The Taurus Mountains rise from the eastern coast of the Mediterranean to overlook the Anatolian plateau and lush highlands above and the...

Kusarikku has origins in the dark past beyond the beginning of the Bronze Age c. 3300 BCE. A fierce creature, he's depicted as a male...

The little mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella) is also called the Palestinian or true gazelle. Both males and females have horns, which...

Her mother is a mountain goddess, her father a demon god. The only female prodigy of the family, she later evolves into a male fire god....

Shulpae (Šulpae) is a Mesopotamian god who's also a demon. His wife is the eternal Ninhursag, the mother mountain goddess. Her major cult...

Incense burns smoky over hot coals. Voices rise in prayers, incantations and songs. Noise, wailing, howling, clapping, stamping, bells,...

A mother goddess of ancient Mesopotamia, Ninhursag is one of the original seven dieties or 'those who decree', called the Anunnaki. She...

The Eurasian Tiger or Caspian Tiger, a Panthera tigris tigris subspecies, roamed Turkey, Afghanistan, parts of Iraq, Caspian regions such...

The earliest agriculture begins with a fig (Ficus carica). Fig trees are the first known domesticated plants. In the ancient near East,...

Girsu (Sumerian Ĝirsu) is a busy city of ancient Sumer, Mesopotamia, beginning c. 5300 BCE. Today, it's called Tell Telloh in Iraq. Tello...

The earliest signs of human presence on the Arabian peninsula appear c. 8000 BCE, before the Stone Age. The Earth is warming up after the...

A Mesopotamian god, Abu is classed as a minor deity. Like many vegetation divinities Abu is also a god of snakes or serpents, associated...

Shen rings appear in ancient Egyptian art and spiritual symbolism. The shen ring or shenu is a circle with a rod on one side. The rod may...

Elevated from the lowly position of dung worker, the scarab (Scarabaeinae) becomes a sign of prosperous work, fertility, life, luck,...

In the ancient world, the Hatti or Hattians occupy the area of modern-day Turkey. They've been in the rapidly-shaping Anatolia since the...