Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History

Humanity’s earliest efforts at recording and drawing meaning from history reveal how lives millennia ago were not so different from our own.

Mesopotamia saw the first cities, devised the original writing system, sowed the early seeds of agriculture, and developed myths, medicine, and astronomy that all went on to influence societies around the world. However, the significance of this ancient civilization goes far beyond its technological inventions: These were the people who began the human tradition of recording their own histories.

With each chapter focusing on a new artifact, historian Moudhy Al-Rashid takes us on a personal tour of ancient life: the brick that was the basis of Mesopotamian architecture; the classroom tablets that shed light on the timeless anxieties of student life; the stone obelisk that spoke to the vast socioeconomic gulfs. Ancient Mesopotamians wanted a witness to their lives, and thousands of years later, Al-Rashid shares their stories.