The Life and Health of Assyrian Queens
When great Queen Yaba’ of Nimrud passed away, she left a curse to those who would dare disturb her final resting place. Despite her warning, excavations from 1988 to 1990 in the northwest palace of King Assurnasirpal II in the […]
11 Photos from Nimrud
Reports indicate that ISIS has destroyed portions of the Assyrian city of Nimrud. Check out these 11 photos.that document some of what may have been lost. 1. Aerial view of Nimrud during the 1950s. 2. Aerial photograph of Nimrud showing topography and principal […]
What did Jesus look like?
Everyone knows what Jesus looks like: he is the most painted figure in all of western art, recognized everywhere as having long hair and a beard, a long robe with sleeves (often white) and a mantle (often blue). But what did he really look like, as a man living in Judaea in the 1st […]
Hatra Image Gallery
Please take a look at the bellow photo gallery of Hatra circaand. Brought to you by The Ancient Near East Today. With a special thank you to the photographers, Suzanne Bott and Col. Mary Prophit, US Army. […]
From Banning to Changchun: Cuneiform Studies Online, Today and Tomorrow
Paper publication of cuneiform artifact photographs has not progressed much since I was a graduate student in Germany in the 1980s. Instead, the advent of web-based […]
Tomb Tracking: A New Burial Survey of Roman Galilee (1st-6th cent. CE)
Eldad Keynan, a native of Israel’s Galilee region, finishes a lunch of hummus and pita on the outskirts of the Christian town of Mailia, and engages in the customary post-prandial coffee with none other than the restaurant owner […]
A Statement on Mesopotamian Antiquities Issues
The Yale Babylonian Collection will not purchase, accept as a donation, or authenticate any Mesopotamian artifact that the curator has reason to believe was acquired by its current owner in violation of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on […]
Beyond the Sea: New Light on Mediterranean Colonization
Like a sea in continuous motion, Mediterranean communities are constantly changing and adapting through time, while paradoxically maintaining their distinctive character. As an archaeologist studying the earliest […]
Gender and Jewelry at Hasanlu
How do we show others who we are? This problem was as present in antiquity as it is today. As an art historian, I’m particularly interested in the role that dress and personal adornment have played in the creation and expression of gendered […]
Iron Age Bullae from Officialdom’s Periphery: Khirbet Summeily in Broader Context
Khirbet Summeily is located about 22 kilometers east of Gaza and about 4 kilometers west of Tell el-Hesi, on the ancient road […]
Recovering Assur
From the German Excavations of 1903-1914 to today’s Assur Project in Berlin. Exactly one hundred years ago, in 1914, the German excavation in Assur in Northern Iraq ended. Despite this, German research on Assur was only beginning. […]
“In a world where slaves make bricks without straw…”
Director Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings is the latest retelling of the Old Testament’s most popular film franchise. Does he succeed or fail? Should Biblical films be Biblical or “historical”? And is Batman a good Moses? […]
Cursing in the Ancient Near East
All families fight and sometimes what sound like harsh words are used. But what is really meant when someone asks their deity to “inflict a curse and evil”? In the ancient Near East curses and blessings were a fundamental […]
A New Look at Baptism
Countless Christians are familiar with the rite of baptism. But Christian baptism was one of the most complicated of ancient initiation rituals insofar as it served many and varied objectives. More than representing a simple rite of passage—from outsider to insider […]
The Early Bronze Age I Site and Necropolis of Jebel al-Mutawwaq, Jordan
Much of the archaeological landscape of the ancient Near East is rapidly disappearing. This is especially true for pre and protohistoric sites that lack the imposing size of tells. Features such as dolmens, aboveground […]
The Current State of Ugaritic Studies
No other language and culture of Northwest Semitic – the family of languages and cultures used in the Levant including Hebrew, Phoenician and Aramaic – prior to the appearance of the Hebrew Bible has offered a similar corpus of linguistic […]
“Gilgamesh: Civilization vs. Natural World,” Featuring J.J.M. Roberts
In this episode, ASOR’s own Ancient Near East Today editor, Alex Joffe spoke with Jimmy Jack McBee Roberts (J. J. M. Roberts) the William Henry Green Professor of Old Testament Literature (Emeritus) at Princeton Theological Seminary.
World War I and Archaeology in Iraq
By: Lamia Al Gailani Werr It is ironic that I am writing this article on the centenary of the First World War, while Iraq today is suffering from turbulence that is partly the consequence of that war. Iraq was created by Britain out of the remains of three Ottoman provinces. But the British occupation and […]
“A New Look at an Old Story: the Epic of Gilgamesh,” featuring Dr. Lawson Younger
In this episode ASOR’s own Ancient Near East Today editor, Alex Joffe talks with Dr. Lawson Younger. Dr. Younger is a professor of Old Testament, Semitic Languages, and Ancient Near Eastern History at the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
The Great War and German Archaeology
By: Suzanne Marchand, Professor at Louisiana State University The Great War marks an enormous watershed in the history of German archaeology, a kind of golden age. The two decades before its outbreak saw the opening or expansion of state sponsored investigations. In Mesopotamia, Assur, Babylon, Samarra, and Warka. In Egypt, Abusir and Tell-el-Amarna. In Asia […]