Explore the Collection
You can explore the highlights of the Babylonian Collection in this virtual exhibition: Ancient Mesopotamia Speaks
The Yale Babylonian Collection is an international center for learning and research in ancient Western Asia, hosting scholars and students from across the globe. Its mission is to preserve, publish, and make available for everyone the cuneiform texts, seals, and other artifacts it houses. Generously supported by the National Endowment of the Humanities and the Council on Library and Information Resources, the Collection is digitized and available online for free.
Left to right: Old Akkadian delivery of goats (NBC 6861), Babylonian duck weight (YBC 2262), Old Babylonian mask (YBC 2238).
The Collection holds some 40,000 items, including cuneiform clay tablets, stamp and cylinder seals, and a range of other materials. Some of its highlights are the world’s oldest culinary recipes, a mathematical school tablet which approximates the square root of 2, a poem composed by the first named author in world literature, a woman named Enheduana, as well as a manuscript of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Yale Babylonian Collection was founded by 1911 by Albert T. Clay with support from the New York financier J. P. Morgan. The Collection joined the Yale Peabody Museum in 2017. It is located on the 3rd floor of the Sterling Memorial Library.