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? ▼ ▽ SEE THE WORLD MORE CLEARLY WITH MY COURSES World History Explorers and all my courses ⁠⁠https://courses.jeffrichwriter.com/⁠⁠ ✉️ Signup for info on courses at: https:/courses.jeffrichwriter.com ▼ ▽ JOIN THE BURNING ARCHIVE - SEE THE WORLD MORE CLEARLY Join 200+ email subscribers who receive insights from world history and fragments of my reading weekly.  ✉️ Signup is free: ⁠⁠https://jeffrich.substack.com⁠⁠ ✉️ Paid subscribers receive bonus content weekly: ⁠⁠https://jeffrich.substack.com⁠⁠ ▼ ▽  MY BOOKS Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Bureaucrat: Writing on Governing ⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3SaI4Ty⁠⁠ From the Burning Archive: Essays and Fragments 2015-2022  ⁠⁠https://amzn.to/4b7cyyw⁠⁠ Gathering Flowers of the Mind: Collected Poems 1996-2020 ⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3u2Yh56⁠⁠ ▼ ▽  MY RECOMMENDED BOOKS for World History Explorers Fernandez-Armesto, Civilizations - https://amzn.to/3OaNr3T Darwin, After Tamerlane - https://amzn.to/3Ht5AGd Frankopan, The Earth Transformed - https://amzn.to/3SqZb4B Overy, Blood and Ruins - https://amzn.to/3Ubd8oU Quinn, How the World Made the West - https://amzn.to/3U422St --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jeff-rich4/message