The Babylonians lived about 5,000 years ago in an area known as Mesopotamia. Archaeologists believe that they developed one of the first written numeral systems. The Babylonian system of writing is called cuneiform, which means wedge-shaped in Latin. If you examine the Babylonian number system, you can see that the numerals resemble tiny wedges.
Penn Museum archaeologists excavating sites at Ur and Nippur in the 1920s and 30s found thousands of clay tablets in certain buildings. Due to the high number of clay tablets and the kind of writing they contained, researchers believe these buildings could only have been libraries or schools.
This design was made about 5,000 years ago with Queen Puabi's name. Color it in.
This is an apkallu (genie) from the palace of a king who lived about 3,000 years ago in ancient Iraq. After all that time his colors have washed off! Color him in however you want.
Use simple kitchen materials and a chopstick to learn how to make cuneiform tablets and practice one of the earliest written languages.
After watching Ph.D. student Bridget Keslinke's Digital Daily Dig, we were inspired to create our own incantation bowls using regular household materials: paper and markers. Our bowl forcuses on health. Get inspiration from our collection and then create your own!
Create your own cylinder seal, inspired by the ancient artifacts from Mesopotamia. These seals acted like a signature, unique to the person using the seal. What words, pictures, or symbols will you use to create your seal?
think like an anthropologist as you discover connections between English and Arabic words.
Enjoy this delicious recipe for thickened yogurt inspired by a 5,000 year-old artifact in our Middle East Galleries.
Ancient Mesopotamians used a writing system of wedge-shaped symbols called cuneiform. Use this recipe to bake delicious cookies with your own cuneiform symbols.