The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History (a 2nd.printing signed by the author)

Selena Wisnom

ISBN 10: 0241519632 / ISBN 13: 9780241519639

Published by Allen Lane, uk, 2025

About this Item

uk1st.edition.2nd.printing. near fine hardback in near fine dustwrapper.signed by the author on the half title page.IMPORTANT- massive book requiring extra postage for non uk address.

Seller Inventory # lloroomjbv

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History (a 2nd.printing signed by the author)
• Publisher: Allen Lane, uk
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241519632
• ISBN 13: 9780241519639
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 2nd Printing
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Dimensions: 4W x 16H x 24D centimeters 4 centimeters width by 16 centimeters height by 24 centimeters depth
• Weight: 750 grams
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

The Library of Ancient Wisdom 'pieces together a vivid portrait of Mesopotamian life from the shattered remnants of the 30,000 or so tablets in Ashurbanipal's library... which not only bring kings and queens to life, but also priests, traders and professional lamenters' - New Scientist'Fascinating and rich in detail… provides an excellent survey of Mesopotamian literary classics.. and offers snippets of daily life' - Literary Review The story of the ancient world’s most spectacular library, and the civilization that created itWhen a team of Victorian archaeologists dug into a grassy hill in Iraq, they chanced upon 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 Ashurbanipal’s 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 at once strange and strangely familiar: a land of capricious gods, exorcisms and professional lamenters, whose citizens wrote of jealous rivalries, profound friendships and petty grievances. Through these pages we come face to face with humanity’s first civilization: their startling achievements, their daily life, and their struggle to understand our place in the universe.