Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and Iran, In the broader sense, the historical region of Mesopotamia included parts of present-day Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey.
Lama, Lamma, or Lamassu is an Assyrian protective deity.
The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed c. 569 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. It was part of a grand walled processional way leading into the city.
The Burney Relief is a Mesopotamian terracotta plaque in high relief of the Isin-Larsa period or Old-Babylonian period, depicting a winged, nude, goddess-like figure with bird's talons, flanked by owls, and perched upon two lions.
Tukulti-Ninurta I was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian Empire. He is known as the first king to use the title "King of Kings".
The Emblem of Iraq since the rule of Baathism features a golden black eagle looking towards the viewer's left dexter. The eagle is the Eagle of Saladin associated with 20th-century pan-Arabism, bearing a shield of the Iraqi flag, and holding a scroll below with the Arabic words جمهورية العراق.
The Istanbul Archaeology Museums are a group of three archaeological museums located in the Eminönü quarter of Istanbul, Turkey, near Gülhane Park and Topkapı Palace. These museums house over one million objects from nearly all periods and civilizations in world history.
The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC and being firmly established through the fall of the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC, the Neo-Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Achaemenid Persian Empire in 539 BC, marking the collapse of the Chaldean dynasty less than a century after its founding.
The history of Mesopotamia ranges from the earliest human occupation in the Paleolithic period up to Late antiquity. This history is pieced together from evidence retrieved from archaeological excavations and, after the introduction of writing in the late 4th millennium BC, an increasing amount of historical sources. While in the Paleolithic and early Neolithic periods only parts of Upper Mesopotamia were occupied, the southern alluvium was settled during the late Neolithic period. Mesopotamia has been home to many of the oldest major civilizations, entering history from the Early Bronze Age, for which reason it is often called a cradle of civilization.
Cultural depictions of lions are known in countries of Afro-Eurasia. The lion has been an important symbol to humans for tens of thousands of years. The earliest graphic representations feature lions as organized hunters with great strength, strategies, and skills. In later depictions of human cultural ceremonies, lions were often used symbolically and may have played significant roles in magic, as deities or close association with deities, and served as intermediaries and clan identities.
Šauška (Shaushka), also called Šauša or Šawuška, was the highest ranked goddess in the Hurrian pantheon. She was associated with love and war, as well as with incantations and by extension with healing. While she was usually referred to as a goddess and with feminine titles, such as allai, references to masculine Šauška are also known. The Hurrians associated her with Nineveh, but she was also worshiped in many other centers associated with this culture, from Anatolian cities in Kizzuwatna, through Alalakh and Ugarit in Syria, to Nuzi and Ulamme in northeastern Mesopotamia. She was also worshiped in southern Mesopotamia, where she was introduced alongside a number of other foreign deities in the Ur III period. In this area, she came to be associated with Ishtar. At a later point in time, growing Hurrian influence on Hittite culture resulted in the adoption of Šauška into the Hittite state pantheon.
Babylon was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Iraq. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-speaking region of Babylonia, with its rulers establishing two important empires in antiquity, namely the 19th–16th century BC Old Babylonian Empire and the 7th–6th century BC Neo-Babylonian Empire, and the city would also be used as a regional capital of other empires, such as the Achaemenid Empire. Babylon was one of the most important urban centres of the ancient Near East until its decline during the Hellenistic period.
The Royal Palace of Mari was the royal residence of the rulers of the ancient kingdom of Mari in eastern Syria. Situated centrally amidst Palestine, Syria, Babylon, Levant, and other Mesopotamian city-states, Mari acted as the “middle-man” to these larger, powerful kingdoms. Both the size and grand nature of the palace demonstrate the importance of Mari during its long history, though the most intriguing feature of the palace is the nearly 25,000 tablets found within the palace rooms. The royal palace was discovered in 1935, excavated with the rest of the city throughout the 1930s, and is considered one of the most important finds made at Mari. André Parrot led the excavations and was responsible for the discovery of the city and the palace. Thousands of clay tablets were discovered through the efforts of André Bianquis, who provided archaeologists the tools to learn about, and to understand, everyday life at the palace in Mari. The discovery of the tablets also aided in the labeling of various rooms in terms of their purpose and function.
The art of Mesopotamia has survived in the record from early hunter-gatherer societies on to the Bronze Age cultures of the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. These empires were later replaced in the Iron Age by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires. Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Mesopotamia brought significant cultural developments, including the oldest examples of writing.
The Star of Ishtar or Star of Inanna is a Mesopotamian symbol of the ancient Sumerian goddess Inanna and her East Semitic counterpart Ishtar. The owl was also one of Ishtar's primary symbols. Ishtar is mostly associated with the planet Venus, which is also known as the morning star.
The Lion of Babylon is an ancient Babylonian symbol.
Puzur-Ishtar was a ruler of the city of Mari, northern Mesopotamia, after the fall of the Akkadian Empire. He was contemporary of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and probably their vassal.
Ninatta and Kulitta were a dyad of Hurrian goddesses regarded as the handmaidens of Šauška. They were primarily considered divine musicians, though they also had a warlike aspect. They are attested in western Hurrian sources from Ugarit and Hattusa. They were also incorporated into the Hittite and Mesopotamian pantheons.
Goddess of the Night (Sumerian: 𒀭𒈪, DINGIR.GE6) was a deity worshiped in the Hurrian kingdom of Kizzuwatna, and later also in Šamuḫa in the Hittite Empire. Only the logographic writing of her name is known, and multiple attempts at identifying her identity have been made. Most researchers assume that she was at least partially similar to goddesses such as Ishtar, Šauška and Ishara. She most likely represented the night sky, and was also associated with dreaming.
Annunitum or Anunītu was a Mesopotamian goddess of war. While initially she functioned as an epithet of Ishtar, she started to develop into a separate deity in the final years of the Sargonic period and through the Ur III period.
