The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History

The Library of Ancient Wisdom reveals the ancient world of Mesopotamia, its people, and their culture through the preserved tablets of Ashurbanipal's library. It offers a vivid portrait of daily life, including kings, queens, priests, traders, and lamenters, and provides an excellent survey of Mesopotamian literary classics. The story of the library's destruction and preservation is also fascinating.

Format: Hardback
Length: 448 pages
Publication date: 27 February 2025
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

The Library of Ancient Wisdom unearths a civilization that created one of the oldest and greatest stores of knowledge ever seen: the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, seventh century BCE ruler of a huge swathe of the ancient Middle East known as Mesopotamia. After his death, vengeful rivals burned Ashurbanipals library to the ground - yet the texts, carved on clay tablets, were baked and preserved by the heat. Buried for millennia, the tablets were written in cuneiform: the first written language in the world. More than half of human history is written in cuneiform, but only a few hundred people on earth can read it. In this captivating new book, Assyriologist Selena Wisnom takes us on an immersive tour of this extraordinary library, bringing ancient Mesopotamia and its people to life. Through it, we encounter a world of astonishing richness, complexity and sophistication. Mesopotamia, she shows, was home to advanced mathematics, astronomy and banking, law and literature. This was a culture absorbed and developed by the ancient Greeks, and whose myths were precursors to Bible stories - in short, a culture without which our lives today would be unrecognizable. The Library of Ancient Wisdom unearths a civilization that created one of the oldest and greatest stores of knowledge ever seen: the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, seventh century BCE ruler of a huge swathe of the ancient Middle East known as Mesopotamia. After his death, vengeful rivals burned Ashurbanipals library to the ground - yet the texts, carved on clay tablets, were baked and preserved by the heat. Buried for millennia, the tablets were written in cuneiform: the first written language in the world. More than half of human history is written in cuneiform, but only a few hundred people on earth can read it. In this captivating new book, Assyriologist Selena Wisnom takes us on an immersive tour of this extraordinary library, bringing ancient Mesopotamia and its people to life. Through it, we encounter a world of astonishing richness, complexity and sophistication. Mesopotamia, she shows, was home to advanced mathematics, astronomy and banking, law and literature. This was a culture absorbed and developed by the ancient Greeks, and whose myths were precursors to Bible stories - in short, a culture without which our lives today would be unrecognizable.
The Library of Ancient Wisdom presents a captivating and detailed exploration of Mesopotamian life through the preserved remnants of Ashurbanipal's library, revealing kings, queens, priests, traders, and professional lamenters. This remarkable collection of clay tablets, dating back to the seventh century BCE, offers a glimpse into the advanced mathematics, astronomy, banking, law, and literature of ancient Mesopotamia. Despite being burned by vengeful rivals, the baked tablets survived, preserving the ancient cuneiform language, which was the first written language in the world. More than half of human history is written in cuneiform, yet only a few hundred people on Earth can read it. In this captivating book, Assyriologist Selena Wisnom takes readers on an immersive journey through this extraordinary library, bringing ancient Mesopotamia and its people to life. Through the preserved texts, we encounter a world of astonishing richness, complexity, and sophistication. Mesopotamia was home to advanced mathematics, astronomy, banking, law, and literature, and its myths were precursors to Bible stories. Without this culture, our lives today would be unrecognizable.

Weight: 688g
Dimension: 241 x 163 x 41 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780241519639