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Artifact 11 Entity 321 Page 3 Period 5 Person 144 Site 63 Study 100 Ancient text 19
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Original photograph
Site
Jericho / Tell es-Sultan
Archaeological mound near present-day Jericho in Palestine’s Jordan Valley, preserving early Neolithic settlement and Bronze Age layers.
Plastered skull from Jericho, Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, displayed at the British Museum. An ancient modeled face on human remains, not a modern facial reconstruction
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Original photograph
Site
Elephantine / Yeb
Island near Aswan at the Nile’s first cataract; Persian-period Aramaic papyri document a Jewish community and Yaho’s temple.
Modern view of Elephantine Island and the Nile near Aswan; geographical context, not the remains of Yaho’s temple
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Illustration
City
Amarna / Akhetaten
Site of Akhenaten’s capital in Middle Egypt; boundary stelae record successive proclamations and reaffirmation.
Modern timeline of boundary-stela proclamations in years 5, 6 and 8. Not an archaeological city plan or a claim that all changes occurred on one day; inscriptional claims do not verify revelation
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Original photograph
Site
Qumran
Site near the northwestern Dead Sea; neighboring caves preserve ancient Jewish textual finds, not one complete Bible.
Qumran site remains in a modern photograph. Context for the manuscripts, not Cave 4 or a Jeremiah fragment. Original preserved; display resized without cropping
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Illustration
Site
Khirbet el-Qom
Site west of Hebron known for an eighth-century BCE funerary inscription commonly associating Yahweh with “his asherah”; damaged text and readings disputed.
Modern diagram of context, common reading and limits at el-Qom. Not the inscription or its physical layout; debated translation not made certain
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Illustration
Site
Kuntillet ʿAjrud
Sinai site preserving blessings by Yahweh of Samaria/Teman and “his asherah” around 800 BCE; building function and wording disputed.
Modern summary of two Kuntillet ʿAjrud formulas in published readings. Not a jar photograph, inscription facsimile or map; does not settle “his asherah” or drawing identities
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Original photograph
Site
Nippur / Nuffar
Mesopotamian city and major Enlil cult centre, connected with kings’ legitimacy beyond the city.
Ziggurat mound at Nippur from the southwest, photograph by Noémi Alzayadi. The building on top dates to late-nineteenth-century excavations, not a standing Sumerian temple. Modern site context; display copy resized only
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Original photograph
Site
Eanna at Uruk
An archaeological precinct and institutional centre at Uruk associated with Inanna; its name does not fix every early building’s function.
Warka Vase, Iraq Museum, IM19606, late fourth millennium BCE. Plants, animals and presentation; parts restored. Emblems link it to Inanna, while female identity remains unsettled. Photo, 2019
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Original photograph
Site
Boncuklu Höyük
A Konya Plain Neolithic settlement with oval houses and burials associated with continued building use.
Boncuklu today: replica houses, visitor-centre interior, interpretative garden and pond, Figure 6 of the 2026 study. Modern facilities, not an excavation photograph or burial-ritual reconstruction
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Illustration
Site
Balıklı
A central Anatolian Neolithic site with floor and wall burials and special skull treatment.
Modern Balıklı guide: changing counts in the 2024 and 2025 reports, with floor and wall burials. An entrance in one better-preserved building prevents universal claims of roof access
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Illustration
Site
Aşıklı Höyük
A Neolithic Cappadocian settlement with successive buildings and selected subfloor burials.
Modern Aşıklı guide: 2021 counts, some close relatives and selective burial. Proposed roof hatches are architectural inferences, not evidence of a heaven or underworld doctrine
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Illustration
Site
Raqefet Cave
A Mount Carmel cave with plant-lined burial evidence and mortars whose possible use for brewing has been debated.
Modern diagram separates Raqefet’s plant-lined grave evidence from mortar residues interpreted as brewing. The latter was subsequently debated; no preserved beer was recovered
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Illustration
Site
Hilazon Tachtit
A Late Natufian burial cave in Galilee, with an exceptional woman’s grave and deposits interpreted as funerary feasts.
Modern evidence guide for Hilazon. Finds, age and skeletal abnormalities are observations; shaman is the excavators’ interpretation. Not a reconstruction of the burial or woman
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Illustration
Site
Hayonim Cave
A Galilean cave with Natufian graves and ornaments; its long funerary use informs research on identity and place memory.
Modern diagram of Hayonim burial duration, Grave XVII phases and ornaments. Memory and identity interpret the evidence; duration does not establish one continuous group or ancestor worship
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Original photograph
City
Uruk
Ancient city at Warka in southern Iraq, a major urban centre around 3200 BCE that preserved early writing and accounting tablets.
Architectural remains at Uruk/Warka, photographed by David Stanley, 9 April 2016. The sign is modern; its claim about first writing is not independent evidence of global priority or an exact invention date
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Original photograph
Site
Ain Ghazal
Neolithic site near Amman, Jordan, known for large Pre-Pottery Neolithic plaster statues. Faces and decorated eyes are recognizable, but the figures’ names and religious function remain unresolved.
Head of a plaster statue from Ain Ghazal, Pre-Pottery Neolithic, Jordan Museum, Amman. Photograph: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, CC BY-SA 4.0. A comparison from another community, not direct evidence of an Ubaid maker’s skill
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Original photograph
Site
Eridu
Abu Shahrain in southern Iraq, with a long architectural sequence beginning before writing. Associated with Enki in historical times, which does not establish the sacred being’s identity in its earliest layers.
Eridu ziggurat remains, photographed by David Stanley on 11 April 2016. The visible architecture postdates the Ubaid; it is not a photograph of its earliest temples or evidence of their deity’s identity
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Original photograph
Site
Çatalhöyük
A Neolithic site in central Anatolia where domestic houses combined dwelling with burial, symbolism and social memory.
The southern excavation area at Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia. Domestic building remains support study of dwelling, burial and social memory; the photograph is not a reconstruction of the original houses
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Original photograph
Site
Göbekli Tepe
A Neolithic site in southeastern Turkey, known for communal buildings and T-shaped pillars; the excavation team describes a settlement with a pronounced ritual component.
Building C at Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey, photographed in 2019. T-shaped pillars and communal architecture in a settlement with a ritual component; any proposed divine identities remain unknown. Some pillars have been restored
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Original photograph
Region
Mesopotamia
A historical region associated with the Tigris and Euphrates, home to many societies and civilisations.
The ziggurat of Ur in southern Iraq, in a modern photograph that includes restored parts of the structure. An example of a Mesopotamian site, not an image of the entire region or a reconstruction of all its periods
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Original photograph
City
Ugarit
Ancient city and kingdom at Ras Shamra on the Syrian coast, flourishing between the fourteenth and early twelfth centuries BCE and preserving multilingual archives.
Entrance to Ugarit at Ras Shamra, near Latakia; photographed in August 1989. A modern photograph of the archaeological site, reused unchanged
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Original photograph
City
Mari
An ancient city and kingdom on the Euphrates, at Tell Hariri in eastern Syria.
Ruins of the palace associated with Zimri-Lim at Mari, Tell Hariri. A photograph of the setting of the royal archives, not a reconstruction of its ancient appearance
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Original photograph
City
Ebla
An ancient city at Tell Mardikh in Syria, known for its third-millennium BCE tablet archive.
Remains of Palace G at Ebla, Tell Mardikh: a photograph of the archaeological site. It provides the archive’s setting and does not independently date every visible building phase
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