Record · Ancient world · West Asia
What Was the World's First City? The Story of Uruk
Uruk in ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) is humanity's first true city — ~40,000 people by 3300 BC, and the birthplace of writing.
· 3300 BCWest Asia
The land between the Nile and the Indus saw the first cities, the first writing and the first empires. These articles cover Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Levant and Persia, from Uruk and Akkad to the powers that fought over the same rivers for three thousand years.
Record · Ancient world · West Asia
Who Was the First Author in History? Enheduanna
Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon of Akkad and high priestess at Ur (c. 2300 BC), signed her own name to her hymns and wrote in the first person — widely held to be the earliest author in history whose name we know.
· 2300 BC
Record · Ancient world · West Asia
Why Wasn't 'Sargon,' the King Who Built the First Empire, His Real Name?
'Sargon' was not the king's birth name but a throne name — the Akkadian Šarru-kīn, meaning 'the true / legitimate king' — taken by a lowborn man who conquered Sumer's city-states and founded humanity's first empire around 2300 BC.
· 2300 BC
Record · Ancient world · West Asia
How Was the World's First Empire Born? Sargon of Akkad
Sargon of Akkad conquered dozens of warring city-states to found Akkad — the first empire recorded in history, in what is now central Iraq, c. 2300 BC.
· 2279 BC
Record · Ancient world · West Asia
Which King of the First Empire Declared Himself a Living God?
Naram-Sin of Akkad, grandson of Sargon, ruled humanity's first empire and — after crushing a great revolt — placed the divine sign before his name and wore the horned crown, one of the earliest cases of a living Mesopotamian king declaring himself a god.
· 2250 BC
Record · Ancient world · West Asia
What Did a King Who Had Everything Walk to the End of the World to Find?
King Gilgamesh of Uruk left his throne to seek eternal life after his friend Enkidu died, but lost the plant of youth to a snake and accepted human mortality — the theme of the Epic of Gilgamesh, humanity's oldest story.
· 2100 BC
Record · Ancient world · West Asia
What Is Humanity's Oldest Story?
The Epic of Gilgamesh is humanity's oldest story — a legendary king of Uruk who chased immortality, and its ancient Great Flood tale.
· 2100 BC
Record · Ancient world · West Asia
Was a Great-Flood Story Carved in Clay Before the Bible?
The Epic of Gilgamesh's Tablet XI tells of a god-sent flood and a man, Utnapishtim, who builds a boat and survives — a story carved in clay before the biblical account, and one of several ancient Near Eastern flood traditions (Ziusudra, Atrahasis).
· 1800 BC
Record · Ancient world · West Asia
How a Clay Tablet Shook Victorian Britain
In 1872 self-taught scholar George Smith deciphered a Great Flood tablet from Nineveh at the British Museum — a story older than Genesis that shook Victorian Britain.
· 1872