Ancient World
Yazilikaya: The Rock Sanctuary of the Hittite Gods
Yazilikaya became the most important surviving Hittite sanctuary and has been part of the Hattusa UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986.
Region
Middle East
Ancient World
Merneptah Stele: Earliest Mention of Israel (c. 1208 BC)
A royal victory hymn that preserved the oldest known reference to a people called Israel in Canaan.
Ancient World
Late Bronze Age Collapse: The End of an Interconnected World
The Hittite empire, Mycenaean palace states and many Levantine cities collapsed, Egypt and Assyria were weakened, and the region entered the early Iron Age.
Ancient World
Sea Peoples: Raiders of the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean
Egypt repelled the Sea Peoples twice, but some groups, notably the Philistines, settled on the coast of Canaan as the Late Bronze Age order collapsed.
Ancient World
Battle of the Delta: Ramesses III Against the Sea Peoples
Egyptian victory; the Sea Peoples were repelled from Egypt, though many settled on the coast of Canaan.
Ancient World
Shutruk-Nakhunte's Sack of Babylon (1158 BC): Elam's Plunder
Elam plundered Babylonian cities, ended the Kassite dynasty and carried famous Mesopotamian monuments to Susa.
Ancient World
Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Creation Epic of Marduk and Tiamat
The epic exalted Marduk as king of the gods and Babylon as the centre of the world, and it was recited at the Babylonian New Year festival.
Ancient World
Phoenician Alphabet: The Script Behind Western Writing
A compact 22-letter consonantal script became the ancestor of the Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic alphabets.
Ancient World
Sarcophagus of Ahiram: An Early Phoenician Inscription
The sarcophagus preserves one of the earliest substantial texts in the Phoenician alphabet.
Ancient World
Shoshenq I's Campaign in Canaan (c. 925 BC) and the Bible
Egyptian raid through Canaan that damaged many towns and is widely linked with the biblical account of Shishak's attack on Jerusalem.
Ancient World
Phoenician Colonies: Trade Networks Across the Mediterranean
A chain of Phoenician colonies and trading posts linked the eastern and western Mediterranean and laid the foundations of Carthage's later power.
Ancient World
Ashurnasirpal II and the Northwest Palace at Nimrud
Kalhu became the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire for about 170 years, and its palace reliefs became world-famous.