Mesopotamia
Does knotted string constitute ‘writing’?
What particularly excites Silvia Ferrara, the author of The Greatest Invention, is not language per se but writing – that…
Meet Congo, the Leonardo of chimps, whose paintings sell for £14,500
Three million years ago one of our ancestors, Australopithecus africanus, picked up a pebble and took it home to its…
Cooling is as important to civilisation as making fire — only much harder
Modern civilisation depends on refrigeration — but we have been trying to manufacture cold for at least 4,000 years, says Michael Bywater
Baghdad's rise, fall – and rise again
Ali A. Allawi on the fluctuating fortunes of Iraq’s fabled capital