Selena Wisnom
The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of the Modern World by Selena Wisnom is an exciting and extensive exploration of the library of Ashurbanipal in the seventh century BCE in ancient Mesopotamia, the area of modern-day Iraq.
Ashurbanipal, king of the Assyrian empire, espoused knowledge, accumulating texts from all over his empire to house them in his library. It is estimated his library held more than 30,000 tablets covering a wide range of topics, including medical knowledge, prayers, laments, songs, literary works (including The Epic of Gilgamesh), esoteric lore, records of victories in battle, documents for governing, correspondences, and dictionaries. Written in cuneiform script on clay tablets, the library is a window on the culture and times of Ashurbanipal. And because Ashurbanipal preserved tablets that were considered ancient even in his lifetime, we also have access to the cultures of ancient Sumer and Babylonia which predate Ashurbanipal by 2,000 years.
Professor Wisnom, an Assyrian scholar with an expertise on cuneiform script, is a lecturer at the University of Leicester. She provides a systematic exploration of the contents of Ashurbanipal’s library from a wealth of the surviving tablets that have so far been deciphered. Her exploration is extensive, beginning with the cuneiform writing system invented in the fourth millennium BCE to the story of its decipherment by Victorian scholars in the 19th Century. She includes analyses of manuals on magic, medicine, divination, astrology, and relationship with the gods. She compiles what daily life must have been like for Ashurbanipal by reading his correspondences and list of duties. But perhaps one of the most exciting finds is the Nineveh Medical compendium, the first known medical text consisting of a collection of treatments organized from head to toe, beginning with all manner of ailments in the head and proceeding all the way down to the anus and hamstrings. This fascinating medical compilation is currently available online at the British Museum.
Wisnom’s book includes several pages of color plates, a Bibliographical Essay for each chapter, A Guide to Primary Sources, a 40-page Bibliography, and extensive notes. The diction is accessible, peppered with occasional humor, and minus the academic jargon that frequently plagues a work of such impressive academic quality. It is very readable, engaging, and highly recommended for those interested in understanding the profound and ubiquitous influence of Mesopotamia in shaping our world.