The archive · Series I

The Ancient Civilizations series.

Our first series tells the story of the ancient world in five issues — one civilization at a time, in order. All five are now complete; back issues can be ordered in print or read anytime in your digital archive.

ALL ERASMESOPOTAMIAANCIENT CHINAANCIENT GREECEANCIENT EGYPTANCIENT INDIA
Mesopotamia issue coverNO. 001
Mesopotamia · c. 3500 B.C.

Civilization's Beginning

The Fertile Crescent, the first surplus, and the Sumerians — the world's very first civilization.

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Shang and Zhou issue coverNO. 002
Ancient China · 1650 B.C.

China's Earliest Dynasties

Dynasties like sports dynasties — the Shang, the Zhou, bronze, the first writing, and the Mandate of Heaven.

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Crete and Mycenae issue coverNO. 003
Ancient Greece · 2000 B.C.

Minoans & Mycenaeans

Before there were "Greeks": the island of Crete, Sir Arthur Evans, and the people who became Greece.

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Ancient Egypt issue coverNO. 004
Ancient Egypt · c. 3100 B.C.

Gift of the Nile

The Rosetta Stone, a river that flows backwards, god-kings and their pyramids, and the strange craft of making a mummy.

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Indus River Valley issue coverNO. 005
Ancient India · c. 3300 B.C.

The Indus River Valley

Two vast grid-planned cities, indoor plumbing 4,000 years early, a script we still can't read — and the peaceful Harappans who built it all.

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