A small clay tablet no larger than a modern handheld document is offering an extraordinary glimpse into the commercial world of Anatolia nearly 4,000 years ago. Now on display at the Kayseri Archaeology Museum, the cuneiform tablet remained sealed inside its original clay envelope for millennia.
Together with the Tigris, the Euphrates is one of the most historically significant river systems in Western Asia. The way it formed marks a key event in the development of the Fertile Crescent, the arc of fertile land in the Middle East where some of the world's earliest civilizations emerged.
Biblical history is being rewritten thanks to recent radiocarbon dating of a few grains of cereal. New research from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) uses C14 dating of preserved organic samples taken from one of two ancient fortresses in the Arava in southern Israel.
Last week, United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping shook hands outside China's Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, for 14 seconds. Almost immediately, we saw various pundits trying to interpret the meaning of the interaction. A brief look at the history of the handshake, however, reveals the complexity of this gesture's symbolism.
Ankara -- The Assyrian civilization recorded its history on clay tablets. Ancient Assyrian merchants, for example, documented their commercial and economic activities on these tablets. However, they also preserved other aspects of life, most notably the practice of blood money.
Although the Assyrian population of Iraq has declined dramatically this century, to below one per cent of the population, five of the 26-member national football squad that qualified for the soccer-mad country's first World Cup since 1986 are Assyrian Christians.