The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of the Modern World

A tour of an ancient library transports us to Mesopotamia, introducing us to its people, their ideas, and their humanity.

The library of Ashurbanipal, Assyria’s last great king, held an astonishing collection at the forefront of knowledge in its day, from ancient traditions in religion and literature to the latest developments in magic and medicine. When the Assyrian empire fell, the library burned to the ground, and its contents, clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing, lay buried f...