This is the first episode of a two-part series on the origin of jokes and humor. The story appears in podcast feeds under the title, "Jokes, Part I: Sumer Funny, Sumer Not." Listen to part two here.

A cuneiform clay tablet that has puzzled scholars for over 150 years has been translated for the first time. The tablet is now known to be a contemporary Sumerian observation of an asteroid impact at ...

Archaeologists have uncovered a tiny 3,500-year-old tablet inscribed with cuneiform writing during excavations at a site in Turkey that could shed light on what life was like during the Late Bronze ...

LONDON — The writing’s on the wall, we’re told. Whether it was Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press in the 15th century, the invention of the typewriter 300 years later, or the emoji of today’s ...

An ancient game board, building remains and three clay tablets recently discovered by archaeologists in northeastern Iraq ...

Linguists used Akkadian writing on bilingual cuneiform tablets from Iraq to translate the text in Amorite, an unknown language, study said. Rudolf H. Mayr Photo from the Rosen Collection used with ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A 3,500-year-old clay tablet discovered in the ruins of the library of an ancient Mesopotamian king, then looted from an Iraqi museum 30 years ago, is finally headed back to Iraq.

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Archaeologists have ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A 3,500-year-old clay tablet discovered in the ruins of the library of an ancient Mesopotamian king, then looted from an Iraqi museum 30 years ago, is finally headed back to Iraq.