoenician art – West Asia
Core-formed Phoenician glass bottle (400s BC) The Phoenicians, from as early as 1500 BC, were mainly known for producing glass bottles and jars, especially for perfume. The Phoenicians sold these jars to Egypt and to the Assyrians. [...]
Persian and Parthian art – Iran
Molded brick relief of Persian archers, from Susa in the 400s BC Not long after the Babylonians made the Ishtar Gate, the Persians conquered the Babylonians. They took over some Assyrian [...]
Assyrian and Babylonian art – West Asia
Assyrian prisoners After the Dark Ages, by around 1000 BC, the Assyrians became the biggest power in West Asia, and they created many important works of art. The Assyrians continued the West Asian tradition of relief [...]
West Asian art history – Mesopotamia and Iran
Building D, Gobekli Tepe. Southern Turkey, about 9000 BC West Asian art goes back to the earliest presence of people in West Asia, in the form of little stone or clay fertility figurines. Around 9000 [...]
