F

or hundreds of years, the Bible was

the main source of our knowledge

of ancient Babylon, Ashur, and other

great cities of the Middle East. The

Old Testament uncompromisingly

portrayed all these cities as being dominated by

ruthless rulers whose overriding ambitions were

to conquer their neighbours and crush all those

who did not follow their religion. And that

religion, involving belief in a great many deities,

was in stark contrast to the Jewish belief in one

God. It is perhaps unsurprising that the Bible

took a dim view of these societies.

In the 19th century, our understanding of

the ancient cultures of West Asia deepened.

Archaeologists began to explore the mud-brick

remains of cities such as Babylon, Ashur, Ur,

and Uruk in earnest. They also got to grips with

deciphering the writing on

countless clay tablets that

were discovered at these

sites. What emerged

was a picture of a much more sophisticated

society than had previously been imagined, one

that had made great advances in mathematics,

astrology, medicine, and the law. In addition,

archaeologists found out much more about the

beliefs of these cities’ inhabitants and the stories

they told one another. A much fuller, rounder

impression of the early culture of ancient Iraq

and its neighbours began to emerge.

In some ways, the myths that were revealed

confirmed the Biblical prejudices. Some stories

were extremely bloodthirsty, and some involved

practices – such as temple prostitution – that

ofended most outsiders. But the myths also

included many gripping tales – of the creation,

of visits to the Underworld, and of the deeds

of great heroes such as Gilgamesh, the mythical

king who strove for immortality.

A number of these exciting stories, including

accounts of the creation and of wars between

the gods, are strikingly similar to stories in other

cultures. Perhaps the closest parallel of all is in

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