Mesopotamia

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Do you remember that I visited the Penn Museum, when we were in Philadelphia in July?

I saw Puabi's treasures.......  (if you click through, scroll down.....)

When I got home, I checked a bunch of books about Mesopotamia out of the library, and only now have I gotten around to reading this one:

It was published in 1979, so all the pics are black and white.  It's a fairly dry rendition of what it was like to excavate in Mesopotamia.  Culture clashes with rulers and workers; torrid summers and freezing winters; rampant disease; remote locations; isolation from western civilization (and comforts thereof).  He gives what seems like a fair description of those who were there mostly as grave robbers (the early ones), and those who were there primarily for scientific study (the later ones).

It has been interesting to read about the discovery of things that are familiar from A History of the World in 100 Objects -- a Sumerian cuneiform tablet , an Assyrian clay tablet with the Flood story on it (way earlier than the Biblical story of the flood),
the standard of Ur, an Assyrian relief of King Sennacherib's siege of Lachish (40 kilometers from Jerusalem) which was found in Nineveh.....  And, of course, Puabi's tomb......

Hearing familiar names (like Sennacherib) as I've read the book has made it more interesting.  I hadn't realized that Agatha Christie's second husband, Max Mallowan, was a serious archeologist.  (He and Agatha are mentioned in the info in Puabi's room at the Penn Museum.)

I'm glad to have read the book.

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