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 ...

Farmers in the Middle East were more committed to wine production over olive growing during times of climatic change in the ...

Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www ...

The targets, in hindsight, were obvious choices. Amid a brutal campaign a decade ago to claim a caliphate across the lands of Mesopotamia, the insurgent group the Islamic State sought to control the ...

Ancient Middle Eastern farmers prioritized grapes over olives, irrigating vineyards to sustain wine despite climate stress.

For centuries, the Garden of Eden has existed on the hazy border between myth and memory. Yet recent developments in archaeological theory and remote sensing technology have added fuel to an age-old ...

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient lost city beneath modern-day Iraqi Kurdistan. Newly discovered stone foundations, tablets and other artifacts revealed a city that thrived on the edge of the ...