New research reveals why not just agriculture but also cereal grains were crucial to the formation of humanity’s first states ...

The cultivation of wheat, barley and maize, which are easily stored and taxed, seems to have led to the emergence of large ...

New climate research suggests centuries-long river droughts weakened one of the world’s earliest urban societies — and offers ...

The world's first city was built long before the Harappans, and its ruins still stand in a quiet desert far from the usual ...

According to National Geographic, the map depicts distances between gates in the wall surrounding the Mesopotamian city of Nippur, but for decades experts questioned its accuracy. The locations of ...

New findings add weight to the theory that states didn’t just spring up from any kind of farming – it had to be grain.

Hotter temperatures and a series of droughts in what is now Pakistan and India fragmented one of the world’s major early civilisations, providing a "warning shot" for today ...

A series of severe, decades-long droughts ushered the end of the Indus Valley Civilization, one of the world's oldest ...

In the early 1800s, a Swiss explorer tricked his way into Petra, the ancient oasis whose location had been a closely guarded secret for centuries. Known as Ed Deir—the Monastery—this building was a ...

Power in the ancient world never stayed calm for long. One empire surged, another strained, and rulers kept testing limits ...