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Urartian Bronze Shield Reveals the Name of a Previously Unknown Ancient Country
A bronze shield belonging to the Urartian king Argišti I has produced a rare historical surprise: the name of a land never before recorded in Urartian sources. The shield, now part of the collection of the Rezan Has Museum, carries a cuneiform inscription that identifies a country called Qarini—a name absent from known royal annals,…
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Ancient Assyrian Tablets: Science Uncovers 7th Century Writing Techniques
Ancient writing boards excavated from Nimrud are providing incredible clues about how cuneiform script was written in the 7th century BC. These boards were written using a mixture of beeswax and orpiment (a yellow pigment). A Great Discovery by Archaeologists: Found during excavations in the 1950s, these tablets shed light on the administrative and scholarly…