Yale Babylonian Collection

04/15/2026

Today is Tax Day, and we thought we’d share that you aren’t the only one who has to pay up!
During the Old Assyrian period (ca. 1969-1715 BCE), there were a whole slew of taxes levied on many entrepreneurial families. During this period, many Assyrians began to engage in a business venture whereby they would transport tin, textiles, and other goods from Assur to the city of Kanesh, in modern Türkiye. Essentially, they could buy the goods cheaply in Assur,
load them up on a donkey, and send them on their way to Kanesh, where they would sell the
materials for a large profit.

But they didn’t just get off scot-free; they were taxed at almost every stage of the journey. On the way out of Assur, a caravan was liable to pay the wāṣītum, literally an export tax. This amounted to approximately 1/120 of the value of a shipment. On a full donkey, this amounted to about 5 shekels of silver (depending on the make-up of its load). This may not sound like much, but 5 shekels of silver could buy enough wheat to feed a man for a month.

As the caravan made its way to Kanesh, it crossed through multiple independent territories, each charging a tax to travel through their land. A conservative estimate would put this fee around 25 shekels of silver! Another tax paid along the journey was the dātum. This fee is somewhat mysterious, but one full donkey-load would be charged around 88 shekels of silver for this fee, and we haven’t even made it to Kanesh! If this tax had been levied in Assur, it would have amounted to more than 10% of the load’s value. The final tax levied on the road is the qaqqadātum. This was literally a “head-tax” levied in an amount corresponding to each individual person who accompanied the caravan. At a minimum for one donkey-load, this would have cost another 2-3 shekels of silver.

Having finally made it to Kanesh, there are yet more taxes to be levied! The first is the nishātum. This was an import tax of 5% on textiles and 3% on tin. The total amount for one donkey-load would be about 36 shekels of silver. The final tax is the ešrātum, a tithe on textiles for the palace in Kanesh. This would cost about 16.5 shekels of silver for one donkey-load.

How much a merchant could expect to make from this trip is variable; however, it must have
been a lucrative opportunity, as many families put up with these taxes to conduct their business!

(YBC 13092, YPM BC 026580)



📸 Photograph by Klaus Wagensonner

03/31/2026

The Assyrian New Year event at the Yale Peabody Museum is happening TOMORROW! 🥳 See you there!

03/24/2026

Come join us at the Yale Peabody Museum on April 1 for the Assyrian New Year! 🎉

03/04/2026

"In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar." (Esther 3:7)

Today starts the Jewish holiday Purim. Purim commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, who was planning to kill all the Jews. Hebrew pûrîm, "lot" or “die” is related to the Akkadian word pūru. William W. Hallo, Curator of the Yale Babylonian Collection in 1963-2002, proposed a link between Purim, whose name refers to how the date of the holiday was determined by the casting of lots and a unique six-sided clay cube in the Collection. The cube has an inscription identifying it as the pūru of Iahalu, who was year eponym under the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III. People who were chosen as eponyms gave their name to the year they held office (i.e. instead of writing “in the year [number],” the date would read “in the eponymy of [name].”) Eponyms may originally have been chosen through a lot-based or dice-based method and perhaps YBC 7058 was actually used in the selection of Iahalu, who we know held the office in 833, 824, and 821 BCE. The text on the clay cube reads in translation:

"Ashur, the great lord, Adad, the great lord: die of Iahalu, the chief masennu of Shalmaneser, king of Assyria: governor of the city Kipshuna, the lands Qumenu, Mehranu, Uqu (and) Erimmu; chief of trade: in his eponymy (and the period allotted by) his die, may the harvest of Assyria prosper well. May he throw his die before Ashur (and) Adad."

(YBC 7058, YPM BC 021122)




Photography: Klaus Wagensonner

02/14/2026

The Vigorous Sun Keeps Overcoming Me (YPM BC 018708; YBC 04643)

Mesopotamian love literature is not always explicit, but full of metaphors and rare words: kuzbum, meaning "s*xual appeal," ir'emum, meaning "love-charm," and several words derived from the root râmum, or "to love", such as narāmum, meaning "loved one". Other words that may at first appear mundane take on new significance when used in this genre of literature.

A common type of Mesopotamian love poetry centered upon a goddess and a king. While this tablet contains definite scribal errors, and was perhaps a draft or school text, it seems to fall into this genre of literature, serving as a type of royal hymn. Despite the difficulty of assigning lines to individual speakers, the text likely includes a male, a female, and a chorus. In one interpretation, the two main speakers are the goddess Nanaya and the king Rīm-Sîn of Larsa, who ruled for an astonishing sixty years. Both figures are explicitly mentioned in the text, with the reference to Rīm-Sîn firmly grounding it in the Old Babylonian period. In Larsa, Nanaya had appropriated the aspects of love usually associated with Inanna and she features in text about love throughout the Old Babylonian period.

📸Photograph by Klaus Wagensonner

02/13/2026

Terracotta Plaque Showing Embracing Couple (YPM BC 038111; YBC 10025)

Terracotta plaques and figurines were common throughout Mesopotamian history and often relate to the beliefs and religious practices of ordinary people. A favored motif was the n**e female shown in different styles and manifestations from prehistoric times until the end of the Sasanian period. In some forms, the emphasis was on erotic allure and in others, on fertility. This plaque from the Old Babylonian period shows a female in flounced dress embracing a bearded male wearing a flounced dress and brimmed cap.

Despite the simple ex*****on, the embrace of the two facing figures suggests deep intimacy and tenderness. Except for depictions of acts of violence, physical contact is uncommon in Mesopotamian art. Similarly, while the gaze was of great importance in Mesopotamian art, it is rare to see it exchanged between two equals facing each other directly. This plaque and its unusual scene seem to be concerned with love, rather than fertility or s*x.

📸Photograph by Klaus Wagensonner

02/12/2026

Love Is in the Stars
(YPM BC 001857; MLC 1859)

The power of love and erotic attraction were celebrated in Mesopotamian art and literary texts. This tablet lists the titles of rituals and incantations, including several entries related to lo******ng (highlighted in green), such as:

“(Rituals and spells for) a man in love of a woman: region of Libra”

“(Rituals and spells for) a man in love of a man: region of Scorpio”

“(Rituals and spells to) prevent a man’s wife from turning her eyes or face towards another man: region of Gemini”

The references to zodiac signs indicate when in astronomical terms the use of each spell would be most promising. This Late Babylonian text was owned by Iqishaya, son of Ishtar-shumu-irish and descendant of Ekurzakir, a well-known ritual healer, teacher, and priest.. An earlier version of the text from Assyria relates the magical rituals to specific days of the lunar year rather than zodiac signs, which were introduced in the Persian period. Late Babylonian astral magic, as is recorded here, strongly influenced Greek practices of the Hellenistic age. The association of love charms with Aries, for example, is also found in a Greek magical papyrus.

📸Photograph by Klaus Wagensonner
⚱️YPM BC 001857; MLC 1859

12/25/2025

❄️ Happy Holidays from the Yale Babylonian Collection! See you in the new year! ❄️

📸 Photography by Klaus Waggensoner

#2025 #2026

11/19/2025

10/31/2025

Happy Halloween! Are you curious about ancient Mesopotamian spells and incantations? Check out our ✨spooktacular✨2024 series!

Happy ! As we conclude our series on and , let’s look back on all the ways the dealt with evil spirits and sickness.
While we cannot always be sure what any given spell, incantation, or ritual describes, we are able to identify these texts by their technical terminology. Incantations could be designated by the words e₂-en₂-nu-ru and KA-enim-ma. However, we have also seen that sometimes the Mesopotamians preferred a touch of the exotic in their spells, using foreign languages or what appears to be unintelligible words to the modern scholar.
A range of these spells were collected in large series’, like Udug-hul ( “Evil Demons.”) Incantations could also be inscribed on small amulets meant to repel such spirits from harming a person. There were many evils that an ancient Mesopotamian may have wanted to protect themselves from, including the baby-snatching Lamashtu. But, there were also more mundane uses for such spells, like calming a crying infant. Learned professionals like the āšipu were trained in ritualistic healing, warding off evil demons thought to cause physical or psychological ailments.
Our final post of the series does not directly concern magical spells, but deals with two lists of stones, which were meant to be threaded onto a string which was used to ward off evil signs, ailments, and also ghosts. The Hand-of-Ghost was a common affliction with a wide range of symptoms such as headache, ringing in the ears, uncontrolled movements of the body, etc. Incantations were one way to ward off such evil. Another one was amulets.
The image shows one of these texts. The scribe listed 34 different stones, shells, and metal beads with a short summary: “(against) anything evil and the Hand-of-Ghost” (marked green) (https://www.ebl.lmu.de/fragmentarium/NBC.7839).

Photographs by Klaus Wagensonner

YPM BC 010826; NBC 7839

10/29/2025

It had been previously suggested that Egyptian alabastron vases held perfumes or cosmetics for royal elites. Researchers analyzing a sticky, dark-brown residue in one fifth-century B.C. vessel, however, found something quite a bit stronger …

archaeology.org/news/2025/10/28/traces-of-opium-detected-on-egyptian-alabastron/

(📸 Courtesy of the Yale Babylonian Collection)