As thrilled as I was to be in the presence of such great works of art, a room devoted to the Ancient Near East called to me like ... beacons.
In my first lit class in college, we read the "Epic of Gilgamesh", which blew me away. The first story ever written, it is at least 5,000 years old. Talk about time travel! Sumer has fascinated me ever since. So, it is no surprise to me that I used this ancient culture as reference to pen my first novel.
Most of the reliefs are from a later time period - Akkaddian - after Hammurabi conquered Sumer. Babylon is the most famous point of reference from the Akkaddian era, noted as the birth of civilization. Sumer predates it, however, and its culture was adopted in whole by the citizens of Babylon.
Obviously, this is a pet topic / interest of mine. What about you? What is a pet interest of yours?
