Ancient Babylonian School Tablets Reveal What Students Were Really Taught 2,500 Years Ago
More than 2,500 years ago, Babylonian school tablets were part of a demanding education built around copying signs, words and texts again and again. Instead…
Mesopotamia
Anatolia’s Oldest Known Glass Bottle Reveals a Mystery From the Hittite World
More than 3,600 years ago, someone in Central Anatolia handled an object that would have been extraordinary even by the standards of the Bronze Age:…
Satellite Images Reveal a 6,500-Year-Old Irrigation System Beside Ancient Eridu
For the first time, researchers have directly dated irrigation features surrounding Eridu, one of southern Mesopotamia’s earliest major settlements. The results show that people were…
Broken Ribs on a 6,000-Year-Old Infant Skeleton Reveal a Dark Side of Early Urban Life
A 6,000-year-old infant skeleton from Tell Brak in northeastern Syria has revealed one of the rarest traces of violence against a child in prehistoric archaeology.…
Sumer’s 4,000-Year-Old Ziggurat of Ur Is Being Restored as Climate Erosion Eats Into Ancient Iraq
Climate erosion is now threatening the 4,000-year-old Ziggurat of Ur, one of ancient Sumer’s most iconic monuments, as restoration work begins in Iraq’s Dhi Qar…
4,000-Year-Old Tablets Reveal How Magic Shaped Power in Ancient Mesopotamia
A vast archive of 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablets is offering a rare, layered view into how ancient Mesopotamian societies understood power. The newly analyzed collection shows…
Turkish Researchers Bake 3,000-Year-Old Mesopotamian Bread Again
In the ancient landscape of Hasankeyf, researchers in southeastern Turkey have recreated one of humanity’s earliest documented bread recipes: a 3,000-year-old Mesopotamian honey-barley loaf. The…
The Lost Paradise of Nineveh: Power, Water, and the Gardens of Ashurbanipal
When modern visitors think of paradise, they might imagine palm trees, fountains, and fragrant blossoms. But over 2,600 years ago, the Assyrian kings had already…
Ancient History: The Beginning of Humanity’s Written Memory
Ancient history marks the moment when humanity began to record its own story — not only through artifacts and ruins, but through written words. It…