Miguel Civil, a scholar and researcher at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, was a leading expert on the Sumerian language, the earliest known written language. “No one has known Sumerian ...

The enigma of Sumerian origins remains one of the most compelling debates in modern archaeology and linguistics. While the Sumerians are credited with establishing the world’s first high civilization ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: When was the dawn of writing? Cuneiform tablets from ancient Mesopotamia seem to answer that question in the sense that symbols represent sounds, ...

You have to go back 4,000 years, colleagues said, to find someone as fluent in Sumerian as Miguel Civil. A Catalonian-born professor with a purported photographic memory, he spent decades studying ...

This is the first episode of a two-part series on the origin of jokes and humor. The story appears in podcast feeds under the title, "Jokes, Part I: Sumer Funny, Sumer Not." Listen to part two here.

Why are we asking for donations? Why are we asking for donations? This site is free thanks to our community of supporters. Voluntary donations from readers like you keep our news accessible for ...

Archeology and decipherment -- History : heroes, kings, and ensi's -- Society : the Sumerian city -- Religion : theology, rite, and myth -- Literature : the Sumerian ...

Christopher Woods, a leading scholar of Sumerian language and writing, has been appointed director of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Woods will become the 13th director of the ...

ONE of the most interesting peoples of the ancient world was the Sumerian race, which founded the great civilisation of Babylonia. The cuneiform writing of western Asia was their invention, and the ...

You have to go back 4,000 years, colleagues said, to find someone as fluent in Sumerian as Miguel Civil. A Catalonian-born professor with a purported photographic memory, he spent decades studying ...