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Babylon

A rare silver goblet found in Ain Samiya, near Ramallah in the West Bank, dating to about 2300 BCE. (Staff Archaeological Officer in the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria - Ardon Bar Hama/The Israel Museum, Jerusalem)
November 13, 2025, 2:27 pm
Study: 4,300-year-old cup with oldest depiction of Creation features a ‘celestial ark’
Found in 1970 in the West Bank and on display at the Israel Museum, the Ain Samiya silver goblet shows before-and-after scene of a conveyance used by the sun and the moon to travel
By Rossella Tercatin
An aerial picture taken on February 13, 2022, shows the Great Ziggurat of Ur in Iraq's southern province of Dhi Qar near the city of Nasiriyah. (Asaad NIAZI / AFP)
October 30, 2025, 12:01 pm
Major archaeological sites in Iraq at risk of erosion due to climate change
Dry weather is increasing salinity in soil and damaging ruins of cities such as Ur, birthplace of Biblical patriarch Abraham, and ancient capital Babylon, warn archaeologists
By Mohammed Atti and Ahmed Saeed
'Jacob Encountering Rachel with her Father's Herds,' Joseph von Führich, 1836. (Wikipedia)
August 9, 2025, 7:45 am
When did lovers start kissing in ancient Israel? A new study looks to the Bible for clues
Research based on textual analysis traces the rise of ancient Israelites’ snogging to post-exilic times, likely influenced by Babylonian culture
By Rossella Tercatin
Archaeologists unearthed a 2,500-year-old mass burial site associated with trade caravans from Yemen, Phoenicia, and Egypt in the Negev, next to modern-day Tlalim Junction. The discovery was disclosed to the public by the Israel Antiquities Authority on February 5, 2025. (Emil Aladjem/Israel Antiquities Authority)
February 9, 2025, 10:40 am
Mysterious 2,500-year-old burials hint at human trafficking in ancient Israel
A mass grave in the Negev excavated by the Israel Antiquities Authority sheds light on funerary, divination, and commercial practices in the first millennium BCE
By Rossella Tercatin
A fragment of a rare 3,800-year-old textile, dyed with the Kermes vermilio insect. (Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority)
February 3, 2025, 9:19 am
Why sheep count: Lack of textile trade stymied Israel’s growth for millennia, study shows
During the Early Bronze Age, the Southern Levant’s inability to support mass sheep herding left the region lagging behind Syria and Mesopotamia. But literacy is key for longevity
By Rossella Tercatin
Ancient Mesopotamian tablets recently deciphered by Assyriologist Andrew George. (Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative)
August 24, 2024, 5:44 pm
Ancient Babylonians thought solar eclipses predicted disasters
Deciphering four Mesopotamian tablets, team led by Assyriologist Andrew George shows Babylonians understood celestial events as messages from the gods
By ToI Staff
Owner and proprietor Tzvi David makes baba qadrasi at Konditorei David, March 2024. (Courtesy)
March 23, 2024, 8:14 am
Heavenly Purim treats at this Iraqi Jewish confectionery are a window into a bygone era
Customers line up in Petah Tikva for an ancient nougat named for manna and a trip back in time, as they fear 70-year-old Konditorei David may too soon be a thing of the past
By Eliyahu Freedman
A spirit is seen being led to the afterlife by a lover on a Babylonian clay tablet. The white line tracing is by Chris Cobb for Irving Finkel's book, The First Ghosts: Most Ancient of Legacies. (Screenshot/ Youtube/Archaeology Now)
October 17, 2021, 12:12 am
Unhappy spirit: Oldest ever drawing of ghost found on ancient Babylonian tablet
Revisiting a ‘spectacular’ 3,500-year-old clay tablet in its vaults, a researcher at the British Museum spots a ‘miserable’ phantom being led into the afterlife by a lover
By ToI Staff
Givati Parking Lot excavations in the City of David Park in Jerusalem, a site where remnants of the 586 BCE destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians were discovered. (Shai Halevi/Israel Antiquities Authority)
August 9, 2020, 1:24 am
Burnt remains from 586 BCE Jerusalem may hold key to protecting planet
A new analysis of 1st Temple-era artifacts, magnetized when Babylonians torched the city, provides a way to chart the geomagnetic field – physics’ Holy Grail – and maybe save Earth
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
By the rivers of Babylon, painting by Gebhard Fugel, c. 1920 (Wikimedia/ creative commons)
July 28, 2020, 5:10 am
By the rivers of Babylon: Why a 2,500-year-old Hebrew poem still matters
On July 29, Jews around the world will observe Tisha B’av commemorating destruction of two temples in Jerusalem, first by Babylonians, and then by the Romans
By David W. Stowe
A clay tablet dating back to the Neo-Assyrian Period, 7th century BC, that narrates the Babylonian Flood Story transliterated by George Smith. From the Library of Ashurbanipal II at Nineveh, northern Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq. March 16, 2016. (Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg)/Wikipedia CC-BY-SA-4.0)
December 1, 2019, 8:12 am
Study: ‘Trickster’ Babylonian god used puns in ancient flood story
British researcher says tablet telling the Epic of Gilgamesh contains the ‘earliest ever example of fake news’
By ToI Staff
An earring found during an excavation at Mount Zion is cited as evidence of Babylonian conquest of city in 586 BCE (Mount Zion Archaeological Expedition)
August 13, 2019, 5:12 pm
New Jerusalem finds are evidence of Babylonian siege, archaeologists say
Jewel, arrowheads found buried in layer of ash at Mount Zion are part of jumble indicating a household ruined ‘following a raid or battle’
By ToI Staff
People stand near the Lion of Babylon at the archaeological site of Babylon, Iraq, Friday, July 5, 2019.(AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)
July 6, 2019, 4:27 am
Iraq celebrates naming Babylon a UNESCO World Heritage site
It was from the 4,300-year-old city that Nebuchadnezzar sent his vast army to Jerusalem to put down an uprising and bring the Jews back as slaves
By Qassim Abdul-Zahra
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