The story of how the first cities rose from southern Mesopotamia has long fascinated scientists and historians. Many explanations point to fertile soil, farming, and trade networks as the engines of ...

In southern Iraq, archaeologists have excavated a remarkable collection of carved clay tablets—ancient records of Akkadia, the world’s oldest empire. Marked with the administrative details of ...

On the bitter plains of modern Iraq there remain large piles of baked bricks covered with much sand. They have sat there in silent witness to a lost religion for 4,000 years. Only in the 19th century ...

The Great Ziggurat of Ur dedicated to the Moon god. Ziggurats were massive structure typical for Mesopotamia. Sumerians believed that the gods lived in the temple at the top of the ziggurats. Woods ...

Inscriptions on a set of four clay tablets from the ancient Near Eastern civilization of Babylonia have finally been completely deciphered, thousands of years after they were produced, a study reports ...

The Sumerian takeoff -- Factors hindering our understanding of the Sumerian takeoff -- Modeling the dynamics of urban growth -- Early Mesopotamian urbanism : why? -- Early Mesopotamian urbanism : how?

Here, we explore six notable civilizations that have collapsed, shedding light on some of the causes behind their demise and some interesting parallels relative to today. Ancient civilizations that ...

An Akkadian cylinder seal, circa 2350-2150 B.C.E., depicts a contest scene. The image on the right shows the impression the seal would make. Gift of Nanette B. Kelekian, in memory of Charles Dikran ...

More than 5,000 years ago, the world’s oldest known writing system emerged in what is now Iraq, establishing the country as the epicenter of recorded human history. […] ...

Picking one period or dynasty to represent the entirety of this era was far too difficult. So I’ve decided that I will be dedicating two blog posts to Near Eastern art. Today’s blog post will be ...