Irving L. Finkel

Cuneiform

Alexander J. de Voogt

This exploration of the versatility of writing systems highlights their complexity when they are used to represent loanwords, solve problems of polysemy or when they are adapted to be used for another language. The approaches from different academic traditions provide a varied but expert account.

Play and Complexity

The Idea of Writing

Markham J. Geller

Sumerian Gods and Their Representations

Michael J. Seymour

A strikingly-illustrated short introduction to Babylon, a powerful and sophisticated ancient city and the home of the fabled Hanging Gardens of Nebuchadnezzar, one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Over the centuries Babylon was lost to view, and survived only in a rich and bizarre set of half-fantastical stories and traditions, until painstaking archaeological work uncovered the real city once more. The city of Babylon flourished for nearly 2,000 years on the River Euphrates in what is now central Iraq. After its conquest by the Persians in 539 BC it slowly faded from prominence and over time was lost from the historical record almost completely. One of the greatest cities of the ancient world lived on only in popular belief and legend. Amalgamating fact and fantasy, stories about the city and the kings of Babylon survived through the Middle Ages into modern times and were the inspiration for many pieces of art and literature in Europe between the 17th and 19th centuries. The Tower of Babel the Madness of Nebuchadnezzar the Writing on the Wall the Hanging Gardens of Babylon Daniel in the Lions Den - such stories and images grew famous over the years, while the city itself became little more than a name. However, the real city and its kings have re-emerged into the light thanks to the endeavours of many scholars and archaeologists in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today we can visualise a splendid city of massive walls (once counted among the Seven Wonders of the World), towering pyramid-shaped temples, vast royal palaces and gardens, and monumental gateways. Festivals and processions dedicated to the gods passed along streets lined with colourful glazed-brick reliefs of lions and mythical beasts. The glory of Babylon was expressed not only in physical buildings but also in the learning and scholarship of the city. Babylonian achievements in mathematics, astronomy and medicine had far-reaching effects on the Classical world and even on our own times we get our sixty-minute hours from Babylonia. This city of real wonders is brought back to life in these colourful pages.

City of Wonders

Babylon

Jonathan Taylor

Thanks to the use of clay tablets as a writing medium, cuneiform records have survived for thousands of years, providing a fascinating glimpse into the political, economic, and religious institutions of ancient Mesopotamia.

Everyone plays board games, and everyone will find something to fascinate them in this book about the games of the past, and their history and development. Based on the lectures given at a conference in the British Museum, this book tells the story in a properly academic way, but it is no less interesting for that ... and perhaps even more interesting! The book begins with three chapters on the games of the ancient Near East, most notably The Royal Game of Ur , then there are five chapters on the various games of ancient Egypt, senet, mehen , etc. Five more chapters are devoted to the games of the Greek and Roman world, then one on India, and three on Chinese games including Go. Then there are three on the beginnings of Chess and its introduction into western Europe, then four on backgammon from India to medieval England, three on mancala games, and one on the pursuit of hnefatafl , finally some brief notes on the games of the New World. The authors, thirty-one of them, range from archaeologists, historians and museum curators, not least Irving Finkel, the editor of the volume, to such well-known historians of games as R C Bell and the internationally famous grandmaster and journalist Raymond Keene. It is a large format book with hundreds of photos and drawings.

Papers from the 1990 British Museum Colloquium, with Additional Contributions

Ancient Board Games in Perspective

The present collection of articles on disease in Babylonia is the first such volume to appear providing detailed information derived from published and unpublished medical texts in cuneiform script from the second and first millennia BC.

Disease in Babylonia

La Bibliothèque des Refusés est un établissement des plus singuliers : elle recueille - plus encore, elle sauvegarde - tout texte ayant essuyé refus sur refus de la part des éditeurs. Littérature, poésie, mémoires, récits épistolaires. tous les écrits trouvent leur place sur les étagères de la Bibliothèque des Refusés. L'arrivée impromptue d'une insupportable bibliothécaire américaine, l'imposture d'une actrice se faisant passer pour une étudiante dans l'idée de voler des idées pour son prochain film, la menace de cambrioleurs convaincus de trouver là le gros lot, sans compter l'irruption de nombreux aspirants écrivains. autant de mésaventures qui viennent perturber l'ordre tranquille de la Bibliothèque. Entre personnages hauts en couleur et situations cocasses, le tout dans un irrésistible humour british, La Bibliothèque des Refusés est également une merveilleuse déclaration d'amour aux livres et aux manuscrits en tout genre.

Au paradis des manuscrits refusés

Over 2500 years after the city's fall, the Babylon of ancient Iraq is still an evocative name. The stories of the Tower of Babel, the Hanging Gardens, Daniel in the Lions' Den, the madness of Nebuchadnezzar and the "city of sin" still resonate today. But how much do we really know of the original city and the reality behind the myths, traditions, and stories? This lavishly illustrated volume sheds light for the first time on the true wonders of this ancient city and the echoes and images that have grown up around it over thousands of years. Babylon has carried complex and evolving meanings for artists through the ages and the authors bring together a wealth of art works inspired by this ancient city, from medieval manuscripts and major canvases to contemporary digital art. Alongside these later evocations of an imagined Babylon, the authors present the reality of the city: its kings, its history and its amazing structures, such as Nebuchadnezzar's magnificent state buildings with their famous glazed brick reliefs. They investigate the history, culture and religious life of the time, describing the Conquest of Jerusalem and the emergence of monotheism within Babylonian religion. They also demonstrate how ancient Babylon's legacy lives on today--in astronomy, astrology, and the origins of modern calendars and clocks. A final chapter considers the recent troubled history of the site of Babylon in today's Iraq. This book is published to accompany the major exhibition "Babylon" at the British Museum and draws on three of the most important collections of artifacts from the ancient city of Babylon, at the British Museum itself, the Musée du Louvre, and the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin.

Neil MacGregor

John Curtis

The Cyrus Cylinder is one of the most famous objects to have survived from the ancient world. The Cylinder was inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform on the orders of the Persian King Cyrus the Great (559−530BC) after he captured Babylon in 539BC. It is often referred to as the first bill of human rights as it appears to permit freedom of worship throughout the Persian Empire and to allow deported people to return to their homelands. It is valued by people all around the world as a symbol of tolerance and respect for different peoples and different faiths, so much so that a copy of the cylinder is on display in the United Nations building in New York.This catalogue is being published in conjunction with the first ever tour of the object to the United States, along with sixteen other objects from the British Museum's collection. The book discusses how these objects demonstrate the innovations initiated by Persian rule in the Ancient Near East (550 BC−331 BC), a prime example being a gold plaque from the Oxus Treasure with the representation of a priest that shows the spread of the Zoroastrian religion. The book offers a new authoritative translation of the Cyrus Cylinder by Irving Finkel and the publication of two fragments of a cuneiform tablet that show how the Cyrus Cylinder was most probably a proclamation and not just a foundation deposit.

A New Beginning for the Middle East

The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia

Julian Reade

Jonathan N. Tubb

Yūsuf Ḥasanʹzādah

Paul E. Zimansky

Elnathan Weissert

François Bridey

Thomas Michael Kiely

Falih Almutrb

Henrietta McCall

Sébastien Rey

Davide Nadali

Paul Thomas Collins

Ronnie Goldstein

John MacGinnis

Chikako E. Watanabe

Jamie R. Novotny

A fascinating glimpse into ancient Assyrian culture, history, and art explored through one of its most famous rulers, King Ashurbanipal.

King of the World, King of Assyria

I Am Ashurbanipal

Irving L. Finkel

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