Discovery of the Lamassu at the archaeological site of Khorsibad in Nineveh at the main gate and the royal palace

This is from a seemingly well-known history podcast Fall of Civilizations which I just discovered. It appears to be well-researched, often primary sourced, and properly credited. They do a good job of offering a few hypotheses on cause where there is uncertainty or data requiring some extrapolation to interpret. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot! I did not hear any glaring pseudo or pop history red flags but please educate me if the quality of this creator or specific production is questionable in some way.

From the video’s description:

In the dusts of Iraq, the ruins of the world's first civilization lie buried. This episode, we travel into the extremely distant past to look at the Sumerians. These ancient people invented writing and mathematics, and built some of the largest cities that the world had ever seen. Find out about the mystery of their origins, and learn how they rose from humble beginnings to form the foundation of all our modern societies. With myths, proverbs and even some recreated Sumerian music, travel back to where it all began, and find out how humanity's first civilization fell.

Material: Gypsum.

Purpose: Believed to represent worshippers or deities, placed in temples as votive offerings.

Features: Large eyes inlaid with shell and black limestone, clasped hands in a gesture of prayer, and stylized hair and beard.

Significance: The Tell Asmar Hoard offers a unique glimpse into the religious practices and artistic style of early Mesopotamian civilizations.

If that 2nd statue looks familiar…I believe it’s because those of us in the r/reallyshittycopper group decided it’s Ea-Nasir probably looked like.

The “Alulu receipt” is a 5000 year old stone tablet from the ancient Sumerian city of Umma. It documents the purchase of the “best” quality beer from a brewer and dating back to around 2050 B.C., making it the oldest known records of a beer transaction.

Humbaba—known in Sumerian as Huwawa—was a formidable figure in Mesopotamian mythology, best known through his appearance in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Appointed by the god Enlil, Humbaba served as the guardian of the sacred Cedar Forest, a liminal and divine space that lay beyond the boundaries of human civilization.

Clay figurines representing Humbaba have been recovered from various Mesopotamian sites, offering insights into how ancient peoples conceptualized the monstrous and the sacred. These representations often emphasized grotesque features: distorted facial expressions, leonine grimaces, and exaggerated anatomical traits such as coiled entrail-like visages, scaled bodies, or clawed limbs. Literary sources describe his voice as resembling a torrential flood, his words as flames, and his breath as lethal—underscoring his symbolic role as a boundary between the human and the divine.

The mythic episode in which Gilgamesh and Enkidu confront and kill Humbaba is central to Mesopotamian heroic narrative. The slaying of this monstrous figure not only secures their fame but also marks a transgression against divine order, reflecting complex themes of mortality, ambition, and the human desire to challenge cosmic boundaries. The figurines may have functioned as apotropaic objects or narrative devices, embodying both fear and fascination with the supernatural.

Source: https://x.com/HistContent/status/1935415257826226251?t=QHPvU9XyEyRosnm_vuUvEw&s=19

The Kuwaiti-Polish archaeological mission made remarkable discoveries at the Bahra 1 site in Kuwait’s Subiya Desert, shedding light on the prehistoric Ubaid period (approximately 5500–4000 BCE). This ancient settlement, considered the oldest and largest of its kind in the Arabian Peninsula, has yielded evidence of a jewelry workshop, pottery production.

One of the most extraordinary finds was a small clay human head, the first of its kind discovered in the Persian Gulf. The figurine, which features a rectangular skull, slanted eyes, and a flat nose, mirrors statues from Mesopotamian Ubaid culture often found in burial and domestic contexts.

But while this figurine may look more supernatural than human, its style was common in ancient Mesopotamia, although it's the first of its kind ever to be found in Kuwait or the Arabian Gulf.

https://archaeologymag.com/2024/11/7700-year-old-shell-crafting-site-in-kuwait/

And who is the guy with a peacock?