• 48 ideas
  • Checked October 2026

Mesopotamian Art Crafts Ideas for Kids

One Mesopotamian thing to make or draw per press, with a checked fact about the real object.

Mesopotamian Art Crafts Ideas for Kids

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  1. A feast picture where the host is drawn bigger than the guestsOn the Standard of Ur the most important people are shown larger than the others.

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Clay tablets and seals 12

  • A button-shaped stamp with a pattern cut into its face Stamp seals came before cylinder seals. The oldest were button-shaped and were pressed into soft clay.
  • A clay cone with writing around it, made to push into a wall Clay nails were cones bearing cuneiform, baked and pushed into the mudbrick walls of a building.
  • A handful of clay tokens, one shaped for each sheep in a flock Farmers shaped small clay tokens in their palms to keep count of animals and goods, long before writing.
  • A hollow clay ball with counting tokens shut inside Before flat tablets, small clay tokens that stood for goods were sealed inside a hollow clay ball, a bulla.
  • A round school tablet: a line across the top, your copy below it On round school tablets a teacher wrote a line or two and the student wrote it out again underneath.
  • A seal cut into a short clay tube, then rolled out as a band A cylinder seal is a small engraved cylinder, rolled over wet clay to leave its picture as a raised band.
  • A seal threaded on a cord to wear around the neck Most cylinder seals have a hole through the middle and are thought to have been worn on a necklace.
  • A stylus from a craft stick, one corner pressed in for each wedge Scribes used a stylus, often cut from reed, with a triangular tip. The corner of a square stick prints the same shape.
  • A world map on a clay disc: land in the middle, a ring of water around it The Babylonian Map of the World, a clay tablet, rings its land with a circular 'bitter river'.
  • One word two ways: as a small picture, then in wedges The earliest signs were small pictures drawn in clay with a pointed reed. The wedge-shaped strokes came later.
  • Your age written in Babylonian tens and units Babylonian numerals used two signs, one for a unit and one for ten. 23 is two tens, then three units.
  • Your own message in wedge marks on a slab of air-dry clay Cuneiform is named for its wedge-shaped marks, pushed into wet clay with a stylus. Press the tip in and lift it out.

Ziggurats, gates and houses 12

  • A blue cardboard gate with paper lions, bulls and dragons in rows The Ishtar Gate of Babylon was faced in blue glazed brick, with rows of dragons, bulls and lions in relief.
  • A brick stamped with your name before it dries Kings sometimes had their names engraved on the glazed bricks that faced a ziggurat.
  • A city seen from above: a wall, a gate and a ziggurat among temple buildings Each ziggurat stood in a temple complex with other buildings, and ziggurats marked Mesopotamian cities.
  • A layered collage of a ziggurat: paper bricks with woven mats between The ziggurat at Aqar Quf has a reed mat after each seven courses of brick to help bind it.
  • A reed house with an arched roof, from bundled straws or rolled paper Marsh dwellers of southern Iraq have built reed houses for 5,000 years or more.
  • A small white box temple on a big sloping base with steps At Uruk the White Temple sits on a simple ziggurat: one base, with steps up to it from the ground.
  • A striding lion pieced together from yellow paper bricks The Processional Way through the gate had walls of glazed brick showing lions, bulls, dragons and flowers.
  • A wall pattern printed in dots with the flat end of a pencil Sumerian builders set painted clay cones into walls and pillars, so the colored ends made mosaic patterns.
  • A ziggurat drawn side on, with its length written along the base The Ziggurat of Ur, built in the 21st century BC, measured 64 m long and 45 m wide.
  • A ziggurat of three cardboard boxes, the smallest on top A ziggurat rises in levels, each a little smaller than the one below. They had from two to seven.
  • The gate's dragon: scales, a long neck, horns and an eagle's back feet The mushkhushshu of the Ishtar Gate is scaly, with a long neck and tail, two horns and eagle talons behind.
  • Small mud bricks pressed in an ice cube tray and left to dry The core of a ziggurat was sun-baked brick, with fired brick outside. Mud bricks are mud mixed with straw.

Statues and carvings 12

  • A calm face in white clay with hollows left for the eyes The Mask of Warka is a marble face about 20 cm tall. Its eyes may once have been shell and lapis lazuli.
  • A clay bull wrapped in foil sheets like a copper skin The Copper Bull, from about 2600 BC, was a wooden model covered in copper sheet held on with nails.
  • A goat reared up against a flowering bush, in gold paper and blue The 'Ram in a Thicket' from Ur is really a goat: gold-leaf face and legs, lapis lazuli horns, a fleece of shell.
  • A lion-headed eagle between two stags, pressed into kitchen foil A copper panel from Tell al-'Ubaid, beaten out of one very large piece, shows a lion-headed eagle between two stags.
  • A paper-cup vase ringed in bands: plants, then sheep, then people The Warka Vase, about 5,000 years old, is carved in bands: water and plants, rams and ewes, people with baskets.
  • A row of sheep beside a reed hut, pressed into a clay strip The Uruk Trough is carved with sheep beside a hut, and two lambs coming out of it.
  • A seated figure with clasped hands, a fleece skirt and blue eyes The statue of Ebih-Il sits with hands clasped at the chest. Its eyes are inlaid with shell and lapis lazuli.
  • A seated ruler with a building plan resting on his lap One statue of Gudea, ruler of Lagash, has the plan of a building on its lap, with a measuring scale.
  • A standing clay figure with enormous round eyes The twelve Tell Asmar statues, found in 1933, have very large eyes inlaid with white shell and black limestone.
  • A winged bull with a human head, drawn with five legs Early lamassu have five legs: from the front they seem to stand, and from the side they seem to walk.
  • A winged figure in profile with a flower on each wrist Assyrian palace reliefs show bearded winged figures with rosettes on the wrists and a tasseled hem.
  • Two matching gate guardians, one each side of a cardboard doorway Assyrian palaces set pairs of lamassu at their entrances, facing the street and the inner courtyards.

Mosaic, gold and games 12

  • A board game of twenty squares, five of them marked with a flower The Royal Game of Ur has twenty squares, five with rosettes: a block of twelve, a bridge of two, a block of six.
  • A border of round flowers in black, white and gold The Ishtar Gate has borders and rosettes, round stylized flowers, glazed in black, white and gold.
  • A feast in three rows of paper mosaic: white, red and blue The Standard of Ur is a box inlaid with shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli, with three rows of figures a side.
  • A feast picture where the host is drawn bigger than the guests On the Standard of Ur the most important people are shown larger than the others.
  • A headdress of gold paper leaves and flowers on a band Puabi's headdress, found at Ur, is gold ribbons, leaves and flowers with lapis lazuli and carnelian beads.
  • A necklace of gold, red and blue beads rolled from paper Jewelry from Ur strings gold, red carnelian and blue lapis lazuli beads into necklaces and belts.
  • A parade of people bringing fish and leading animals, in cut paper On the 'Peace' side of the Standard of Ur, a row of figures parades animals, fish and other goods.
  • A plainer game board: white discs with red or blue centers One game board from Ur has a background of shell discs with blue or red centers.
  • A shoebox lyre with a golden bull's head on the front The lyres of Ur, box lyres, are over 4,500 years old. One has a gold bull's head with a lapis lazuli beard.
  • A tall panel of stacked pictures in which animals act like people Under the bull's head of one lyre from Ur, a panel of shell inlay shows animals acting as humans.
  • Fourteen game pieces: seven white with black dots, seven the reverse The game is played with two sets of seven pieces: white with five black dots, and black with five white dots.
  • Pyramid dice with four corners, two of them marked The game's dice are four-sided pyramids with two of the four corners marked. Count the marked tips that land up.

How it works

These Mesopotamian art crafts ideas for kids turn a unit on Mesopotamia into things to make: a clay tablet in wedge marks, a seal rolled across clay, a ziggurat of boxes, a paper mosaic. Each copies something real.

Read the full guide

Mesopotamian art crafts ideas, four kinds

Clay tablets and seals is writing: wedge marks, numbers, a school tablet, seals to roll and stamp. Ziggurats, gates and houses is building, from mud bricks to a blue gate of paper animals. Statues and carvings has the wide-eyed figures and the winged bulls. Mosaic, gold and games includes a board game of twenty squares that can be played.

What to have on the table

Air-dry clay, cardboard boxes, colored paper, glue and kitchen foil cover most of the list. A craft stick with a square end prints the wedges. For younger children, choose Easy.

  • Press the stick in and lift it out. Dragging it through the clay makes a scratch, not a wedge.
  • For a mosaic from Ur keep to three colors: white for shell, red for limestone, deep blue for lapis lazuli.

Questions and answers

What art is Mesopotamia known for?

Cylinder seals, small statues, carved reliefs and walls of glazed brick with rows of animals. The river plain had little good stone for carving, so seal stones were brought in from elsewhere and a great deal was made of clay.

How do you make a cuneiform tablet with kids?

Flatten a ball of air-dry clay into a small pillow. Press the corner of a square craft stick into it for each wedge, and build a sign from a few wedges. Leave it to dry in the air, as many real tablets were.

What is a ziggurat?

A massive stepped structure of ancient Mesopotamia: levels that get smaller toward the top, a core of sun-baked brick and a facing of fired brick. Each stood in a temple complex. The Ziggurat of Ur is among the best preserved.

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