Original subtitles

[narrator] Ancient Iraq,

a land of myth and legend,

home to some of the greatest cities of the Bible.

Well, it's the cradle of civilization.

This is one of the most important areas in the world.

[narrator] Now, after decades of war,

pioneering archaeologists are returning to Iraq.

Our cameras have unprecedented access

as they unearth buried treasures

as they unearth buried treasures

and discover the real world of the Old Testament.

Western civilization only kept memories from the Bible.

It's very difficult to pick apart the myths and the legends.

[narrator] This time investigators uncover the lost cities of Genesis,

Uruk and Ur, the legendary birthplace of Abraham.

Ur was transcended.

It essentially ruled over many cities.

It essentially ruled over many cities.

[narrator] Why did people here go from being simple farmers

to big time city slickers?

And did the collapse of this brave new world

influence one of the greatest biblical stories ever told?

Noah and the great flood.

It's just before dawn in southern Iraq.

A small convoy of vehicles heads out across the desert.

A small convoy of vehicles heads out across the desert.

Joining the team is archaeologist Sebastien Rey.

He and his colleagues are traveling 200 miles south of Iraq's capital Baghdad,

heading for a set of ancient ruins,

which could unlock the origins of civilization itself.

[Sebastien Rey] Archeology is truly amazing here.

Every morning, I have this exciting of maybe this is the day

where we will find something truly exceptional.

where we will find something truly exceptional.

[narrator] The sands of southern Iraq

hold a unique place in human history.

6,000 years ago, a people called the Sumerians

built the world's first cities here.

They vanished,

but for reasons that are still unclear.

Their civilization influenced the stories of the Bible,

written 1,000s of years later by a very different people.

According to Genesis, this is where the world began.

According to Genesis, this is where the world began.

The setting for the Garden of Eden, the great flood,

and where the descendants of Noah built Erech, a mighty city.

Today, biblical scholars identify Erech with Uruk in southern Iraq,

a huge Sumerian metropolis older than the pyramids.

Uruk had temples studded with intricate stone mosaics...

Uruk had temples studded with intricate stone mosaics...

...and developed a maze of streets,

filled with mud brick houses...

...wildly seen as the world's first true city.

6,000 years ago, this was a revolutionary way of living.

Why were the Sumerians the first people to build cities?

And what was the world of Genesis really like?

The first Westerners to uncover Iraq's lost cities

The first Westerners to uncover Iraq's lost cities

were inspired by the stories of the Bible.

But archeologists have still barely scratched the surface

of what lies buried here.

These rare aerial images show the sheer scale of Uruk's sprawling ruins today.

Sebastien Rey from the British Museum belongs to a new generation,

working alongside Iraqi colleagues and driven by science.

Our cameras have unique access

Our cameras have unique access

to follow their groundbreaking dig

at a neighboring site called Girsu.

It could shed new light on how the first cities like Uruk evolved.

[Rey] Girsu in the third millennium BC was a very, very big city.

We call it a mega city.

And it was home to more than 20,000 people.

[narrator] The Sumerians, like the ancient Egyptians, built on a massive scale.

The team is uncovering a very unusual structure.

The team is uncovering a very unusual structure.

It's colossal

and unlike anything every found in ancient Iraq.

[Rey] This construction is a very unusual plan,

almost in the shape of a big X.

[narrator] Sebastien works with archaeologist Ebru Torun.

She investigates the strange design.

[Ebru Torun] This is a very interesting structure

[Ebru Torun] This is a very interesting structure

built actually like two symmetrically arranged convex walls.

We have studied the structure almost brick by brick,

uh, and we know that it was made of fire bricks.

It must have been a very useful structure

because it was kept maintained for many, many centuries.

[narrator] Archeologists once thought this structure could be a tomb

or even a temple.

But it stands inside an ancient canal.

But it stands inside an ancient canal.

These are actually the foundations of a bridge...

...built from 1,000s of mud bricks with bitumen as mortar.

This structure was once 26 feet high

and up to 130 feet wide.

It's a small bridge by modern standards,

but when it was built 4,000 years ago,

it was revolutionary.

It's also an ancient water management system.

By squeezing the current threw a narrow channel,

By squeezing the current threw a narrow channel,

the water picked up speed

without raising the level downstream,

a testament to Sumerian ingenuity.

The bridge is the oldest ever found in the world.

Could it reveal why the Sumerians invented cities?

[Torun] This structure is not only a very impressive archeological ruin,

it also tells us a lot about how

it also tells us a lot about how

people, Sumerians, actually found solutions to live in this climate.

It's a unique structure.

[narrator] The bridge is the first hint that this arid land

looked very different in biblical times.

Sebastien works with geoarchaeologist Jaafar Jotheri

to reconstruct Girsu's original environment.

[narrator] Together they fly a drone to look for more canals

[narrator] Together they fly a drone to look for more canals

like the one with the bridge.

Work that would take months on the ground

takes minutes in the air.

You would think the drone is really important.

We used to use tradition way of survey and excavation.

But now, we are allowed to discover lots of things.

If you have high technology, and you can plan well

where to excavate or where to dig.

[narrator] From above, the desert looks flat and featureless,

but it hides remarkable secrets.

[Rey] So this image is made up of more than a 100 drone photos.

The main large straight lines you can see are ancient canals.

[narrator] The drone's survey reveals that water surrounded Girsu in ancient times.

This desert city was the Venice of its day.

This desert city was the Venice of its day.

[Rey] We always had this idea

that a Mesopotamian city, any city like Uruk, like Babylon,

is strongly connected to one river course.

But here in the case of Girsu...

...there are numbers of canals that run across through the site.

[narrator] Conventional wisdom says that the construction of these canals

led directly to the birth of the first cities.

An extraordinary vase discovered at Uruk...

...reveals how they allowed the Sumerians to turn the desert into fields.

The vase depicts farmers who carry baskets overflowing with crops.

A herd of goats and sheep graze freely.

It's a fertile landscape that some believe might even have inspired

the story of the Garden of Eden in the Bible.

Genesis describes how a stream running from Eden flowed

Genesis describes how a stream running from Eden flowed

into Iraq's life-giving rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates.

Some scholars believe the name Eden itself

may come from the Sumerian word for a plain or open country.

But no one knows for sure if this theory

about the rise of the first cities is correct

because few have ever tried to date these canals...

...until now.

[Rey] Our knowledge of ancient Mesopotamia

[Rey] Our knowledge of ancient Mesopotamia

is very limited, and it dates back to

50, 60, 70 years.

[narrator] Sebastien's team uses an ingenious technique

to find out exactly how old the canals are

and if they were dug at the same time as the city was built.

The one way of dating an ancient canal is to collect shells

from the bottom of those canals.

We can radiocarbon date the shells,

We can radiocarbon date the shells,

and this would date the canal itself.

[narrator] The team analyzes more than 20 shells.

The results reveal a staggering surprise.

[Rey] These are, um, the first results we have from the lab.

The range of dates for the earliest largescale canal...

...is roughly from 6,000 BCE

to 4,500 BCE.

[narrator] The canals appear to predate any Sumerian city

[narrator] The canals appear to predate any Sumerian city

by at least 1,000 years.

It means that settled farming cannot be the spark

that led to places like Uruk.

So if we assume that the model that everyone agrees on today

that Uruk, the famous city is the first city,

these canals are 1,000 to 2,000 years earlier

than this very important date.

This would significantly change almost everything we know

about the rise of the city in Mesopotamia.

[narrator] Everything that we thought we knew

about the dawn of civilization could be wrong.

Something else must have motivated people here to build cities.

Why did people leave this real life Garden of Eden

for life in a big metropolis?

for life in a big metropolis?

A clue could lie at the center of Uruk with a vast temple.

The world's first pyramid.

[narrator] The Bible says that after the Great Flood,

the descendants of Noah spread out across the Earth.

One man, a mighty hunter called Nimrod,

supposedly founded the world's first cities in the land of Shinar.

Archeology confirms that Iraq is indeed where cities began.

But why did humans decide to build them here in the first place?

But why did humans decide to build them here in the first place?

A clue could lie at the center of Uruk.

Here archaeologists have discovered the world's first pyramid.

A raised platform called a ziggurat.

On top is a temple dedicated to the Sumerian sky god.

It's gleaming, whitewashed walls make it stand out from afar.

Next to it lies a temple precinct, the Eanna.

Next to it lies a temple precinct, the Eanna.

Ancient builders studded its walls with thousands of stone cones

creating a mosaic of intricate geometric patterns.

5,000 years ago, there was no other place like this on Earth.

So could religion explain the birth of the first cities?

Sebastien Rey investigates a building buried at the nearby city of Girsu.

Sebastien Rey investigates a building buried at the nearby city of Girsu.

Here Iraqi excavators unearth terracotta cones embedded in the walls

similar to those at Uruk's temple.

[Sebastien Rey] I'm holding in my hands one of the most iconic objects

of the site of Girsu Tello.

This is a temple cone.

But rather, we should really call it a temple nail.

It was a symbolic object.

There's an inscription incised on this object.

The text always starts with the name of Ningirsu.

The text always starts with the name of Ningirsu.

[narrator] Each Sumerian city had its own deity.

Girsu's patron god was the thunder god, Ningirsu.

Hero of epic tales and slayer of the monster, Anzu.

[bestial roar]

The Sumerians believed that each city had its own deity.

The cone reveals that this building is the temple of Ningirsu,

one of the most sacred sites in ancient Iraq.

one of the most sacred sites in ancient Iraq.

[Rey] When we found the cones inserted in the walls,

it was an exceptional moment.

We knew for a fact that we had indeed discovered

this long-forgotten temple of Ningirsu.

[narrator] Legend says that Ningirsu himself ordered

the construction of this building

by appearing to the city's king in a dream.

A headless statue discovered in the building depicts

A headless statue discovered in the building depicts

the king as an architect holding a floor plan.

At first, its geometry baffled archaeologists.

But Sebastien managed to decode the measurements inscribed on it.

Incredibly, the dimensions matched the building in this trench perfectly.

This floor plan is supposed to be a divine blueprint.

Sebastien thinks that sacred shrines like this evolved into the first cities.

Sebastien thinks that sacred shrines like this evolved into the first cities.

Girsu's temple was built just as the city started to get going.

[Rey] So a temple in ancient Mesopotamia was like a magnet.

It attracted people worshipping the gods.

And the whole city gravitated around this important structure.

[narrator] Religion helped to give rise

to the civilization that would shape the Bible.

Gods lay at the heart of the day-to-day Sumerian world.

Gods lay at the heart of the day-to-day Sumerian world.

But many early cultures had shrines.

How did the Sumerians turn theirs into cities?

A clue lies with a skill we take for granted.

Writing.

Phil Jones investigates how Sumerian priests were the first people

to harness the true power of this radical new idea.

Writing is probably one of the three or four most crucial inventions

in the whole of human history.

It is a complete game changer.

[narrator] The Sumerians developed a system of writing called cuneiform.

A series of wedge-shaped symbols made on wet clay.

Some archaeologists think writing was invented

in the temple as a method of book keeping.

This is a cuneiform tablet just over 4,000 years old.

So this is basically a receipt

So this is basically a receipt

for various uh, officials receiving grain.

First line ends with the name of a person.

When its finished giving the list of people receiving the grain,

we have a total of how much grain has been involved.

[narrator] This carving from Uruk reveals

how temples had to administer an extraordinary amount of produce.

Citizens carry jars of fruit, grain and fish to the temple.

All offerings for the goddess Inanna.

All offerings for the goddess Inanna.

But priests would also redistribute some of this food

back among the people living in the city.

The Sumerians were the world's first bureaucrats.

[Phil Jones] Writing allows you to keep track of the raw materials

moving through the system.

The temple itself is partly a religious institution,

but it's also essentially a real estate corporation.

[narrator] Sebastien believes that the temple ran these fledgling cities.

[narrator] Sebastien believes that the temple ran these fledgling cities.

It was the engine which powered the growth of civic life.

[Rey] Everything is linked to the temple.

So in Uruk for example, most of the very first tablets that we have

are linked to the temple of Inanna.

So there can be no doubt that in Mesopotamia

the birth of the city and the invention of writing

is linked to development of the temple.

[narrator] Sumer was a land of incredible innovations.

[narrator] Sumer was a land of incredible innovations.

Is this why the later Biblical writers believe the world began here?

Writing also allowed humans to record stories for the very first time.

But the Sumerians were devoted to one story in particular.

The myth of a Great Flood.

Where does it come from?

And why is it so similar to the tale of Noah's Ark in the Bible?

[narrator] Thousands of years ago,

the Sumerians believed a great flood destroyed the world.

Legend says the gods grew angry with humanity for being too noisy.

So they sent a great deluge to wipe them out.

But they spared one man

who they told to build a boat and rescue all life.

Why is this Sumerian tale so similar to the story of Noah's Ark?

Could a real event connect them both?

Could a real event connect them both?

Archaeologists have found many versions of this story.

The most famous is found in the tale of a king of Uruk called Gilgamesh.

The discovery of his story in the 19th century astounded a Western world

brought up on the tale of Noah.

It appeared to confirm that the Bible conveyed historical truth.

Gilgamesh was an epic hero, but he may be based

on a real king who lived nearly 5,000 years ago.

So if he did exist, what was the world he came from,

the world of the flood?

The rise of these early rulers is shrouded in mystery.

Barbara Helwing looks for clues here

at the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin.

The big change of the fourth millennium

is that we see a new type of leadership emerging.

is that we see a new type of leadership emerging.

There is a figure responsible for forming the interface

between the humans and the deities.

[narrator] This small clay impression depicts one of these new rulers.

He stands on a boat next to a model of Uruk's temple...

...a sign of his sacred responsibilities.

But as cities grew bigger, they needed leaders who could combine many roles.

[Barbara Helwing] We also see him in scenes of violence.

This personality takes charge of organizing these things.

[narrator] This was the world that Gilgamesh would have come from if he existed...

...one with a dark side.

[Helwing] Constructing such a public building requires a huge work force,

and we know from the early texts

that there are people who are treated as slaves,

and people who are treated as laborers.

and people who are treated as laborers.

We haven't seen an institutionalized inequality in the same way,

and it fascinates me.

I would like to understand how people ever agreed to do this.

[narrator] A curious ancient text called the Sumerian King List

claims that Gilgamesh was one of these early rulers.

He appears as one of the kings who reigned after an event known as the Flood.

He appears as one of the kings who reigned after an event known as the Flood.

At first, it appears to confirm the Sumerian myth...

...but there's a problem.

Historians think that originally,

the stories of Gilgamesh and the Flood were separate.

They were only combined much later.

But Assyriologist, Stephanie Dalley

thinks that the idea of a global deluge

could have its origins in southern Iraq's unique geography.

You need a flood to give people the idea of it,

and that's what you do get in Mesopotamia.

[narrator] In ancient times, the Sumerian cities

lay between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers

and were much closer to the sea.

Under certain conditions, a flood could submerge

everything as far as the eye could see.

You wouldn't get that in Palestine,

you wouldn't get that in most of Syria,

you wouldn't get that in most of Syria,

but you do get it in Mesopotamia

because of the two great rivers flooding over,

one into the other, and covering the whole of the land.

[narrator] Intriguingly, archeologists have found

evidence of flooding at several Sumerian cities.

They all date from different times.

Flooding was an ever-present hazard.

But the story of the Flood also reflects an attempt by the Sumerians

But the story of the Flood also reflects an attempt by the Sumerians

to reconstruct their distant past...

...just like the Book of Genesis.

The Flood was the equivalent of a Sumerian year zero.

[Stephanie Dalley] When you look at the Sumerian King List,

you do see that it's an absolute defining point in history.

Before which, people had legendarily long lives,

or they had perhaps

the names of animals or constellations.

the names of animals or constellations.

[narrator] It's impossible to say if a shared memory of a flood

filtered down to the early Israelites as well,

but many historians believe that the Biblical authors

must have borrowed key details from the Sumerian tales for their story of Noah's Ark.

But how did this happen?

The Flood story is far from the only chapter in Genesis

The Flood story is far from the only chapter in Genesis

with a mysterious Sumerian connection.

Why did the Biblical writers also believe

that their ancestor, Abraham, came from this place,

the legendary city of Ur?

[narrator] 4,300 years ago, disaster struck the Biblical city of Uruk.

A new city in the north, Akkad, conquered all of the Sumerian people

and created the world's first empire.

The city of Akkad itself has never been identified,

but the Bible alludes to its world-shattering power.

According to Genesis, Nimrod, the founder of Uruk, also established Akkad.

According to Genesis, Nimrod, the founder of Uruk, also established Akkad.

Some believe his name might refer to an Akkadian king...

...called Naram-Sin.

Eventually, the Sumerians fought back

under the leadership of another city,

one of the most famous in the Bible...

...Ur, the legendary birthplace of Abraham.

Excavations reveal that 4,100 years ago, Ur was a mighty metropolis.

Excavations reveal that 4,100 years ago, Ur was a mighty metropolis.

At its center rose a towering ziggurat, dedicated to the moon god, Nanna...

...surrounded by a sprawling religious district.

Beyond it lay a maze of streets,

home to as many as 65,000 people,

all surrounded by fertile farmland.

So who lived here, and why does the Bible say that Abraham was among them?

So who lived here, and why does the Bible say that Abraham was among them?

Archaeologist, William B. Hafford from Penn Museum

investigates Ur during its golden age.

During the Ur Three dynasty, Ur was transcendent.

It essentially ruled over many cities.

[narrator] The city's most famous ruler was a king called Ur-Nammu.

He instigated a massive building program.

Many of the structures we see today date from his reign.

Many of the structures we see today date from his reign.

[William Hafford] These are mud bricks, the fundamental building block

of all southern Mesopotamian cities.

The stamp here tells us that this brick was made for Ur-Nammu, the king,

and he was building the temple of Nanna, the moon god,

and it also mentions that he built the city wall of Ur.

[narrator] Ur's colossal buildings reveal the power of Ur-Nammu...

[narrator] Ur's colossal buildings reveal the power of Ur-Nammu...

...but they also required vast resources.

As the cities of Sumer grew larger,

competition between them became more intense, leading to war.

An ancient work of art discovered at Ur

shows the Sumerian war machine at work.

Chariots ride into battle and crush foes in their path.

Chariots ride into battle and crush foes in their path.

There's infantry carrying spears, rushing into the fray,

smiting enemies and taking prisoners.

Above all stands the king of Ur,

shown taller than everyone else,

being presented with injured prisoners.

But William believes that Ur owed its success to more than just military power.

A clue lies in the hundreds of intriguing objects discovered in the city.

A clue lies in the hundreds of intriguing objects discovered in the city.

Ur had few raw materials...

...but its rich farmland meant it had plenty of grain and wool for sale.

[Hafford] These are spindle whorls.

Well, spindle whorls are used to make thread and/or yarn.

A major export from Mesopotamia was cloth.

They had a lot of sheep, they could spin a lot of wool, and they could make textiles.

They had a lot of sheep, they could spin a lot of wool, and they could make textiles.

[narrator] This astonishing copper bowl reveals the quality of Ur's textiles.

Corrosion has preserved details of the cloth it was wrapped in.

[Hafford] And it preserved the pattern of how tight that weave is,

and we can see a number of these different things

to get the range of cloth types that they were making.

[narrator] The artifacts also hint at what the city was getting in return,

precious metals from distant lands.

[Hafford] We've got carnelian coming in from the Indus valley,

we've got copper and diorite coming in from Oman,

and we've got lapis lazuli and gold coming from Iran and Afghanistan.

So long distance trade networks are very important

because this is the way you legitimize your kingship, and you show your power.

[narrator] So why did the Biblical writers believe

that their ancestor, Abraham, was born here?

A clue could lie with how they describe this city.

The book of Genesis mentions Ur three times...

...on each occasion as Ur of the Chaldees,

a people who ruled southern Iraq more than 1,000 years later...

...when most scholars believe the Bible was written down.

...when most scholars believe the Bible was written down.

Ur still existed at this time and was already more than 2,000 years old.

One explanation is that the Biblical authors

were trying to reconstruct their distant past.

But people of faith believe that Abraham really did live here,

just hundreds of years after Ur's golden age.

This was a time of turmoil...

This was a time of turmoil...

...when invaders devastated the city.

It's also when the first written copies of the Flood myth appear.

So could the collapse of the Sumerian world help explain both stories?

[narrator] 4,000 years ago,

foreign enemies attacked the great city of Ur,

bringing its golden age to a sudden end.

Some believe one of the most important events in the Bible

took place during the chaotic era that followed.

Abraham, the ancestor of the Israelites, left Ur for the Promised Land.

This is also the time when the earliest written

versions of the Flood myth start to appear.

versions of the Flood myth start to appear.

So did the fallout from the collapse

of this great city influence the Old Testament stories?

Today, tradition says that this building in Ur is the house of Abraham.

Archaeologists uncovered it in the early 20th century.

Well, the earliest archaeologists in the near and Middle East

were often driven by Biblical stories,

certainly Sir Leonard Woolley thought that this was the city

certainly Sir Leonard Woolley thought that this was the city

that Abraham may have come from.

However, he was gonna be very careful to try and find evidence.

So, in a way, they were trying to see

what was this city like through so many periods of time?

It was occupied for 5,000 years.

[narrator] The early excavators claimed that these were the very streets

that Abraham would have wandered through as a boy,

a claim that was perhaps driven by the need to raise funding for their dig

from a public hungry for historical truth in the stories of Genesis.

from a public hungry for historical truth in the stories of Genesis.

[Hafford] Sir Leonard Woolley, in his academic work,

he almost never mentions the Bible.

In his public works and his lectures,

he would often do it to bring in the crowds.

[narrator] There's no physical proof that this house belonged to Abraham himself.

What we see today was restored during the 20th century.

But it does date to the centuries after the fall of Ur,

which is when Biblical tradition suggests that Abraham might have lived.

which is when Biblical tradition suggests that Abraham might have lived.

The violent end of Ur's golden age is seared

into the fabric of this ancient metropolis.

Archaeologists here have found evidence of burning and destruction.

But new discoveries reveal how the people of Ur

managed to rebuild their shattered homes.

The city's population continued to grow.

[Hafford] We think that at its most dense,

[Hafford] We think that at its most dense,

it might have reached 25,000 people within the city walls.

If we expand into the hinterland,

it might have supported up to 60,000.

[narrator] The citizens of Ur blamed a nomadic people

of Aramaean descent for their city's woes.

Some argue that Abraham was related to them.

This era did see many people on the move.

But others claim that the Biblical writers were referring

to a different city with a similar name

to a different city with a similar name

in what is now southern Turkey.

It's impossible to prove if the founding father

of the Israelites left Ur at this time.

For millions of people, it is a matter of faith.

But the fall of Ur may have had an unexpected impact on another story.

The Sumerian tale of the Flood,

which bears many similarities to the story of Noah's Ark in Genesis.

which bears many similarities to the story of Noah's Ark in Genesis.

Cuneiform specialist, Samuel Chen thinks

this attempt to rebuild the Sumerian world

could also explain why the Flood story

suddenly became hugely popular at this time

The fall of the Ur Three dynasty

was a traumatic experience for Sumer.

Basically it was the collapse of not only urban structure,

but also all of the supporting networks.

[narrator] Samuel finds key similarities between the Flood story

[narrator] Samuel finds key similarities between the Flood story

and poems lamenting the fall of Ur.

In them, people started to question

why the gods had allowed their own temples to be destroyed.

The destruction of the city also brings a lot of suffering to the deities.

They were thinking about the irrational aspect

of a divine decision to destroy urban civilizations.

This is something lost stories began to question

and even make into a satire.

and even make into a satire.

[narrator] But the moral of the Flood story was how humans could start again.

It was a reassuring tale.

And as it was told again and again

it became blockbuster entertainment.

There was a lot of borrowing as well.

There was a lot of cross fertilization.

So you have these different heroes

who were originally independent of each other.

who were originally independent of each other.

They were brought together to meet with each other, to make it more exciting,

very much similar to the Marvel films.

[narrator] The Sumerian myths became hugely popular.

But how did tales from cities like Ur and Uruk reach the authors of the Bible

on the other side of the Middle East?

The answer lies with a new power:

Babylon, the infamous city of Babel.

[narrator] The Sumerians appeared more than 4,000 years ago.

But the tales of their cities live on in the Bible.

How did two civilizations separated by thousands of years

end up sharing so many of the same stories?

The answer could lie with a city that connects them both

and casts a long shadow over the Old Testament.

Babylon.

Today these are the remains of this legendary city.

A vast and sprawling site by the river Euphrates.

Osama Hisham from the World Monuments Fund

works to rebuild this magnificent site.

He and his team are removing modern materials

from Babylon's restored buildings

and replacing them with traditional ones.

[narrator] Babylon is no stranger to repairs.

Maintenance happened in all ancient cities.

But what makes Babylon exceptional is its longevity.

Its buildings were rebuilt again and again.

[narrator] The city burst onto the world stage 3,800 years ago,

ruthlessly taking advantage of the declining Sumerian cities.

It became the biggest, most famous metropolis in ancient Iraq,

a title it held for the next thousand years.

a title it held for the next thousand years.

But the Babylonians were aware that they controlled cities far older than their own.

Assyriologist Stephanie Dalley investigates how Babylon

played a critical role in keeping Sumerian culture alive.

The Babylonians inherited writing from the Sumerians and much more.

Babylon comes late into the history of Mesopotamia.

There was a tremendous amount of copying Sumerian literature.

There was a tremendous amount of copying Sumerian literature.

And Sumerian poetry is very different from Babylonian.

It's very imaginative.

It was a major point for them

to copy the poetry of the Sumerians.

[narrator] The Babylonians set up writing schools to teach cuneiform.

Students learned by copying from famous Sumerian stories like the Flood myth.

Well the scribes had to master the art of writing cuneiform for a start.

Well the scribes had to master the art of writing cuneiform for a start.

So they practiced signs and we've got lots

of terribly, badly written signs from their exercises.

But then, they would take a Sumerian poem

or they would take a short story about Gilgamesh.

They would get to know it like we would learn a piece of Shakespeare.

[narrator] The scale of the copying was immense.

But only selected stories survive.

Some people think that all the literature we've got is on school exercises,

Some people think that all the literature we've got is on school exercises,

and we certainly find a lot of them that are not very well written

and got quite a lot of mistakes in them.

One of the things about he Flood story is that we have got more extracts

of Tablet XI than we have of any other bits of the Gilgamesh epic

which is marvelous, but infuriating

because we still got gaps where we haven't got anything.

[narrator] Babylon owed a rich debt to Sumerian culture.

[narrator] Babylon owed a rich debt to Sumerian culture.

And in turn, it brought their tales to a new audience.

In 589 BC, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II conquered Jerusalem

and deported many of its citizens.

Many scholars think the Book of Genesis was written in Babylon

by Jewish exiles.

Here they came into contact with Sumerian stories

that were thousands of years old.

But for the Biblical authors,

these stories of gods and monsters took on a new dimension.

They revealed the truth about human existence as they saw it.

As the divine plan of a single God.

The Jewish scribes were trying to reconstruct their history

much like Sumerians had done thousands of years earlier with the Flood.

The Sumerians are our common ancestor.

The Sumerians are our common ancestor.

We owe them so much.

[narrator] The tales of the Old Testament remember the legacy

of an ancient and remarkable people: the Sumerians.

They constructed extraordinary wonders

that have survived the test of time,

invented writing and literature

and pioneered a new urban life.

In many ways, the story of Iraq's lost cities is Genesis.

In many ways, the story of Iraq's lost cities is Genesis.

The history of our beginnings.

The creation of the modern world.