Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Archaeologists have unearthed “administrative tablets,” which provide the oldest tangible proof of the world's first empire, the ...

The Akkadian Empire was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia, centered around the lost city of Akkad. The reign of Akkad is sometimes regarded as the first empire in history, as it developed a ...

A relief from Nineveh, 645-640 BC, made of gypsum alabaster, showing a lion hunt (The Trustees of the British Museum). In the latter half of the third millenium B.C., the Akkadian Empire stretched ...

Fossil coral records provide new evidence that frequent winter shamals, or dust storms, and a prolonged cold winter season contributed to the collapse of the ancient Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia.

“Great civilizations are not murdered. Instead, they take their own lives.” The great historian Arnold Toynbee concluded this ...

Archaeologists excavated a mound in Hatay and found an ancient cuneiform tablet with a list of furniture purchases and buyers, officials said. Photo from Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism ...

Editor’s note: This story is part of Meet a UChicagoan, a regular series focusing on the people who make UChicago a distinct intellectual community. Read about the others here. In the half-dark of a ...

Gol-e-Zard Cave lies in the shadow of Mount Damavand, which at more than 5,000 meters dominates the landscape of northern Iran. In this cave, stalagmites and stalactites are growing slowly over ...