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 Sean Williams on Thu, 11/12/2009 - 19:02
An ancient Mesopotamian city discovered recently in Syria could be lost forever, experts fear. The circular city, dating back 4,500 years in the enclave of Tall Qabr, was found using cutting edge geo-lasertechnology. Its location along the Euphrates River means it may hold the key to boundaries between the Mari Kingdom and its southern Babylonian neighbours, in modern Iraq.
This massive stele is carved out of shiny black basalt and is covered with the cuneiform text of 282 laws that governed Babylonian life, written in great detail. (The number, by the way, is conjectural since there are no divisional markers in the text.) The language used is Akkadian, the language of everyday life, rather than the priestly Sumerian language. This wasn't the first stele to show the laws of a city, but it is the best known and the most stylish. At the top of the stele, a low relief carving shows the god Shamash dictating the law to the king. Sun rays coming from the god's shoulder identify him as Shamash. The king raises his hand to his mouth as a mark of respect.
Mari is an ancient city on the banks of the Euphrates, in southeastern Syria, near Iraq. It has been inhabited since the 5th millennium BC; yet most of its history only dates back to the 3rd. It began as a Sumerian settlement, prosperous because of its strategic location between the cities of lower Mesopotamia and Syria. Yet the city was destroyed around 2400 BC; either by Akkadians or Eblaites.
Thus began an era of decline, which ended when an Amorite dynasty took hold of the city and gave it a new lease of life. Once again the now village rose in stature to become a great trading post. This was when the great 300-roomed palace was built, to honour King Zimrilim. It is from this palace, and from the impressive neighbouring library, that the 'Mari Tablets' were found - over 25,000 of them - which give details of the area's history. Also found during the city's later excavation were a group of temples, and the Temple of Ishtar - dating back to around 2,500 BC.
Yet once again Mari succumbed to attack; this time from Hammurabi's powerful Babylonians. Hammurabi sacked and looted the palace; his men's filling of the buildings with dirt almost certainly being the reason the city is so well preserved today.
