Ancient civilization

A view inside what was the dome of the historic Habib-i Najjar Mosque in Antakya. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

This hole was made in a Bronze Age man's skull shortly before he died, archaeologists say, based on several clues. It's the result of a surgical procedure called a trephination. Kalisher et al., 2023/PLOS ONE hide caption

Khoshaba Jaber, an Assyrian living in West London, plays a tambura, a traditional instrument known as the "mother of strings," after singing an epic poem he learned in his boyhood village in northern Iraq. Alice Fordham/NPR hide caption

People walk past a replica of an ancient statue of a human-headed winged bull from Nimrud, Iraq, destroyed by the Islamic State. It's part of an exhibition called "Rising from Destruction" at Rome's Colosseum. Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Antikythera team members Nikolas Giannoulakis, Theotokis Theodoulou, and Brendan Foley inspect small finds from the shipwreck, while decompressing after a dive of 165 feet beneath the surface of the Mediterranean Sea in Greece. Brett Seymour/EUA/WHOI/ARGO hide caption

Tourists at Persepolis marvel at the grandeur of a bygone age amid worries about the future. Steve Inskeep/NPR hide caption

Ava Gene's, a Roman-inspired restaurant in Portland, Ore., incorporates colatura, a modern descendant of ancient Roman fish sauce, into several of its dishes. Deena Prichep/NPR hide caption