Power Served in Bronze: Urartu’s Kings Turned Royal Bowls into Portable Propaganda
More than 100 bronze bowls inscribed with the names of Urartian kings were designed to do more than hold food or drink. A new study…
Near Eastern archaeology
Elymaean Rock Carving in Iran Shows Possible Parallels with the Hercules–Hydra Myth
A newly identified Elymaean rock carving in southwest Iran is drawing scholarly attention due to its unusual iconography and its possible visual parallels with the…
A 4,000-Year-Old Silver Goblet May Depict a Cosmic Creation Sequence — Not the Enuma Elish Myth
A new study is challenging long-held assumptions about one of the most enigmatic artworks from the Bronze Age Levant. The ˁAin Samiya goblet—an 8-centimeter silver…
9,000-Year-Old Ain Ghazal Statues Rewrite What We Thought We Knew About Early Human Art
Archaeologists are once again turning their attention to one of the most startling artistic breakthroughs of the Neolithic world: the monumental statues of Ain Ghazal,…
Archaeologists Revisit Ugarit — The Civilization That Reshaped Trade, Politics, and the Birth of Writing
After more than a decade of silence, the ancient city of Ugarit—one of the most influential centers of the Late Bronze Age—has returned to the…
Massive Relief Depicting Assyrian Gods and King Ashurbanipal Unearthed in Ancient Nineveh
Archaeologists from Heidelberg University uncover a unique 12-ton royal relief in Iraq’s ancient Assyrian capital A team of archaeologists from Heidelberg University has made a…