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 [...]
Map of West Asia People also call West Asia the Near East or the Middle East. It is the part of Asia that is closest to the Mediterranean Sea. West Asia [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Persia and the Jews: The remains of the Second Temple in Jerusalem The Persians let the Jews go home In 536 BC, Cyrus the Great, the king of the Persians, conquered the Babylonian [...]
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) Who was Esther? [...]
Daniel in the lion's den, from the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, 359 AD in Rome Who was Daniel? In the Bible story, Daniel was one of the Jews who was [...]
Seal of King Hezekiah, from Judah, about 700 BC Israel and Judah fight wars Unfortunately for the Jews, the Assyrians did not hold West Asia for very much longer. During the 700s BC, the Assyrians began [...]
Ostrich eggshell from Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa (60,000 BC) When did people start dyeing eggs? Easter eggs go back long before Easter, and even long before the beginning of farming. As [...]
Yamnaya get around: Map of the spread of Indo-European languages Who were the Yamnaya? People we call the Yamnaya (Ukrainian for "People who lived in pits") seem to have been [...]
