The Sumerian “Handbag of the Gods” has just revealed another ancient secret, and it is not what researchers expected. Carved into temple walls thousands of years ago, the mysterious object appears in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and even South America, sparking wild theories about lost civilizations or visitors from beyond.
Artifacts resembling modern handbags appear in ancient carvings across cultures separated by thousands of years and thousands of miles. The same object, a small rectangular container with a curved handle, appears in Sumerian seals, Assyrian palace reliefs, a 12,000-year-old stone pillar in Turkey, and Olmec carvings in Mexico. Researchers refer to it informally as the “bag of the gods,” though mai…