Certainly not a book for the layman. Van de Mieroop (° 1956, professor Near Eastern History Columbia University) is an absolute authority in the history of Mesopotamia (for a reason unknown to me he systematically speaks about “Babylonia” which refers to a much more limited area). But in this book he goes into very technical aspects of Mesopotamian civilization. He makes a structuralist analysis of the enormous numbers of lexicographical lists and lists in which omens are described, and he also briefly covers some legal texts. His basic thesis and conclusion is that in the successive Mesopotamian cultures cuneiform writing stood on its own and that scribes simply let themselves go inventing new words and omen forms, independent from reality. Translated into philosophical language: according to Van de Mieroop Mesopotamian epistemology was very different from the later, empirically founded approach that was passed on to the West via the Greeks. Extremely fascinating, certainly, but perhaps not always convincing and, moreover, it does require some perseverance from the reader. More about that in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4791604378. ( )

Quite a decent book about cuneiform writing (though with far too few examples for my taste), a good if superficial exploration of three genres of cuneiform, mostly Babylonian, writing: word lists, omen lists and law codes (which were lists as well, and were never used as actual law codes). Not very engaging style, much worse than his history of the ancient Near East, reading this has soon become a chore.

It would not be that bad, but for one thing sorely missing from this book: Philosophy. ( )