The British Museum had agreed to lend the artefact – a 6th century Babylonian treasure, regarded as the world’s first declaration of human rights – to the National Museum of Tehran back in September, but then delayed the cylinder’s transfer citing the “political situation” in post-election Iran. Last week, the British Museum declared its intention to delay the loan of the Cyrus Cylinder once again, until the summer in order to complete research, sparking an outraged reaction from Iran’s state cultural organisation.
The SIS Building also commonly known as the MI6 Building, is the headquarters of the British Secret Intelligence Service (otherwise known as "MI6"). The building was designed by Terry Farrell, built by John Laing and resembles an ancient Babylonian ziggurat.
Submitted by Sean Williams on Tue, 11/17/2009 - 16:36
Austrian archaeologists have unearthed the oldest cuneiform seal inscription fragment ever found in Egypt. The piece dates to the Old Babylonian reign of King Hammurabi, who brought the world its first code of law, between 1792 - 1750 BC. Egypt's culture minister Farouk Hosni announced the discovery today, made by the Austrian Archaeological Mission in a pit at Tel El-Daba, modern name of ancient Avaris, 120km north-east of Cairo in the Nile Delta.
Submitted by Lucie Goulet on Thu, 10/15/2009 - 11:56
Earlier this month, beer-drinkers from around the world convened at Oktoberfest to celebrate their favourite bevvy. Associated with fights and bloated bellies, beer gets a pretty bad press these years. But the brew has been drunk for millennia, and it seems that the ancients had some surprisingly positive benefits for the drink.
The invention of beer is impossible to attribute to either a period or country. The easy fermentation process means that civilisations around the world probably started producing beer independently around the same time.
Submitted by Sean Williams on Fri, 08/07/2009 - 11:13
"Death will come out of it! No-one will escape! I am done!" It may sound like the death-knell of a tragic big screen hero, but it's actually the desperate pleas for help of an ancient Assyrian leader, as his city awaits destruction at the hands of bloodthirsty Babylonian armies. The words have been discovered inscribed on a cuneiform tablet at the site of Tushan - an Assyrian city near Diyarbakir, SE Turkey. The tragic epsiode was written by Mannu-ki-Libbali in 630 BC, as a final call-to-arms for allies in the region - yet experts believe the tablet never met its intended recipient, and Tushan was soon torn to shreds by advancing Babylonian forces.
This ceramic two-story tower is surmounted by a male figure grasping the hindquarters of two lions. A large vessel rests between the felines. A door is cut into the lower facade and a window on the upper floor; circular bosses indicating wooden beams appear at the top of each story. The entire stand is pierced from the vessel at the top through each level, including the bottom, so that liquid libations might be poured in a ritual of some sort. Such an object would have been used in a temple or sanctuary during religious rites.
The style is crude in comparison to the delicacy of the multiple cylinder-seal impressions that were made across the top in front of the lions. The Syro-Anatolian seal depicts a seated male figure with a striding male before him dressed in a kilt with arms bent and held out in a gesture of respect and greeting. In between the two is a monkey as a filler motif. Behind the seated figure is a smiting deity wearing a kilt and horned crown. He holds what seem to be the weapons of the weather god—a lightning bolt and sword. The vessel is comparable to other second-millennium tower-shaped examples excavated in Mesopotamia and the Levant and probably was placed on top of an offering stand.
Iran has followed through on its threat, lodged in October 2009, to 
