The inn-keeper of Babylon

5th century Indian innkeeper in Kish, Babylon (from The shape of ancient thought: comparative studies in Greek and Indian ... By Thomas McEvilley; page 11). Click to go to books.google.com

This figurine is a small (18 cm tall) bronze rein-ring, constructed as a decoration for a four-wheeled chariot. Collected in 1928 on a joint Field Museum of Natural History/Oxford University expedition, it dates to the late Early Dynastic I period - c. 2800-2750 BC. (Data Source - Darren Naish; Picture courtesy - scienceblogs.com). Click for larger picture.

Indian confetti over the world

A 5th century cuneiform clay tablet, dating probably from the reign of Darius the Great) was found at Kish (near modern town of Al-Hillah, Babil province of modern Iraq). Kish, about 100km south of Baghdad, was one of the important cities in the Babylonian cluster – along with Babylon, Sippar, Seleucia and Borsippa.

Unlike the popular image, of ‘static’ Indians, we have some free-ranging Indians roaming the world. With elephants, expert horsemen – and a probable case of a Siwalik giraffid.

Siwalik giraffid

Kish was the site of another intriguing find. A bronze chariot rein ring, which probably seems related to the African giraffe or a species of deer from Iran. Called Sivathere of Kish, it has been object of many studies  – an unknown hoofed mammal of the Middle East. Initially thought to be related to the Sivatherium – a large, short-necked giraffid, originally described for S. giganteus from the Siwalik Hills of India.

So, apart from the deep links in astronomy, there are other intriguing such confetti sprayed around Babylon – which the Americans have pounded with tons of explosions.

Related articles

• What happened with that Sumerian ‘sivathere’ figurine after Colbert’s paper of 1936? Well, a lot. [Tetrapod Zoology] (scienceblogs.com)
• The History of Bricks: Mesopotamia (janestreetclayworks.wordpress.com)