Many of us have spent a lot of time at home this year. What would that have been like in ancient Babylon? Heather talks about housing in the first millennium BC. What were houses like, who lived in them, and how did they use them? She discusses what houses meant to Babylonians, and how they were split and reconstituted by the family. 

 
2:34 where was housing in the city?

4:13 where did people want to live?

6:42 did houses have kerb appeal?

8:54 a typical house

12:17 how rooms were used

15:13 who lived in a typical house?

18:09 keeping a family home

22:04 what about water?

26:01 how did you find where someone lived?

https://www.nmc.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/heather-d-baker 

https://hcommons.org/members/apkallatu/ 

https://utoronto.academia.edu/HeatherDBaker 

Music by Ruba Hillawi

Website: http://wedgepod.org

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgw 

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @wedge_pod  

Patreon: http://Patreon.com/WedgePod 

Jaafar explains his love for the ancient waterways of southern Iraq. He tells us why they are so important, and what they can tell us about life in ancient Iraq. How do you find ancient waterways? And how do you investigate them? 

2:44 Jaafar's interest in waterways

4:26 why are they important?

6:35 what they can tell us

11:39 the relationship between sites and waterways

17:06 how to study waterways

21:36 collaborations

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JaafarJotheri 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001588284937 

Publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=9zuyq4UAAAAJ  

University website: http://qu.edu.iq/arc/?page_id=4405  

Nahrein Network: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/nahrein/project-team/core-team

Music by Ruba Hillawi

Website: http://wedgepod.org

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgw 

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @wedge_pod  

Patreon: http://Patreon.com/WedgePod 

21. Fabienne Huber Vuillet: Meanings from the mundane

Fabienne introduces us to the Mesopotamian science of predicting the future based on things that happened during daily life. What might have meaning, and how would you find it? Who used this kind of expertise? And was there anything you could do to change the future predicted for you? 

2:34 omens from daily life

5:20 what had meaning

10:20 how did divination worked

16:49 who used the omens

19:51 could you change the future?

25:15 how the mass of knowledge was organised

Project site: https://www.unige.ch/lettres/antic/unites/mesopotamie/projets/edition-de-la-serie-divinatoire-shumma-alu/

 
Music by Ruba Hillawi

Website: http://wedgepod.org

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgw 

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @wedge_pod  

Patreon: http://Patreon.com/WedgePod 

Xiaoli introduces us to silver in the Sumerian city of Umma. She explains where it came from and how people got hold of it. Who was able to use it and what for? She tells us how we might understand whether it could be called money. And explains the physical form in which silver circulated. 

5:42 What is money?

8:46 Who used silver?

13:00 How they got silver

16:55 Did silver actually circulate?

22:26 How was value set?

Music by Ruba Hillawi

Website: http://wedgepod.org

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgw 

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @wedge_pod  

Patreon: http://Patreon.com/WedgePod 

19. Shiyanthi Thavapalan: Colour in Mesopotamia

 Shiyanthi throws light on how colour was interpreted in Mesopotamia. What cultural meanings were attached to colours? What was the relation between materials and colours? She explains where they sourced their pigments and how they made paints. 

2:26 Mesopotamia as a colourful place

6:01 How they saw colour

12:00 How we know about colour

14:47 Materials and colour

16:56 Sources of pigments

21:56 Experimental archaeology

23:33 The meaning of colours

Music by Ruba Hillawi

Website: http://wedgepod.org

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgw 

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @wedge_pod  

Patreon: http://Patreon.com/WedgePod 

18. Carmen Gütschow: Archaeological conservation

Carmen introduces the work of an archaeological conservator. She discusses the issues that arise in different materials, and the range of treatments and tools she uses. What are the pressures of conservation work on an archaeological site? And what does she do differently in Europe and the Middle East. As an expert in treating cuneiform tablets, Carmen explains about firing and salts.

3:03 what a conservator does
4:23 ceramics
7:38 organics and humidity
8:54 metals
11:40 work on an archaeological site versus work in a lab
13:38 work in the Middle East
16:23 cuneiform tablets
17:42 firing tablets
21:46 preserving original condition
24:37 working in museums

Carmen’s book

Ruprecht-Karls University Heidelberg/Excavation in Assur and Bakr Awa and Ninive in Iraq/Kurdistan

• https://www.assur.de/Themen/Ausgrabung/Assur2001/Konservierung/konservierung.html
• https://www.assur.de/Themen/Bakr_Awa/Restoration/body_restoration.html
• https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/ausgrabung-in-ninive-heilsbotschaft-aus-dem-alten-orient/25727444.html

The Shamlu Archaeological Mission (SAM) is part of the DFG Emmy Noether project "Flight - Migration - Interaction. Artefact related diversity in Ancient Near Eastern contexts of the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC"

LMU/ Iran. Das elamische Archiv aus Goshtaspi. Staatliche Verwaltung

Sippar library/ Baghdad, Iraq. „Electronic Babylonian Literature“ (Professor Enrique Jiménez).

Hilprecht collection, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena 
• https://www.oriindufa.uni-jena.de/keilschrift
• https://iaassyriology.com/congratulations-winner-of-the-second-iaa-dissertation-prize/
• https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/dzo/artikel/201/91_201.pdf?t=1408373297

DAI  /Uruk-Warka collection, Ruprecht-Karls University Heidelberg
• iDAI.publications: publications.dainst.org › efb › article › download
• https://lens.idai.world/?url=/repository/eDAI-F_2020-3/eDAI-F_VanEss.xml

Böhl-Collection NINO /Leiden, Netherlands
• http://www.nino-leiden.nl/collections/de-liagre-bohl-collection
• http://www.nino-leiden.nl/message/pilot-restoration-of-clay-tablets-in-the-bohl-collection

VAM Berlin “Das Vorprojekt BABylo-tec”. Erinnerung an das ende der deutschen Babylon- Expedition

Museum of Islamic art Berlin/ Afghanistan. A museum project in Herat Afghanistan
• http://ancient-herat.de/category/herat_pdf_en/
• http://ancient-herat.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/00b-Showcasing-History-Realisation-of-a-Vision-D.pdf
•https://www.academia.edu/30106499/Herat_Through_Time_The_Collections_of_the_Herat_Museum_and_Archive_Ancient_Herat_Vol_3_Berlin_2016_extracts

Museum of Islamic art Berlin/ Karachi, Pakistan. A project and exhibition in Karachi

A new museum project in Yazd
• https://www.smb.museum/museen-einrichtungen/museum-fuer-islamische-kunst/sammeln-forschen/forschung-kooperation/iran-the-provincial-museum-yazd-national-museum-teheran/
• https://www.bundeskunsthalle.de/forschungsprojekte/iran.html
• https://www.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/Iran
• https://www.welcometoiran.com/german-institute-to-help-set-up-museum/


Music by Ruba Hillawi

Website: http://wedgepod.org
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgw 
Email: [email protected] 
Twitter: @wedge_p

17. Strahil Panayotov: Assyrian eye medicine

Strahil explains how Assyrian medicine worked. Who were the doctors and what did they do? Would their treatments have been effective? He discusses the problems caused by taxonomy. Different ideas about the human body and the diseases affecting it make it more difficult for us to understand Assyrian medicine. One of our most important sources is a newly reconstructed reference work, The Nineveh Medical Encyclopaedia. 

2:46 Assyrian doctors

5:24 how medicine worked

8:44 eye problems and their treatment

12:25 the problem of taxonomy

15:25 about our sources

17:30 the Nineveh Medical Encyclopaedia

BabMed: https://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/en/e/babmed/index.html

Strahil’s Academia: https://bas.academia.edu/StrahilPanayotov

Music by Ruba Hillawi

Website: http://wedgepod.org

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgw 

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @wedge_pod  

Patreon: http://Patreon.com/WedgePod 

Ilgi and Selim explain their collaborative project to document and eventually publish an important group of texts from Turkish-sponsored excavations at Sippar in the late 19th century. They discuss the number and content of these tablets, and how they came to Istanbul. What are the project’s aims and what progress has been made so far? 

5:07 About the Project

5:47 Why Sippar?

7:27 About the tablets

9:25 How they came to Istanbul

13:15 Results and further goals

18:45 Wider dissemination

20:56 Mesopotamia in schools

 Sevin Kutlu and Teoman Duralı's translation based on N.K. Sandars's translation: Gılgamış Destanı (The Gilgamesh Epic)

Muazzez İlmiye Çığ, Gilgameş. Tarihte İlk Kral Kahraman (Gilgamesh. The First Hero King in History)

Sait Maden, Gılgamış Destanı (The Gilgamesh Epic)

Orhan Suda's translation of Jean Bottéro's translation, Gılgamış Destanı. Ölmek İstemeyen Adam (The Gilgamesh Epic. The Man Who Does Not Want To Die)

Muzaffer Ramazanoğlu, 2010, Gılgamış Destanı (The Gilgamesh Epic)

ilgigercek (at) bilkent.edu.tr

selimferruh.adali (at) asbu.edu.tr

Music by Ruba Hillawi

Website: http://wedgepod.org

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgw 

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @wedge_pod  

Patreon: http://Patreon.com/WedgePod 

Daniel Nicky explains how he uses music to help teach school children about history. His Mesopotamia song has been incredibly successful. How does he do it, and what does it take? His work with youth groups in West Java may offer inspiration for engaging youth in the Middle East. 

03:15 origins of the Mesopotamia Song

06:43 why it’s popular

10:00 the Mesopotamia Song

13:41 making the Song

16:22 researching the Song

23:37 plans for the future

27:09 working with youth groups

  
The Mesopotamia Song

Mr Nicky's World History Songs 

Music by Ruba Hillawi

Website: http://wedgepod.org

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgw 

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @wedge_pod  

Patreon: http://Patreon.com/WedgePod 

Aaron discusses the ideas from his new book, The Idols of Isis: from Assyria to the Internet. The ISIS video of men smashing statues in Mosul Museum reminded him of a lost scene from Sargon’s palace. What are images? Why do we need them? Can they ever be anything other than incomplete and imperfect? And does that matter?

2:53 images, idolatry and iconoclasm

5:39 meanings of images in relation to Iraqi heritage

9:09 ISIS videos 

12:44 Sargon of Assyria and ancient iconoclasm

17:52 virtuous iconoclasm?

21:55 how museums might display meanings

Idols of Isis is available from the University of Chicago Press: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo60920783.html 

Music by Ruba Hillawi

Website: http://wedgepod.org

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgw 

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @wedge_pod  

Patreon: http://Patreon.com/WedgePod