Rivers, Gods, and Clay: The Story of Mesopotamia

A burning-hot plain with almost no rain, no stone, and no trees became the birthplace of civilization — what did two violent, unpredictable rivers have to do with it?

Five thousand years ago, tens of thousands of people packed behind Uruk's walls in a land with no stone, no timber, and almost no rain — and most of them never farmed a day in their lives. So who fed them, and why?

Humans told stories for tens of thousands of years without writing down a single word — then something inside Uruk's temple storehouses finally forced marks onto clay. What was it?

Sumerian scribes logged roast meat and beer served twice a day to a diner made of wood and gold who never ate a bite — what did they know that made feeding a statue the most important job in the city?

A king so mighty he exhausted an entire city, a wild man built by the gods to stop him, and a quest for a plant that could defeat death itself — pressed into clay 4,000 years ago.

A self-taught museum worker stares at a broken piece of 2,600-year-old clay — and what he reads on it makes headlines around the world and sends him racing to Iraq.

A Babylonian king chiseled 282 rules onto a giant black stone pillar for everyone to see — step into the judge's seat and decide what those laws really promised, and what they didn't.

Blue-glazed gates, golden dragons, and gardens that may never have existed. Explore the most famous city of the ancient world.

How does a mighty city vanish under the sand — and how did detectives with shovels bring it back?