Necklace from Assyrian Ashur. Tomb 45

There is something about ancient Mesopotamian jewelry that sets it apart from any other in antiquity. That something is more than just a distinct style or taste. Mesopotamian jewelry was a large artery in the anatomy of each civilization that rose in the land between the two rivers, and its story is one worth reading.

Read more: Dissecting Mesopotamian Jewelry

Ancient Assur 1994

The city of Nineveh

Nineveh - Sennacherib Palace Before conservation

A game in the Northwest Palace of the city of Nimrud.

The Flood Tablet, relating part of the Epic of Gilgamesh

“This, the eleventh tablet of the Epic, describes the meeting of Gilgamesh with Utnapishtim. Like Noah in the Hebrew Bible, Utnapishtim had been forewarned of a plan by the gods to send a great flood. He built a boat and loaded it with all his precious possessions, his kith and kin, domesticated and wild animals and skilled craftsmen of every kind.

Utnapishtim survived the flood for six days while mankind was destroyed, before landing on a mountain called Nimush. He released a dove and a swallow but they did not find dry land to rest on, and returned. Finally a raven that he released did not return, showing that the waters must have receded.

This Assyrian version of the Old Testament flood story was identified in 1872 by George Smith, an assistant in The British Museum.”

King Ashurbanipal in a detail of a Neo-Assyrian relief depicting a lion hunt (British Museum).

Wish to just drive by!

worldofmesopotamia:

Nineveh walls, near present day Mosul, Iraq.

Sargon II’s Palace