Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2019 -

Founded in 1911, Yale's Babylonian Collection, the largest in North America, is affiliated with Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. This volume catalogues a 2019-20 exhibit at the Peabody about the cultures in ancient Mesopotamia (the "land between the rivers"), from 11,000 BCE to 224 CE. The volume begins with an informative chronology, followed by an impressive essay on the origins, history, and decipherment of cuneiform, which drives the exhibition of 150 of the collection's highlights. But the book is much more than an exhibition catalogue. The remarkable artifacts serve as supporting evidence for essays devoted to gods and demons, kingship and war, the legal system, economy and trade, women and home life, food, medicine, education, literature, scholarship, understanding of the past, time and space, mathematics, and polychromy. The 17 essays touch on a multitude of fascinating topics, among them foundation epics, administrative records, building inscriptions, commercial inventories, prayers, incantations and spells, omens, letters, astronomical diaries, and recipes. Catalogue entries themselves have irresistible captions (no. 59--"Monsters Fighting"; no. 100--"Feeding Cats"; no. 145--"Fumigations against Epilepsy") and delightful explanations of texts and images.