HammurabiHammurabi (ˌxæmʊˈrɑːbi; Akkadian: Ḫâmmurapi; 1810-1750 BC) was the sixth Amorite king of the Old Babylonian Empire, reigning from 1792 to 1750 BC. He was preceded by his father, Sin-Muballit, who abdicated due to failing health. During his reign, he conquered the city-states of Larsa, Eshnunna, and Mari. He ousted Ishme-Dagan I, the king of Assyria, and forced his son Mut-Ashkur to pay tribute, bringing almost all of Mesopotamia under Babylonian rule.
GilgameshGilgamesh (; originally ) was a hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology and the protagonist of the Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC. He was possibly a historical king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, who was posthumously deified. His rule probably would have taken place sometime in the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period, 2900 – 2350 BC, though he became a major figure in Sumerian legend during the Third Dynasty of Ur (2112-2004 BC).
MannaeaMannaea (məˈniːə, sometimes written as Mannea; Akkadian: Mannai, Biblical Hebrew: Minni, (מנּי)) was an ancient kingdom located in northwestern Iran, south of Lake Urmia, around the 10th to 7th centuries BC. It neighbored Assyria and Urartu, as well as other small buffer states between the two, such as Musasir and Zikirta. The name of Mannaea and its earliest recorded ruler Udaki were first mentioned in an inscription from the 30th year of the rule of Shalmaneser III (828 BC).
King of the UniverseKing of the Universe (Sumerian: lugal ki-sár-ra or lugal kiš-ki, Akkadian: šarru kiššat māti, šar-kiššati or šar kiššatim), also interpreted as King of Everything, King of the Totality, King of All or King of the World, was a title of great prestige claiming world domination used by powerful monarchs in ancient Mesopotamia. The title is sometimes applied to God in the Judeo-Christian and Abrahamic tradition. The etymology of the title derives from the ancient Sumerian city of Kish (Sumerian: kiš, Akkadian: kiššatu), the original meaning being King of Kish.
Gutian peopleThe Guti (ˈɡuːti), also known by the derived exonyms Gutians or Guteans, were a people of the ancient Near East. Their homeland was known as Gutium (Sumerian: ,Gu-tu-umki or ,Gu-ti-umki). Conflict between people from Gutium and the Akkadian Empire has been linked to the collapse of the empire, towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The Guti subsequently overran southern Mesopotamia and formed the Gutian dynasty of Sumer. The Sumerian king list suggests that the Guti ruled over Sumer for several generations following the fall of the Akkadian Empire.
LamassuLama, Lamma, or Lamassu (Cuneiform: , ; Sumerian: lammař; later in Akkadian: lamassu; sometimes called a lamassus) is an Assyrian protective deity. Initially depicted as a goddess in Sumerian times, when it was called Lamma, it was later depicted from Assyrian times as a hybrid of a human, bird, and either a bull or lion—specifically having a human head, the body of a bull or a lion, and bird wings, under the name Lamassu. In some writings, it is portrayed to represent a goddess.
Hanging Gardens of BabylonThe Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World listed by Hellenic culture. They were described as a remarkable feat of engineering with an ascending series of tiered gardens containing a wide variety of trees, shrubs, and vines, resembling a large green mountain constructed of mud bricks. It was said to have been built in the ancient city of Babylon, near present-day Hillah, Babil province, in Iraq.
Assyrian sculptureAssyrian sculpture is the sculpture of the ancient Assyrian states, especially the Neo-Assyrian Empire of 911 to 612 BC, which was centered around the city of Assur in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) which at its height, ruled over all of Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt, as well as portions of Anatolia, Arabia and modern-day Iran and Armenia. It forms a phase of the art of Mesopotamia, differing in particular because of its much greater use of stone and gypsum alabaster for large sculpture.
QedaritesThe Qedarites were a largely nomadic ancient Arab tribal confederation centred in the Wādī Sirḥān in the Syrian Desert. Attested from the 9th century BC, the Qedarites formed a powerful polity which expanded its territory over the course of the 9th to 7th centuries BC to cover a large area in northern Arabia stretching from Transjordan in the west to the western borders of Babylonia in the east, before later moving westwards during the 6th to 5th centuries BC to consolidate into a kingdom stretching from the eastern limits of the Nile Delta in the west till Transjordan in the east and covering much of southern Palestine, the Sinai Peninsula and the Negev.
NabuNabu (cuneiform: 𒀭𒀝 Nabû ܢܵܒܼܘܼ\ܢܒܼܘܿ\ܢܵܒܼܘܿ Nāvū or Nvō or Nāvō) is the ancient Mesopotamian patron god of literacy, the rational arts, scribes, and wisdom. The Akkadian "nabû" means 'announcer/authorised person', derived from the Semitic root N-B. It is cognate with the Syriac ܢܒܝܐ (nvīyā), Arabic نبي (nabiyy), and the Hebrew נביא (naví), all meaning 'prophet'. Nabu was worshiped by the Babylonians and the Assyrians. Nabu gained prominence among the Babylonians in the 1st millennium BC when he was identified as the son of the god Marduk.
