Why are the names of the chief characters in the biblical Book of Esther those of Mesopotamian deities? Stephanie Dalley argues that the narrative reflects real happenings in seventh-century Assyria, where the widespread belief that revenge belongs to the gods explains why Assyrian kings described punitive campaigns as divine acts, leading to the mythologizing of certain historical events. Ashurbanipal's sack of Susa, led by the deities Ishtar and Marduk, underlies the Hebrew story of Esther, and that story contains traces of the cultic calendar of Ishtar-of-Nineveh. Dalley traces the way in...

This volume completes the publication of all identified Old Babylonian tablets in the Ashmolean Museum accessed before 1966. Although many of them were acquired from dealers in the 1920s and 1930s, most can be assigned to sites and connected with similar holdings in other museums. The combination of full catalogue, indices, and copies provides an invaluable tool for further research on three of the most important cities of the 18th century BC. Links with Mycenaean administrative practices, and information about the hitherto dubious Sealand dynasty, are two interesting aspects highlighted in...

This collection explores the spread of culture through literacy from Mesopotamia into Egypt, Palestine and Greece after a system of writing was developed. By gathering evidence from a vast range of material and literary sources from 3000 BC onwards, threads of influence and continuity are traced into the Middle Ages. The effect of recent rediscovery on European art is also explored.