Hymn to Ishtar
 
		In lips she is sweet; life is in her mouth.
		At her appearance rejoicing becomes full.
		She is glorious; veils are thrown over her head.
		Her figure is beautiful; her eyes are brilliant.

Information transfers through written and spoken words from generation to generation and through civil traditions and revered works of art and architecture from ancient civilizations to modern civilizations. In the case of ancient Mesopotamia and sister civilizations, the world was robbed of information and knowledge as time progressed and memories faded. The recovery of any information about the glory of this ancient society is one of the great academic adventures of all time. Assyriology is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “the science or study of the history, language, and antiquities of Ancient Assyria and Babylon.” Some 150 years ago, linguists, historians, and archeologists began the process of unfolding this history, but a shaded view of these civilizations still exists. As with all historical disciplines, surviving artifacts must be uncovered and interpreted, but limitations are numerous and some have criticized this scholarly field of study.

Oppenheim (1960) considers weaknesses in this field of study in his article entitled Assyriology- Why and How?. He makes the point that seclusion of the field has compounded the problem of gaps in the historical record. Oppenheim suggests how to aid the search for understanding by employing a multidiscipline collaboration with descriptive linguists, medical historians, and technical historians. He asks that the fields of economics, social sciences, and anthropology be invited in to invigorate the study of ancient civilizations. Assuming that Oppenheim is correct, this suggests there is a crisis in information transfer and provides opportunity for librarians to step up to the plate.

Librarians can aid scholars in their quest for information by creating non-specialist bibliographies, which will provide an awareness and listing of resources. The internet platform provides the open access for interested faculty and students to benefit by this short-cut to finding resources on art, history, economics, literature, technology, culture, philosophy, and religions of Ancient Mesopotamia. As a project for a 2007 fall semester course, LI 835 Information Transfer in the Disciplines, I spent a substantial amount of time crossreferencing different bibliographies to come up with my own condenced list as a service and piece of the puzzle to reconstruct history. I recomend all of these books below for anyone searching for information on ancient Mesopotamia and other civilizations! Enjoy...

General History:

• Roux, G. (1993). Ancient Iraq. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc.

• Oppenheim, L. (1968). Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization. London and Chicago: The University Press of Chicago.

Collection of Essays:

• Sasson, J. (Ed.) (2000). Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. New York: Hendrickson Publishers.

Literature:

• George, A. (Translator). (2003). The Epic of Gilgamesh. New York: Penguin Classics.

• Jacobson, T. (1997). The Harps the Once... Yale University Press.

Religion:

• Jacobson, T. (1978). The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion. Yale University Press.

Economy:

• Postgate, J.N. (1992). Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of Civilization. Routledge.

Art and Architecture:

• Frankfort, H. (1996). The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient. Yale University Press.

• Aruz, J. (2003). The Art of the First Cities. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  This book is from a wonderful art exibit. Check out the website at: Metropolitan Museum of Art: First Cities

Technology:

• Bottero, J. (1995). Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  The first lesson was that the heighest nobility of mankind lies in knowledge, in knowing, and that man has it in his nature to want to know everything: everything abouth the order and evolution of the universe. This pursuit is, at least, presented to us as an exalting and shining ideal, even if we can never attain it completion because of the vastness and the infinite charecter of its object. Secondly, on all levels including that of knowledge, all that is useful is servile and in itself inferior to what it serves.

  The above quote is from one of the essays in Bottero's Mesopotamia, entitled "In Defense of a Useless Science," where he defends the work of Assyriologists, despite their "useless" nature.

Culture:

• Bottero, J. (2001). Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Electronic Resources:

• The ABZU: A Guide to Information Related to the Study of the Ancient Near East on the Web, a guide to networked open access data, www.etana.org/abzu

• American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), www.asor.org

• Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, oi.uchicago.edu

• Electronic Tools and Ancient Near Eastern Archives (ETANA), www.etana.org

Copyright 2007 Alisha Rall. Send comments to alisha.rall@gmail.com. All rights reserved. Webpage created: December 6, 2007.