Nippur: Did you mean...?

Imagine something that has never been thought of before. If one holds a book in one's hands, one can imagine an e-book, a large-print book, a picture book, all kinds of books. But how does one imagine a book in a world where even the concept...

The dates of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, have been a concern of, primarily, Western scholars for well over 100 years now owing to the particularly Western need for precise dating of historical persons and events. The problem with precise...

Ningishzida, the Mesopotamian deity of vegetation and the underworld, flanked by 2 small human figures. From the 2nd excavation season of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago at Nippur (found at the Scribal Quarter). Old-Babylonian...

The area which formed Sumer started at the Persian Gulf and reached north to the 'neck' of Mesopotamia where the two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates meander much closer to each other. To the east loomed the Zagros Mountains, where scattered...

This terracotta cuneiform tablet is about the myth of "Inanna prefers the farmer." In this myth, Enkimdu (the god of farming) and Dumuzi (the god of food and vegetation) tried to win the hand of the goddess Inanna. From Nippur (modern Nuffar...

This is an inscribed sun-dried brick used in temple construction. It was commissioned by the Sumerian king Amar-Suen (reigned c. 2094-2038 BCE) of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Translation of the inscription: Amar-Suen, the one called by (the...

This bronze statuette was found at the foundation deposits of the temple of Eanna at Nippur. The statue depicts Ur-Nammu, king of Ur, holding a basket on his head as the builder of the temple. Ur III (Neo-Sumerian) period, reign of Ur-Nammu...

This terracotta cuneiform tablet is a letter from Ludingirra to his mother. Nippur (modern Nuffar, Al-Qadisiyah Governorate, Iraq), southern Mesopotamia. Old-Babylonian period, 1700 BCE. (Istanbul Archeological Museums/Ancient Orient Museum...

The cuneiform inscription on this clay tablet claims various exemptions for the cities of Babylon, Nippur, and Sippar and warns rulers against disregarding them. This is a copy which was made about 700-650 BCE of an earlier composition. From...

This is a simulation (virtual reality) video of a reconstruction of the Ziggurat of Ur in its entirety. Ur was a city in Sumer that became dominant during the Early Dynastic Period (c. 2900-2350 B.C.E) alongside other cities such as; Uruk...