Ancient Mesopotamia Speaks: Highlights from the Yale Babylonian Collections through June 30, 2020 at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, Connecticutt

Ancient Mesopotamia Speaks: Highlights from the Yale Babylonian Collections through June 30, 2020 at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, Connecticutt.
This exhibit shows how everyday life in the 3rd millennium BC was much like life in the 21st century. Children complained that their parents didn’t love them enough. Politicians told grand, untrue stories about their popularity and success. Homemakers read cookbooks for recipes. Mothers sang lullabies to their children. People reminded others to feed the cats. Artifacts on display include cuneiform tablets, seals, duck-shaped weights, masks of legendary Gilgamesh and his foe Humbaba, carved images of kings, animals and working people, and alabaster wall slabs from a Mesopotamian palace featuring carvings of “geniuses.” The original pieces, selected from Yale's 40,000 works in their Mesopotamia collection, are enhanced by re-creations of legendary artifacts, such as the stele on which is inscribed the Code of Hammurabi, one of the earliest written codes of law.


Image: Ancient Mesopotamian divinities are frequently identifiable via certain iconographical details such as the horned crown. The carving on this hematite seal dates to the early second millennium BC. (Peabody Museum)

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