{"product_id":"between-two-rivers-ancient-mesopotamia-and-the-birth-of-history-9781324036425","title":"Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History","description":"\u003cp\u003eThousands of years ago, in a part of the world we now call ancient Mesopotamia, people began writing things down for the very first time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat they left behind, in a vast region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, preserves leaps in human ingenuity, like the earliest depiction of a wheel and the first approximation of pi. But they also capture breathtakingly intimate, raw, and relatable moments, like a dog's paw prints as it accidentally stepped into fresh clay, or the imprint of a child's teeth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eBetween Two Rivers\u003c\/em\u003e, historian Dr. Moudhy Al-Rashid reveals what these ancient people chose to record about their lives, allowing us to brush hands with them millennia later. We find a lullaby to soothe a baby, instructions for exorcising a ghost, countless receipts for beer, and the messy writing of preschoolers. We meet an enslaved person negotiating their freedom, an astronomer tracing the movement of the planets, a princess who may have created the world's first museum, and a working mother struggling with \"the juggle\" in 1900 BCE.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMillennia ago, Mesopotamians saw the world's first cities, the first writing system, early seeds of agriculture, and groundbreaking developments in medicine and astronomy. With breathtaking intimacy and grace, Al-Rashid brings their lives--with all their anxieties, aspirations, and intimacies--vividly close to our own.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e W. W. Norton \u0026amp; Company\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/12\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781324036425\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 336\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/01\/2025 pg. 11\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2025\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Moudhy Al-Rashid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51230807752885,"sku":"9781324036425","price":27.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_c8e623c0-22f8-4d8e-9907-ec02f895ad06.jpg?v=1750170336","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/between-two-rivers-ancient-mesopotamia-and-the-birth-of-history-9781324036425","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}