The hot, arid landscape of Mesopotamia gave rise to the world’s first urban centers, with the ancient site of Eridu in southern Iraq widely considered to be the world’s earliest city. However, ...

An aerial view of the Zanj irrigation system in Basra taken during the fieldwork. Credit: Durham University An international team of archaeologists has, for the first time, accurately dated an ...

The irrigation network consists of over 200 primary canals, some of which stretch up to nine kilometers in length and are between two and five meters wide. A team of researchers identified and mapped ...

Ancient irrigation systems marked a monumental shift in human history, enabling early agrarian societies to cultivate crops ...

Today, more than 200 million people worldwide are infected with the parasitic worms that cause schistosomiasis. But where did the disease come from? Researchers think that they might have found a clue ...

A new study published in PLOS One suggests that the first great cities of Sumer may have been built on tides, not canals. Researchers argue that freshwater tidal flows from the Persian Gulf created a ...