This Tablet demonstrates how the Babylonians knew the 'Pythagorean Theorem' Before Pythagoras

A tablet was found engraved with the measurements of a piece of land, calculated using trigonometric methods and Pythagorean triples: it is the oldest testimony of applied geometry that we know of

(Immagine: UNSW Sydney)

A tablet demonstrates how the Babylonians knew the Pythagorean theorem before Pythagoras. The measurements of a plot of land are engraved on the tablet, calculated with trigonometric methods and Pythagorean triples: this is the oldest evidence of geometry ever discovered.

When four thousand years ago a Babylonian surveyor engraved the boundaries of some plots of land on a tablet, he probably did not imagine that his work was destined to upset the archeology of the future.

Analyzing the tablet preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul, Daniel Mansfield, a mathematician from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, has in fact discovered how the ancient Mesopotamian peoples knew the Pythagorean Theorem, before Pythagoras himself.

"What I transcribed on the clay tablet, proves that the ancient Babylonians knew many basic notions of geometry, including those related to the making of right-angled triangles by applying concepts to practical problems." explains Mansfield.

On Si427 (name given to the tablet) the engravings of cuneiform characters were made which undoubtedly correspond to a long series of Pythagorean triples. The ancient surveyor had transcribed the calculations necessary to divide a plot of land by dividing it into rectangles with a precision that according to the scientist leaves no room for doubt:

The rectangles are precise: the surveyor calculated them through the Pythagorean triples: 3, 4 , 5; 8, 15, 17; 5, 12, 13. From the characteristics of the tablet, moreover, we understand how man made the engraving 'in real time', tracing the lines on the clay while he was on the ground.

But one last aspect still remains to be deciphered: the presence of a number with a sexagesimal basis, 25:29, still without any interpretation. It could be the sequence of a calculation or the area of ​​some other terrain; but, for now, it still remains a mystery.

Are Scholars Close Enough to Decipher The Mysterious Linear Elamite Script?

A Breakthrough in Ancient Script Decipherment

Linear Elamite, a cryptic script used in what is now modern-day Iran, has long been a puzzle for historians and archaeologists. With its origins dating back over 5,000 years, Linear Elamite represents a fascinating chapter in the history of writing systems. The recent efforts of a group of European academics, under the direction of the French archaeologist Francois Desset, have rekindled hopes of discovering the secrets hidden within this enigmatic script.

Just as Jean-François Champollion faced the challenge of deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics with the help of the Rosetta Stone, scholars have struggled for decades to crack the Linear Elamite code. However, the breakthrough might finally be on the horizon, thanks to the meticulous work of Desset and his colleagues.

Their groundbreaking research, recently published in the journal Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, hinges on the examination of ancient silver beakers. These artifacts provide a tantalizing glimpse into the world of Linear Elamite, offering a potential key to unlocking its mysteries. It is important to note that, while the findings are intriguing, they remain the subject of debate within the scholarly community.

Chogha Zanbil, an ancient Elamite complex in the Khuzestan province of Iran Mehdi Zali.K via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0

Linear Elamite's historical context is vital for understanding its significance. The script emerged in Susa, a thriving city on the fringes of Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau. This urban society played a pivotal role in the dawn of civilization, engaging in trade with neighboring Mesopotamian kingdoms and the Indus River Valley civilization.

The Sumerians are renowned for developing the first known writing system, cuneiform, around 3100 B.C.E. Their wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets marked a pivotal moment in human history, enabling the recording of language, economy, religion, and governance. While Cuneiform thrived in Mesopotamia, Linear Elamite was a contemporaneous script in Susa, representing a distinct linguistic tradition.

Over the past century, Proto-Elamite inscriptions have numbered over 1,600, offering some insight into this ancient society. However, Linear Elamite inscriptions have been scarce, with only about 43 discovered scattered across Iran. Its sporadic use and eventual disappearance around 1800 B.C.E. have confounded scholars.

Perforated stone with Linear Elamite inscriptions, from the collections of the Louvre Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Francois Desset's journey began with his access to a collection of silver vessels in London, believed to date back to around 2000 B.C.E. These vessels bore inscriptions in both cuneiform and Linear Elamite, providing a unique opportunity for decipherment. Metallurgical analysis confirmed their authenticity and age, dispelling doubts about their origin.

Desset's method of deciphering Linear Elamite rested on identifying repeated symbols that were likely proper names, including those of known Elamite kings. Through this meticulous process, he managed to decode 72 Linear Elamite symbols, representing over 96 percent of those known to scholars. However, it's important to note that translating the content of these inscriptions remains a complex endeavor, given the absence of known relatives for the Elamite language.

Linear Elamite inscriptions on a silver vessel Desset / Iran, 2018

The significance of Desset's work extends beyond mere script decipherment. He proposes that Linear Elamite employs a syllabic approach similar to modern alphabets, setting it apart from other ancient scripts. If this hypothesis holds true, it would make Linear Elamite the oldest known writing system to rely solely on syllables, predating the creation of the alphabet by Phoenician traders around 1100 B.C.E.

Furthermore, Desset's research challenges established beliefs about the relationship between Proto-Elamite and Linear Elamite. While some argue that Proto-Elamite is a mixture of syllables and logograms, Desset posits that it is the predecessor of Linear Elamite. This debate highlights the complexity of deciphering ancient scripts and the need for further research.

Grid of the 72 deciphered alpha-syllabic signs on which the transliteration system of Linear Elamite is based. The most common graphic variants are shown for each sign. Blue signs are attested in southwestern Iran, red ones in southeastern Iran. Black signs are common to both areas. F. Desset

Another intriguing claim by Desset suggests that Proto-Elamite and Sumerian cuneiform may have coexisted, challenging conventional timelines. This hypothesis, based on radiocarbon dating and archaeological findings, offers a fresh perspective on the evolution of writing systems in neighboring societies.

As we await further excavations in Iran to bridge the gap between Proto-Elamite and Linear Elamite, Francois Desset's work represents a significant step toward unraveling the mysteries of an ancient script that has confounded scholars for centuries. His dedication to deciphering Linear Elamite not only sheds light on a little-known society but also challenges our understanding of the development of writing itself.

Akkadian/cuneiform and Elamite/Linear Elamite inscription of King Puzur-Sushinak, from the collections of the Louvre Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

In the coming years, as more Linear Elamite texts are translated and additional archaeological evidence surfaces, we may witness a renaissance in our comprehension of this ancient script. The legacy of Linear Elamite, once shrouded in obscurity, may soon emerge as a testament to the enduring human quest for communication and understanding in the annals of history.

These are the World's Earliest Surviving Literary Catalogues!

Two cuneiform tablets found at Nippur, (Mesopotamia; now Iraq) are inscribed with a list of Sumerian works of literature in no apparent order. One has 68 titles, the other 48 works. These represent the earliest surviving literary or library catalogues.

A literary catalogue compiled in approximately 2000 BCE (clay tablet 29.15.155 in the Nippur collection of the University of Pennyslvania Museum). The upper part represents the tablet itself; the lower part a copy or transcription of the catalogue for legibility.

Contents of clay tablet 29.15.155 in the Nippur Collection of the University of Pennsylvania Museum:

1. Hymn of King Shulgi (approximately 2100 B. C.).

2. Hymn of King Lipit-Ishtar (approximately 1950 B. C.).

3. Myth, "The Creation of the Pickax"

4. Hymn to Inanna, queen of heaven.

5. Hymn to Enlil, the air-god.

6. Hymn to the temple of the mother-goddess Ninhursag in the city of Kesh.

7. Epic tale, "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Nether World"

8. Epic tale, "Inanna and Ebih"

9. Epic tale, "Gilgamesh and Huwawa."

10. Epic tale, "Gilgamesh and Agga."

11. Myth, "Cattle and Grain" .

12. Lamentation over the fall of Agade in the time of Naram-Sin (approximately 2400 B. C.).

13. Lamentation over the destruction of Ur. This composition, consisting of 436 lines, has been almost completely reconstructed and published by the author as Assyriological Study No. 12 of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

14. Lamentation over the destruction of Nippur.

15. Lamentation over the destruction of Sumer.

16. Epic tale, "Lugalbanda and Enmerkar."

17. Myth, "Inanna's Descent to the Nether World"

18. Perhaps a hymn to Inanna.

19. Collection of short hymns to all the important temples of Sumer.

20. Wisdom compositions describing the activities of a boy training to be a scribe.

21. Wisdom composition, "Instructions of a Peasant to His Son."

Casson, Libraries in the Ancient World (2001) 4.

The Oldest-Known List of Titles and Occupations

A proto-cuneiform clay tablet (VAT 15003) from the Eana (Eanna) district, Uruk IV period, preserved in The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, records the oldest-known version of a list of titles and occupations, known as the Standard Occupations List. 

Clay tablet, Uruk IV period, circa 3200 BCE. From Uraq, Uruk, Eana precinct. 8.7 x 1.8 cm. VAT 15003. This tablet records the oldest-known version of a list of titles and occupations, known as the Standard Occupations List.

"Such lists, known as 'lexical lists,' were used to train scribes and also served to organize knowledge. This scribal exercise from the early Uruk IV writing stage represents what was apparently a favorite version of such compilations. it content was copied many times in the subsequent Uruk III period (about 180 frams of it are preserved), and it was the model for numerous mofied and exapned forms of such lists.

The popularity of such standardized lists is indicated by  the fact that they were repeatedly copied and recopied down through the Akkadian dynasty (twenty-third century BC) nearly a millennium after their creation" (Woods, Teeter, Emberling (eds) Visible Language. Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond [2010] No. 46, with color images of obverse, reverse and a composite drawing of the archaic lexical list).

The 3,200-year-old perfume of Tapputi, the first female chemist in history, came to life again

One of the scent formulas written in Akkadian on clay tablets by Tapputi, known as the world’s first female perfumer and first female chemist in Mesopotamia 3,200 years ago, has been recreated.

A team of 15 experts, including academics, carried out studies to uncover the 3200-year-old formula.

Tapputi is considered to be the first registered chemist in the world, a perfume manufacturer mentioned on a cuneiform tablet dated around 1200 BC in Mesopotamia. Tapputi is referred to as Tapputi-Belatekallim (“Belatekallim” refers to the female overseer of a palace) on tablets.

In her mixtures, according to the clay tablets Tapputi recorded, Tapputi used flowers, oil, and calamus, along with cyperus, myrrh, and balsam. She mixed it with water or other solvents before distilling and filtering it multiple times.

In this study, conducted in collaboration with Koku Akademisi ve Koku Kültürü Derneği (Smell Academy and Scent Culture Association), the data that shed light on that period were reached as a result of the formulas that Tapputi wrote on a clay tablet in cuneiform.

Akkadian cuneiform tablet in which Tapputi, the first female perfumer in history, gave 3,200 years of perfume formula and making information. Photo: Wikipedia

Fragrance Expert Bihter Türkan Ergül said, “There was some information about Tapputi on clay tablets written in Akkadian. We could find answers to questions such as how it makes the smell, how it performs the distillation process, and how it reaches the liquid fragrance substances in these tablets. Each cuneiform on the tablet gave us a different excitement. The real-time travel was to be able to smell that scent as a result of the work.”

Fragrance Expert Bihter Türkan Ergül, who works with a team of 15 experts in total, said that they have been working for 3 years to bring this fragrance to light.

Mentioning that there are hundreds of tablets on the fragrance that have been unearthed so far, Ergül stated that some of them have been translated and they are continuing to work on the rest. Ergül also made the following statements about the clay tablet written by Tapputi:

Fragment expert Bihter Türkan Ergül. Photo: DHA

“In the scent formulas on the clay tablets, information such as how Tapputi made his transactions in the full moon and how he presented it to the stars one by one. In other words, it is written not only in the formula but also in the way the fragrance is made. How he distilled it, how he used fire and water, how he rested it, how he brewed it, and how he filtered it, are included in the tablet, down to the smallest detail. A total of 27 pages of translation came out of the small two tablets. It took pages to interpret. Such a wealth of information comes out of the cuneiform in such a small tablet. Here, lemon balm, myrrh, rose, and botanical plants are mentioned. Each cuneiform of this gave us a different excitement. The real-time travel was to be able to smell it at the end of the job. After this project is finished, we are left with 11 clay tablets. I don’t know if my life, in the end, will be enough to produce them, but a great effort awaits us in order to keep the scent culture alive and bring it to light again.”

Associate Professor Doctor Cenker Attila: There are two tablets in the world where the name “Tapputi” is mentioned

Stating that Tapputi uses all kinds of plants and substances such as flowers, tree resins, spices, and horseradish in the production of perfumes, Associate Professor Cenker Atila, who is an expert on ancient perfumes, ceramics, and glass works, Said, that there are only 2 tablets in the world where the name Tapputi is mentioned.

One of them is in the Louvre Museum in Paris and the other in the Girl Museum in Germany. The tablet found in the Louvre states that Tapputi was a royal perfumer and was called Belatekallim -refers to the female overseer of a palace-. We have more information on the tablet in Germany. Unfortunately, half of the tablet is mostly broken. Despite this, we learn how Tapputi works with a female assistant whose name ends with -ninu and how he distills perfumes.

Stating that there are two important problems they encountered in the translation of the tablets, Atila said, “One of them is that the tablets were broken and some important parts were lost. The second difficulty is that some plants and containers used 3200 years ago do not have the exact equivalent. For example, we do not know exactly what the “hirsu” vessel is. However, since it is used in the perfume distillation process, it should be a container like a flower pot. In addition, the fact that we do not know the current names of some spices and flowers used in perfume production appears an important problem”.

Ancient fortress found by archaeologists may be a lost royal city

A 2,000-year-old fortress built on a mountainside in what’s now Iraqi Kurdistan could be part of a lost royal city called Natounia.

With the help of drone photography, archaeologists excavated and cataloged the site during a series of digs between 2009 and 2022. Situated in the Zagros Mountains, the stone fortress of Rabana-Merquly comprises fortifications nearly 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) long, two smaller settlements, carved rock reliefs and a religious complex.

The fortress was on the border of Adiabene, a minor kingdom governed by the kings of a local dynasty. These rulers would have paid tribute to the neighboring Parthian Empire, which extended over parts of Iran and Mesopotamia approximately 2,000 years ago, according to research led by Michael Brown, a researcher at the Institute of Prehistory, Protohistory and Near-Eastern Archaeology of Heidelberg University in Germany, with the help of Iraqi colleagues.

Carvings at the entrance to the fortress depict a king of Adiabene, based on the dress of the figure, in particular his hat, Brown said. The carving resembles other likenesses of Adiabene kings, particularly one found 143 miles (230 kilometers) away at the site of an ancient city called Hatra.

While it’s matter of speculation, Brown believes the fort was the royal city known as Natounia, or alternatively Natounissarokerta, that was part of the kingdom of Adiabene.

“Natounia is only really known from its rare coins, there are (not) any detailed historical references,” Brown said via email.

Details deduced from seven coins describe a city named after a king called Natounissar and a location on the Lower Zab River, known in ancient times as the Kapros River.

“The location near to (but admittedly not on) the Lower Zab/ancient Kapros river, short occupation, and royal imagery all link the archaeological site to the description we can deduce from coinage. There are also some unusual high status tombs nearby,” Brown said.

“It’s a circumstantial argument. … Rabana-Merquly is not the only possibility for Natounia, but arguably the best candidate by far (for) the ‘lost’ city, which has to be in the region somewhere.”

The king in the carving could be the founder of Natounia, either Natounissar or a direct descendant.
The carving depicts a figure with an unusual hat and is thought to depict a king of Adiabene, said lead researcher Michael Brown of the University of Heidelberg.

The carving depicts a figure with an unusual hat and is thought to depict a king of Adiabene, said lead researcher Michael Brown of the University of Heidelberg.

The place name Natounissarokerta is composed of the royal name Natounissar, the founder of the Adiabene royal dynasty, and the Parthian word for moat or fortification, the study also said.

“This description could apply to Rabana-Merquly,” Brown said. As a major settlement positioned at the intersection between highland and lowland zones, it’s likely that Rabana-Merquly may have been used, among other things, to trade with pastoral tribes, maintain diplomatic ties, or exert military pressure.

“The considerable effort that must have gone into planning, building and maintaining a fortress of this size points to governmental activities,” Brown said.

The study said the discovery adds to our knowledge of Parthian archaeology and history, which remains markedly incomplete, despite its evident significance as a major power in the ancient Near East.

Lost city, a real-life 'Helm's Deep,' possibly discovered in Iraq

The ancient stronghold is believed to be part of the lost city of Natounia.

An aerial view of a fortress believed to be part of the lost city of Natounia, including the (A) Merquly settlement; and the (B) 'barracks' building. (Image credit: © Rabana-Merquly Archaeological Project; Antiquity Journal Ltd.)

Nestled in a valley shadowed by mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan sits an ancient fortress that archeologists think may be the lost, royal city of Natounia, based on the discovery of intricately carved rock reliefs depicting an ancient leader, a new study finds.

The stronghold, known as Rabana-Merquly, was once part of the Parthian Empire (also known as the Arsacid Empire), which reigned(opens in new tab) between 247 B.C. and A.D. 224. The Parthians were bitter enemies of the Roman Empire, and fought various battles against them for over 250 years(opens in new tab). Now, new research at this 2,000-year-old fortress suggests that it served as one of the empire's regional centers.

During a recent expedition, an international team of archeologists discovered twin rock reliefs(opens in new tab) at the two entrances to the settlement, which is situated at the base of Mount Piramagrun in the Zagros Mountains. The matching reliefs are said to depict a king of Adiabene, a kingdom that was part of the Parthian Empire, according to researchers.

A photo (top) of Mount Piramagrun, highlighting the Rabana and Merquly settlements, and a topography (bottom) of Rabana-Merquly. (Image credit: Map by M. Brown; © Rabana-Merquly Archaeological Project; Antiquity Journal Ltd.)

"Based on the dress of the figure, in particular his hat, we think that the fortress was built by the ruling dynasty of Adiabene close to the kingdom's eastern border," study lead researcher Michael Brown, a researcher at the Institute of Prehistory, Protohistory and Near-Eastern Archaeology of Heidelberg University in Germany, told Live Science in an email. "The twin rock reliefs are rare examples of near life-size monuments of rulers from the Parthian period, and they allow us to link the fortress with those who built it."

He added, "Both reliefs are located immediately next to the two gated entrances and were clearly designed to make a political statement — they can be characterized as ancient propaganda."

Prior to this find, the only known depictions of the existence of Natounia (also known as Natounissarokerta), have been documented on several coins dating from the first century B.C., according to a statement.

"The more specific association with the city of Natounia comes from the inscription on that city's rare coins found elsewhere, which locate it 'on the Kapros,' which is the modern Lower Zab River," Brown said. For this reason, the city was sometimes called Natounia on the Kapros.

Here we see the (A) Rabana 'sanctuary'; (B) a staircase at the site; (C) iron arrowheads; and (D) altar (scales = 1 meter) (Image credit: © Rabana-Merquly Archaeological Project; Antiquity Journal Ltd.)

In addition to the reliefs, which possibly depict Natounissar, the city's founder, or a direct descendant, researchers used drones to explore fortifications that measure approximately 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) along with two nearby settlements, Rabana and Merquly, of which the site is named.

These images show the (A) Merquly rock-relief; (B) Rabana rock-relief; and (C) a statue from Hatra of King 'tlw/Attalos of Adiabene. (Image credit: Illustrations by M. Brown; © Rabana-Merquly Archaeological Project; Antiquity Journal Ltd.)

"Rabana-Merquly is by far the largest and most impressive site of the Parthian era in the region, and the only one with royal iconography, so it's by far the best candidate [for being Natounia]," Brown said. "Its fortifications enclose naturally defensible terrain and can be viewed as an extension of the surrounding highland landscape. If you're familiar with Lord of the Rings, it's basically a real-life Helm's Deep."

The reverse side of a coin of Natounia.  (Image credit: Photograph © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license).)

During its reign, the Parthian Empire played a formative role in the development of Eurasian globalization through its complex relations with Rome, India and Han China. "The fortress very likely played an important role in managing these relations through trade and diplomacy, as well as through military force," he said. 

However, it appears that the Parthians abandoned the fortress relatively soon after it was built. "Most of the architecture is single phase (i.e. not much rebuilding) so we think the fortress wasn't used for very long during its main Parthian era occupation. Probably a span of no more than 100 years," Brown said. 

While on site, Brown and his team also found a large waterfall in the valley, which he calls a "seasonal phenomena," since it appears only following a heavy rain.

"It could have held religious significance to Rabana's Parthian-era occupants," he said. "A plausible association can be made in this regard with the Iranian water-goddess Anahita. A small rock-cut altar nearby, most probably for fire, supports the religious interpretation." 

The findings will be published online Wednesday (July 20) in the journal Antiquity(opens in new tab).

Originally published on Live Science.

The 'Chicago Syllabary', the Oldest Cuneiform Akkadian-Sumerian Lexical List

Cuneiform is thought to be the oldest writing system, and it was first created around 5500 years ago. As writing was developed for different languages, scribes—ancient writing professionals— had to make sure people could read and understand the languages they were reading, as well as how to pronounce the word in another language. A lexical list from Iraq, pictured above, was how. This text allowed someone who could read cuneiform signs to be able to determine how a word was pronounced in both Sumerian and Akkadian. These two ancient languages both used cuneiform to write their different languages.

The "Chicago Syllabary", a cuneiform lexical list on clay tablet of unknown provenance, dating from the first millennium BC, is thought to contain content compiled earlier in the second millenium. 

"The text gives the Sumerian and Akkadian pronunciations of various cuneiform signs along with their names. As such, the text provides unique insights into how the ancients understood and analyzed their languages and the cuneiform script. The list is organized by sign shape. The table consists of two halves, with each half divided into four columns. The first column gives the pronunciations of a given sign and the second column gives the corresponding graph. The third column gives the name of the sign as given by the Babylonian compilers (in some cases a descriptive designation that blends Sumerian and Akkadian), while the fourth column gives the corresponding Akkadian pronunciation. In addition to the importance of its content, the text examplies the development of the cuneiform script in the first millenium BC" (Woods, Teeter, Emberling (eds) Visible Language. Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond [2010] No. 60).

The Chicago Syllabary is preserved in The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

A 3,400-year-old City Emerges from the Tigris River

A team of German and Kurdish archaeologists have uncovered a 3,400-year-old Mittani Empire-era city once located on the Tigris River. The settlement emerged from the waters of the Mosul reservoir early this year as water levels fell rapidly due to extreme drought in Iraq. The extensive city with a palace and several large buildings could be ancient Zakhiku—believed to have been an important center in the Mittani Empire (ca. 1550–1350 BC).

Iraq is one of the countries in the world most affected by climate change. The south of the country in particular has been suffering from extreme drought for months. To prevent crops from drying out, large amounts of water have been drawn down from the Mosul reservoir—Iraq's most important water storage—since December. This led to the reappearance of a Bronze Age city that had been submerged decades ago without any prior archaeological investigations. It is located at Kemune in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

This unforeseen event put archaeologists under sudden pressure to excavate and document at least parts of this large, important city as quickly as possible before it was resubmerged. The Kurdish archaeologist Dr. Hasan Ahmed Qasim, chairman of the Kurdistan Archaeology Organization, and the German archaeologists Jun.-Prof. Dr. Ivana Puljiz (University of Freiburg) and Prof. Dr. Peter Pfälzner (University of Tübingen) spontaneously decided to undertake joint rescue excavations at Kemune. These took place in January and February 2022 in collaboration with the Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage in Duhok (Kurdistan Region of Iraq).

The excavated large buildings from the Mittani period are measured and archaeologically documented. Credit: University of Tübingen

A team for the rescue excavations was put together within days. Funding for the work was obtained at short notice from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation through the University of Freiburg. The German-Kurdish archaeological team was under immense time pressure because it was not clear when the water in the reservoir would rise again.

Within a short time, the researchers succeeded in largely mapping the city. In addition to a palace, which had already been documented during a short campaign in 2018, several other large buildings were uncovered—a massive fortification with wall and towers, a monumental, multi-story storage building and an industrial complex. The extensive urban complex dates to the time of the Empire of Mittani (approx. 1550–1350 BC), which controlled large parts of northern Mesopotamia and Syria.

"The huge magazine building is of particular importance because enormous quantities of goods must have been stored in it, probably brought from all over the region," says Ivana Puljiz. Hasan Qasim concludes, "The excavation results show that the site was an important center in the Mittani Empire."

One of the vessels with cuneiform tablets is inspected before being recovered. Credit: University of Tübingen

The research team was stunned by the well-preserved state of the walls—sometimes to a height of several meters—despite the fact that the walls are made of sun-dried mud bricks and were under water for more than 40 years. This good preservation is due to the fact that the city was destroyed in an earthquake around 1350 BC, during which the collapsing upper parts of the walls buried the buildings.

Of particular interest is the discovery of five ceramic vessels that contained an archive of over 100 cuneiform tablets. They date to the Middle Assyrian period, shortly after the earthquake disaster struck the city. Some clay tablets, which may be letters, are even still in their clay envelopes. The researchers hope this discovery will provide important information about the end of the Mittani-period city and the beginning of Assyrian rule in the region. "It is close to a miracle that cuneiform tablets made of unfired clay survived so many decades under water," Peter Pfälzner says.

View into one of the pottery vessels with cuneiform tablets, including one tablet which is still in its original clay envelope. Credit: University of Tübingen

To avert further damage to the important site by the rising water, the excavated buildings were completely covered with tight-fitting plastic sheeting and covered with gravel fill as part of an extensive conservation project funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. This is intended to protect the walls of unbaked clay and any other finds still hidden in the ruins during times of flooding. The site is now once more completely submerged.

Source: phys.org

How did Ancient Sumerians Look Like? (Video)

We look at the real faces of the Sumerians who were the people of southern Mesopotamia whose civilization flourished between 4100-1750 BC. A brilliant civilization that brought us the wheel, measurements of time and space, the writing, and tales before the great flood.

Video by Panagiotis Constantinou

'Paqūdu' of Mesopotamia: First Policemen in History?

When constabulary duty’s to be done, to be done,

A policeman’s lot is not a happy one, happy one.

The Pirates of Penzance

There is always crime and sometimes there is punishment. But where do policemen come from?

The exceptionally abundant cuneiform documentation from Babylonia dating to the period of the Neo-Babylonian (626-539 BCE) and Achaemenid Empires (539-331 BCE) yields, among others, tens of thousands of legal and administrative tablets. In addition to the archives of the large temple households, mainly the Eanna temple in Uruk and the Ebabbar temple in Sippar, we also have the opportunity to study the business archives of individual families. These come from both the ranks of the traditional urban notables affiliated with the temples, and ‘new men’ such as the Egibi and Murašû families, who rose to wealth due to their entrepreneurial skills and their connections to the crown and its representatives.

But the appearance of new offices, that is, the institutionalization of tasks previously carried out on an ad hoc basis, is not confined to the highest echelons of the imperial administration. A particularly instructive case is the emergence of the paqūdu, which can be translated as a kind of ‘policeman.’

The activities of these officials are best attested in the Uruk Eanna temple archives, whereas for example in the Murašû archive, they only appear as witnesses to transactions. But paqūdus are also documented throughout Babylonia, for example in the cities of Sippar, Babylon and Nippur.

Map showing location of sites mentioned in the text.

A peculiar aspect of this office which deserves to be highlighted is the fact paqūdus are not only encountered in the larger Babylonian cities but that they are often associated with small rural villages (possibly hamlets), places such as Šahrīnu, Nuhānu and Ālu-ša-admu. The pertinent texts offer thus glimpses into rural life that often lies well beyond the reach of our urban and temple based sources.

The available evidence suggests paqūdus were charged with all sorts of on-site investigations regarding what we would define as petty crimes. For example, there are several references to theft of livestock from the herds of Ištar of Uruk, the city’s (and the Eanna temple’s) principal deity. A court protocol from Uruk describes in detail the proceedings regarding a cow that had gone missing: It fell upon Ea-kurbanni, paqūdu of the city of Uruk, to search the suspect’s house for evidence. He did indeed manage to procure a corpus delicti, a chunk of beef that was presented to the temple court.

The arrest of offenders was another task of the paqūdu. According to a particularly suggestive text, a certain Balātu, another paqūdu of Uruk, arrested a group of persons (mainly males but also two female singers) in front of a tavern because of a (possibly drunken) nighttime noise violation. The case was then again brought before the temple assembly, as was customary in first millennium BC Babylonia. Considering their activities, it is hardly a surprise that paqūdus appear also as victims of criminal assault and even of murder.

Tablet referring to a paqudu by the name of Guzana. British Museum, Museum no. 031041

Somewhat anachronistically, the paqūdus may be defined as the executive branch of the Neo-Babylonian system of justice. It was their groundwork on which the judiciary, most frequently the temple courts, based their decisions. But their range of competences and their position vis-à-vis other state or temple officials are indicative of a rather low rank in the city’s bureaucratic hierarchy.

The precise relationship between them and the temple administration can be grasped only imperfectly with the sources at our disposal. Although paqūdus were not regular part of the temple households, they are occasionally found carrying out work in the service of a temple, such as safeguarding property. According to one text (again from Uruk), the paqūdus were in these instances personally liable for remuneration to the administration if theft occurred during their watch.

The fact that law enforcement was entrusted to a permanent office marks a telling difference with the Old Babylonian period, when policing tasks were often conferred upon individuals with a background in the military or recruited from the retinue of imperial magnates. Instead it seems to be that Babylonia in the first millennium BC was closer to Roman Egypt as regards the organization of the maintenance of public order, where rather low- ranking civic officials such as the nyktostrategoi and the eirenarchai are found in capacities similar to the Babylonian paqūdus.

Tablet mentioning the paqudu Eriba, son of Ninurta-iddin as witness to a transaction. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Museum no. CBS 05398

This development is indicative of the distinctiveness of Iron Age Babylonia compared to earlier periods. In that period, not only did empires stretch over significantly vaster areas than ever before. This development was also accompanied by a process of demographic growth and economic expansion, which in turn led to greater social stratification. Importantly, this process also entailed an unprecedented sophistication of and a much higher degree of specialization in the bureaucratic apparatuses of these empires, as reflected by the emergence of the office of paqūdu.

By Reinhard Pirngruber, post-doctoral researcher at the University of Vienna.

Kuwait's island of Failaka: Archaeologists have been uncovering a complex history extending back 4,000 years

More than 4,000 years of history in only 16 square miles

An aerial view of Kuwait’s Failaka Island shows four different sites representing thousands of years of civilization. (Courtesy Flemming Højlund, Kuwaiti-Danish Mission)

A forgotten sliver of land in the far north of the Persian Gulf, Kuwait’s Failaka Island is home now mostly to camels. Its only town is a sprawling ruin pockmarked with bullet holes and debris from tank rounds, and the landscape beyond seems empty and bleak. Even before Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait prompted its sudden evacuation, Failaka in the past century was little more than a quiet refuge for fishermen and the occasional Kuwaiti seeking relief from the mainland’s fierce heat. But just under the island’s sandy soil, archaeologists are discovering a complex history extending back 4,000 years, from the golden age of the first civilizations to the wars of the modern era.

The secret to Failaka’s rich past is its location, just 60 miles south of the spot where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers empty into the Gulf. From the rise of Ur, the world’s largest metropolis in the late third millennium B.C., until Saddam Hussein’s attack during the First Gulf War, the island has been a strategic prize. For thousands of years, Failaka was a key base from which to cultivate and protect—or prey on—the lucrative trade that passed up and down the Persian Gulf. In addition, there were two protected harbors, potable water, and even some fertile soil. The island’s relative isolation provided a safe place for Christian mystics and farmers amid the rise of Islam in the seventh and eighth centuries A.D., as well as for pirates a millennium later.

Currently, archaeological teams from no less than half a dozen countries, including Poland, France, Denmark, and Italy, are at work on Failaka. Given the political volatility of neighboring nations such as Iraq, Iran, and Syria, the island offers a welcome haven for researchers unable to conduct their work in many other parts of the region. “I started encouraging teams to come in 2004,” says Shehab Shehab, Kuwait’s antiquities director. “And I want to encourage more.”

The oldest settlement on Failaka was long thought to have been founded in about 1800 B.C. by the Dilmunites, a maritime people who likely hailed from what are today’s Bahraini and Saudi Arabian coasts, and who controlled Persian Gulf trade. But on Failaka’s southwest corner, a team from Denmark’s Moesgård Museum has uncovered evidence that Mesopotamians arrived at least a century before the Dilmunites. The finds are centered on a recently unearthed Mesopotamian-style building typical of those found on the nearby Iraqi mainland dating from around 2000 B.C. The structure was later partially covered by a Dilmunite temple.

In the mythology of ancient Sumeria (modern Iraq), Dilmun is described as an Eden-like place of milk and honey. But by 2000 B.C., Dilmunites were leaving their homeland to become seagoing merchants and establish a powerful trading network that eventually stretched from India to Syria. Mesopotamian clay tablets refer to ships from Dilmun bringing wood, copper, and other goods from distant lands. By the nineteenth century B.C., Failaka had become a linchpin in the Dilmunites’ operations. At this point, after the Dilmunites had either ousted the Mesopotamians or merely succeeded them, there are no further signs of a Mesopotamian presence. The Dilmunites constructed a large temple and palace complex almost on top of the houses built by the earlier Mesopotamian residents. A French team that excavated the temple in the 1980s suggested that it was an oddity, possibly related to Syrian temple towers. But recent work by a team from the Moesgård Museum in Denmark points to a building remarkably similar to the Barbar sanctuary in Bahrain, considered the grandest Dilmun structure.

Failaka’s name is derived from the Greek word for outpost. But Alexander the Great, according to later classical authors such as Strabo and Arrian, gave Failaka the name Ikaros, since it resembled the Aegean island of that name in size and shape. French archaeologists working on the island in recent years have found several stone inscriptions dating to the fourth and third centuries b.c. mentioning the name Ikaros, as well as architecture and artifacts that reveal a bustling community with international ties during that period. The island’s accessible fresh water, easily defended coastline, and strategic location also attracted the attention of Alexander’s successors, who vied among themselves for control of regional trade routes. Antiochus I, who ruled the Seleucid Empire in the third century B.C., built a 60-foot-square fort around a well on Failaka. Inside the fortress compound, one small, elegant temple has Ionic columns and a plan that is quintessentially Greek, including an east-facing altar. This was no simple import, however, but a fascinating amalgamation of designs. The column bases, for example, are of the Persian Achaemenid style, similar to those in the capital, Persepolis, burned by Alexander’s troops in the fourth century B.C.

The center of Failaka is a low-lying swampy area that is now the province of mosquitoes and wandering white camels that belong to the Kuwaiti emir. But a millennium ago, this was a three-square-mile pocket of fertile and well-watered plain cultivated by a small community of isolated Christians in a region populated by Muslims. Previous French excavations revealed several villages and two churches, including a possible monastic chapel. A Polish team led by Warsaw-based archaeologist Magdalena Zurek is now busy excavating nearby sites to understand the extent of the settlements that flourished in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D., several hundred years after the faith inspired by Muhammad swept through the region. “We know nothing about Christians on Failaka,” says Zurek, who suspects that a third church lies near her current excavation of a modest farmstead.

The story of Failaka after the abandonment of the Christian villages remains shadowy. Currently archaeologists are turning their attention to several sites that sit along the northern shore of the island to probe the medieval and early modern periods. The most interesting is located on a high spot overlooking the gulf, facing Iraq. Nearly 30 years ago, a team from the University of Venice surveyed the site, pinpointing a village, called Al-Quraniya, that dates to at least as early as the seventeenth century A.D., and possibly several centuries earlier. In 2010, an Italian team led by Gian Luca Grassigli of the University of Perugia began intensive fieldwork there. The excavators have since uncovered an array of pottery, porcelain, glass bangles, and bronze objects, including nails and coins, dating to between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries A.D. The mound seems to have two large concentrations of building materials, and the archaeologists hope to make a detailed plan of the settlement in future campaigns. Deeper trenches may reveal evidence of earlier settlement, filling in the long gap between the abandonment of Christian villages and more recent times.

What is clear is that Failaka was still a notable outpost two millennia after Alexander. Just to the southeast of the village is a small square rock fort dating to about the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Some researchers believe that this structure was constructed by Portuguese soldier-merchants who did frequent business in the region. others suspect that Arab pirates built the base to attack the lucrative shipping lanes that led to wealthy Iraqi cities such as Basra or to ports along the Iranian coast to the east. In this era, european, Iranian, and chinese elites had a growing appetite for the gulf pearls that dominated the region’s economy. Pirates were a constant threat until the nineteenth century; British guns and diplomacy put an end to their raids.

Pirate hideout. (Courtesy Kuwaiti-Italian Mission)

The mainland of Kuwait is mostly harsh desert, with only a handful of significant ancient sites. Even the old town of Kuwait City, dating back two centuries, was long ago demolished to make way for skyscrapers. Thus Failaka is of prime importance to the country’s heritage. Recently, much of the island’s history was threatened by a plan to transform the barren land with its rocky coast into a major tourist magnet, complete with marinas, canals, spas, chalets, and enormous high-rise hotels and condominiums. In the wake of the global economic recession, however, the $5 billion project foundered, and was recently shelved. Shehab has moved into the resulting vacuum, lobbying hard to turn all of Failaka into a protected site in order to enable archaeologists to uncover, study, and preserve this small nation’s past.

The government already sets aside more than $10 million annually to cover the costs of foreign projects in Kuwait, and hopes to promote science as well as encourage heritage tourism. “Shehab’s dream is to create in Kuwait a kind of research center for Gulf basin archaeology,” says archaeologist Piotr Bielinski from the University of Warsaw, who is digging at a prehistoric site on the mainland just north of Kuwait City. And excavators on Failaka are making the most of this unique opportunity, exposing evidence of Mesopotamian merchants, religious structures representing three cultures and spanning more than 2,500 years, a pirate’s lair, and the remains of Failaka’s last battle, ample testimony to the island’s millennia-long endurance.

By ANDREW LAWLER

Origins of the Persian Goddess 'Anahita'

Anahita is the Old Persian form of the name of an Iranian goddess and appears in complete and earlier form as 'Aredvi Sura Anahita', the Avestan name of an Indo-Iranian cosmological figure venerated as the divinity of "the Waters" (Aban) and hence associated with fertility, healing and wisdom.

The Greek and Roman historians of classical antiquity refer to her either as 'Anaïtis' or identified her with one of the divinities from their own pantheons. Based on the development of her cult, she was described as a syncretistic goddess, who was composed of two independent elements. The first is a manifestation of the Indo-Iranian idea of the Heavenly River who provides the waters to the rivers and streams flowing in the earth, while the second is that of a goddess of uncertain origin, though maintaining her own unique characteristics, who became associated with the cult of the ancient Mesopotamian goddess Inanna-Ishtar. According to one theory, this arose partly from a desire to make Anahita part of Zoroastrianism following the diffusion of her cult from the extreme northwest into the rest of Persia.

Head from a bronze cult statue of Anahita, a local goddess shown here in the guise of Aphrodite. From Satala, Armenia minor. Circa 200-100 BCE. (The British Museum, London)

According to H. Lommel, the proper name of the divinity in Indo-Iranian times was Sarasvatī, which also means "she who possesses waters". In Sanskrit, the name आर्द्रावी शूरा अनाहिता (Ārdrāvī śūrā anāhitā) means "of the waters, mighty, and immaculate". Like the Indian Sarasvatī, Anāhitā nurtures crops and herds; and she is hailed both as a divinity and as the mythical river which she personifies, "as great in bigness as all these waters which flow forth upon the earth" (Yasht 5.3).

Conflation with Ishtar

At some point prior to the 4th century BC, this yazata was conflated with (an analogue of) Semitic Ištar, likewise a divinity of "maiden" fertility and from whom Aredvi Sura Anahita then inherited additional features of a divinity of war and of the planet Venus or "Zohreh" in Arabic. It was moreover the association with the planet Venus, "it seems, which led Herodotus to record that the [Persis] learnt 'to sacrifice to "the heavenly goddess"' from the Assyrians and Arabians." There are sources who based their theory on this aspect. For instance, it was proposed that the ancient Persians worshiped the planet Venus as *Anahiti, the "pure one", and that, as these people settled in Eastern Iran, *Anahiti began to absorb elements of the cult of Ishtar. Indeed, according to Boyce, it is "probable" that there was once a Perso–Elamite divinity by the name of *Anahiti (as reconstructed from the Greek Anaitis). It is then likely (so Boyce) that it was this divinity that was an analogue of Ishtar, and that it is this divinity with which Aredvi Sura Anahita was conflated.

Anahita and Ishtar.

The link between Anahita and Ishtar is part of the wider theory that Iranian kingship had Mesopotamian roots and that the Persian gods were natural extensions of the Babylonian deities, where Ahuramazda is considered an aspect of Marduk, Mithra for Shamash, and, finally, Anahita was Ishtar. This is supported by how Ishtar "apparently" gave Aredvi Sura Anahita the epithet Banu, 'the Lady', a typically Mesopotamian construct that is not attested as an epithet for a divinity in Iran before the common era. It is completely unknown in the texts of the Avesta, but evident in Sassanid-era middle Persian inscriptions (see Evidence of a cult, below) and in a middle Persian Zend translation of Yasna 68.13. Also in Zoroastrian texts from the post-conquest epoch (651 CE onwards), the divinity is referred to as 'Anahid the Lady', 'Ardwisur the Lady' and 'Ardwisur the Lady of the waters'.

Because the divinity is unattested in any old Western Iranian language, establishing characteristics prior to the introduction of Zoroastrianism in Western Iran (c. 5th century BCE) is very much in the realm of speculation. Boyce concludes that "the Achaemenids' devotion to this goddess evidently survived their conversion to Zoroastrianism, and they appear to have used royal influence to have her adopted into the Zoroastrian pantheon." According to an alternate theory, Anahita was perhaps "a daeva of the early and pure Zoroastrian faith, incorporated into the Zoroastrian religion and its revised canon" during the reign of "Artaxerxes I, the Constantine of that faith."

The Oldest Specimen of Applied Geometry was Discovered in a 3,700-year-old Babylonian Clay Tablet!

It is considered important that the "surveyor" uses the so-called "Pythagorean triples" to create precise right angles. "The discovery and analysis of the plate have important implications for the history of mathematics. "For example, the plaque was created more than a thousand years before Pythagoras was born," Mansfield said.

A mathematician says he has uncovered the origins of applied geometry and land surveying after the rediscovery of a 3,700-year-old clay tablet.

The Bronze Age relic – know as Si427 – was first discovered in late 19th century Iraq and lay hidden in plain sight in an Istanbul museum for decades.

But detective work by a lecturer from the University of New South Wales in Australia has revealed the artefact's true purpose: to outline precise boundaries and avoid disputes among wealthy landowners in ancient Babylonia.

“Si427 dates from the Old Babylonian [OB] period – 1,900 to 1,600 BC,” says lead researcher Dr Daniel Mansfield from UNSW’s School of Mathematics and Statistics in a study released in the Foundations of Science journal.

“It’s the only known example of a cadastral document from the OB period, which is a plan used by surveyors to define land boundaries. In this case, it tells us legal and geometric details about a field that’s split after some of it was sold off.

“This is from a period where land is starting to become private – people started thinking about land in terms of ‘my land and your land’, wanting to establish a proper boundary to have positive neighbourly relationships. And this is what this tablet immediately says. It's a field being split, and new boundaries are made.”

Dr Mansfield first learnt about the Si427 tablet after reading it had been dig up during the Sippar expedition of 1894, in what is Baghdad province today.

“It was a real challenge to trace the tablet from these records and physically find it – the report said that the tablet had gone to the Imperial Museum of Constantinople, a place that obviously doesn’t exist any more," he says.

“Using that piece of information, I went on a quest to track it down, speaking to many people at Turkish government ministries and museums, until one day in mid 2018 a photo of Si427 finally landed in my inbox.

“That's when I learnt that it was actually on display at the museum. Even after locating the object it still took months to fully understand just how significant it is, and so it's really satisfying to finally be able to share that story.”

The analysis of the tablet has important implications for the history of mathematics, because it dates from more than a thousand years before ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras was born.

“It is generally accepted that trigonometry – the branch of maths that is concerned with the study of triangles – was developed by the ancient Greeks studying the night sky in the second century BC,” Dr Mansfield says.

“But the Babylonians developed their own alternative ‘proto-trigonometry’ to solve problems related to measuring the ground, not the sky.”

Dr Mansfield says the way these boundaries are made reveals real geometric understanding.

“Nobody expected that the Babylonians were using Pythagorean triples in this way,” Dr Mansfield says.

“It is more akin to pure mathematics, inspired by the practical problems of the time.”

Neil Murphy

4,000-Year-Old Babylonian Tablet Have Similar Mythological Patterns with the Old Testament Τale of Noah!

A recently deciphered 4,000-year-old tablet from ancient Mesopotamia reveals striking new details about the roots of the Old Testament tale of Noah.

 It was a vast boat that saved two of each animal and a handful of humans from a catastrophic flood. But forget all those images of a long vessel with a pointy bow - the original Noah's Ark, new research suggests, was round.

A recently deciphered 4,000-year-old tablet from ancient Mesopotamia -modern-day Iraq- reveals striking new details about the roots of the Old Testament tale of Noah. It tells a similar story, complete with detailed instructions for building a giant round vessel known as a coracle -as well as the key instruction that animals should enter "two by two."

The tablet went on display at the British Museum, and engineers will follow the ancient instructions to see whether the vessel could actually have sailed.

It's also the subject of a new book, "The Ark Before Noah," by Irving Finkel, the museum's assistant keeper of the Middle East and the man who translated the tablet.

The 4000 year old clay tablet containing the story of the Ark and the flood stands on display at the British Museum in London during the launch of the book 'The Ark Before Noah' by Irving Finkel, curator in charge of cuneiform clay tablets at the British Museum, Friday, Jan. 24, 2014. (AP/Sang Tan)

Finkel got hold of it a few years ago, when a man brought in a damaged tablet his father had acquired in the Middle East after World War II. It was light brown, about the size of a mobile phone and covered in the jagged cuneiform script of the ancient Mesopotamians.

It turned out, Finkel said Friday, to be "one of the most important human documents ever discovered."

"It was really a heart-stopping moment -- the discovery that the boat was to be a round boat," said Finkel, who sports a long grey beard, a ponytail and boundless enthusiasm for his subject. "That was a real surprise."

And yet, Finkel said, a round boat makes sense. Coracles were widely used as river taxis in ancient Iraq and are perfectly designed to bob along on raging floodwaters.

"It's a perfect thing," Finkel said. "It never sinks, it's light to carry."

Elizabeth Stone, an expert on the antiquities of ancient Mesopotamia at New York's Stony Brook University, said it made sense that ancient Mesopotamians would depict their mythological ark in that shape.

"People are going to envision the boat however people envision boats where they are," she said. "Coracles are not unusual things to have had in Mesopotamia."

The replica ark and its original design was based on a coracle and the vessel (pictured) has been constructed according to exact instructions marked on clay tablets from ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq)

The tablet records a Mesopotamian god's instructions for building a giant vessel -two-thirds the size of a soccer field in area- made of rope, reinforced with wooden ribs and coated in bitumen.

Finkel said that on paper (or stone) the boat-building orders appear sound, but he doesn't yet know whether it would have floated.

The flood story recurs in later Mesopotamian writings including the "Epic of Gilgamesh." These versions lack the technical instructions -cut out, Finkel believes, because they got in the way of the storytelling.

"It would be like a Bond movie where instead of having this great sexy red car that comes on, somebody starts to tell you about how many horsepower it's got and the pressure of the tires and the capacity of the boot (trunk)," he said. "No one cares about that. They want the car chase."

Finkel is aware his discovery may cause consternation among believers in the Biblical story. When 19th-century British Museum scholars first learned from cuneiform tablets that the Babylonians had a flood myth, they were disturbed by its striking similarities to the story of Noah.

"Already in 1872 people were writing about it in a worried way -- What does it mean that Holy Writ appears on this piece of Weetabix?" he joked, referring to a cereal similar in shape to the tablet.

Finkel has no doubts.

"I'm sure the story of the flood and a boat to rescue life is a Babylonian invention," he said.

He believes the tale was likely passed on to the Jews during their exile in Babylon in the 6th century B.C. And he doesn't think the tablet provides evidence the ark described in the Bible existed. He said it's more likely that a devastating real flood made its way into folk memory, and has remained there ever since.

"I don't think the ark existed - but a lot of people do," he said. "It doesn't really matter. The Biblical version is a thing of itself and it has a vitality forever.”

Jill Lawless, The Associated Press

Turkey's Ancient Cities Shed Light On Vast Mesopotamian History

Konya's 9,000-year-old Çatalhöyük, Çorum's Hittite ruins and its cultural and artistic center Alacahöyük, Anatolia's first executive military center, and Kayseri's Kültepe, home to thousands of clay tablets, are ancient sites included in Turkey's vast heritage, shedding light on thousands of years of Anatolian and Mesopotamian history.

A man wanders around in the ancient city of Çatalhöyük, a 9,000-year-old UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Çumra district of Konya, central Turkey, April 19, 2021. (AA Photo)

Çatalhöyük

The ancient Çatalhöyük site – located in the Çumra district of central Turkey's Konya – is one of the first urbanization models in Mesopotamia's history. It is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and it is one of the clearest windows into the 9,000-year-old Anatolian lifestyle.

Archaeologist Numan Arslan, from the Çatalhöyük excavation project team, explained that the site was discovered in 1958, with the first excavations starting in 1961, and that the site was dated to the Neolithic period 9,000 years ago.

"Çatalhöyük has offered very intriguing data to the world of archeology. The art, symbolism, their complex societal structure, these kinds of settlements were known to exist in the Near East but not in Central Anatolia," Arslan told Anadolu Agency (AA).

The ancient city of Çatalhöyük, a 9,000-year-old UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the Çumra district of Konya, central Turkey, April 19, 2021. (AA Photo)

Arslan then stated that the transition from hunting and gathering to the first urban model occurred in Çatalhöyük. "We now live in metropolises. We have to follow the urban culture given by those crowded metropolises, but the people of Çatalhöyük first tried out an urban city culture here, 9,000 years ago,” he said.

Arslan also noted their societal system. “There was a completely egalitarian social structure. There were no public spaces, no common meeting areas. Lots of houses. It shows us the importance of working together and supporting each other."

Hattusas and Alacahöyük

Çorum is home to many Anatolia “firsts” thanks to its vast ancient history with its ruins of Hattusas, which served as the capital of the Hittite civilization for 450 years, and Alacahöyük, which was the cultural and artistic center of the Hittites and the first administrative-military center in Anatolia, all located within the borders of the northern Anatolian province.

The ancient city of Hattusas, located in the district of Boğazkale and host to the cultural heritage of the Hittites, is the only ancient city in the world to be considered both a UNESCO World Heritage List site and also a part of the Memory of the World Program.

The ancient Hittite sphinx, a special statue from the ancient city of Hattusas, stands at the entrance of the Boğazkale Museum, Çorum, Turkey, April 19, 2021. (AA Photo)

Hattusas is also home to the first known written treaty in history in the form of a cease-fire agreement between the Hittites and Egyptians, called the Kadesh Peace Treaty.

The city is the source of many historical artifacts obtained in the archaeological excavations that have been going on for more than a century in the region, with most being exhibited in the Boğazkale Museum.

The Hittite Sphinx, a special kind of statue belonging to the royal family dating back to 1,300 B.C., could be considered the crowning jewel of the museum's exhibitions.

The limestone sphinx – 258 centimeters (101.5 inches) long, 175 centimeters wide and about 1,700 kilograms (3,747 pounds) in weight – greets its visitors at the entrance of the Boğazkale Museum.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism brought it back to its homeland in 2011 after 94 years from Germany, where it was taken to be restored in 1917.

Kültepe

Finally, there is Kültepe – also known as Kanesh – which helped unearth history from a different angle with its thousands of clay tablets enlightening the trade and culture in Anatolia, a mere 4,000 years ago.

The first scientific excavations at the site began in 1948 under the leadership of Tahsin Özgüç. They have been ongoing for 73 years about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the city center of central Turkey's Kayseri.

The ancient city of Kültepe, also known as Kanesh, located 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Kayseri, central Turkey, April 19, 2021. (AA Photo)

The cuneiform clay tablets unearthed in Kültepe – and exhibited in Ankara, Kayseri and Istanbul – present a history of Assyrian merchants traveling from around Mosul to Anatolia and accepting Kayseri as their capital, thus introducing the Anatolian people to trade and writing 4,000 years ago.

"The Assyrian merchants made trade in the region stretching from Eskişehir to Kütahya, from the lakes region to Samsun," Ankara University's Fikri Kulakoğlu said. He emphasized that the center established in Kayseri played an important role in opening Anatolia to the world.

"The Assyrians paid a part of the profits they earned from their trade here as a tax and ensured the development of local cities. The Assyrians enabled the Anatolian people to meet the global world of those times. At the end of this period, the Hittite Kingdom, which was the first state of Anatolia, was established," Kulakoğlu noted.

BY DAILY SABAH

What do we call 'Artificial cranial deformation' in archaeology and why did ancient civilizations practised it?

Artificial cranial deformation or modification, head flattening, or head binding is a form of body alteration in which the skull of a human being is deformed intentionally. It is done by distorting the normal growth of a child's skull by applying force. Flat shapes, elongated ones (produced by binding between two pieces of wood), rounded ones (binding in cloth), and conical ones are among those chosen or valued in various cultures. Typically, the shape alteration is carried out on an infant, as the skull is most pliable at this time. In a typical case, headbinding begins approximately a month after birth and continues for about six months.

Elongated skull of a young woman, probably an Alan

Intentional cranial deformation predates written history; it was practiced commonly in a number of cultures that are widely separated geographically and chronologically, and still occurs today in a few areas, including Vanuatu.

The earliest suggested examples were once thought to include Neanderthals and the Proto-Neolithic Homo sapiens component (ninth millennium BC) from Shanidar Cave in Iraq, The view that the Neanderthal skull was artificially deformed, thus representing the oldest example of such practices by tens of thousands of years, has since been argued incorrect by Chech, Grove, Thorne, and Trinkaus, based on new cranial reconstructions in 1999, where the team concluded "we no longer consider that artificial cranial deformation can be inferred for the specimen". It thought elongated skulls found among Neolithic peoples in Southwest Asia were the result of artificial cranial deformation.

The earliest written record of cranial deformation—by Hippocrates, of the Macrocephali or Long-heads, who were named for their practice of cranial modification—dates to 400 BC.

Portrait of Alchon Hun king Khingila, from his coinage, circa 450 AD.

In the Old World, Huns also are known to have practised similar cranial deformation, as were the people known as the Alans. In Late Antiquity (AD 300–600), the East Germanic tribes who were ruled by the Huns, the Gepids, Ostrogoths, Heruli, Rugii, and Burgundians adopted this custom. Among the Lombards, the Burgundians and the Thuringians, this custom seems to have comprised women only. In western Germanic tribes, artificial skull deformations rarely have been found.

The practice of cranial deformation was brought to Bactria and Sogdiana by the Yuezhi, a tribe that created the Kushan Empire. Men with such skulls are depicted in various surviving sculptures and friezes of that time, such as the Kushan prince of Khalchayan.

The Alchon Huns are generally recognized by their elongated skull, a result of artificial skull deformation, which may have represented their "corporate identity". The elongated skulls appears clearly in most of the portaits of rulers in the coinage of the Alkhon Huns, and most visibly on the coinage of Khingila. These elongated skulls, which they obviously displayed with pride, distinguished them from other peoples, such as their predecessors the Kidarites. On their coins, the spectacular skulls came to replace the Sasanian-type crowns which had been current in the coinage of the region.

This practice is also known among other peoples of the steppes, particularly the Huns, as far as Europe.

The Iranian hero Rostam, mythical king of Zabulistan, in his 7th century AD mural at Panjikent. He is represented with an elongated skull, in the fashion of the Alchon Huns.

In the Americas, the Maya, Inca, and certain tribes of North American natives performed the custom. In North America the practice was known, especially among the Chinookan tribes of the Northwest and the Choctaw of the Southeast. The Native American group known as the Flathead Indians, in fact, did not practise head flattening, but were named as such in contrast to other Salishan people who used skull modification to make the head appear rounder. Other tribes, including both Southeastern tribes like the Choctaw and Northwestern tribes like the Chehalis and Nooksack Indians, practiced head flattening by strapping the infant's head to a cradleboard.

The practice of cranial deformation was also practiced by the Lucayan people of the Bahamas and the Taínos of the Caribbean. It was also known among the Aboriginal Australians.

Deformed skulls, Afrasiab, Samarkand, Sogdia, 600-800 AD.

Paracas skulls.

In Africa, the Mangbetu stood out to European explorers because of their elongated heads. Traditionally, babies' heads were wrapped tightly with cloth in order to give them this distinctive appearance. The practice began dying out in the 1950s.

Friedrich Ratzel reported in 1896 that deformation of the skull, both by flattening it behind and elongating it toward the vertex, was found in isolated instances in Tahiti, Samoa, Hawaii, and the Paumotu group, and that it occurred most frequently on Mallicollo in the New Hebrides (today Malakula, Vanuatu), where the skull was squeezed extraordinarily flat.

The custom of binding babies' heads in Europe in the twentieth century, though dying out at the time, was still extant in France, and also found in pockets in western Russia, the Caucasus, and in Scandinavia. The reasons for the shaping of the head varied over time and for different reasons, from aesthetic to pseudoscientific ideas about the brain's ability to hold certain types of thought depending on its shape. In the region of Toulouse (France), these cranial deformations persisted sporadically up until the early twentieth century; however, rather than being intentionally produced as with some earlier European cultures, Toulousian Deformation seemed to have been the unwanted result of an ancient medical practice among the French peasantry known as bandeau, in which a baby's head was tightly wrapped and padded in order to protect it from impact and accident shortly after birth. In fact, many of the early modern observers of the deformation were recorded as pitying these peasant children, whom they believed to have been lowered in intelligence due to the persistence of old European customs.

Deliberate deformity of the skull, "Toulouse deformity", France. The band visible in photograph is used to induce shape change.

Motivations and theories

One modern theory is cranial deformation was likely performed to signify group affiliation, or to demonstrate social status. Such motivations may have played a key role in Maya society, aimed at creating a skull shape that is aesthetically more pleasing or associated with desirable cultural attributes. For example, in the Na'ahai-speaking area of Tomman Island and the south south-western Malakulan (Australasia), a person with an elongated head is thought to be more intelligent, of higher status, and closer to the world of the spirits.

Historically, there have been a number of various theories regarding the motivations for these practices.

It has also been considered possible that the practice of cranial deformation originates from an attempt to emulate those groups of the population in which elongated head shape was a natural condition. The skulls of some Ancient Egyptians are among those identified as often being elongated naturally and macrocephaly may be a familial characteristic. For example, Rivero and Tschudi describe a mummy containing a fetus with an elongated skull, describing it thus:

the same formation [i.e. absence of the signs of artificial pressure] of the head presents itself in children yet unborn; and of this truth we have had convincing proof in the sight of a foetus, enclosed in the womb of a mummy of a pregnant woman, which we found in a cave of Huichay, two leagues from Tarma, and which is, at this moment, in our collection. Professor D'Outrepont, of great Celebrity in the department of obstetrics, has assured us that the foetus is one of seven months' age. It belongs, according to a very clearly defined formation of the cranium, to the tribe of the Huancas. We present the reader with a drawing of this conclusive and interesting proof in opposition to the advocates of mechanical action as the sole and exclusive cause of the phrenological form of the Peruvian race.

P. F. Bellamy makes a similar observation about the two elongated skulls of infants, which were discovered and brought to England by a "Captain Blankley" and handed over to the Museum of the Devon and Cornwall Natural History Society in 1838. According to Bellamy, these skulls belonged to two infants, female and male, "one of which was not more than a few months old, and the other could not be much more than one year." He writes,

It will be manifest from the general contour of these skulls that they are allied to those in the Museum of the College of Surgeons in London, denominated Titicacans. Those adult skulls are very generally considered to be distorted by the effects of pressure; but in opposition to this opinion Dr. Graves has stated that "a careful examination of them has convinced him that their peculiar shape cannot be owing to artificial pressure;" and to corroborate this view, we may remark that the peculiarities are as great in the child as in the adult, and indeed more in the younger than in the elder of the two specimens now produced: and the position is considerably strengthened by the great relative length of the large bones of the cranium; by the direction of the plane of the occipital bone, which is not forced upwards, but occupies a place in the under part of the skull; by the further absence of marks of pressure, there being no elevation of the vertex nor projection of either side; and by the fact of there being no instrument nor mechanical contrivance suited to produce such an alteration of form (as these skulls present) found in connexion with them.

Erbil - One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world

The first excavations show that urban life in Erbil can be dated back to at least 6000 BC and it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

Erbil or Hawler (Kurdish: ھەولێر ,Hewlêr‎) known in ancient history as Arbela, is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It has around 1.5 million inhabitants, while Erbil Governorate has 2,932,800 inhabitants as of 2020.

The booming city of Erbil (ancient Arbela) in Kurdistan encircles the ancient citadel where evidence of more than six millennia of human habitation is just beginning to be uncovered.

The 100-foot-high, oval-shaped citadel of Erbil towers high above the northern Mesopotamian plain, within sight of the Zagros Mountains that lead to the Iranian plateau. The massive mound, with its vertiginous man-made slope, built up by its inhabitants over at least the last 6,000 years, is the heart of what may be the world’s oldest continuously occupied settlement. At various times over its long history, the city has been a pilgrimage site dedicated to a great goddess, a prosperous trading center, a town on the frontier of several empires, and a rebel stronghold.

Yet despite its place as one of the ancient Near East’s most significant cities, Erbil’s past has been largely hidden. A dense concentration of nineteenth- and twentieth-century houses stands atop the mound, and these have long prevented archaeologists from exploring the city’s older layers. As a consequence, almost everything known about the metropolis—called Arbela in antiquity—has been cobbled together from a handful of ancient texts and artifacts unearthed at other sites. “We know Arbela existed, but without excavating the site, all else is a hypothesis,” says University of Cambridge archaeologist John MacGinnis.

Bird-view image of the Erbil Citadel.

Last year, for the first time, major excavations began on the north edge of the enormous hill, revealing the first traces of the fabled city. Ground-penetrating radar recently detected two large stone structures below the citadel’s center that may be the remains of a renowned temple dedicated to Ishtar, the goddess of love and war. There, according to ancient texts, Assyrian kings sought divine guidance, and Alexander the Great assumed the title of King of Asia in 331 B.C. Other new work includes the search for a massive fortification wall surrounding the ancient lower town and citadel, excavation of an impressive tomb just north of the citadel likely dating to the seventh century B.C., and examination of what lies under the modern city’s expanding suburbs. Taken together, these finds are beginning to provide a more complete picture not only of Arbela’s own story, but also of the growth of the first cities, the rise of the mighty Assyrian Empire, and the tenacity of an ethnically diverse urban center that has endured for more than six millennia. Located on a fertile plain that supports rain-fed agriculture, Erbil and its surrounds have, for thousands of years, been a regional breadbasket, a natural gateway to the east, and a key junction on the road connecting the Persian Gulf to the south with Anatolia to the north. Geography has been both the city’s blessing and curse in this perennially fractious region. Inhabitants fought repeated invasions by the soldiers of the Sumerian capital of Ur 4,000 years ago, witnessed three Roman emperors attack the Persians, and suffered the onslaught of Genghis Khan’s cavalry in the thirteenth century, the cannons of eighteenth-century Afghan warlords, and the wrath of Saddam Hussein’s tanks only 20 years ago. Yet, through thousands of years, the city survived, and even thrived, while other once-great cities such as Babylon and Nineveh crumbled.

By ANDREW LAWLER

Erbil Citadel in 1950.