The tablets were thrown in a well to obscure what was written on them, but scholars painstakingly deciphered ancient ...

Roman “wax tablets” were wooden frames holding a thin layer of wax used like a reusable notepad. The wax is gone in the Tongeren material, but stylus pressure sometimes bit deep enough to leave ...

A discovery in southern Iraq has given us a rare glimpse into the world of ancient bureaucracy. Researchers from the British Museum and Iraq have unearthed over 200 clay cuneiform tablets and 60 seals ...

The 1850 discovery of King Ashurbanipal's vast library of cuneiform tablets at Nineveh illuminated fascinating records and ...

In late autumn 2021, receding waters of Georgia's Bashplemi Lake exposed a small stone slab etched with unfamiliar symbols, ...

A new translation of cuneiform relics from the second millennium B.C. highlights the warnings that astrologers saw in eclipses. By Franz Lidz It was good to be the king in ancient Babylonia, unless, ...

Red tape may feel like a modern-day frustration, but according to archaeologists, it's been a part of governance for millennia. Evidence from ancient Mesopotamia reveals that bureaucratic systems were ...

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Archaeologists have ...

A fiery ancient curse inscribed on two sides of a thin lead tablet was meant to afflict, not a king or pharaoh, but a simple greengrocer selling fruits and vegetables some 1,700 years ago in the city ...

Editor’s note: This story is part of Meet a UChicagoan, a regular series focusing on the people who make UChicago a distinct intellectual community. Read about the others here. In the half-dark of a ...