Submitted by Bija Knowles on Thu, 10/29/2009 - 10:14
Everyone makes them (some of us more compulsively than others): scribbled on post-it notes, or kept mentally in our imaginations – we all make lists. And we're not the only ones either; lists have been around for a long time – possibly since the first writing systems and certainly since Sumerian scribes began to keep accounts in the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia. So what is it about the beauty of a list – its numerical order, hierarchy, completeness – that makes them such a part of how we like to categorise, order and understand the world?
I sat down with Professor Timothy Harrison, the project leader, to learn about what they found.
News on the tablet discovery
First bit of news, an update on the tablet cache discovered this summer.
In 738 BC Tiglath Pilesar III destroyed Tayinat and the site would later be rebuilt as a provincial capital for the Assyrians. The tablets date to this time of Assyrian occupation.
Tayinat has a long history, which stretches from the early Bronze Age (nearly 5,000 years ago) to the end of the Iron Age, about 2,500 years ago.
The 'Dark Age' is a period that begins around the 12th century BC It sees the simultaneous collapse of several civilizations in Europe and the Middle East.
Submitted by Sean Williams on Mon, 07/13/2009 - 12:10
It was the first of its kind; writing which sparked a cultural revolution, the tremors of which can still be felt today. But how did cuneiform script evolve, what languages did it influence and for what reason was it first used? The history of this fascinating paradigm takes us all over the ancient world, beginning in the fertile fields of the Mesopotamian plains.
Origins
To understand cuneiform, you must first delve into its birthplace. Fourth millennium BC Mesopotamia was a land full of opportunity, where the smallest tribe could lay claim to an entire continent. By that time the city-states of Sumer had begun to stamp their authority on the region, pioneering skills such as irrigation and social structuring. The sodden reaches stemming from the Persian Gulf were perfect at times for the growing of foods like barley, onions, grapes and apples.
In this statue, Akhenaten can be identified by several key features: his long face, heavy thighs, and protruding pelvis. His large blue crown is carved of a separate stone, a technique used by artists during the Amarna Period. Other innovations characteristic of this period include Akhenaten's pierced ears and side-by-side feet.
Akhenaten can be seen offering a tablet to the sun god Aten, and the statue has been considered a clear declaration of his new religious expression in contrast to Amon-Re at Thebes.
There is some interesting news coming from Tayinat that Heritage Key will be reporting on soon as part of a larger article.
To understand cuneiform, you must first delve into its birthplace. Fourth millennium BC Mesopotamia was a land full of opportunity, where the smallest tribe could lay claim to an entire continent. By that time the city-states of 
