Category موضوعي
Texts and their transmission
Inscriptions, manuscripts, editions, translations and the transmission of texts.
Advanced search →Artifact 10 Entity 180 Period 1 Person 99 Site 28 Study 79 Ancient text 17
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Original photograph
Entity
Jonah / Yunus
Prophetic figure in Jonah and the Qur’an; distinguish the Kings notice from the book’s composition and later reception.
Roman marble table base depicting Jonah swallowed and cast up by a marine creature, early fourth century CE. Metropolitan Museum,77.7, public-domain photograph. Evidence of Christian artistic reception, not an artifact from the prophet’s time or identification of his fish’s species
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Original photograph
Entity
Greek Additions to Esther
Six blocks conventionally labeled A–F, adding a dream, letters, prayers and an audience scene to Greek witnesses of Esther.
Limestone relief of two servants carrying food and drink, Persepolis, ca. 358–338 BCE, under Artaxerxes III. Metropolitan Museum, 34.158, public-domain photograph. Evidence for the representation of banquet service, not Esther, Haman or a banquet of Xerxes
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Original photograph
Entity
Purim
Jewish festival connected in Esther with rescue and lots; the book’s explanation alone does not establish the first historical origin of every element.
Limestone relief of two servants carrying food and drink, Persepolis, ca. 358–338 BCE, under Artaxerxes III. Metropolitan Museum, 34.158, public-domain photograph. Evidence for the representation of banquet service, not Esther, Haman or a banquet of Xerxes
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Illustration
Entity
Court Tale
A scholarly label for stories of a sage or outsider tested or endangered by a ruler; the label alone does not prove textual borrowing.
Modern editorial illustration of a sage writing at an ancient court. Generated explanatory image, not a photograph of P.13446 or a documented reconstruction of Daniel or Ahiqar. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Potiphar’s Wife Motif
A comparative label for a woman’s rejected overture followed by a false accusation; it does not give every version a biblical origin.
Modern editorial illustration of a household divided by Bata’s accusation; neither an excavated papyrus nor a documented historical reconstruction. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Nun: Egyptian Primeval Waters
The primeval waters or realm in several Egyptian traditions; a parallel with Hebrew tehom does not prove an etymology or direct borrowing.
Modern conceptual illustration of primeval water, an emerging mound and sunrise; neither an excavated Egyptian artifact nor a reconstruction of one text. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
The tree forbidden in Genesis 2:17 and discussed by the serpent before the eating in Genesis 3; it is not the tree of life.
Modern conceptual illustration juxtaposing Gilgamesh’s water-borne plant with two trees in Genesis’s garden. It depicts no excavated artifact and does not establish identical stories. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Tree of Life in Genesis
A tree distinct from the knowledge tree in Genesis 2–3; after the other tree is eaten, the way to it is guarded lest humans eat and live forever.
Modern conceptual illustration juxtaposing Gilgamesh’s water-borne plant with two trees in Genesis’s garden. It depicts no excavated artifact and does not establish identical stories. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Gilgamesh’s Rejuvenating Plant
A thorny underwater plant in Tablet XI that Gilgamesh intended to test for renewed youth before losing it to a snake; the text does not establish perpetual immortality.
Modern conceptual illustration juxtaposing Gilgamesh’s water-borne plant with two trees in Genesis’s garden. It depicts no excavated artifact and does not establish identical stories. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Matsya: The Saving Fish in Indian Traditions
The fish that saves Manu from the flood; the earliest surviving account leaves its divine identity unstated, the cited epic identifies Brahmā, and Purāṇic versions link it with Viṣṇu.
Modern conceptual illustration evoking the boat, horned fish, seeds and mountain in Manu traditions, especially the epic version; not an ancient artifact or documented location. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Stone-born People in Deucalion’s Story
A Greek image of humanity renewed from stones after the flood, attested by Pindar and elaborated by Ovid and Pseudo-Apollodorus.
Modern conceptual illustration of receding water, two survivors, a mountain and stones evoking Deucalion; not an archaeological photograph or a documented location. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
The Noahic Covenant in Genesis
Genesis 9’s covenant with Noah, descendants and all living creatures, marked by the bow in the clouds and a promise against another destroying flood.
Modern conceptual illustration of an offering on newly dried ground beneath an arc of light; neither an artifact photograph nor a reconstruction of a documented event. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
The Pleasing-Aroma Formula
A Hebrew idiom for an acceptable offering in Genesis 8:21 and Leviticus; it does not by itself show that God needs food.
Modern conceptual illustration of an offering on newly dried ground beneath an arc of light; neither an artifact photograph nor a reconstruction of a documented event. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Mesopotamian Hemerology
Texts assessing which days of a month suit particular actions, including warnings for some dates such as the seventh and fourteenth.
Original conceptual illustration of a mid-cycle moon and tablet calendar; not an artifact photograph or reconstruction of a historical ritual. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Akkadian Šapattu
An Akkadian term usually connected with the fifteenth day or a half-month, not an attested name for a weekly general rest day.
Original conceptual illustration of a mid-cycle moon and tablet calendar; not an artifact photograph or reconstruction of a historical ritual. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Kinsman-Redeemer in Ruth
A relative exercising a family property-redemption right in Ruth 4; he need not be the deceased husband’s brother.
Modern conceptual illustration: a sandal, an uninscribed clay tablet and model fields symbolize kinship and inheritance. No documented artifact or historical scene is depicted. IL Archive / CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Levirate Marriage
A widow’s marriage to her deceased husband’s brother, whose conditions and purposes vary across ancient traditions.
Modern conceptual illustration: a sandal, an uninscribed clay tablet and model fields symbolize kinship and inheritance. No documented artifact or historical scene is depicted. IL Archive / CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Sotah Ritual: The Suspected Wife’s Ordeal
A later name for Numbers 5:11–31, combining marital suspicion, oath and water with sanctuary dust.
A modern conceptual illustration places river and vessel together to contrast two distinct procedures. It depicts no documented ordeal or specific artifact; the tablet's marks are decorative and not legible text. IL Archive / CC0
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Illustration
Entity
River Ordeal: Divine Adjudication by Water
An ancient procedure referring a difficult dispute to a river with divine status; legal and archival witnesses differ.
A modern conceptual illustration places river and vessel together to contrast two distinct procedures. It depicts no documented ordeal or specific artifact; the tablet's marks are decorative and not legible text. IL Archive / CC0
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Original photograph
Entity
ʿEved: Service and Subordination in Ancient Hebrew
A Hebrew word whose status depends on each rule’s kinship, ownership and duration; not one modern legal category.
Cuneiform tablet from Babylon, ca. 554 BCE, catalogued by the Met as a proxy contract for the purchase of an enslaved person from the Egibi archive. It is Neo-Babylonian, centuries later than Hammurapi; its inscription, not read here, does not establish that any particular Torah or Hammurapi rule governed this transaction. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, object 79.7.11; Public Domain
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Illustration
Entity
Gēr: the Resident Outsider in Hebrew Texts
A person living within an Israelite community; neither every foreigner nor a modern legal refugee category.
Contemporary conceptual illustration of sheaves left in a harvested field, inspired by Deuteronomy’s harvest rules. Not a record of an identified ancient village or evidence that the rules were enforced; IL Archive / CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty
A 672 BCE Assyrian loyalty oath securing Ashurbanipal’s succession, with copies from Nimrud and Tell Tayinat.
Contemporary conceptual illustration: clay tablet, parchment and stone evoke ancient covenant media. Not an archaeological copy of Esarhaddon’s oath or Deuteronomy, nor evidence of documented transmission; IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Biblical Jubilee
The release and return to ancestral holding in Leviticus 25 after seven cycles of seven years.
Contemporary conceptual illustration: family fields and an untied cord evoke land return and release in ancient law. Not an identified archaeological site or a documented historical scene; IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Lex talionis
A formula linking a penalty to a harm, such as “eye for eye”; its setting and application vary across texts.
Contemporary IL Archive conceptual illustration: an eye-shaped stone and a silver weight evoke matching penalty and compensation. Generated for this study; not an identified stele, artifact, or reconstruction of a particular historical judgment. IL Archive, CC0
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Original photograph
Entity
Leviathan
A poetic sea being in Hebrew texts, related to Ugaritic ltn; its role varies between combat and creation imagery.
Fragments of Ugaritic KTU 1.5, Louvre AO 16641 and AO 16642, c. 1400–1200 BCE. The Baal Cycle text mentions ltn; the artifact does not depict the creature. Photograph by Rama, 2007, CC BY-SA 2.0 France via Wikimedia Commons; original unchanged
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Original photograph
Entity
Etemenanki
Babylon’s ziggurat in the Esagil complex, associated with Marduk and attested in royal inscriptions and a later measurement tablet.
Clay cuneiform cylinder from Nebuchadnezzar II’s reign commemorating reconstruction of Etemenanki at Babylon; neither a picture of the tower nor a depiction of Genesis. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 86.11.284, public-domain image; resized and converted to WebP for display
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Original photograph
Entity
Ninmah
A major goddess involved in human making and in assigning fates to fashioned bodies in the Sumerian composition.
Clay tablet of Atraḫasīs at the British Museum. The photographer identifies it with the flood tradition, not the human-creation lines. Photograph: SpeakingArch, 2026 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; resized and converted to WebP for display
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Original photograph
Entity
Namma
A goddess who asks Enki to relieve the gods’ labor in Enki and Ninmah.
Clay tablet of Atraḫasīs at the British Museum. The photographer identifies it with the flood tradition, not the human-creation lines. Photograph: SpeakingArch, 2026 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; resized and converted to WebP for display
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Original photograph
Entity
Adapa
Wise figure of Eridu associated with Ea; multiple texts recount his ascent to Anu and refusal of offered food.
Adapa fragment A, MLC 1296, Neo-Assyrian, about the seventh century BCE, Morgan Library & Museum. Preserves the opening; not Amarna EA 356 or a portrait of Adapa or Adam. Photograph: Daderot, 2020; CC0 1.0
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Original photograph
Entity
Qingu
Tiamat’s commander, whose blood forms humanity in Enuma Elish.
Enuma Elish tablet K.3473, from Nineveh, Neo-Assyrian period; British Museum. A witness to the poem’s transmission, not its first composition
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Original photograph
Entity
Apsû
Primordial waters and divine progenitor in Enuma Elish.
Enuma Elish tablet K.3473, from Nineveh, Neo-Assyrian period; British Museum. A witness to the poem’s transmission, not its first composition
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Original photograph
Entity
Shamash
Mesopotamian god of the sun and justice, shown before Hammurabi on an eighteenth-century BCE stele preserved in the Louvre.
Relief at the top of the Sun-God Tablet from Sippar, ninth century BCE. Shamash sits before a solar disc; a Babylonian king and two intermediary figures stand to the left. British Museum, 91000. Photograph by Prioryman, 22 January 2012
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Original photograph
Entity
Maat
Ancient Egyptian right order, truth and rectitude, also divinely personified; represented in heart-weighing by a feather or a goddess’s figure.
Funerary papyrus fragment depicting judgment before Osiris, Egypt, ca. 230–150 BCE; Metropolitan Museum 66.99.142. The scale contains a small figure of Maat
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Original photograph
Entity
Osiris
Egyptian deity associated with the dead and continued life, presiding over judgment in funerary papyri such as 66.99.142.
Funerary papyrus fragment depicting judgment before Osiris, Egypt, ca. 230–150 BCE; Metropolitan Museum 66.99.142. The scale contains a small figure of Maat
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Original photograph
Entity
Ninshubur
Inanna’s attendant in the Sumerian descent, following her instructions and seeking help during her absence.
K.162, Akkadian copy of Ishtar’s Descent from Ashurbanipal’s library at Nineveh, seventh century BCE, British Museum. Not a tablet of the Sumerian Inanna composition
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Original photograph
Entity
Ereshkigal
Ruler of the underworld in Mesopotamian traditions, exercising authority over death’s realm in the descent narratives.
K.162, Akkadian copy of Ishtar’s Descent from Ashurbanipal’s library at Nineveh, seventh century BCE, British Museum. Not a tablet of the Sumerian Inanna composition
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Original photograph
Entity
Tiamat
Primordial watery divine figure in Enūma Eliš, later Marduk’s opponent; her defeated body provides material for cosmic arrangement.
Mušḫuššu dragon from Babylon’s Ishtar Gate decoration, Neo-Babylonian period; museum reconstruction using original bricks in Berlin. Associated with Marduk, not a confirmed depiction of Tiamat
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Illustration
Entity
Oral transmission
Circulation through performance and hearing, potentially involving change.
Distinct claims: population contact alone does not prove reading or narrative transfer
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Illustration
Entity
Epic of Gilgamesh
Mesopotamian literary tradition whose standard Tablet XI contains Utnapishtim’s flood.
Compare specified witnesses; flood narratives do not share every detail
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Illustration
Entity
Literary motif
Recurring narrative element whose presence alone does not establish dependence.
Placement at the bank differs from release into the current; no scene is reconstructed
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