Strange 5,000-year-old clay bowls linked to rise and fall of one of world’s earliest governments

Dozens of strange clay bowls unearthed at an archeological site dating to the 4th millennium BC in Kurdistan have offered clues to the origin and collapse of the world’s earliest government, according to a new study.

Researchers have been carrying out excavations at Shakhi Kora in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2019, uncovering a sequence of structures spanning several centuries.