Peng Zhou/The ConversationIn the sweltering summer of 18 AD, a desperate chant echoed across China’s sun-scorched plains: “Heaven has gone blind!” Thousands of starving farmers, their faces smeared wi ...

In the arid desert of southern Iraq, the remains of one of the world’s oldest cities can be found. This is Eridu, created by the gods as the starting point of civilization in Sumerian mythology.