Investigations & syntheses
Long-form, documented and sourced articles connecting discoveries and telling the great transformations of humankind.
Between 1700 and 1180 BCE, the Hittite Empire rivalled Egypt under Ramesses II, forged the first peace treaty in history and mastered iron metallurgy. Rediscovered only in the nineteenth century, this Indo-European empire of Anatolia remains one of the great forgotten civilisations of the ancient world.
Read more →From the Mask of Agamemnon to the Uluburun shipwreck, from the Nebra sky disk to the cuneiform tablets of Sumer: this dossier traces the revolution of metals and writing that gave birth to the first great civilisations. In less than 2,500 years, humanity invented bronze, writing, the city, the state, law and international trade -- before a catastrophic systemic collapse around 1,200 BCE reduced this complex world to ashes. Ancient genomics, Mediterranean archaeology, cuneiform and archaeometallurgy: a comprehensive and fully sourced overview.
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