The Queen of the Night – British Museum, Bloomsbury, London, England

The "Queen of the Night" represents an ancient Mesopotamian goddess. She may have been Ishtar, goddess of sexual love and war, or perhaps Ishtar’s sister and rival, the goddess Ereshkigal, who ruled the Underworld. The goddess was originally painted red. She wears a horned headdress and holds the rod and ring of justice, both Mesopotamian symbols of divinity. Her multi-coloured wings hang down and her legs end in talons, similar to those of the owls beside her. She stands on the backs of two lions flanked by a pair of standing owls. A scaly pattern at the bottom represents mountains. The plaque is made of baked straw-tempered clay and may have been placed in a shrine. It was probably made in Babylonia (southern Iraq) between 1792 and 1750 BCE, during the reign of the Babylonian king Hammurabi.