Be prepared to wait in line to get in the museum, to get an audio guide and to get food. This is a popular place.
I took the tour called "Ancient Iraq" (although "Iraq" did not exist at that point). Rather it was the area called Mesopotamia, between the Tigres and Euphrates rivers, where this tour began. Some of the cities mentioned were Ur (in current southern Iraq), Nineveh and Babylon.
The photo below of a lion is from the throne room of King Nebudchanezzar II, who reigned from 605-562 BC in Babylon. He said the lion represented himself. What an ego! He had a palace, walled city, a gate called " Ishtar" and a royal processional walkway. The city of Babylon was thriving then. The top of the wall was wide enough to allow 2 chariots to pass each other and was the fastest way to get around the city.
In the part of the museum about the city of Ur you find information about the development of writing, a popular board game and the Royal cemetery. Writing was first done with pictures drawn on clay tablets. Later symbols developed that represented sounds or abstract ideas (called "cuneiform"). I did not take pictures of the clay tablets as they were small and very detailed. Popular drawings represented items such as beer and barley (for bread making). These clay tablets were often receipts of goods bought or received.
The popular board game "The Royal game of Ur" was around for about 3,000 years. It spread from this area to India and China. It involves 2 players moving game pieces around the board as efficiently as possible to finish first. In this photo you can see the game board, playing pieces (buttons) and 4 sided die. I think stick die too. The rule book for the game was written on the clay tablet.
Rumor had it that 2 bored guardsmen at a gate etched a game board on the base of a monument so they could play in their spare time!
A royal cemetery was found and archeologists were surprised to find luxury items in it, such as this silver lyre.
This was rebuilt, as some of the wood on it had deteriorated. Much of it was made of silver, including the original pegs lying at the foot of the lyre. This instrument is from 2500 BC.
Here is a text describing what archeologists found at the dig site of the Royal cemetery.
I guess the royals believed you had to take everything and everyone with them into the grave.
On to the area of Assyria and the city of Nineveh where King Ashurbanipal ( 668-630 BC) collected a library of texts from all over the area. It is the world's first library. The king asked everyone to make copies of texts from all over the empire and bring them to his library. Any subject was accepted. The texts were mostly copied on clay tablets. When a fire swept through the library in 612 BC, many of the clay tablets survived. The tablets in the photo below discuss rituals/protocol for a substitute king and queen if they had to suddenly come to power and the rituals/procedure for rebuilding a temple.
The library could have looked like this.
Some of the texts have been translated and can be found at http://oracc.org/asbp
These were only highlights of the Mesopotamia area of the museum. The tour really helped make sense of what I was seeing. The audio guide helped also. I would recommend both.
Pace yourself in this museum. Much to see here.
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