Among the most striking and memorable exhibits in the British Museum are the Assyrian reliefs depicting the royal hunt. These huge panels show the king, Ashurbanipal, shooting, spearing and stabbing a ...

Take extispicy, the science of divining the will of the gods in a sheep's entrails. A question was proposed, answerable only by "yes" or "no". Thus, in March 651BC, Ashurbanipal, at war with his ...