Cuneiform writing (now in LACMA, Los Angeles) Early Sumerian writing West Asia is probably the first place in the world where people figured out how to write. (Though Egyptian people began 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 [...]
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 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 [...]
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 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. [...]
The Egyptian god Bes Gods are part of people's desire to know how the world works. It's one of the ways that people explain how the world works. People say [...]
The priestess Meretites hugs her husband, the singer Kahai (Saqqara, Old Kingdom Egypt) The story of Abraham is one where Abraham meets people from different cultures - the Sumerians, who live in cities [...]
Weighing the souls of the dead Philosophy means the love of wisdom. But what does that mean? It's hard to separate philosophy from religion. And it's also hard to draw a [...]
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 [...]
