When it was made: Circa 2550 B.C. Found a century ago in a mass grave in the desert of southern Iraq, this 4,500-year-old statuette may depict the daily ritual associated with destiny and the ...

There are over 30 mentions of this ritual in various letters from Assyria (northern Mesopotamia), dating to the first millennium B.C. Earlier references to a similar ritual have also been found in ...

More Five millennia ago, Bronze Age people in Mesopotamia built elaborate stone tombs full of spectacular grave goods and human sacrifices. Researchers are unsure of the meaning of this ritual ...