The oldest stories ever written down, told in plain English. Myths, laws and letters from Sumer, Egypt and beyond, plus new finds. A new story every evening.
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ALT A round, cream-colored stone disk on a red museum stand, partly restored. A carved band across the middle shows a priestess in a long tiered robe with three attendants, one pouring a drink offering in front of a stepped altar.
ALT A small, worn white stone plaque with a square hole in its centre. Above the hole a lion-headed eagle spreads its feathered wings across the top; below, two four-legged beasts stand on either side.
ALT A round clay tablet in a museum case showing a circular map of the world with cuneiform labels, Babylon near the center, a ring of water around the land, and triangular outer regions beyond the ring.
ALT A tall limestone tablet with a carved upper scene of the sun god seated on a throne facing a large sun disk, with a king and deities approaching, and dense cuneiform text below.
ALT Close-up of the carved shrine scene on the Sun-God Tablet: a seated sun god, a large sun disk on an altar, approaching figures, and crescent, sun and star symbols in the sky above.
ALT Two blue-glazed brick dragons with scaly bodies, horned heads and long necks, standing one above the other on a reconstructed Ishtar Gate wall panel.
ALT A black-and-white seal impression showing a worshipper and a fish-cloaked figure before a tree under a crescent and winged disk, with a star, the Pleiades, and a dragon bearing divine standards.
ALT A round clay tablet in a museum case showing a circular map of the world with cuneiform labels, Babylon near the center, a ring of water around the land, and triangular outer regions beyond the ring.
ALT A white display of an ancient limestone cylinder seal beside its modern clay-like impression. The rolled scene shows a man riding an eagle upward, a standing shepherd, a dog, sheep and goats, and a figure working a churn at the top.
ALT A small, worn white stone plaque with a square hole in its centre. Above the hole a lion-headed eagle spreads its feathered wings across the top; below, two four-legged beasts stand on either side.
ALT A museum photo of a dark cylinder seal next to a long modern impression. The scene shows a man sitting on a large bird with a lion's head, a shepherd and dogs below, and a bowman among mountains pursuing ibexes.
ALT A close-up of an ancient carved cylinder seal showing a man on a large bird, animals and other figures in a crowded early Mesopotamian scene, lit against a dark background.
ALT A close photo of a small dark stone cylinder seal standing upright in a museum case, its carved surface catching the light, with a soft reflection on the glass shelf.
ALT A long strip of pale clay bearing a rolled seal scene: a man rising on an eagle's back, animals and human figures below, photographed against a dark background.