Mesopotamian architecture: The Ishtar Gate of ancient Babylon, built during the Neo-Babylonian period (600s BC). Now in Berlin. Mesopotamian architecture Builders in Mesopotamia always had a serious problem. There was not [...]
Sumerian architecture: the ziggurat at Warka (reconstructed by Saddam Hussein) Mud-brick and brick Like other people around the world, the Sumerians started to build big temples on artificial platforms around 3500 BC. [...]
Abraham and Isaac (Egypt, 300s AD) The Jews leave Mesopotamia Shortly after the episode with the Tower of Babel, the Bible tells us that some of the Jews decided to leave Mesopotamia where the Sumerians were, [...]
Stone Age Indian art: Clay figurines from Mehrgahr The earliest Indian art comes from the Stone Age, starting about 4500 BC. People arriving from West Asia about this time brought their [...]
Ur was an early city-state. This is the Standard of Ur, from West Asia (2000 BC) What is a city-state? A city-state is like a very small country, with just [...]
Climate change and world history: Wildebeest on savannah grasslands, Kenya (Africa) African grasslands emerge In the years just before human beings first evolved, the world was a wetter place than [...]
Molded bricks form an archer at ancient Susa, in Iran If you're a teacher, parent, or day camp counselor thinking of spending a week or so on ancient West Asia [...]
Mesopotamian plate, made by kids at Laurelhurst School, Portland Oregon Mesopotamia is where the pottery wheel was invented West Asia was not the first place on earth where people began [...]
Cuneiform tablet, made by kids at Laurelhurst School, Portland Oregon About 3500 BC, people in West Asia began to use writing. Because nobody had invented paper yet, these people wrote [...]
Molded bricks project: A bull from the Ishtar Gate, Babylon (600s BC) Why molded bricks? Architects in ancient Mesopotamia (West Asia) didn't have much good stone to carve, but they [...]
