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Library of Nineveh
I thought this discussion was a corker. I would like to think this topic was inspired by my recent letter but I suppose I would be deluding myself. Inevitably in the time available it just scratched the surface (there's an archaeological metaphor for you!)I would love to hear a programme dealing with the discovery of the Sumerians that this library occasioned.Especially dealing with their gods; An,Enki,Enlil,Ninhursag and Inanna.This pantheon, together with a whole army of lesser gods created the Sumerian civilization according to the myths as related in the clay tablets and cylinder seals.As well as knocking up a civilization or two this unholy family were into rape,incest,murder,wild sex and ferocious warfare! Not like my church going days and Jesus Meek and Mild.
David in Brussels: Nineveh, Nicea, Fish and Brains
The Fish- instructors’ startling uniform has shown great longevity and wide dissemination. The fish attire may have been created to impress the masses that the wearers held on to the mysteries from the Noah-figure and the wise, angelic teachers of sciences and technologies from before the Flood. Fish are symbolic of eternity because they survived the flood, whereas land-based animals drowned. Layard calls the Assyrian fish-teachers the priests of Dagon (Bel-Dagon/ Dakan), and identifies them with the god-idol that Samson destroyed in Israel half a millennium before Asshurbanipal’s time. Some eight hundred years after Nineveh burnt, under the syncretising influence of the Syrian Caesars and other events, such pagan priests were then striking a pose in their colourful robes in Rome. At the end of Constantine’s and Gratian’s century, the bishop of Rome, Damasus, (elected Roman supreme pontiff of religions after numerous murders) provided a ‘new look’ for those attending the now catholicised pagan temples. Christians previously wore everyday dress. The top class of imperial priests ‘borrowed’ the resplendent garb of the obsolete pagan priests in the post-Nicene State religion. Thus the bishop’s fish mitre and colourful gowns plus the ancient Chaldean tonsure again became prominent, this time in the uniform of a centralised church. Layard also describes figures with crosses and tridents around their neck. In relation to the previous programme on the brain/ heart, Layard reports that aMesopotamian called a friend the “Joy of my liver”!
Biddy Fisher - Great Libraries
A fascinating insight into the establishment of one of the earliest collections of the knowledge of a society. The purpose, use and readership of the contents of the Library did not receive as detailed discussion as I would have liked. Collecting knowledge for collections sake was not a significant motivation of the early knowledge collectors. It was more a need to establish cultural superiority through the intellectual output of the society.A note to 'Paul'- 'Google' is not technically or intellectually a Library as it is not subject to thematic or other selection criteria; organisation of content according to established schemas; censorship or veracity of its content. It is a marvelous tool for finding raw information, good bad and indifferent, true false, biased or balanced. Users of 'Googled' information must always be wary of its provenance. There have been some spectacular Google Gaffs!
A.K.Farrar, Fried Fish
What a great programme on The Library at Ninevah - I have to say the idea of Fish People, and priests dressing as fish has had me giggling for several hours - one presumes some got fully baked in the Mede attack (as opposed to half baked).Seriously, a really fascinating look at a topic deserving of much greater attention.
David Barchard
Fascinating programme today, carrying on where "Archaeology and Empire" left off a year or two back. It might have been made clearer that the excavations at Nineveh and Nemrod were an official British project. Stratford Canning spent much of his fourth spell as ambassador trying to get permission from the Ottomans to dig Classical sites (such as Halicarnassus/Bodrum) in the west of the Empire. The purpose was extraction and transportation to the British Museum rather archaeology in today's sense. Layard had climpsed the mounds during his "early adventures" and though Nineveh and Nemrud were not classical sites, their biblical associations made them attractive to the British. (The first cuneiform tablet had been brought home by an Anglo-Irish East India Company Resident in Baghdad, Claudius James Rich, in the early decades of the 19th century.)Layard, though an autodidact, was a brilliant writer and his works on Nineveh can be downloaded from Google books. (It would see that his Nineveh actually turned out to be Nemrud.) Sad to think that the Allied presence in Iraq seems to have done immense damage to archaeological sites there. A blessing that Layard was as able as he was, though his success led to a lifelong quarrel with his boss, Sir Stratford.
léo burton...divination
As usual, a stimulating programme. I gather that amongst the Assyrians the inheritors of 'fish' wisdom would advise the king, on the basis of rituals and interpretations of auguries, how to act in accord with circumstances determined by 'superhuman' forces.Is there a parallel in our own society where an elite of analysts, experts and spiritual advisors use traditional rituals (queen's speech, debate, religious services) and esoteric computations to interpret what is happening, and what will happen , and thus advise "our leader" how to steer us through the economic 'climate', global warming, the variations in price and availablity of natural resources, and even the phenomenae of the housing market.
Paul - libraries & TMI (too much information)
I wonder if the Nineveh library wasn't the Assyrian way of shuttering off their information overload. Maybe it is time for a new "great library" along the lines of the one google is building .
Andrew Hetherington - Library at Nineveh
Anyone intersted in reading some of the material found in Nineveh might like to know that there is an evening class at Birkbeck College in Akkadian. No prior knowledge is required, and it is not a particularly difficult language. By the end of the first term you will be reading Babylonian directly from the cuneiform. If you proceed to the second year you might find yourself reading (as I did) the Flood from the Epic of Gigamesh in the version found in the library at Nineveh.
The Mesopotamians
Love your show...Check out The Mesopotamians by They Might Be Giants... it's on ITunes!Mike
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