Mesopotamian Archaeology An introduction to the archaeology of Mesopotamia and Assyria

Thanks to the indefatigable labours of Père Scheil and M. Thureau-Dangin, and to the admirable work of M. Genouillac on _Sumerian Society_, in which that scholar publishes, tran...

The architecture of a country is determined very largely by the materials with which nature has endowed that country; it is also influenced by the configuration of the country i...

A chapter on Sculpture naturally divides itself into two parts, the one dealing with those works which are wrought in the round, and the other with those fashioned in relief, or...

The history of the actual excavations properly commences with the first expedition sent out to dig, but there is one scholar who, although he did not excavate on any large scale...

The Mesopotamian civilization shares with the Egyptian civilization the honour of being one of the two earliest civilizations in the world, and although M. J. de Morgan’s excava...

In the art of working metals the Babylonians showed no small degree of proficiency: evidence has already been given of the way in which metal was made to contribute her share to...

The full dress of the earliest Sumerians comprised nothing more elaborate than a skirt fastened round the waist and probably made of wool. But the taste for decoration shown by...

All alphabets and all modes of writing have their ultimate origin in pictures or hieroglyphs, and the cuneiform script offers no exception to this universal rule. When the early...

Of the smaller relics of Babylonian and Assyrian antiquity there are none so numerous or so pregnant with interest as the engraved seals which kings and commoners of all periods...

“Painting” in the ordinary sense of the word to-day, was an art never practised by the dwellers in Mesopotamia: like all Orientals both the Babylonians and Assyrians were fond o...

Stone and clay were the two materials from which the Babylonians and Assyrians as a rule manufactured their vases, pots and bowls, though, as we have seen (cf. Fig. 45), metal w...

The first person to bring reports of cuneiform inscriptions to Europe was Pietro della Valle, an Italian belonging to a Roman family of noble birth. In the years 1614-26 he made...

It were indeed paradoxical if the Babylonian artists had not invoked the aid of the clay, which they employed so readily and extensively not only in their building operations bu...

The art of engraving on shell in Mesopotamia dates back to the earliest days of Sumerian civilization. The most ancient of these engravings are executed on shells with rough sur...