The Hidden History of Mesopotamia’s First Cities || USA Sleeping History

The Hidden History of Mesopotamia’s First Cities || USA Sleeping History

Five thousand years ago, on the floodplains of the Tigris and Euphrates, something astonishing happened — humanity built its first cities. Long before the pyramids or the Parthenon, the people of Mesopotamia created organized life: temples, trade, and systems of law that would shape every civilization that followed.
In this meditative episode of Sleeping History, we uncover the hidden history of Mesopotamia’s first cities — the ancient urban centers of Uruk, Ur, Eridu, and Lagash. Through archaeology and ancient texts, we explore how farmers became builders, and how small villages transformed into powerful temple-states ruled by priests and kings.
At Uruk, the first monumental ziggurats rose toward the sky — symbols of faith and hierarchy. In Ur, the invention of cuneiform writing began the story of recorded history itself. And in the myths of Gilgamesh, we hear echoes of real rulers, floods, and fears of mortality that defined the human condition.
🎓 In this episode:
The origins of cities, writing, and organized religion

Daily life in the world’s first urban centers

How myth and memory blend in the Epic of Gilgamesh

The environmental forces that ended Mesopotamia’s golden age


A calm, cinematic retelling of the birth of civilization — where clay tablets, temples, and trade routes whisper the story of how humanity first learned to live together.
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