Among the many contributions to world culture credited to Mesopotamia is an object so familiar to people in the modern world that few pause to consider its origin: the dog collar. Throughout the ancient world, from China to Rome, dogs are depicted in works of art on a leash attached to a collar.

On 5 August 1730, Crown Prince Frederick was arrested as he attempted to flee from Prussia and the tyranny of his father. He was imprisoned and nearly executed - indeed, the prince was forced to watch as his accomplice (and possible lover) was beheaded before his eyes. Three decades later, the wayward prince had become Frederick the Great, the warrior king of the Enlightenment, ...

Mesopotamian women could own businesses, buy and sell land, live on their own, initiate divorce, and, though officially secondary to men, found ways to assert their autonomy. Although the patriarchy sought to control women's rights and personal choices, women are still recorded as landowners, business owners, administrators, bureaucrats, doctors, scribes, clergy, and in rare cas...

November 1700. Charles II, the Habsburg King of Spain, is dead, and whole Europe holds its breath to see who will succeed him. On one side is Philip of Anjou, grandson of King Louis XIV of France, whose ascension could lead to the domination of the House of Bourbon. On the other is Archduke Charles of Austria, scion of the ancient House of Habsburg, whose rise could threaten the...

Originality in literary compositions in the ancient world did not carry the same weight and value as it does today. In the ancient world, an author could simply assume the identity of an already famous person, write an account using their name and point of view, and present it to the reading public as an authoritative, first-person account. In Mesopotamia, such works were very p...