Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780226067278)

Our ancestors, the Mesopotamians, invented writing and with it a new way of looking at the world. In this collection of essays, the French scholar Jean Bottero attempts to go back to the moment which marks the very beginning of history.

To give the reader some sense of how Mesopotamian civilization has been mediated and interpreted in its transmission through time, Bottero begins with an account of Assyriology, the discipline devoted to the ancient culture. This transmission, compounded with countless discoveries, would not have been possible without the surprising decipherment of the cuneiform writing system. Bottero also focuses on divination in the ancient world, contending that certain modes of worship in Mesopotamia, in their application of causality and proof, prefigure the "scientific mind."

Author: Jean Bott駻o
ISBN-10: 0226067270
ISBN-13: 9780226067278
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 06/15/1995
Pages: 326
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.98lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.08w x 0.73d