History of math: Sumerian multiplication table (2700 BC) Cuneiform multiplication table Once people in West Asia figured out how to write down numbers, about 3500 BC, they quickly began to want to use cuneiform to [...]
An Iranian fire sacrifice Zoroaster/Zarathustra himself Around 1000 BC (probably), about the same time that people in India were writing the Rig Veda, a man named Zoroaster (also called Zarathustra) was a priest in a small [...]
The Persian shah, Xerxes, from the 400s BC. Death of Xerxes and revolt In 465 BC, someone killed the Persian King Xerxes. His assassin may have been his son Ardashir [...]
The Persians came from the Central Asian steppe The Persians and the Medes Around 1200 BC, some Indo-European people from Central Asia moved south into West Asia. These people were [...]
A Lydian gold coin King Gyges About 687 BC, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, King Gyges started the new country of Lydia (LID-ee-ah), in modern Turkey where the Hittites had ruled before the [...]
The Ishtar Gate of ancient Babylon, built during the Neo-Babylonian period (600s BC). Now in Berlin. As the Assyrians got weaker, pieces of their empire began to break off. People saw their [...]
West Asian government: the stele of Naram-Sin shows the king leading his troops to victory. Empires and city-states Since the time of the Akkadians, about 2300 BC, West Asian government has [...]
Obsidian tools West Asia is located in the middle of the very wide land mass we call Europe and Asia and Africa, and so it has always played an important part [...]
Iron Age timeline: Zhou Dynasty swimmers (Sichuan bronze vessel, ca. 750 BC) How did the Iron Age begin? All across Asia, the early Iron Age started out as a time of many [...]
Mordecai is leading Esther (on the horse) to talk to the Persian king. A fresco from the world's oldest preserved synagogue at Dura-Europos in Syria (244 AD) How did Purim [...]
