Let it all wash away: The concept of (im)purity

While we barely have any information about the Mesopotamian customs that have to do with hygiene and personal care, we do know that purity was a concept of primordial importance in how the ancients perceived the world and their relation to it. Being impure could have many consequences and would have to have been avoided …

A Concise History of Mesopotamia (10): the Neo-Assyrian period (911-609 BC)

At the beginning of the first millennium BC, Assyria was dominated by Aramean tribes, who invaded the region en masse and weakened the once great empire. For more than a century, no ruler was strong enough to push them back and famine and poverty raged in the land. It was only at the beginning of …

A Concise History of Mesopotamia (4): the Age of Agade (2350-2100 BC)

The very first (documented) empire in world history was conquered by Sargon, king of Agade, around 2350 BC. After Lugalzagesi had reunited some southern city-states under one rule, Sargon seized control of the whole region of Sumer (the south of Babylonia) and Akkad (the north). By implementing a strongly unifying political, cultural and economic policy, …

A Concise history of Mesopotamia: introduction

In the coming weeks I will present a concise history of Mesopotamia here on Tuppu. I have to start with a short remark about the use of the word history. Usually, a distinction is made between history and prehistory, based on the available source material: pre-history is reconstructed on the basis of archaeological sources, while …

Gudea, the vainglorious prince?

My first love for anything Mesopotamian was dedicated to Gudea, a man who ruled in the southern city-state of Lagash from 2140 to 2120 BC. The most extraordinary thing about him is the fact that he has left us more than twenty statues depicting - who would guess it - himself. A serious case of …