The idea of Mesopotamia has intoxicated the West for centuries. Alastair Sooke takes a look at a civilisation where much of modern culture took form. “Everybody has heard of the Hanging Gardens of ...

Learn how the first civilization in Mesopotamia depended on tides and how it responded when faced with a major environmental challenge. Many millennia ago, the tides turned for ancient Sumerians who ...

She lived more than 4,000 years ago, she was a Sumerian priestess and, worth mentioning, she was the first recorded author in the world. Her name is Enheduanna, and her place in history is finally ...

A radically expanded view of the origin of civilization, extending far beyond Mesopotamia is being proposed. Mesopotamia is widely believed to be the cradle of civilization, but a growing body of ...

A recent scientific breakthrough has unveiled a captivating genetic link between the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Delving into the DNA of a 4,600-year-old skeleton, researchers have ...

An ancient civilization that ruled Mesopotamia nearly 4,000 years ago was likely wiped out because of disastrous dust storms, a new study suggests. The Akkadian Empire, which ruled what is now Iraq ...

The origins of writing in Mesopotamia lie in the images imprinted by ancient cylinder seals on clay tablets and other artifacts. A research group from the University of Bologna has identified a series ...

Archaeologists have uncovered rare artifacts from the Paleolithic era at Ulukoy Cave in Türkiye’s southeastern Mardin province, revealing the earliest known evidence of human activity in northern ...

Catalog of an exhibition held at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa, Malibu, from March 18-July 27, 2020. Translated and adapted from L'histoire commence en Mésopotamie, which was published ...

Assyria is the ancient region of northern Mesopotamia around the city of Assur, founded around 2600 BC on the banks of the Tigris (today its ruins are in northern Iraq). It was part of the Akkadian ...

Researchers have made another major stride in understanding humanity’s origins of writing. In Mesopotamia, the birthplace of civilization, the earliest known writing system started around 3,000 BCE.