Babylonian Art and Architecture

Introduction

Babylonian art and architecture are inseparable from other Mesopotamian studies. Both the cultural background of earlier periods in southern Mesopotamia and the parallel history of Babylonia’s northern neighbor, Assyria, are intimately linked and highly relevant to Babylonian cultural practices of all kinds. “Babylonia” here denotes southern and central Iraq in the period during which the city of Babylon was the political capital of the region, a period extending from the 18th to the 4th century BC. This is of course a very approximate definition, and one point to note is that it certainly does not exclude the long periods during which Babylon and Babylonia as a whole were subject to outside rule. The geographical component is also fluid, since the nature and extent of Babylonian culture and its influence beyond the Babylonian heartland and strong Babylonian influence in the arts of other areas inevitably varies considerably over time. The entire period is literate, and detailed historical information is available. Some relevant material is covered in this article, but other Oxford Bibliographies articles on related topics (Assyriological themes, Mesopotamian history, for example) will cover more. Recent years have seen serious damage to Iraq’s archaeological heritage, primarily through the looting of sites and museums. A short bibliography relating to this destruction is included here.

General Overviews

There is no clear distinction to be made between the study of ancient Mesopotamian visual culture and the fields of archaeology and ancient history on which its understanding so strongly depends. Any study of the subject requires an introduction to a social, cultural, and material context different from any modern comparator. As well as introductions to the imagery and media seen in Babylonian art, therefore, this section contains a small selection of introductory material on ancient Mesopotamian society and culture more broadly, and some critical readings dealing with a substantially different approach than our contemporary systems of visual interpretation and engagement in which images, their significance and their power were understood in their ancient context.

Society and Culture

As with all ancient art, Mesopotamian visual culture formed a functional part of a social world. The works in this section give overviews of the society and culture in which Mesopotamian art was produced and understood. Postgate 1994 is the classic introduction, expertly integrating textual and archaeological data, while Oates 1986 provides an overview and history more focused on Babylonia and Babylon itself. Oppenheim 1977 is an important cultural overview more heavily rooted in texts, while Saggs 1988 and Saggs 2000 are lighter, popular introductions. André-Salvini 2008 and Marzahn, et al. 2008 are catalogues of exhibitions on Babylon that include broad cultural overviews and surveys of the material culture of multiple periods. Most useful of all as a starting point for students is Sasson 2001, a major compendium of short, expert introductions to many different areas of ancient Near Eastern history, society, art and culture. See also the section on History.

André-Salvini, Béatrice, ed. Babylone. Paris: Hazan/Éditions Louvre, 2008.
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Catalogue of the 2008 Musée du Louvre exhibition. Features material from all periods in Babylon’s ancient history as well as an extensive section on the city’s legacy and reception. Contains an enormous body of material, arranged chronologically, with many expert contributions on art, history, and archaeology. In French.
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Leick, Gwendolyn, ed. The Babylonian World. London and New York: Routledge, 2007.
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Large edited collection of chapters from leading scholars on all aspects of ancient Babylonia, under the broad headings of Land and Land Use; Material Culture; Economic Life; Society and Politics; Religion; Intellectual Life; and International Relations. Essential introductions to fields of study within the subject, presented in an accessible fashion, with select bibliographies for each chapter providing routes to further reading.
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Marzahn, Joachim, Günther Schauerte, and Hanna Strzoda, eds. Babylon: Wahrheit. Berlin: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2008.
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Catalogue of the 2008 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin exhibition (paired with Wullen and Schauerte 2008). Thematic in structure, featuring essays from leading scholars, this draws on the collections of the Vorderasiatisches Museum itself, the Musée du Louvre, and the British Museum; and in addition to the archaeology of the ancient city, this German-language catalogue presents the history of its excavation and early stages in its reception in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
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Oates, Joan. Babylon. Rev. ed. London: Thames and Hudson, 1986.
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Historical and archaeological overview of Babylon and Babylonia. Arranged historically, this begins with a discussion of the environment, sources, and chronology, followed by chapters on the late 3rd millennium BC, the Old Babylonian period, Kassite and post-Kassite Babylon and the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Achaemenid empires. The concluding chapter focuses on Babylon’s intellectual legacy: literary, religious and scientific.
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Oppenheim, A. Leo. Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilisation. Rev. ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.
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Classic study of Mesopotamian culture by one of the great Assyriologists. As the title suggests, Oppenheim was quick to stress the distance and inaccessibility of the subject: this book is the source of his famous warning that “a ‘Mesopotamian religion’ should not be written.” (pp. 171–184) Focused on textual sources, though the range of material covered is vast, and the breadth and depth of Oppenheim’s scholarship outstanding.
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Postgate, J. Nicholas. Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History. 2d rev. ed. London and New York: Routledge, 1994.
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Essential introduction to the social and economic foundations of ancient Mesopotamian life and culture. Introduces subjects including irrigation and farming, law and administration, social organization, and family life. Particularly helpful in its thorough integration of textual and archaeological sources.
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Saggs, H. W. F. The Greatness that was Babylon. Rev. ed. London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1988.
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Engaging overview of Babylonian history and culture, now somewhat dated. Early chapters provide a narrative history, focused on Babylon, from the late 3rd millennium BC to the Persian conquest in 539 BC. The second, larger part of the book is thematic, with chapters on socio-economic foundations, law, administration and government, trade, magic and religion, the role of the king, literature, mathematics and astronomy, and legacy.
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Saggs, H. W. F. Babylonians. Peoples of the Past. London: British Museum Press, 2000.
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An engaging, shorter introduction to ancient Mesopotamian history and society, aimed firmly at the general reader. Saggs’s overview covers religion and mythology, economy, politics and war, languages and the intellectual legacy of ancient Mesopotamia.
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Sasson, Jack M., ed. Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. 4 vols. New York: Scribner, 2001.
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Large collection of introductory articles on many topics within ancient Near Eastern history and archaeology. Invaluable student resource. Some contributions particularly relevant to Babylonian art and architecture are mentioned elsewhere in this bibliography.
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Art and Visual Culture

There are a number of useful and accessible general works to help orient the student and give a broad overview of ancient Near Eastern or Mesopotamian art. These regional approaches make good sense: to treat Babylonia in isolation would be to introduce artificial divisions that would make it extremely difficult to understand the influences and trajectories that shape art in the region. One work of special note is Frankfort 1996, still widely used in teaching and now available with extremely helpful updates and footnotes by Michael Roaf and Donald Matthews. A more recent narrative treatment is Collon 1995, drawing on the collections of the British Museum. Surveys of the major categories of sculpture and other arts are provided in the extensively illustrated volumes Amiet 1980, Moortgat 1969, Strommenger 1964, Parrot 1960, and Parrot 1961, all of which are useful simply as visual introductions to the range and main types of material culture that exist in collections. Although there are not more recent direct equivalents to these works, Aruz, et al. 2003 and Aruz, et al. 2008 (cited under Third and Second Millennia BC) provide more up-to-date synthetic treatments of large bodies of ancient Near Eastern art, addressing the complex question of interregional interaction and influence. Black and Green 1992 introduces the reader to the iconography of Mesopotamian art. Matthews 2001 gives an overview of the (often very limited) sources available on the craftspeople themselves, while Moorey 1994 offers a more substantial examination of crafts and materials.

Amiet, Pierre. Art of the Ancient Near East. New York: Abrams, 1980.
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Large general survey of ancient Near Eastern art. Along with Moortgat 1969 and Strommenger 1964 below, this is one of the main overviews of Babylonian-related material. Translated by John Shepley and Claude Choquet. First published in French as L’Art antique du Proche-Orient. Paris: Citadelles et Mazenod, 1977. Also available in German translation.
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Black, Jeremy, and Anthony Green. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. London: British Museum Press, 1992.
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Dictionary-style guide to ancient Mesopotamian iconography, with illustrations by Tessa Rickards. Extremely useful student reference and starting point; for more detailed coverage see entries in the Reallexikon der Assyriologie, and individual articles by Green in Iraq and the Baghdader Mitteilungen.
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Collon, Dominique. Ancient Near Eastern Art. London: British Museum Press, 1995.
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General introduction to Near Eastern art, illustrated by and with special reference to the collections of the British Museum. Extremely useful orientation for students. Covers the entire chronological and geographical span of ancient Near Eastern art up to Alexander and the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, and treats the broad spectrum of media and crafts involved.
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Frankfort, Henri. The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient. 5th ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996.
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Essential survey of ancient Near Eastern art and architecture, in many ways still the most important introductory work on the subject. It is heavily focused on Mesopotamia and in this sense is dated as a regional overview.
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Matthews, Donald. “Artisans and Artists in Ancient Western Asia.” In Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. Edited by Jack M. Sasson, 455–468. New York: Scribner, 2001.
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Overview of the social and context of craft production, discussing the evidence for areas of craft specialization, training and professional life, workshops and craft quarters and economic aspects such as patronage, movement of artisans, and craft products as imports and diplomatic gifts.
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Moorey, P., and Roger, S. Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: The Archaeological Evidence. Oxford: Clarendon, 1994.
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In-depth, scholarly survey of crafts and materials in ancient Mesopotamia. Covers many different aspects of technology and industry, based almost exclusively on archaeological rather than textual data. The author was for many years Keeper of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and it is his unparalleled experience of that museum’s outstanding Near Eastern collections that informs the work.
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Moortgat, Anton. The Art of Mesopotamia. London: Phaidon, 1969.
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First published as Die Kunst des alten Mesopotamien: Die klassische Kunst Vorderasiens. Translated from the German by Judith Filson. Broad survey of Mesopotamian art, extensively illustrated. Remains a useful introduction and overview.
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Parrot, André. Sumer: The Dawn of Art. The Arts of Mankind. London: Thames and Hudson, 1960.
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Expert, well-written overview of Mesopotamian art from earliest times to the 2nd millennium BC, heavily illustrated with black-and-white photography and some color plates. Arranged chronologically, covering the art of the Sumerian city-states, Akkad, the Ur III, and Old Babylonian periods and Kassite Babylonia, concluding in the mid-12th century BC with the impact of the Elamite conquest of Babylon. Also contains a short history of the discoveries.
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Parrot, André. Nineveh and Babylon. The Arts of Mankind. London: Thames and Hudson, 1961.
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Partner volume to Parrot 1961. The two volumes overlap chronologically, with Nineveh and Babylon taking up the story with Assyria in the 13th century BC. Covers the full sweep of the art of the Assyrian Empire, including regional, Syro-Hittite styles, and that of Babylon during the 1st millennium BC, including the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods (on the latter see also Ghirshman in the same series in the bibliography for ancient Iranian art), concluding in 323 BC with the death of Alexander. Like Sumer, the volume is heavily illustrated, and includes a useful glossary.
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Strommenger, Eva. 5,000 Years of the Art of Mesopotamia. New York: Abrams, 1964.
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Large survey of ancient Mesopotamian art useful primarily as a catalogue, with (black-and-white) photographs and entries on a huge number of pieces, mainly in major museum collections. Provides a sense of the scope and variety of material known, arranged principally by period. First published as Fünf Jahrtausende Mesopotamien. Die Kunst Von Den Anfängen Um 5000 V. Chr. Bis Zu Alexander Dem Großen. Munich: Hirmer, 1962. Translated from the German by Christina Haglund.
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Religion and Art

Much of the artistic production of ancient Mesopotamia served explicitly religious purposes, and there is very little that cannot be said to have had some magical or religious properties. Concepts of the image and representation in Mesopotamian art are complex subjects, demanding careful study in themselves, and never more so than in relation to the representation and embodiment of the divine (see Bahrani 2003, cited under Critical Interpretations). Black and Green 1992 (cited under Art and Visual Culture) provides a starting point for understanding the religious iconography found throughout Mesopotamian art, but an introduction to ancient Mesopotamian religion in its own right is also essential. Jacobsen 1976 is the classic work here and has framed debate on Mesopotamian religion and religious experience since its publication. Bottéro 2001 attempts at an equally high-level, conceptual synthesis of Mesopotamian religious feeling and conceptualization. Hurowitz 2003 offers a consideration through texts of a great missing image in Mesopotamian art, examining the function and treatment of cult statues, of which no complete examples survive.

Bottéro, Jean. Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748613878.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Broad study of the character and psychology of ancient Mesopotamian religion. Bottéro stresses the importance of understanding the syncretism between broadly “Sumerian” and “Semitic” elements that by the time detailed texts are available are deeply intertwined.
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Hurowitz, Victor Avigdor. “The Mesopotamian God Image, from Womb to Tomb.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 123.1 (2003): 147–157.
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Review article of Walker, Christopher and Michael Dick, The Mesopotamian Mīs pî Ritual. State Archives of Assyria Literary Texts 1 (Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 2001). Examines the lifecycle of cult statues, particularly their induction and the mouth-opening ritual, with reference to the major study by Walker and Dick.
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Jacobsen, Thorkild. The Treasures of Darkness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1976.
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Seminal study on the history of religion in Mesopotamia and still essential reading. Jacobsen presents a broad historical progression whereby a sense of the “numinous” is expressed first through a personification of the elements and natural world, later as a reflection of social hierarchies and political realities.
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Critical Interpretations

There has been significant criticism of the relative under-development of theoretical perspectives in Near Eastern archaeology; certainly the field has more in common with classical and Egyptian archaeology in this respect than with areas such as European prehistory and New World archaeology, in which theory drawn from linguistics and social anthropology is more conspicuous in interpretation. This can partly be explained with reference to differences in data, since application of general theoretical models is understandably more thoroughgoing in cases where large quantities of detailed textual sources are not available. Students of the ancient Near East are frequently able to deal in specifics, and indeed the processing and publication of large bodies of textual and archaeological data remains the basic work of the field. This is a limited explanation at best, however, and the gradual redress represented by approaches such as those listed below is to be welcomed. Irene Winter and Zainab Bahrani have been the most important progressive voices in the study of ancient Near Eastern art; Bahrani 2003 and Winter 2009 give some sense of their contribution. Pollock and Bernbeck 2005 attempts to offer new critical approaches from a wider range of scholars.

Bahrani, Zainab. The Graven Image: Representation in Babylonia and Assyria. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003.
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Innovative, theoretically informed study of representation in ancient Mesopotamian art. Considers the functions and meanings of images in society, their production, and magical and religious roles. Particularly important for its discussion of ancient Mesopotamian concepts of the image as an active participant in the world, and the perceived supernatural powers and properties of representations.
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Pollock, Susan, and Reinhard Bernbeck, eds. Archaeologies of the Middle East: Critical Perspectives. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005.
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Collection of essays designed to reflect key strands of critical interpretation in the field. A progressive contribution in a still traditional subject area. Includes discussion of the field’s relationship to the present and modern politics, as well as archaeological debates and issues. An interesting introduction to be used in conjunction with others offering more of a historical and methodological survey.
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Winter, Irene J. On Art in the Ancient Near East. Vol. I, Of the First Millennium BCE. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2009.
DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004172371.i-640Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Collection of key essays and articles by Irene Winter, a distinguished scholar whose work has had a profound impact on the study of ancient Near Eastern art. The range of subject matter is broad and not always directly relevant to Babylonia, but the innovative character of many of the pieces makes the author’s work as a whole relevant here. Particular highlights are discussions of the royal image and of Phoenician and North Syrian ivories. Volume 2: From the Third Millennium BCE.
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Reference Works

Students of Mesopotamian studies today benefit in particular from two projects that have been running over many decades and in the early 21st century are reaching (provisional) completion, the monumental The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD) and Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie. These reference works bring together detailed knowledge on all aspects of Mesopotamian culture, and if by their nature focused on language are indispensable to students of philology, history, art, and archaeology alike. Inevitably the early volumes of both works now require updating, but both are works of outstanding collaborative scholarship and represent enormous services to the field. Meyers 1997 is lighter and designed more as a convenient student resource, while Bienkowski and Millard 2000 is a highly accessible, single-volume student reference. Freedman, et al. 1992 is an important resource for navigating biblical questions and connections in Near Eastern studies.

Bienkowski, Piotr, and Alan Millard, eds. Dictionary of the Ancient Near East. London: British Museum Press, 2000.
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Concise dictionary of ancient Near Eastern names and terminology. This is a single-volume work and does not aim at comprehensive coverage; however, it is a useful and accessible reference, and its contents are carefully selected. Covers the entire region up to the Neo-Babylonian period and Persian conquest in 539 BC.
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Freedman, David Noel, et al., eds. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. 6 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
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Much ancient Near Eastern history connects to Old Testament material, and many reference works are available to aid navigation of this relationship. The Anchor Bible Dictionary is an extensive encyclopedia, giving detailed coverage and bibliography. In terms of Babylonia, it should be noted that particularly strong connections exist for the Neo-Babylonian period, which is also the period of the Babylonian Exile.
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Meyers, E. M., ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Ancient Near East. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
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Five-volume encyclopedia produced in association with the American Schools of Oriental Research, giving short entries on all topics relating to Near Eastern archaeology. A good student reference work and particularly useful for its coverage of the history of the field.
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Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie. Berlin and Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter, 1928–.
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Encyclopedia of Assyriology and Near EasternAarchaeology begun by Bruno Meissner and Erich Ebeling, the first volume appearing in 1928. The project was continued by Ernst Weidner, Wolfram von Soden, Dietz Otto Edzard, and since 2005 the editor has been Michael P. Streck. The mix of contributors has become more international over time, although German remains the primary language. Inevitably the early volumes are now outdated and in need of extensive revision.
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The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD). 26 vols. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1921–2011.
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Compendious dictionary of Akkadian, begun in 1921 by James Henry Breasted, and produced under the editorial direction of Daniel Luckebill, Edward Chiera, Arno Poebel, I. J. Gelb, A. Leo Oppenheim, Erica Reiner and Martha T. Roth. The CAD covers dialects, gives all known variants, and cites the contexts in which any term appears, thereby acting as a guide to usage over time, as well as a conventional dictionary. The entire resource is available online, free of charge, from the University of Chicago.
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Digital Resources

The proportion of useful resources available online is rapidly increasing, and in this perhaps the most important development to note is the increasing availability of museums’ collections records online. The digitization and online publication of collections is a large-scale and often slow undertaking, but an increasing number of museums, particularly in Europe and North America, have large parts of their collections available, including basic data and images. British Museum, Musée du Louvre, and Metropolitan Museum of Art have all made enormous progress in this area, and provision should continue to improve rapidly in the coming years.

AMAR (Archive of Mesopotamian Archaeological Reports).
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Collected reports of Mesopotamian field projects, containing over five hundred publications freely available for viewing online and download. Provided by the State University of New York, Stony Brook, project director Elizabeth Stone.
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British Museum.
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Contains everything from period and area introductions to activities for schools and families. Most useful for students and researchers is the collection database, which gives object details often accompanied by images and bibliography. Due to the sheer size of the collection many entries are very brief; nonetheless, this is the largest online catalogue of ancient Near Eastern objects in the world, and an invaluable resource.
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Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI).
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The primary online repository of digitized cuneiform tablets, with material contributed in a standardized format by institutions worldwide. Currently includes over 270,000 documents. Eventually all records will include catalogue entries, photographs, line drawings, and transliterations.
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ETANA (Electronic Tools and Ancient Near East Archives).
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Portal for ancient Near East resources online. Contains links to downloads of publications provided by multiple institutions. Includes ABZU, a guide to open-access data on the ancient Near East available online, and eTACT, a collection of translations of Akkadian texts available online.
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Iraq Museum.
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Official site of the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, in English only. Limited content but does include a short history of the Iraq Museum.
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Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with full searchable database of collections and a Timeline of Art History accompanied by a large collection of introductory essays. An excellent guide and resource on the art of the ancient Near East for educators is available as a free download. Many of the museum’s catalogues and past publications are available digitally through the website; those out of print are accessible free of charge.
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Musée du Louvre.
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Website of the Musée du Louvre, featuring a database of all works on display, including images of many objects, and more detailed coverage of highlights of the museum’s vast collections. Most material available in a selection of languages, some in French only.
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Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago: Publications.
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The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago makes all of its publications, past and present, available for free online access. The resource includes the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, publications of the Oriental Institute Museum, field reports, monographs, and more.
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Virtual Museum of Iraq.
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Italian-designed website offering features on some iconic objects and video content. In Italian, Arabic, and English.
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Conferences and Proceedings

The International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (ICAANE) and Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (RAI) are the major international conferences in the field, focusing on archaeology and Assyriology respectively. Each conference involves large numbers of speakers and results in a separate publication, often multi-volume. The two other publications listed here are the products of highly productive seminars held on Babylon in Germany, in 1998 (Renger 1999) and in association with the 2008 exhibition Babylon: Mythos und Wahrheit (Cancik-Kirschbaum, et al. 2011).

Cancik-Kirschbaum, Eva, Margarete van Ess, and Joachim Marzahn, eds. Babylon: Wissenkultur in Orient und Okzident. Papers presented at a conference in connection with the exhibition “Babylon: Mythos und Wahrheit” held in Berlin in 2008. TOPOI Berlin Studies of the Ancient World 1. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2011.
DOI: 10.1515/9783110222128Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Chapters cover a wide range of topics including damage to the site of Babylon and textual evidence for the city’s origins but focus primarily on scholarly traditions in ancient Babylonia and their transmission in later periods. Contributions in German and English, with abstracts to all chapters in English and Arabic.
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International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (ICAANE).
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The biennial International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East is the largest European conference in Near Eastern archaeology. The congress offers a snapshot of work in the field at a given time, including preliminary field reports as well as more analytical papers, generally grouped thematically. The congress, held in a different city every two years, aims to publish its proceedings promptly, recent publications appearing in time for the next congress. Publications are typically two to three large volumes in length, containing hundreds of short papers. The languages of the congress are English, French, and German, although an increasing majority of papers appear in English.
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Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (RAI).
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The Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale is the premier conference for Assyriology (the study of cuneiform texts). Held annually and in different locations, the Rencontre is a key forum for new research and criticism, and its published proceedings form an important resource for scholars. The official languages of the Rencontre are English, French, and German, a practice followed by many Assyriological publications.
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Renger, Johannes, ed. Babylon: Focus mesopotamischer Geschichte, Wiege früher Gelehrsamkeit, Mythos in der Moderne: 2. Internationales Colloquium der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, 24.–26. März 1998 in Berlin. Saarbrücken, Germany: Saarbrücker Druckerei und Verlag, 1999.
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Publication based on the 1998 conference. Includes important contributions in several areas, most notably the history of the field, with important contributions by Renger and Julian Reade. Also well covered are aspects of the collections of the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, and their history, archives in Babylon, and the legacy of Babylonian texts in Graeco-Roman and biblical traditions.
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Journals

Mesopotamian studies can be roughly divided into the categories of Assyriology, the study of texts, and archaeology (including art and architecture). To some extent this division is reflected in patterns of journal publication, with some journals devoted exclusively to Assyriology, and archaeological articles frequently appearing in general archaeology journals that lie outside the normal sphere of Assyriologists. Other journals do publish across this spectrum, and in doing so perhaps contribute somewhat to the integration of the two disciplines. One other point to note is a somewhat national character to some journals, reflecting their history as the primary publication venues for the various European schools. Thus, although multilingual in theory, journals such as Iraq, Mesopotamia and the Zeitschrift für Orient-Archäologie tend in practice to be dominated by the languages of the states in which they are published. Sumer, the official journal of the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, is the primary venue for publication in Arabic. Inevitably this journal has been affected by events in Iraq’s modern history and has not been published continuously, but it is to be hoped that with a resumption of substantial archaeological research in the country the journal will flourish. In addition to the journals listed here, relevant material appears in many other outlets, as well as the major non-regionally specific archaeology journals, notably Antiquity and The American Journal of Archaeology.

Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (BASOR).
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Appearing first in 1919 as Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, and from 1921 under its present title. Contains articles, field reports, and book reviews on Near Eastern archaeology, history, art, and literature from Palaeolithic to Islamic periods. Published quarterly.
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Iraq.
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Journal of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (formerly British School of Archaeology in Iraq), first published in 1934, appears annually. Covers the archaeology, history, and culture of Iraq and the surrounding region from earliest times to c. 1750, although traditionally the focus has been pre-Islamic. Articles are primarily in English, with some contributions in French and German; the most recent volumes include abstracts for all articles in Arabic.
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Journal of Cuneiform Studies.
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Published annually by the American Schools of Oriental Research, with the first volume appearing in 1934. Covers the ancient history, languages, and literature of Mesopotamia and neighboring regions, with articles and reviews. The primary language of the journal is English, with some articles appearing in French and German.
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Journal of Near Eastern Studies (JNES).
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Published biannually by the University of Chicago Press. First published 1884 as Hebraica, from 1895 as American Journal of Semitic Languages, and from 1942 under its present title. Though the earlier incarnations of the journal focused on Old Testament studies, the modern version encompasses articles and book reviews relating to all ancient Near Eastern research, including archaeology, art, history, languages, and literature.
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Mesopotamia.
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Journal covering archaeology, epigraphy, and ancient history, published by the University of Turin in collaboration with the Centro Ricerche Archeologiche e Scavi di Torino. First published 1966, appears annually. Most articles appear in Italian or English, some in French and German. Has Italian and international contributors.
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Sumer.
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Official journal of the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH), with contributions in Arabic and English. Primary channel for the publication of fieldwork and research conducted by the SBAH. Once published annually, the journal’s publication was intermittent during the 1990s and 2000s. Regular publication resumed with a new volume in 2009, and plans to reestablish a pattern of annual publication.
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Zeitschrift für Orient-Archäologie.
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Incorporating the Baghdader Mitteilungen, which existed as a separate journal from 1960–2006, this annual German-language journal was established in 2007 by the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI). Covers the archaeology of Syria and the Levant, Mesopotamia, and the Arabian Peninsula. English and French-language articles are also published.
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History

The earliest writing in Mesopotamia dates to the late 4th millennium BC, and throughout the period covered by this article we are dealing with a literate world. The availability and nature of the textual sources available during this long period varies greatly, however. As is normal in ancient history, we are to some extent confined to “history from above”: i.e., the accounts of kings and the great business of state. In the case of Mesopotamia, however, historians do have the advantage of the survival of the full spectrum of written sources (due to the durability of clay), and for some times and places extensive information on distinctly non-elite social and economic history. The list here is focused on political history, however, both as a useful orientation and framework, and because entries such as Boardman 1982–1991 provide a useful source of further reading in other areas. Kuhrt 1995 provides an outstanding regional history, with Van De Mieroop 2007 acting as an excellent student primer. Roaf 1990 is the best geographical introduction to the ancient Near East. Roux 1992 provides a highly readable general overview of the major periods in ancient Mesopotamian history. Brinkman 1968 and Frame 1992 treat particular periods of Babylonian history. Briant 2002 is the most important history of the Achaemenid empire.

Boardman, John, ed. The Cambridge Ancient History 3, 2. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1982–1991.
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The Cambridge Ancient History (Part 1: The Prehistory of the Balkans, The Middle East and the Aegean World, Tenth to Eighth Centuries BC [1982]; Part 2: The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries BC [1991]) provides an extremely detailed history of later Assyria and Babylonia, with expert contributors, extensive notes and bibliography, and an approach that by its structure integrates work on different regions. An extremely valuable resource for researchers.
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Briant, Pierre. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2002.
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First published as Histoire de l’Empire perse: de Cyrus à Alexandre (Paris: Fayard, 1996). The authoritative history of the Achaemenid Empire; no general study of comparable depth exists. Briant successfully integrates a great variety of Near Eastern and classical source material, and although the principal focus is political history the range of material covered is far broader. Economic, social, and cultural history are all addressed in detail.
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Brinkman, J. A. A Political History of Post-Kassite Babylonia, 1158–722 B.C. Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1968.
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Detailed history of Babylonia covering the period from the Elamite capture of Babylon to the rise of Marduk-apla-iddina II, with extensive notes on sources. The book’s scope includes much of the period of Assyrian domination, though not the dramatic final century of Assyria’s relationship with the most difficult part of its empire (Sennacherib’s destruction of Babylon and the war between Ashurbanipal and his brother Shamash-shum-ukin both date to the 7th century [see Frame 1992]).
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Frame, Grant. Babylonia 689–627 BC: A Political History. Leiden, The Netherlands: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul, 1992.
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History of Babylonia in the crucial period between Sennacherib’s destruction of the city and the war between Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin. Gives a Babylonian perspective on the period, which is also the prelude to the rise of Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar II, and the Neo-Babylonian Empire.
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Kuhrt, Amélie. The Ancient Near East, c. 3000–330 BC. 2 vols. London: Routledge, 1995.
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Narrative history of the entire sweep of ancient Near Eastern civilization, from first cities to Alexander. Hugely ambitious, incorporating discussion of significant debates and problems of source interpretation. Offers substantial detail and bibliography, and gives readers a sense of the available textual sources for each period. Coverage of Babylonia is divided into Old Babylon, Kassite and Middle Babylonian (Volume 1) and Neo-Babylonian (Volume 2) periods.
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Roaf, Michael. Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. New York: Facts on File, 1990.
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A geographical and historical introduction to Mesopotamia and surrounding regions. Excellent resource on the environment, changing settlement patterns, and the growth and reach of empires in the Near East. Extremely helpful student reference containing numerous excellent maps, environmental and political. Now dated in places, but still hugely useful.
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Roux, Georges. Ancient Iraq. 3d ed. London: Penguin, 1992.
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Detailed and well-written popular history of ancient Mesopotamia, giving an engaging overview. Originates in a series of articles written by Roux for Iraq Petroleum magazine, whose popularity inspired the author to produce the book. The chapters are arranged chronologically, and though there is little supporting material the narrative and style make this an enjoyable as well as informative introduction to Iraq’s ancient history.
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Van De Mieroop, Marc. A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000–323 BC. 2d ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2007.
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Up-to-date, helpful textbook aimed primarily at undergraduate students, giving a regional overview of the history of the region and offering sample translations to give a feel for the available sources. Also includes useful maps, timelines, and bibliography. Does not cover archaeology, and so as an introductory text could be complemented by, e.g., Matthews 2003 or Pollock 1999 (both cited under Archaeological Approaches).
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History of the Field

In a vague sense there has been continuous awareness and study of Babylonia: while the city of Babylon was still in its prime, descriptions of it began to appear in Greek, and a combination of biblical and classical sources ensured that at least the name and some stories surrounding Babylon survived long after the city itself. With the exception of some early travelers’ accounts, however, modern study of ancient Babylonia begins only in the 19th century, intensifying considerably in the 20th.

Primary Sources

It is true of ancient Mesopotamian art and architecture as a whole that virtually nothing was known before the mid-19th century and that the decipherment of cuneiform at around the same time marked the beginning of a true rediscovery of ancient Mesopotamian culture in all its forms. As a beginning to this process one might cite Claudius James Rich’s pioneering survey of the site of Babylon (see Rich 1839; similarly in Assyria, Rich correctly identified and produced a detailed account of the site of Nineveh). Austen Henry Layard, famous for his excavations in Assyria, did investigate Babylon (Layard 1853), though with far less success. The late 19th century saw the recovery of vast numbers of cuneiform texts from the ancient libraries and archives from Babylonia, and the beginning of the colossal scholarly labor of their translation and interpretation. It was not until the turn of the 20th century, however, and the gigantic excavations at Babylon itself led by Robert Koldewey, that any serious study could begin to be made of Babylonian architecture. Koldewey’s excavations also mark a methodological turning point and the beginning of modern scientific excavation in Iraq (see Koldewey 1914).

Koldewey, Robert. The Excavations at Babylon. London: Macmillan, 1914.
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Originally published 1913 as Wiedererstehendes Babylon. Overview of the enormous and methodologically groundbreaking excavations at Babylon, begun in 1899. Koldewey neatly summarizes the major components of his excavation program, describing his findings at the major monuments in detail. The focus is architectural and on a single period: due to the high water table at the city and the extent and depth of Neo-Babylonian layers, the city excavated by Koldewey was almost entirely that of the Neo-Babylonian period.
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Layard, Austen Henry. Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon; with Travels in Armenia, Kurdistan and the Desert: Being the Result of a Second Expedition Undertaken for the Trustees of the British Museum. London: John Murray, 1853.
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Includes a full account of Austen Henry Layard’s travel and exploration in Babylonia. At Babylon itself Layard made an initial, inconclusive study, considering the project of the site’s excavation too complex and unrewarding to be viable. He found no equivalent to the large stone reliefs he had excavated in Assyria. As in the case of Nineveh and its Remains (2 vols. London: John Murray, 1849), much of the value of Layard’s account today lies in his description of his journey and of contemporary Ottoman Iraq.
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Rich, Claudius James. Narrative of a Journey to the Site of Babylon. London: Duncan and Malcolm, 1839.
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Edition comprising Claudius Rich’s Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon, first published in the journal Mines de l’Orient in 1813, and separately in 1815; his Second Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon (1818), and related text including Major James Rennell’s criticism of Rich’s original description of the site in relation to the account of Herodotus, and Rich’s response. Contains the first detailed plan of the site of Babylon, based on Rich’s observations.
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Secondary Sources

The relative age of Near Eastern studies as a discipline, its historical entanglement with international politics, and the fact that the major collections around the world are still largely the product of enormous 19th and early-20th-century excavations, render the history of the field a matter of ongoing importance. Larsen 1996 is a superb account of the crucial period of mid-19th-century Anglo-French cultural rivalry focused on the palaces of Assyria, and the first large-scale excavations in the region. Ooghe 2007 and Invernizzi 2000 look to early European travelers in Babylonia and their descriptions of archaeological remains. Reade 1993 addresses the career and reputation of Hormuzd Rassam, excavator of much of the British Museum’s cuneiform collection, while Bahrani, et al. 2011 is notable for bringing Ottoman perspectives into clear focus. Chevalier 2002 gives a broader perspective on French archaeological activity in the region, while Curtis 1982 offers a summary of more recent British projects: the major field projects of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq.

Bahrani, Zainab, Zeynep Çelik, and Edhem Eldem, eds. Scramble for the Past: A Story of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire, 1753–1914. Istanbul: SALT/Garanti Kültür A. Ş, 2011.
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Published in association with the 2011–2012 SALT Galata exhibition. This substantial edited volume begins to redress a major imbalance in the history of the field, namely the shortage of studies considering Ottoman perspectives on the early excavations in Mesopotamia. The great strengths of the volume are its inclusion of a spectrum of such perspectives, ranging from the imperial to the local, as well as interesting work on the better-known European actors and approaches.
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Chevalier, Nicole. La recherche archéologique française au Moyen-Orient 1842–1947. Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 2002.
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Outstanding French-language history of French excavation and research, from Paul-Émile Botta at Khorsabad to the end of World War II. Includes work in the Levant, Mesopotamia, Iran, and Central Asia. The material is structured by modern political divisions, with sections prior to World War I divided between the Ottoman Empire and Persia, material from World War I to World War II arranged principally by state, and a third section analyzing the political context of French archaeology in the Near East from the mid-19th to mid-20th century.
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Curtis, John E., ed. Fifty Years of Mesopotamian Discovery. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 1982.
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Summary essays on the major findings of thirteen substantial projects conducted by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq (now British Institute for the Study of Iraq), one of the major sponsors of Mesopotamian excavations in the 20th century. Sites covered include Arpachiyah, Chagar Bazar, Balaway, Tell Brak, Nimrud, and Abu Salabikh, among others.
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Invernizzi, Antonio. “Discovering Babylon with Pietro Della Valle.” In Proceedings of the First International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Edited by P. Matthiae, A. Enea, L. Peyronel, and F. Pinnock, 643–649. Rome: Universita degli Studi di Roma, 2000.
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Expert discussion of the account of Babylon given by the 17th-century Roman aristocrat Pietro Della Valle. Invernizzi highlights Della Valle’s importance in the history of the field, noting particularly his more detailed and investigative approach to the site than any predecessor. Invernizzi has also produced a detailed critical edition (in the original Italian) of Pietro Della Valle’s letters, including travels across the Near East, and in Iran and India.
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Larsen, Mogens Trolle. The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land, 1840–1860. London and New York: Routledge, 1996.
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Outstanding history of English and French excavations in Assyria, covering especially the work of Austen Henry Layard and Paul-Émile Botta. It should be noted that the success with which excavators met in extracting spectacular sculptures in Assyria had no parallel in Babylonia, where excavation of mud-brick architecture posed considerable challenges. Only later was the enormous potential of archaeological sites in southern Iraq understood and exploited by excavators. First published as Sunkne Paladser: Historien om Orientens Opdagelse (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Bokforlag, 1994).
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Lloyd, Seton. Foundations in the Dust: The Story of Mesopotamian Exploration. 2d ed. London: Thames and Hudson, 1980.
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General history of Mesopotamian archaeology, told in a highly readable, popular style. Somewhat Anglo-centric in its coverage but benefits from the author’s ability to capture and characterize general trends as well as giving lively sketches of key figures and their contributions to the field.
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Ooghe, Bart. “The Rediscovery of Babylonia: European Travellers and the Development of Knowledge on Lower Mesopotamia, Sixteenth to Early Nineteenth Century.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 17.3 (2007): 231–252.
DOI: 10.1017/S1356186307007237Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Perhaps the most detailed survey of early travelers to Babylonia, focusing on the period prior to substantial European excavation in the region. The period covered by Ooghe does, however, cover a three-hundred year span and great changes in the nature and aims of visitors, from those with more in common with medieval visitors to antiquarians who sit more comfortably in the history of modern archaeology.
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Reade, Julian E. “Hormuzd Rassam and his Discoveries.” Iraq 55 (1993): 39–62.
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Critical reassessment of the archaeological contribution of Hormuzd Rassam, the first Iraqi archaeologist. Reade argues forcefully that Rassam’s late-19th century work in Babylonia, much maligned since, has received unfair censure and that Rassam’s substantial contribution to the field and to the collections of the British Museum deserves greater recognition.
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Archaeological Approaches

Inevitably, Mesopotamian archaeology has been affected in recent decades by the difficulty, and for foreign archaeologists between 1990 and c. 2010 the impossibility, of conducting fieldwork in Iraq itself. During this period foreign projects have concentrated on what were once considered the regions “peripheral” to a Mesopotamian “core,” in Syria, southeastern Turkey, and western Iran. These projects have produced a far richer understanding of interaction in the ancient Near East. Meanwhile, scientific techniques in fieldwork have advanced considerably, and there is scope for future projects to apply these in Iraq itself, as well as to address long-standing problems such as the relative lack of excavation data on residential areas for most periods. The three works included here each address theory and method. Pollock 1999 is an introduction to early Mesopotamia framed in specifically anthropological terms, while Potts 1997 sets out to integrate environmental and archaeological data and anthropological theory. Matthews 2003 is a discussion of methods and approaches in historical context, designed to lead from broad considerations regarding the nature and scope of the field to highly practical suggestions for the design of research projects.

Matthews, Roger J. The Archaeology of Mesopotamia: Theories and Approaches. London and New York: Routledge, 2003.
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Engaging, expert discussion of Mesopotamian archaeology from the point of view of the subject’s methodological and theoretical development. Frames key issues and considerations in fieldwork and research project design and gives the reader an overview of trends in the history of the field. Concludes with an interesting discussion of the future of Mesopotamian archaeology, and (UK) school and public access to and engagement with the subject.
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Pollock, Susan. Ancient Mesopotamia: The Eden that Never Was. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
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Introduction to the archaeology of early Mesopotamia rooted firmly in anthropology. The focus is 5th to early 2nd millennia BC, i.e. the Ubaid to Old Babylonian periods, and covers topics including settlement distribution, social organization, the agricultural economy, and burial practices. Pollock’s use of models drawn principally from social anthropology is notable in a field where a reliance on textual sources in later periods has perhaps led to under-theorization of prehistoric material.
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Potts, Daniel T. Mesopotamian Civilisation: The Material Foundations. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997.
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Detailed yet wide-ranging study of the material culture of ancient Mesopotamia, with a focus on the 3rd millennium BC. The author treats the environmental conditions, subsistence strategies, material culture, and religious and social structures of the Mesopotamian plain as deeply interconnected, working from chapters on climate and ecology, through agriculture, to topics such as religion and kinship. Two final chapters consider external influences on Mesopotamian culture from its eastern and western neighbors.
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Seals

Seals and seal impressions constitute the most extensive and varied surviving sources of ancient Mesopotamian imagery and iconography. They are crucial in the development of meaningful historical and geographical frameworks for Mesopotamian art. Cylinder seals, rolled over clay to give an image carved in reverse on a cylindrical stone, are the dominant form from their invention in the late 4th to the millennium BC until their gradual replacement by stamp seals in the mid-1st, and provide an incredibly rich resource, including, despite their small scale, many of the finest and most iconic examples of carving, modeling, and composition in Mesopotamian art. An important early work here is Porada 1947, a catalogue of seals in the Pierpont Morgan Library, whose author did much to set standards for the publication and analysis of glyptic art. Dominique Collon is widely recognized as the leading scholar in this field today, and her introductions to the subject (Collon 2005, Collon 2007) are invaluable. She is the main author of the Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum (Collon 1962–), which publishes the largest and most comprehensive collection of Mesopotamian seals outside Iraq. Sax, et al. 2000 gives interesting insight into production techniques and demonstrates the scope for scientific analysis of seal manufacture.

Collon, Dominique. Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum. London: British Museum Press, 1962–.
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Comprehensive six-volume catalogue of the British Museum’s Near Eastern seal collection, with photographs and extensive commentary. The catalogue is an ongoing work and the final volume, Volume 4 (covering 2nd-millennium BC material not treated in Volume 3) has yet to be published.
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Collon, Dominique. First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East. London: British Museum Press, 2005.
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Updated version of the 1987 original. Insightful, expert introduction to the study of cylinder seals, based on the collections of the British Museum. The best starting point for an understanding of changes through time and the range of subject matter employed in ancient Mesopotamian seals.
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Collon, Dominique. “Cylinder Seals.” In The Babylonian World. Edited by Gwendolyn Leick, 95–123. London and New York: Routledge, 2007.
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Survey and discussion focusing specifically on Babylonian seals, arranged by period and illustrated with numerous examples.
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Porada, Edith. Mesopotamian Art in Cylinder Seals of the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1947.
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Landmark study, covering one of the world’s most important collections of cylinder seals. Introduced the serious treatment of Mesopotamian glyptic as art, with high-quality images and analysis of style, technique, and categories. Porada (b. 1912–d. 1994) is arguably the single most influential scholar and teacher in the modern study of ancient Near Eastern art.
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Sax, Margaret, Nigel D. Meeks, and Dominique Collon. “The Introduction of the Lapidary Engraving Wheel in Mesopotamia.” Antiquity 74.284 (2000): 380–387.
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Important summary of research on the technology of seal production, marrying archaeological expertise in seal carving and iconography with scientific analysis.
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Jewelry and Personal Adornment

Seals also form part of the broader category of personal adornment. Maxwell-Hyslop 1971 remains the foundational work devoted to this area, though much more has been done on particular pieces and genres, particularly in exhibition catalogues (see, e.g., Aruz, et al. 2003, Aruz, et al. 2008 cited under Third and Second Millennia BC). The relevant section in Sasson 2001, with chapters written by leading scholars on each topic, includes treatment of textiles, jewelry, and seals and scarabs.

Maxwell-Hyslop, R. Western Asiatic Jewellery c. 3000–612 BC. London: Methuen, 1971.
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The major history of ancient Near Eastern jewelry, covering Mesopotamia, Iran, Anatolia, and the Levant. Still the primary reference work in this important area of Near Eastern art.
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Sasson, Jack M., ed. Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. 4 vols. New York: Scribner, 2001.
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Part 7, pp. 1499–1682, consists of essays on technology and artistic production. Includes sections on, among others, textiles (Carol Bier), jewelry and personal adornment (Zainab Bahrani), seals and scarabs (Holly Pittman), furniture (Elizabeth Simpson), and a general essay on materials and techniques (Ann C. Gunter).
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Ceramics

Clay is the most abundant natural resource in southern Mesopotamia, where most wood, stone, and metal had necessarily to be imported. For this reason “mass-produced” objects, such as plaques for dedication in temples, or models for burial under gateways, were often manufactured in clay. Moorey and Roger 2003 and Stone 1993 discuss material of this kind. Far grander examples of ceramic sculpture also survive, particularly notable examples coming from Old Babylonian and Kassite Babylonia.

Moorey, P., and S. Roger. Idols of the People: Miniature Images of Clay in the Ancient Near East. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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In-depth study of clay figurines, an important category and one that, as the title notes, gives some access to private or non-elite religious practices. Moorey and Roger’s encyclopedic knowledge, extending far beyond ceramics, comes through strongly.
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Stone, Elizabeth C. “Chariots of the Gods in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia (c. 2000–1600 BC).” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 3.1 (1993): 83–107.
DOI: 10.1017/S0959774300000731Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Fascinating argument for the interpretation of chariot models (a particular class of clay figurine in the early 2nd millennium BC) as representative of particular cities. Combines archaeology and iconography to construct an original and compelling argument.
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Architecture

Ancient Mesopotamia was an environment in which complex urban forms developed, with palaces and temples often on an enormous scale. These grander forms of architecture have traditionally received greater attention, both in excavation and subsequent study, than ordinary residential areas, yet scholars are increasingly keen to redress this balance and to build a fuller understanding of Babylonian cities as a whole. Baker 2011 has done much to create a more rounded picture of architecture and urban space, while Van De Mieroop 1997 provides the broadest perspective on the ancient Mesopotamian city and its makeup. Others show the limits and potentials of the available data. Shepperson 2009 pays close attention to the role of sunlight in urban planning, while Banning 1997 addresses the connections between architecture and social structure, applying an anthropologist’s analysis of space through degrees of access to rooms within a given structure. Postgate 1994, meanwhile, provides an important caution: that knowledge of the ancient Mesopotamian city remains so patchy that even approximate estimates of population are almost impossible.

Baker, Heather D. “From Street Altar to Palace: Reading the Built Environment of Urban Babylonia.” In The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture. Edited by Karen Radner and Eleanor Robson, 533–552. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
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Sophisticated approach to the analysis of urban space, considering both monumental forms and the everyday experience of living in the Babylonian city. Useful both for its integration of archaeological and textual sources and, as in Baker’s work more generally, a focus on residential areas and architecture that historically has been lacking in Mesopotamian archaeology.
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Banning, Elizabeth B. “Spatial Perspectives on Early Urban Development in Mesopotamia.” In Aspects of Urbanism in Antiquity: From Mesopotamia to Crete. Edited by W. Aufrecht, N. Mirau, and S. Gauley, 17–34. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997.
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Interesting study examining formal patterns of access to rooms within buildings, degrees of privacy, and the possible social implications of these arrangements. Useful particularly since its basic approach, when taken in conjunction with available contextual data, is applicable in many contexts.
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Postgate, J. Nicholas. “How Many Sumerians per Hectare? Probing the Anatomy of an Early City.” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 4.1 (1994): 47–65.
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Classic discussion of the difficulties involved in estimating population for ancient settlements, with reference to ancient Mesopotamian cities. Though overall the conclusions drawn are pessimistic, particular use is made of the author’s own work at the site of Abu Salabikh, which itself did much to address the historic dearth of work on ordinary domestic architecture in Mesopotamian archaeology.
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Shepperson, Mary. “Planning for the Sun: Urban Forms as a Mesopotamian Response to the Sun.” World Archaeology 41.3 (2009): 363–378.
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Highly original study using shadow maps to analyze approaches to sunlight in architectural planning in the ancient Mesopotamian city.
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Van De Mieroop, Marc. The Ancient Mesopotamian City. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
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General work looking at the early history of urbanism in Mesopotamia and its associated cultural and social institutions. Useful for its incorporation of social and anthropological theory from beyond the discipline.
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Textual Sources and Literature

A rich variety of literary texts survive from ancient Babylonia, most famously the Epic of Gilgamesh. The two principal literary languages of ancient Mesopotamia are Akkadian, of which Assyrian and Babylonian are dialects, and Sumerian, which though replaced as a spoken language by the late 3rd/early 2nd millennium BC, continued in use in writing throughout the history of cuneiform, alongside written Akkadian that borrowed substantially from Sumerian, particularly in religious and literary contexts.

Theoretical Perspectives

The major steps in the decipherment of Akkadian took place only in the mid-19th century, and those in Sumerian even more recently in the 20th. This work, and the translation of the vast corpus of cuneiform tablets now held in world collections, has been the primary work of Assyriologists, and more theoretical perspectives on Mesopotamian literature have appeared piecemeal in the course of this work. More recently, however, there has been an increase in attempts to discuss Mesopotamian texts in broader literary and anthropological terms, and it is discussions of this kind that help to link philological studies with history and archaeology, raising shared anthropological questions and exploring the nature of the relationships between the textual and archaeological records. Black 1998, Radner and Robson 2011, Van De Mieroop 1999, and Van De Mieroop 2003 are all good examples of this trend, addressing the social and cultural contexts in which cuneiform literature was produced.

Black, Jeremy. Reading Sumerian Poetry. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998.
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Introduction to Sumerian poetry, covering language and literary genres, consideration of the nature of the sources, discussion of the use and analysis of imagery, and a detailed study of literary criticism using the example of Lugalbanda.
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Radner, Karen, and Eleanor Robson, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
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Essential guide to cuneiform as a writing system, scribal culture, genres of text, and the role of writing in ancient Mesopotamian culture. Thirty-five chapters including contributions on cuneiform tablets as artifacts (Jonathan Taylor), varying levels of literacy (Niek Veldhuis), literacy and gender (Brigitte Lion), the production and dissemination of scholarly knowledge (Eleanor Robson), and literary forms including letters, laments, temple dedications, calendars, divinatory texts, and many more.
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Van De Mieroop, Marc. Cuneiform Texts and the Writing of History. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.
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A primer in the interpretation of cuneiform historical texts. Consideration of cuneiform documents as historical sources, with discussions of the major genres of document relevant to the historian (including administrative, legal, letters, historiographic, literary and scholarly texts), history from above (i.e., royal inscriptions) and below (prosopography), economic history and gender and history. Unusual and extremely useful critical introduction to the use of the ancient textual sources.
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Van De Mieroop, Marc. “Reading Babylon.” American Journal of Archaeology 107.2 (2003): 257–275.
DOI: 10.3764/aja.107.2.257Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Methodologically interesting attempt to unite textual and archaeological data in reconstructing the ideological meaning of Babylon’s monumental architecture under Nebuchadnezzar II. Moves between consideration of the specific monuments of the city and their functions and discussion of Babylon’s overall status and place in the cosmos.
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Editions and Collections

Many important Mesopotamian literary texts are available in English, German, and French translation, and several well-edited anthologies exist with much helpful apparatus for non-specialists. The various editions of Pritchard 2010 have long been a standard in teaching, while more recently Foster 2005 and Black, et al. 2006 have become essential. Dalley 1998 and George 2003a contain accurate yet poetic translations and have brought Babylonian literature to a far wider readership, while George’s 2003b full scholarly publication of Gilgamesh is the definitive work on this, the most famous literary work from ancient Mesopotamia.

Black, Jeremy, Graham Cunningham, Eleanor Robson, and Gabor Zolyomi, eds. The Literature of Ancient Sumer. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
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Hugely useful selection from the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, presented in English prose translation. The book is more easily navigable than the website, while expert introductory chapters and an extensive glossary of Sumerian names reflect careful attention to the needs of non-specialists throughout. The texts are arranged in thematic categories, many defined by their protagonists (e.g., Inanna and Dumuzid), and a summary of alternative thematic groupings is included in the end matter.
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Dalley, Stephanie M. Myths from Mesopotamia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
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Translations of important Mesopotamian myths, including the Babylonian Epic of Creation and the Epic of Gilgamesh. Each text appears with an introduction and notes and a select bibliography is included, though the format is aimed at a general audience and the volume contains a helpful glossary for the non-specialist reader. The translations themselves are highly readable as well as accurate, with notes providing information on significant problems in interpretation.
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Foster, Benjamin R. Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature. 3d ed. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 2005.
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A standard work, this large and well-edited anthology is a key resource for all students of the ancient Near East. As well as the translations, the anthology contains considerable commentary and discussion, including an important general introduction to Akkadian literature by the editor. Texts are arranged thematically within four broad chronological groupings (“archaic,” “classical,” “mature,” and “late”), together spanning the period 2300–100 BC.
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George, Andrew R. The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian. London: Penguin, 2003a.
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Highly accessible popular version of Andrew George’s translation of Gilgamesh, accompanied by other Gilgamesh texts (alternate versions, fragments, Sumerian versions) and a discussion by George giving an overview of the text’s development.
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George, Andrew R. The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003b.
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The authoritative scholarly edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Features reproduced text of all known cuneiform sources for the epic; full editions of all Akkadian texts; and a definitive edition of the Standard Babylonian Epic based on all the available sources, with translation and exhaustive notes. Introductory chapters cover in detail the full literary history of the epic, its cultural importance in the ancient Near East, and the history of its translation and interpretation.
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Pritchard, James B., ed. The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010.
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Pritchard’s Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament was first published in 1950, and has remained a standard work, introducing texts from across the ancient Near East, including Egyptian material, and translations by important figures in the history of the field including Samuel Noah Kramer and A. Leo Oppenheim. The 2010 edition collects the full content of the original and supplementary volumes (including The Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament, 1969). A foreword by Daniel E. Fleming assesses the special merits of the original, and the work’s continuing usefulness today.
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Text and Image

The relationship between texts and iconography in mythology does not seem as close as we might hope, though new connections and tantalizing possibilities are frequently identified. It is difficult, for example, to correlate particular narratives well known from texts with those mythological scenes that recur frequently in glyptic, while those identifications that are made are bedeviled with problems of dating, where a narrative may well exist over a long period; but this is hinted rather than proven by the existence of apparently corresponding texts and images of very different dates. Green 1997 analyzes the cases in which some connection can be made, whilst Postgate 1994 discusses the problems in identification and their implications. Horowitz 1998 discusses a unique marriage of text and image: the Babylonian map of the world.

Green, Anthony. “Mythologie. B.I. In der mesopotamischen Kunst.” In Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archaologie. Edited by D. O. Edzard, 571–586. Berlin: Walter de Gruyer, 1997.
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Important discussion of art as a source on myth in ancient Mesopotamia, including known correlations between text and image.
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Horowitz, Wayne. Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1998.
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Features the fullest publication of the Babylonian map of the world. Held in the British Museum, this cosmological map is the oldest known map of the world, and is accompanied by a commentary. Horowitz discusses this unique document in detail.
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Postgate, J. Nicholas. “Text and figure in Ancient Mesopotamia: Match and Mismatch.” In The Ancient Mind: Elements of Cognitive Archaeology. Edited by Colin Renfrew and E. B. W. Zubrow, 176–184. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511598388Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Useful discussion of the difficulties involved in correlating textual sources and iconography in ancient Mesopotamia.
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Third and Second Millennia BC

Babylon’s appearance in the historical record comes at the end of the 3rd millennium BC, its rise to prominence and political dominance under Hammurabi in the early 2nd. Babylon was the direct heir of the art and culture of the 3rd millennium BC world of Mesopotamian city-states, however, and the period we now know as Old Babylonian represents continuity with 3rd millennium traditions. The period is therefore most often treated as a relatively late one within the broader grouping of Mesopotamia in the 3rd and early 2nd millennia. The Hittite sack of Babylon in 1595 BC, though more a raid than a sustained occupation, marks the end of the Old Babylonian period. For much of the latter half of the 2nd millennium Babylon was ruled by the Kassite Dynasty, kings of foreign origin who adopted most of the trappings of Babylonian culture. Important examples of Kassite seals, ceramics, and architecture survive, as well as kudurrus, the stone land-grant stelae that are perhaps the most instantly recognizable artifacts of the period. Aruz, et al. 2003 and Aruz, et al. 2008 provide important synthetic treatments of the period, focused on cultural interconnections. Curtis 1995 provides essays by leading scholars on specific topics. Marguerron 2004 discusses the exceptionally important site of Mari, while Collon 2005 and Feldman 2010 are shorter publications on two of the most important surviving works of Old Babylonian sculpture.

Aruz, Joan, Kim Benzel, and Jean M. Evans, eds. Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.
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The catalogue of the 2008–2009 Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition of the same name. Acts as a successor to Aruz and Wallenfels 2003, covering cultural interaction in the 2nd millennium BC. Includes Babylon and Mari, the Hittite Empire, the world of Bronze Age Palaces, the “International Age” of the Amarna letters, and spectacular discoveries such as the Uluburun shipwreck. Like its predecessor the catalogue is extremely detailed, with extensive notes, essays, and entries by a large number of specialists and highest quality photography and production. On Babylonia note especially contributions by Béatrice André-Salvini on Old Babylonian Babylon (pp. 18–26, including catalogue entries), Jean-Claude Margueron on Mari (pp. 27–33, including catalogue entries), and Jean M. Evans on Kassite Babylonia (pp. 200–205, including catalog entries).
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Aruz, Joan, with Ronald Wallenfels, eds. Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003.
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This catalogue of the 2003 Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition of the same name, is now a standard work. Contains essays and object entries by a wide variety of specialists, lavishly produced with excellent photography. Addresses 3rd millennium cultural interaction, centered on Mesopotamia’s connections with Iran, the Persian Gulf, Syria, and the Levant and Anatolia. Also contains important notes on the problems of 3rd millennium chronology by Julian Reade.
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Collon, Dominique. The Queen of the Night. British Museum Objects in Focus series. London: British Museum Press, 2005.
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Short book produced in conjunction with the British Museum’s 2004 acquisition of the “Queen of the Night,” also known as the Burney relief after a former owner. This exceptional large-scale Babylonian terracotta plaque has excited debate as to its symbolism (probably an underworld version of Ishtar, or her sister, the queen of the underworld Ereshkigal) but also its authenticity, though Collon has elsewhere argued for this convincingly.
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Curtis, John E. Later Mesopotamia and Iran: Tribes and Empires, 1600–539 BC: Proceedings of a Seminar in Memory of Vladimir G. Lukonin. London: British Museum Press, 1995.
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Proceedings of a 1993 British Museum seminar focused on relations between Mesopotamia and Iran, with contributions by leading scholars on Kassite and Middle Elamite sculpture (Agnes Spyket), Middle Babylonian art and Iran (Peter Calmeyer), excavations in Luristan in relation to Mesopotamia (Louis Vanden Berghe) and Media and Mesopotamia (Michael Roaf) An introduction by the editor links the papers and acts as a broader overview of the theme.
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Feldman, Marian. “Object Agency? Spatial Perspective, Social Relations, and the Stele of Hammurabi.” In Agency and Identity in the Ancient Near East: New Paths Forward. Edited by S. Steadman and J. Ross, 149–165. London: Equinox, 2010.
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Innovative consideration of the social context and construction of meaning around the most famous monument of the Old Babylonian period. Useful for its consideration of the relevance and suitability of contemporary theory on material culture agency in ancient Mesopotamian context.
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Marguerron, Jean-Claude. Mari: Métropole de l’Euphrate au IIIe et au début de IIe millénaire av. J.-C. Paris: Éditions Picard, 2004.
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Huge synthesis of research at Mari and its results, from the site’s discovery in 1933 to the present, including forty seasons of French excavations. Marguerron covers every aspect of art and architecture at the site, from exquisite Early Dynastic shell inlays to the layout of the great palace of Zimri-Lim that is perhaps the city’s most famous feature.
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First Millennium BC

The early 1st millennium saw Babylonia under Assyrian rule and in many ways defined by its relationship with its northern neighbor. Babylon retained its status as a religious capital, however, and as a political center, as reflected in its role in rebellions against Assyria. At the end of the 7th century the fall of the Assyrian Empire to Babylonia and its allies led to the creation of a Neo-Babylonian Empire, centered on Babylon and incorporating Assyria’s territories in Syria and the Levant, and eventually extending into Arabia. This was the period of Babylon’s greatest political influence, and its greatest expansion as a city. The rebuilding of Babylon under Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II was one of the most ambitious civic architectural projects of antiquity. In 539 BC Babylon fell to Cyrus II of Persia, and its territory was incorporated into the vast new Achaemenid Empire. Wiseman 1983 offers an accessible overview of the city itself, while Schmid 1995 and George 2005 discuss one of its most important structures, the ziggurat Etemenanki. Wood 2004 provides a study of a particularly important Babylonian document and image: the Sun-God tablet of Nabu-apla-iddina. Curtis 1994 looks at the appearance of Mesopotamian and other Near Eastern bronzes in the west, at Greek sanctuaries and other sites.

Curtis, John E. “Mesopotamian Bronzes from Greek Sites: The Workshops of Origin.” Iraq 56 (1994): 1–25.
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Survey of Mesopotamian bronze sculptures found in Greek sanctuaries. This material is particularly important for the study of Near Eastern influence in Greek art, and the Mediterranean interconnections of the early 1st millennium BC more broadly. Particularly important are the discoveries at the Heraion on Samos, which included exceptional quantities of Mesopotamian and other Near Eastern metalwork.
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George, Andrew R. “The Tower of Babel: Archaeology, History and Cuneiform Texts.” Archiv für Orientforschung 51 (2005–2006): 75–95.
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Review article of Schmid 1995, containing substantial additional information based on textual sources.
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Schmid, Hansjörg. Der Tempelturm Etemenanki. Baghdader Forschungen 17. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 1995.
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The authoritative publication on Etemenanki, the ziggurat at Babylon. Includes details of excavation, Schmid’s own reconstruction (the currently accepted view and the basis for the model in the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin), and plates showing alternative reconstructions, from recent predecessors to fanciful medieval and Renaissance images of the Tower of Babel. In German.
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Wiseman, Donald John. Nebuchadrezzar and Babylon: The Schweich Lectures of the British Academy, 1983. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
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Discussion of Babylon at its height under Nebuchadnezzar II, based on the author’s Schweich lectures. Touching on the Hanging Gardens, for which Wiseman had previously proposed a reconstruction (see Reade 2003 cited under Legacy and Reception), the book offers a discussion of key textual sources, and of the monumental building works which during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar transformed the capital.
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Wood, Christopher. “The Sun-God Tablet of Nabû-apla-iddina Revisited.” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 56 (2004): 23–103.
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Among the most important Babylonian objects in the British Museum (in fact multiple objects: the box and covers with which the tablet was found are also of considerable interest), the Sun-God tablet constitutes both a historically significant document of the early 1st millennium BC and a unique religious image. Discovered and reburied by Nabopolassar, the document also attests to Babylonian kings’ close attention to their predecessors’ works and inscriptions.
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Assyrian Sculpture

Neo-Assyrian palace sculpture represents an enormous and unique resource, unparalleled in Babylonia. The stone bas-reliefs that lined the walls of Assyrian palaces depict a vast array of military and hunting scenes, as well as much relating to protective magic and the person of the king. Specific historical events, important rituals and the minutiae of daily life all feature in these large-scale, often enormously detailed reliefs. A huge literature exists, covered in its own section in Oxford Bibliographies Online. It is impossible to study the art and architecture of Babylonia in isolation from that of its northern neighbor or vice versa, however, and the following provide a useful introduction and overview. Reade 1998 and Collins 2008 offer general overviews, while Reade and Curtis 1995 incorporates the reliefs into a broader discussion of the Neo-Assyrian period, with substantial coverage of other forms of Assyrian art. Cohen and Kangas 2010 focuses on a small group of reliefs but includes essays with much broader relevance on both their content and their acquisition. Harper, et al. 1995 looks to an earlier period, and to the origins of what would become Neo-Assyrian imperial art.

Cohen, Ada, and Stephen E. Kangas, eds. Assyrian Reliefs from the Palace of Ashurnasirapal II: A Cultural Biography. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2010.
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Focuses on the excavation and reception of Assyrian reliefs from Nimrud. Although most went to the British Museum or remained in Iraq, examples of sculptures from the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal can be seen in a huge number of collections in Europe, North America, and elsewhere. The reliefs held by the Hood Museum are particularly fine examples, and the volume benefits from beautiful, high-quality photography, including numerous close-ups of inscribed detail.
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Collins, Paul. Assyrian Sculpture. London: British Museum Press, 2008.
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Guide to Assyrian reliefs focusing on the collections of the British Museum. Arranged historically by ruler, looking at changes over time in Assyrian sculpture. Features outstanding photography of the reliefs, including many details, by Lisa Baylis and Sandra Marshall.
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Harper, Prudence Oliver, Evelyn Klengel-Brandt, Joan Aruz, and Kim Benzel, eds. Assyrian Origins: Discoveries at Ashur on the Tigris: Antiquities in the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995.
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Acts as an excellent introduction to all aspects of Middle Assyrian art. Ashur, the capital of Assyria before the 9th century BC, was excavated by German archaeologists in the early 20th century, resulting in the exceptional holdings for the site at the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. The catalogue presents highlights of this collection alongside contextual material and essays on the history and art of the period.
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Reade, Julian E. Assyrian Sculpture. 2d ed. London: British Museum Press, 1998.
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Overview of Assyrian palace sculpture, including discussion of the 19th-century excavations of the Assyrian capitals, the production of Assyrian reliefs, and their function in the decorative schema of palaces, and the iconography of the sculptures. Illustrated material is drawn from the collections of the British Museum.
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Reade, Julian E., and John E. Curtis, eds. Art and Empire: Treasures from Assyria in the British Museum. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995.
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Catalogue of the traveling exhibition, consisting of Assyrian sculpture and other artifacts from the collections of the British Museum. Includes palace reliefs of several kings, from Ashurnasirpal II (the first to employ this form of decoration) to Ashurbanipal, whose palace sculptures are considered by many to be the finest of all Assyrian art. Essays offer a history of the empire and an overview of its art, some of this in relation to Babylon and Babylonia, with which Assyria maintained an intimate but fractious relationship.
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Babylon and Assyria

The close but often troubled relationship between Babylonia and Assyria is of great importance for the understanding of both regions, nowhere more so than in art and architecture. Both states were heirs of the syncretism in religious and cultural practices that united ancient Mesopotamia as a whole, and despite the primacy of the god Ashur, Assyrian kings revered the gods and city of Babylon. If Babylonian influence was strongly felt in the visual culture of Assyria, Assyrian political dominance was an inescapable fact for long periods of Babylonia’s history. Porter 1993 addresses the period following Sennacherib’s sacrilegious sacking of Babylon, while Novotny and Watanabe 2008 discuss one of the most important historical scenes in Neo-Assyrian art, Ashurbanipal receiving the booty of Babylon following a protracted war with his brother, Shamash-shum-ukin.

Novotny, Jamie, and Chikako E. Watanabe. “After the Fall of Babylon: A New Look at the Presentation Scene on Assurbanipal Relief BM ME 124945–6.” Iraq 70 (2008): 105–126.
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Exploration of a crucial scene in the history of Assyrian-Babylonian relations: the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal receiving the booty of Babylon following his defeat of its king, his brother Shamash-shum-ukin. The two brothers had been installed as kings of Assyria and Babylonia by their father Esarhaddon, as a novel solution to repeated Babylonian revolts against Assyrian rule. The relationship held for sixteen years, but ended in a protracted war and Babylon’s defeat.
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Porter, Barbara N. Images, Power, and Politics: Figurative Aspects of Esarhaddon’s Babylonian Policy. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1993.
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Esarhaddon’s father, Sennacherib, had destroyed Babylon, an act so shocking that later histories tended to elide it, presenting the event as a natural disaster. Esarhaddon himself needed to begin the rebuilding of the city, and to present himself as a legitimate and just ruler in Babylonia. Porter’s study explores the sources for this important period.
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Legacy and Reception

For 2,000 years, until the great achievements in decipherment of the 19th and 20th centuries, ancient Mesopotamia could be known only through foreign sources. These can be divided into two broad traditions, biblical and classical, and it is through them that the image of ancient Mesopotamia and in particular Babylon has developed in culture. European traditions emphasizing oriental luxury and decadence have much to do with the ancient Greek accounts of the city; biblical accounts, shaped by the experiences of the Babylonian Captivity in the 6th century BC, give a picture of a particular point in Babylon’s history and are strongly shaped by politics. A different kind of legacy also exists: the transmission of Babylonian scholarship into new languages and other cultures. In astronomy, mathematics, astrology, and medicine, Babylonian knowledge and ideas survived the cuneiform world to influence Graeco-Roman thought and the content of the Babylonian Talmud. André-Salvini 2008 (cited under General Overviews) addresses all of the above. Sasson 2001 (cited under General Overviews) Part 1, pp. 1–120, consists of essays addressing the ancient Near East in Western thought. Includes, among others, contributions on Babylon in European Thought (John M. Lundquist), Ancient Mesopotamia in Classical Greek and Hellenistic Thought (Amélie Kuhrt), and The “Babel/Bible” Controversy and its Aftermath (covering an important episode in the relationship between cuneiform and biblical studies; Mogens Trolle Larsen). Finkel and Seymour 2008 addresses the Neo-Babylonian period and its legacy in art and culture, while Wullen and Schauerte 2008 takes a more eclectic view of the city’s artistic legacy. Dalley 1998 focuses primarily on the legacy of Babylonian scholarship but includes McCall 1998, a historical overview of the representation of ancient Mesopotamia in the visual and performing arts. Bahrani 2001 looks specifically at issues relating to gender, which in the case of Babylon’s cultural reception constitute a major field. Dalley 1994, Reade 2003, and van der Spek 2008 all attempt to unravel classical sources on Babylon, particularly those pertaining to the Hanging Gardens.

Bahrani, Zainab. Women of Babylon: Gender and Representation in Mesopotamia. New York: Routledge, 2001.
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Covers aspects of gender and representation in both the ancient art and modern reception of ancient Mesopotamia. Theoretically informed studies on gender and sexuality in Mesopotamian culture remain relatively scarce, yet their expression is a major theme in Mesopotamian art. Particularly notable in this volume is Bahrani’s discussion of “Ishtar: embodiment of tropes,” considering ancient and modern perspectives on the goddess’s identity.
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Dalley, Stephanie M. “Nineveh, Babylon and the Hanging Gardens: Cuneiform and Classical Sources Reconciled.” Iraq 56 (1994): 45–58.
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The original argument for an Assyrian origin for Greek accounts of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Combines cuneiform textual evidence (available, since Assyrian kings do mention royal gardens in their inscriptions, where Babylonian kings do not), with evidence in art and archaeology for major feats of water engineering in Sennacherib’s remodeling of the landscape around Nineveh. Dalley’s argument remains controversial; for a differing view see Reade 2003.
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Dalley, Stephanie M., ed. The Legacy of Mesopotamia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
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Edited volume with chapters addressing the intellectual and cultural legacy of Mesopotamia, from transmission of scientific traditions and data into Greek and Aramaic to European reception and representation (see McCall 1998).
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Finkel, Irving L., and Michael J. Seymour, eds. Babylon: Myth and Reality. London: British Museum Press, 2008.
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Catalogue of the 2008–2009 British Museum exhibition, exploring the Neo-Babylonian period in Babylon and its legacy, with contributions by the editors, John Curtis, Andrew George, Julian Reade, and Jonathan Taylor. Covers the origins and history of the Tower of Babel, Babylon’s gardens and walls, Nebuchadnezzar’s madness and Belshazzar’s Feast. Also includes sections on Babylon in contemporary culture and the legacy of Babylonian scholarship in Aramaic and Greek.
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McCall, Henrietta. “Legacy and Aftermath.” In The Legacy of Mesopotamia. Edited by Stephanie M. Dalley, 183–213. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
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Detailed, well-researched account of ancient Mesopotamia’s reception and representation in European culture, taking in literature, art, and theater. Gives a sense of both the rich variety and recurring themes in reception, and is particularly strong in its coverage of ancient Mesopotamia on the stage.
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Reade, Julian E. “Alexander the Great and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.” Iraq 62 (2003): 195–218.
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Summary and assessment of the Hanging Gardens debate, with Reade’s own suggestion and speculative reconstruction based on the classical sources and the so-called Western Outwork at Babylon. See also Dalley 1998, which argues for Nineveh rather than Babylon as the inspiration for the classical accounts.
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Van der Spek, Robartus J. “Berossus as Babylonian Chronicler and Greek Historian.” In Studies in Ancient Near Eastern World View and Society Presented to Marten Stol. Edited by Robartus J. van der Spek, 277–318. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 2008.
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Berossus was a Babylonian writer who in the 3rd century BC produced a history of Babylonia in Greek. The text survives only in fragments copied by later authors but is especially valuable because Berossus clearly had access to cuneiform sources. Van der Spek examines the nature of this access, and what Berossus’s use of sources can reveal about the relationship between cuneiform and Greek accounts of Babylonia.
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Wullen, Moritz, and Günther Schauerte, eds. Babylon: Mythos. Berlin: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2008.
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Catalogue of the 2008 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Addresses Babylon’s legacy in art and culture through a wide range of art, from medieval to contemporary, and including some more distantly connected material through themes such as the Tower of Babel, the Apocalypse, and the City of Sin.
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Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Iraq

The aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq included enormous damage to cultural heritage through the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, of regional museums, and of archaeological sites. The items listed below give some sense of that damage, of steps taken since, and of some of the ethical issues that confronted archaeologists at the time of the invasion and looting. The site of Babylon itself has been subject to large-scale, unsatisfactory reconstruction during the 1980s and to damage caused by the placement of a coalition military base at the center of the ancient city in 2003–2004. Polk and Schuster 2005 provides a much-needed accessible introduction to the impact of the looting of the Iraq Museum, highlighting its treasures and aspects of the destruction for non-specialists. Stone and Farchakh Bajjaly 2008 collects writing from multiple perspectives on the looting of the museum, site looting, the military camp at Babylon, and other issues. Curtis 2008 gives an authoritative and impassioned account of the particular case of Babylon.

Curtis, John E. “The Site of Babylon Today.” In Babylon: Myth and Reality. Edited by Irving L. Finkel and Michael J. Seymour, 213–220. London: British Museum Press, 2008.
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Even-handed but unflinching assessment of the impact on the site of Babylon of reconstructions built during the rule of Saddam Hussein and damage caused by the Coalition military camp of 2003–2004. The chapter also includes a discussion on the modern cultural significance of the site of Babylon within Iraq.
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Polk, Milbry, and Angela M. H. Schuster, eds. The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad: The Lost Legacy of Ancient Mesopotamia. New York: Abrams, 2005.
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Overview of the looting of the Iraq Museum aimed at non-specialists. Offers both an introduction to archaeology in Iraq and a perspective on the damage caused by the looting of the Iraq Museum itself. Includes box features on some of the museum’s most iconic works.
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Stone, Peter G., and Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly, eds. The Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Iraq. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2008.
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A collection of essays reflecting the range of damage caused—and views taken by scholars on that damage—following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Many chapters are written by leading authorities, including the late Donny George Youkhanna.
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