Cuneiform, the oldest identified writing system, defied deciphering – until 1857. What happened then makes a terrific read, ...

Writing and trade are deeply intertwined, and some of the oldest surviving cuneiform writing was used in ancient Mesopotamia to keep records of the buying and selling of goods. In ancient ...

Almost 4,000 years ago, a Mesopotamian man named Nanni was so disappointed with the copper he bought from a trader named ...

Experts told Live Science it was probably the proto-Sinaitic script, which was invented about 4,000 years ago by Canaanite ...

Animals and humans have always coexisted. Before cities, nomadic hunter-gatherers depended on animals for food, transport, ...

Sumerian civilization appears to have evolved in Southern Mesopotamia around 4000 BC, while some historians place it as far ...

The translation of ancient Assyrian writing into modern languages was a challenge that had long vexed historians. Three ...

Some of the oldest surviving examples of written language are stocktakes and ledgers recorded in the ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform script. Since copper is a key ingredient in the very bronze the ...

Researchers have discovered an extensive and remarkably well-preserved system of ancient irrigation canals in the Eridu ...

In time, Assyria’s fearful reign receded into myth, and its arrow-like script—known as cuneiform ... 1840s and ’50s is the subject of “The Mesopotamian Riddle,” Joshua Hammer’s ...