Paul Collins

At the height of its power around 660 BC, the Assyrian empire, centred in northern Iraq, wielded dominance from Egypt to Iran. This vast region was ruled by a series of kings who showcased their power by constructing magnificent palaces adorned with superlative sculptures depicting royal rituals, battles and hunts. Established by military might, the empire thrived under administrators who...

Beyond Priests contends that the requirements of the clerical priesthood of the Catholic Church—that all priests must be male, and that all priests must be celibate—is a gross distortion of scripture and the church’s early history that must be changed. While the roots of the modern priesthood go back to the fourth century and even more remotely to the presbyters...

The Sumerians are widely believed to have created the world's earliest civilisation on the fertile floodplains of southern Iraq from about 3500 to 2000 BC. They have been credited with the invention of nothing less than cities, writing, and the wheel, and therefore hold an ancient mirror to our own urban, literate world. But is this picture correct? Paul Collins...

Between the ninth and seventh centuries BC, the small kingdom of Assyria in northern Iraq expanded through conquest to dominate the region from Egypt to Iran. The power of the Assyrian kings was reflected in the creation of a series of magnificent palaces in which the walls of principal rooms and courtyards were lined with huge panels of alabaster carved...