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 ...

Gender-ambiguous people in ancient Mesopotamia were powerful and important members of society more than four millennia ago.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Explore how ancient accounting systems from Sumeria to Greece tracked trade, taxes, and resources, shaping early economies ...

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?

Today, trans people face politicization of their lives and vilification from politicians, media and parts of broader society.