135. Civilizations in fields of mud - how we get the story of Sumer and Babylon wrong.

Did civilization spread from a cradle in the river valleys of Mesopotamia? Or is there a different story of the emergence of civilizations from fields of mud?

In this episode of the special Summer of Civilizations series, I tell the story of Sumerian and Akkadian civilizations that developed in the river valleys of Mesopotamia. They left a legacy - carpets, the Epic of Gilgamesh - and an early piece of fake news, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. But is their true story how they struggled against the environment, and lost?

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