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The Mesopotamian Riddle: An Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman, and the Race to Decipher the World's Oldest Writing
A rollicking adventure starring three free-spirited Victorians on a twenty-year quest to decipher cuneiform, the oldest writing in the world—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu.
It was one of history’s great vanishing acts.
Around 3,400 BCE—as humans were gathering in complex urban settlements—a scribe in the mud-walled city-state of Uruk picked up a reed stylus to press tiny symbols into clay. For three millennia, wedge shape cuneiform script would record the military conquests, scientific discoveries, and epic literature of the great Mesopotamian kingdoms of Sumer, Assyria, and Babylon and of Persia’s mighty Achaemenid Empire, along with precious minutiae about everyday life in the cradle of civilization. And then…the meaning of the characters was lost.
London, 1857. In an era obsessed with human progress, mysterious palaces emerging from the desert sands had captured the Victorian public’s imagination. Yet Europe’s best philologists struggled to decipher the bizarre inscriptions excavators were digging up.
Enter a swashbuckling archaeologist, a suave British military officer turned diplomat, and a cloistered Irish rector, all vying for glory in a race to decipher this script that would enable them to peek farther back into human history than ever before.
From the ruins of Persepolis to lawless outposts of the crumbling Ottoman Empire, The Mesopotamian Riddle whisks you on a wild adventure through the golden age of archaeology in an epic quest to understand our past.
It was one of history’s great vanishing acts.
Around 3,400 BCE—as humans were gathering in complex urban settlements—a scribe in the mud-walled city-state of Uruk picked up a reed stylus to press tiny symbols into clay. For three millennia, wedge shape cuneiform script would record the military conquests, scientific discoveries, and epic literature of the great Mesopotamian kingdoms of Sumer, Assyria, and Babylon and of Persia’s mighty Achaemenid Empire, along with precious minutiae about everyday life in the cradle of civilization. And then…the meaning of the characters was lost.
London, 1857. In an era obsessed with human progress, mysterious palaces emerging from the desert sands had captured the Victorian public’s imagination. Yet Europe’s best philologists struggled to decipher the bizarre inscriptions excavators were digging up.
Enter a swashbuckling archaeologist, a suave British military officer turned diplomat, and a cloistered Irish rector, all vying for glory in a race to decipher this script that would enable them to peek farther back into human history than ever before.
From the ruins of Persepolis to lawless outposts of the crumbling Ottoman Empire, The Mesopotamian Riddle whisks you on a wild adventure through the golden age of archaeology in an epic quest to understand our past.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published March 18, 2025
151 people are currently reading
5201 people want to read
About the author
Joshua Hammer
26 books140 followersJoshua Hammer was born in New York and educated at Horace Mann and Princeton University, graduating with a BA in English literature. In 1988 he joined Newsweek Magazine as a business and media writer, transitioning to the magazine's foreign correspondent corps in 1992. Hammer served, successively, as bureau chief in Nairobi, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Berlin, Jerusalem, and Cape Town, and also was the magazine's Correspondent at Large in 2005 and 2006. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in the 2004-2005 academic year.
Since leaving Newsweek in 2006 Hammer has been an independent foreign correspondent, a contributing editor at Smithsonian Magazine and Outside, and a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books, GQ, the New York Times Magazine, and other US publications. He was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in reporting in 2003, and won the award, for his writing about the Ebola crisis in West Africa, in 2016. He is the author of 5 non-fiction books, including the New York Times bestseller, "The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu," which was published by Simon & Schuster in April 2016. Hammer is currently based in Berlin.
Since leaving Newsweek in 2006 Hammer has been an independent foreign correspondent, a contributing editor at Smithsonian Magazine and Outside, and a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books, GQ, the New York Times Magazine, and other US publications. He was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in reporting in 2003, and won the award, for his writing about the Ebola crisis in West Africa, in 2016. He is the author of 5 non-fiction books, including the New York Times bestseller, "The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu," which was published by Simon & Schuster in April 2016. Hammer is currently based in Berlin.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 100 reviews
August 29, 2025
This non-fiction examines the discovery of cuneiform writing, and the competition to be the first to translate it. Hammer takes the reader to legendary ancient cities such as Babylon, Nineveh, and Ur. The first evidence of cuneiform writing was discovered in the ancient city of Uruk (which is in modern-day Iraq). Cuneiform is characterized by wedge-shaped marks made by pressing a reed stylus into clay tablets. It originated with the Sumerians in Mesopotamia around 3400 BCE, making it one of the earliest writing systems in human history.
The archeologist, soldier, and clergyman referenced in the sub-title refer to Austen Henry Layard, Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, and Edward Hincks, respectively. These three were Englishmen of the Victorian era. The book covers a wide swath of Mesopotamian history while also shedding light on Victorian times. Hammer covers the use of historical, mythical, and Biblical texts in uncovering meaning in the ancient writing. He illuminates the personalities of the men, and their multiple interactions, some friendly, others rather frosty. It is always interesting to see who gets the “credit” and it is not always the person who contributed the most (big surprise).
The book is about more than solving a riddle. It explores the question of removing historic artifacts from their region of origin. He criticizes the British attempt to amass these historic artifacts together in the British museum, examines the ongoing conflicts between the French and English, and portrays the lack of knowledge of the European public at the time (who largely believed the transportation of artifacts had the approval of the local authorities.) I picked this book to find out more about cuneiform, and I learned a great deal. Fans of books about ancient languages are sure to enjoy it.
The archeologist, soldier, and clergyman referenced in the sub-title refer to Austen Henry Layard, Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, and Edward Hincks, respectively. These three were Englishmen of the Victorian era. The book covers a wide swath of Mesopotamian history while also shedding light on Victorian times. Hammer covers the use of historical, mythical, and Biblical texts in uncovering meaning in the ancient writing. He illuminates the personalities of the men, and their multiple interactions, some friendly, others rather frosty. It is always interesting to see who gets the “credit” and it is not always the person who contributed the most (big surprise).
The book is about more than solving a riddle. It explores the question of removing historic artifacts from their region of origin. He criticizes the British attempt to amass these historic artifacts together in the British museum, examines the ongoing conflicts between the French and English, and portrays the lack of knowledge of the European public at the time (who largely believed the transportation of artifacts had the approval of the local authorities.) I picked this book to find out more about cuneiform, and I learned a great deal. Fans of books about ancient languages are sure to enjoy it.
February 1, 2025
I am horrible with languages. Two years of Russian and 4 years of Spanish resulted in my ability to say about 10 words (total) in each language. I can't fathom trying to figure out a language that no one else speaks anymore. And yet, that is the plot of Joshua Hammer's The Mesopotamian Riddle.
Now, there are a lot of different stories contained in the book. I'd argue a bit too much even while the entire narrative is interesting. In short, the book follows multiple people around the 1850s as they attempt to decipher some cuneiform. The main characters are Henry Rawlinson and Edward Hincks with other people in their orbit. The two men could not have been more different with the singular exception that they both were driven to decipher some archaeological findings.
This is not, however, a book on pure intellectual discussions. Hammer ranges far and wide to fill in historical gaps about ancient leaders, international politics, and personal conflicts. At times, I think Hammer jams a bit too much into the narrative. His digressions are always well written and engaging, but I found myself a few times wishing we could return to the main story of Rawlinson and Hincks. Ultimately, the book is a very good read if a little overstuffed.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Simon & Schuster.)
Now, there are a lot of different stories contained in the book. I'd argue a bit too much even while the entire narrative is interesting. In short, the book follows multiple people around the 1850s as they attempt to decipher some cuneiform. The main characters are Henry Rawlinson and Edward Hincks with other people in their orbit. The two men could not have been more different with the singular exception that they both were driven to decipher some archaeological findings.
This is not, however, a book on pure intellectual discussions. Hammer ranges far and wide to fill in historical gaps about ancient leaders, international politics, and personal conflicts. At times, I think Hammer jams a bit too much into the narrative. His digressions are always well written and engaging, but I found myself a few times wishing we could return to the main story of Rawlinson and Hincks. Ultimately, the book is a very good read if a little overstuffed.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Simon & Schuster.)
February 19, 2025
This was so interesting. I read the print book in less than 2 days - which is very rare for me! It was a lovely combo of ancient history, Victorian colonization, and linguistics. Full review coming for Shelf Awareness.
July 25, 2025
"The Mesopotamian Riddle" was a fascinating history book. Taking place during the late 1850s, as Victorian England was fascinated by an interest in ancient cultures, archeological finds would uncover the ruins of ancient Assyria and Ur. Yet no one was able to decipher these ancient markings.
This is the story of three men- Austen Layard (The Archeologist), Henry Rowlinson (The Soldier), and Edward Hincks (The Clergyman), who were instrumental in the translation of the archaeological finds. This is a grand adventure and a superbly explained scholarly look at how the actual translation was done (with the Assyrian script explained in detail) and the conflicts that arose among these ostensible colleagues. They were not. Divided by class and nation, they all served England, but not in the same measure, and thus the outcome of this rather interesting attempt to translate what was a "missing" script.
Interesting and full of fascinating information about Assyria and the Assyrian language, this is a book for anyone who likes archaeology and history.
This is the story of three men- Austen Layard (The Archeologist), Henry Rowlinson (The Soldier), and Edward Hincks (The Clergyman), who were instrumental in the translation of the archaeological finds. This is a grand adventure and a superbly explained scholarly look at how the actual translation was done (with the Assyrian script explained in detail) and the conflicts that arose among these ostensible colleagues. They were not. Divided by class and nation, they all served England, but not in the same measure, and thus the outcome of this rather interesting attempt to translate what was a "missing" script.
Interesting and full of fascinating information about Assyria and the Assyrian language, this is a book for anyone who likes archaeology and history.
August 11, 2025
The information at the top of this Goodreads page (as well as the promotional blurb (probably, I know, not written by the author) at the front of the free electronic review copy of this book that I received describes the book’s plot, in part, as follows:
I felt, rightly or wrongly, the setup indicated that there was going to be some sort of suspenseful early-Victorian-era competition between multiple parties of colorful 19th-century eccentrics to decode an ancient language. There was a competition (in 1857), it’s true, but it wasn’t really very suspenseful and in any case most of the book isn’t really about the competition, which is mentioned at the beginning of this book and then returned to in the last chapter. The competition was held to determine if the various competing parties, working independently, would come up with more or less the same translation of “eight hundred lines of tiny cuneiform characters” believed to date from 1100 BCE. If so, the writing of the language which eventually was known as “Akkadian” would be considered to be completely deciphered. If the participants came up with wildly different translations, one or more parties in the contest might experience public humiliation. (Spoiler: )
The book is largely about the long (about 30 years) period of excavation, state-sponsored looting, colonial hijinks, and squabbling academic rivalry that led up to the 1857 competition.
Sometimes the “Acknowledgements” section at the end of a book is not worth spending a lot of time on. They are often just a list of names of people who helped. In this case, it was more interesting, as the author tells of the rather snobbish rebuff that he received from a curator at the British Museum whom he asked for guidance. This was interesting as, in the course of the main narrative in the book, there were many examples of the same type of class arrogance which, for example, sometimes advantaged the swashbuckling (aristo) archaeologist mentioned above vs. the (provincial, relatively unconnected) Irish rector. However, given that, today, the British Museum is in greater need of favorable publicity, you might think that the staff would be more conscious of helping the uninformed. (In this case, the author has written several relatively successful books; he’s not like some random person off the street is asking questions that could be answered on Wikipedia.) Considering the ever-rising clamor of former colonies asking for their looted patrimony returned, as well as a genuinely shocking case of a staff member who apparently, for years, stole British Museum property undetected and sold it to private collectors, you’d think that the British Museum would be more interested in cultivating a positive impression.
There were two words in this book that I didn't know and were not, I felt, completely understandable from context. They occurred close to each other near Kindle location 3652. They were: lamassu and kelek.
I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley.
Enter a swashbuckling archeologist, a suave British military officer turned diplomat, and a cloistered Irish rector, all vying for glory in a race to decipher this script that would enable them to peek farther back into human history than even before.This, I think, gives the wrong impression. This is not a deal-breaker for me, but it tended to create a little confusion as I read.
I felt, rightly or wrongly, the setup indicated that there was going to be some sort of suspenseful early-Victorian-era competition between multiple parties of colorful 19th-century eccentrics to decode an ancient language. There was a competition (in 1857), it’s true, but it wasn’t really very suspenseful and in any case most of the book isn’t really about the competition, which is mentioned at the beginning of this book and then returned to in the last chapter. The competition was held to determine if the various competing parties, working independently, would come up with more or less the same translation of “eight hundred lines of tiny cuneiform characters” believed to date from 1100 BCE. If so, the writing of the language which eventually was known as “Akkadian” would be considered to be completely deciphered. If the participants came up with wildly different translations, one or more parties in the contest might experience public humiliation. (Spoiler: )
The book is largely about the long (about 30 years) period of excavation, state-sponsored looting, colonial hijinks, and squabbling academic rivalry that led up to the 1857 competition.
Sometimes the “Acknowledgements” section at the end of a book is not worth spending a lot of time on. They are often just a list of names of people who helped. In this case, it was more interesting, as the author tells of the rather snobbish rebuff that he received from a curator at the British Museum whom he asked for guidance. This was interesting as, in the course of the main narrative in the book, there were many examples of the same type of class arrogance which, for example, sometimes advantaged the swashbuckling (aristo) archaeologist mentioned above vs. the (provincial, relatively unconnected) Irish rector. However, given that, today, the British Museum is in greater need of favorable publicity, you might think that the staff would be more conscious of helping the uninformed. (In this case, the author has written several relatively successful books; he’s not like some random person off the street is asking questions that could be answered on Wikipedia.) Considering the ever-rising clamor of former colonies asking for their looted patrimony returned, as well as a genuinely shocking case of a staff member who apparently, for years, stole British Museum property undetected and sold it to private collectors, you’d think that the British Museum would be more interested in cultivating a positive impression.
There were two words in this book that I didn't know and were not, I felt, completely understandable from context. They occurred close to each other near Kindle location 3652. They were: lamassu and kelek.
I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley.
November 21, 2024
More than 5000 years ago, scribes from the Mesopotamian kingdoms of Assyria, Babylon, and Sumer began inscribing information on clay using tiny symbols known as cuneiform. In the mid-19th century, during the height of the Victorian era in Europe, three distinct individuals vied to be the first to translate ancient Assyrian into English. Contrary to the notion that scholars always collaborate harmoniously, Hammer's latest historical work reveals startling conflicts, political maneuvering, class tensions, and deceitful tactics among these three ersatz translators. The narrative is quite revealing, with an archaeologist, a British military officer turned diplomat, and an Irish Rector as passionate, fascinating, and rather obsessive scientists of their era.
Unfortunately, "The Mesopotamian Riddle" is so densely packed with information that it's easy to become overwhelmed by trivial details or seemingly tangential historical digressions. As a result, the central narrative often gets rather lost. While the book is engaging, a more concise edition might be easier to follow. I would recommend this book primarily for avid history buffs; it may prove overly complex for the casual reader.
Disclosure: I received a copy of the book through NetGalley in return for this candid review.
Unfortunately, "The Mesopotamian Riddle" is so densely packed with information that it's easy to become overwhelmed by trivial details or seemingly tangential historical digressions. As a result, the central narrative often gets rather lost. While the book is engaging, a more concise edition might be easier to follow. I would recommend this book primarily for avid history buffs; it may prove overly complex for the casual reader.
Disclosure: I received a copy of the book through NetGalley in return for this candid review.
May 7, 2025
Essential reading for any armchair archaeologist! Especially if you are fascinated by ancient scripts and how they can be translated.
The character studies of Layard (the archaeologist), Rawlinson (the soldier) and Hincks (the clergyman) are fascinating. Their lives are so intertwined; the author does a great job of weaving their stories together without becoming tangled up.
We also get a brief history of the British Museum, and a good look the scope of monument collecting that was a hallmark of archaeology in that era.
This sort of book is my reading catnip. I was never bored, or lost. Popular history writing at its best.
This is my second book by this author, the first being The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts. I will be on the lookout for his next one.
The character studies of Layard (the archaeologist), Rawlinson (the soldier) and Hincks (the clergyman) are fascinating. Their lives are so intertwined; the author does a great job of weaving their stories together without becoming tangled up.
We also get a brief history of the British Museum, and a good look the scope of monument collecting that was a hallmark of archaeology in that era.
This sort of book is my reading catnip. I was never bored, or lost. Popular history writing at its best.
This is my second book by this author, the first being The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts. I will be on the lookout for his next one.
June 1, 2025
4.5 stars. Really interesting read. It was a bit confusing at times in how it jumped back and forth in the timeline but I thoroughly enjoyed learning more ancient history and about how the writing was deciphered.
July 22, 2025
In 1857, the British Royal Asiatic Society held a contest to determine if cuneiform was properly deciphered. The contest would involve 800 lines of mystery text and would be given independently to 4 scholars to see if they could come up with the same translation.
The translation of one of the most ancient writing systems was not achieved by one person, by one scholarly group, not even in the same country. In the Mesopotamian Riddle, Justin Hammer sets up the story of this cryptological feat not as an event of civil unification as we discover our once lost histories, but rather of humans is as humans does .
Expect rivalries, conspiracies, insecurities of man to take front and center here in reviving a dead language.
Hammer does an excellent job of transporting you to the multi-pronged settings of each of his main protagonists (Rawlinson, Hincks, Oppert & Talbot). For those on the 'front lines' (where the artifacts were being found), his narrative feels charmingly cinematic, much like the 1999 movie 'The Mummy' (before all of that supernatural stuff starts showing up).
You feel the struggle between Western interests in artifacts, and Eastern governments trying to keep the West at an arm's length - especially when money, politics and war comes into play.
On the other side of the world you have poor old Hincks, who was a savant at translating ancient languages, but whose work was always done 5000km away (as his status as a poor clergyman restricted his ability to travel). My instincts tell me that if Joshua Hammer had a singular goal in writing this book, it was to give Hincks his due after all recognitions of his contributions were erased in his day.
Finally, the main thing I appreciate about The Mesopotamian Riddle is that this is also a book about language as much as it is about history. There is a good focus on the challenges of the language itself and how it was overcome (and sometimes not overcome correctly due to a key piece of grammar/pictograms not yet discovered). For someone whose background is NOT ancient languages, I was able to follow along with no issue.
The translation of one of the most ancient writing systems was not achieved by one person, by one scholarly group, not even in the same country. In the Mesopotamian Riddle, Justin Hammer sets up the story of this cryptological feat not as an event of civil unification as we discover our once lost histories, but rather of humans is as humans does .
Expect rivalries, conspiracies, insecurities of man to take front and center here in reviving a dead language.
Hammer does an excellent job of transporting you to the multi-pronged settings of each of his main protagonists (Rawlinson, Hincks, Oppert & Talbot). For those on the 'front lines' (where the artifacts were being found), his narrative feels charmingly cinematic, much like the 1999 movie 'The Mummy' (before all of that supernatural stuff starts showing up).
You feel the struggle between Western interests in artifacts, and Eastern governments trying to keep the West at an arm's length - especially when money, politics and war comes into play.
On the other side of the world you have poor old Hincks, who was a savant at translating ancient languages, but whose work was always done 5000km away (as his status as a poor clergyman restricted his ability to travel). My instincts tell me that if Joshua Hammer had a singular goal in writing this book, it was to give Hincks his due after all recognitions of his contributions were erased in his day.
Finally, the main thing I appreciate about The Mesopotamian Riddle is that this is also a book about language as much as it is about history. There is a good focus on the challenges of the language itself and how it was overcome (and sometimes not overcome correctly due to a key piece of grammar/pictograms not yet discovered). For someone whose background is NOT ancient languages, I was able to follow along with no issue.
September 13, 2025
Absolutely loved it. Covers the archaeological adventures of the 19th century (without shying away from pointing out the imperialistic mindset of the people, mostly men, involved). Also details the decipherment itself, explaining how the various cuneiform types, and especially the Akkadian language works. I had a summer school course of Akkadian a few years back so it was especially fun to remember "aw yeah that was it!" But I think the explanations of the highly convoluted system are very clearly laid out for lay people, with good parallels drawn to English spelling. I wish there was a bit more on Sumerian as well, but that's my only complaint. If you're at least mildly interested in the topic, you'll love this book.
May 29, 2025
I’m always wary of books about history and archaeology that aren’t written by historians and archaeologists, especially in more recent times. However, I really enjoyed this book, and I think that the information provided along with the story surrounding the decipherment of cuneiform was enjoyable, educational, and extremely interesting. The author certainly did a lot of work to write this book, and there was a good balance between moving the book forward narratively while also explaining the complexities of Akkadian/cuneiform in a digestible way.
I think the only “critique” (if this even is one) is that I wished there was more pictures to accompany the sheer volume of inscriptions and reliefs that were analyzed in the book. There weren’t many pictures at all, really, and not all of the pictures featured in the book seemed necessary given the content. I would have much rather seen the reliefs and inscriptions, though his descriptions were sufficient.
I’m glad that he doesn’t romanticize this era of British imperialism, even though this tine period of archaeology was extremely romantic. You’re allowed to be swept away in the awe of all this discovery, but at the same time you don’t forget that it’s British diplomats exploiting locals and treating them as inferior subjects while stealing their cultural heritage (or, “getting permission” for excavation and extraction from the Ottomans, who were thieves and imperialists as well).
In all, I highly recommend it! Especially if you’ve got a background in Bronze Age history/archaeology and want an interesting read to supplement some knowledge gaps. This isn’t a definitive guide, of course, but I feel is very useful, especially as we become more critical of the history of archaeological discovery and the state-sanctioned looting that occurred in the 19th and 20th century.
I think the only “critique” (if this even is one) is that I wished there was more pictures to accompany the sheer volume of inscriptions and reliefs that were analyzed in the book. There weren’t many pictures at all, really, and not all of the pictures featured in the book seemed necessary given the content. I would have much rather seen the reliefs and inscriptions, though his descriptions were sufficient.
I’m glad that he doesn’t romanticize this era of British imperialism, even though this tine period of archaeology was extremely romantic. You’re allowed to be swept away in the awe of all this discovery, but at the same time you don’t forget that it’s British diplomats exploiting locals and treating them as inferior subjects while stealing their cultural heritage (or, “getting permission” for excavation and extraction from the Ottomans, who were thieves and imperialists as well).
In all, I highly recommend it! Especially if you’ve got a background in Bronze Age history/archaeology and want an interesting read to supplement some knowledge gaps. This isn’t a definitive guide, of course, but I feel is very useful, especially as we become more critical of the history of archaeological discovery and the state-sanctioned looting that occurred in the 19th and 20th century.
May 3, 2025
I wish I knew what I knew now when I spent a yr in Baghdad.
Complex book about the first writings of our civilization from the Assyrian people.
From the history to the discovery then to the preservation.
Baghdad, my favorite city.
Complex book about the first writings of our civilization from the Assyrian people.
From the history to the discovery then to the preservation.
Baghdad, my favorite city.
May 27, 2025
What I enjoyed about this book was not the minutiae of translating ancient inscriptions, but a very different examination of imperialism of the 18th and 19th centuries, in a part of the world where this focus doesn't always get the attention it deserves. Intriguing and fascinating.
May 27, 2025
Fascinating read - a well told story of history, archeology, philology, and good old fashioned colonialist avarice.
April 16, 2025
While I found the content and the writing interesting, it just seemed to be about 25% too long for me. About two-thirds in I started wondering "will this book ever finish?" (This might be simply due to how busy I was with other things that week, with less time to read than normal, so don't let this put you off reading it.)
July 21, 2025
3.5 stars
May 17, 2025
A good time. I was worried it was going to wander too far into biography, but I think it had an appropriate level of focus on the individuals involved while getting farther into the language itself than I expected.
June 5, 2025
I wanted to like this more because the topics is interesting - the writing was not
April 4, 2025
I couldn’t put this book down. It was a pleasure getting to hear from the author at a book talk prior to reading this. I didn’t anticipate making all the connections from different museums I’ve visited in Europe that have some sort of Mesopotamian collections within, be it in London or Berlin. A real fascinating story about the race to decipher cuneiform and understanding a lost civilization in the age of imperial rivalry in the 19th century, while also making sure the reader is aware that these acquisitions were carried out sometimes in illicit fashion. A fantastic book!
dnf
April 6, 2025Bummed to DNF this b/c it truly was one of my most anticipated reads of the year but I find the content just super dry, dull and dense - which I find surprising b/c I thought Hammer's The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird was accessible and engaging! There were so many people introduced; I could not keep track of who the main storyline followed.
If you're interested in linguistic anthropology I'd check out The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code instead!
Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the eARC!
If you're interested in linguistic anthropology I'd check out The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code instead!
Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the eARC!
November 4, 2025
Okay, this book was far more interesting than it should have been. I haven't read anything like it since I read The Riddle of the Labyrinth. When we think of ancient writing, we think of Greek and Latin, and sometimes Egyptian hieroglyphics, maybe Amaraic, but lo and behold, we forgot about Cuneiform writing, of the ancient Assyrians and Persians, which predates so much of that - to 2,000 to 1,000 BCE or more. And the Assyrians, like the Romans, wrote down EVERYTHING. Tens of thousands of baked clay tablets of writing, and hundreds of lines on statues and friezes, and more on walls, from ancient kingdoms buried in sand.
Only problem was, no one could read it. Some said it was Old Persian, and some said it was an ancient Sanskrit derivative, and some said it was similar to Amaraic and Hebrew. Truth was, it was all of them. When British and French archaeologists started digging in the 1840's in what was then the Ottoman Empire and now Iraq and Syria, they found great treasure troves of artifacts - 30-ton statues, massive palaces, and everywhere, great histories of kings and gods written in stone. A great intellectual fistfight arose as to who would decipher cuneiform - an Irish priest, a haughty upper class Brit, a working class man with a talent for languages, or the Mosul-born Ottoman who did most of the archeology?
The book is fascinating, utterly fascinating, because as you learn not only about the area in the 1850's, but that the same wars being fought now - the EXACT SAME WARS - were being fought 3,500 years ago, and that many of the Biblical "stories" cover the EXACT SAME BATTLES as the Assyrians are writing about. Who is the aggressor depends on which text you're reading. The Assyrians - through the epic of Gilgamesh - give an almost line for line Noah's Ark story, 300 years before Noah wrote down his, right down to the mountain landing.
While I understand the issue of places like the British Museum hoarding artifacts, the problem of rampaging Bedouins and fanatical Muslims purposefully destroying new-found Assyrian artifacts because their current government (1850's) doesn't like them, makes me support the idea of such treasures being kept in politically stable environments.
Best quote: p. 219: "Rawlinson ... admired Kurdish strength and self-reliance and saw the ountain people as superior in character 'either to the Turks or Persians.' Should the Ottoman Empire collapse, as many geopolitical observes had predicted it would, [it didn't until dissolved after WWI, in 1922] he told Layard, 'We should be looking to support the Kurds.'"
My only issue with the book is that THERE ARE NO PICTURES. How can you have a book on history and archeology without a single damned photo of the material?!?! You can go to Mosul to see the ruins, but you can't post a single damned photo? Not good.
Only problem was, no one could read it. Some said it was Old Persian, and some said it was an ancient Sanskrit derivative, and some said it was similar to Amaraic and Hebrew. Truth was, it was all of them. When British and French archaeologists started digging in the 1840's in what was then the Ottoman Empire and now Iraq and Syria, they found great treasure troves of artifacts - 30-ton statues, massive palaces, and everywhere, great histories of kings and gods written in stone. A great intellectual fistfight arose as to who would decipher cuneiform - an Irish priest, a haughty upper class Brit, a working class man with a talent for languages, or the Mosul-born Ottoman who did most of the archeology?
The book is fascinating, utterly fascinating, because as you learn not only about the area in the 1850's, but that the same wars being fought now - the EXACT SAME WARS - were being fought 3,500 years ago, and that many of the Biblical "stories" cover the EXACT SAME BATTLES as the Assyrians are writing about. Who is the aggressor depends on which text you're reading. The Assyrians - through the epic of Gilgamesh - give an almost line for line Noah's Ark story, 300 years before Noah wrote down his, right down to the mountain landing.
While I understand the issue of places like the British Museum hoarding artifacts, the problem of rampaging Bedouins and fanatical Muslims purposefully destroying new-found Assyrian artifacts because their current government (1850's) doesn't like them, makes me support the idea of such treasures being kept in politically stable environments.
Best quote: p. 219: "Rawlinson ... admired Kurdish strength and self-reliance and saw the ountain people as superior in character 'either to the Turks or Persians.' Should the Ottoman Empire collapse, as many geopolitical observes had predicted it would, [it didn't until dissolved after WWI, in 1922] he told Layard, 'We should be looking to support the Kurds.'"
My only issue with the book is that THERE ARE NO PICTURES. How can you have a book on history and archeology without a single damned photo of the material?!?! You can go to Mosul to see the ruins, but you can't post a single damned photo? Not good.
August 26, 2025
This philological history is also the biographies of the men who deciphered cuneiform (from Latin: cuneus = wedge), a term coined to describe the characters used to write the languages that developed and were used in the 'fertile crescent' for over 2,500 years. Mr. Hammer's focus is mainly on Hincks, Layard and Rawlinson, but he covers the work of many others including Botta and Rassam. The first three worked individually and in a reluctant, spasmodic collaboration for two decades to unlock the secrets of a writing system so complex it made ancient Egyptian (hieroglyphics) look simple. This is a fascinating story set in a lost world. When Rawlinson first saw two panels of cuneiform near Hamadan in what was once Persia, the land was ruled by the Turkoman Qajar Mohammad (Mirza) Shah in an uneasy alliance with the Ottoman Turks negotiated by Britain. No one there cared about the strange figures except some locals who believed they described how to find a treasure. The mystery of the wedge characters led Rawlinson and others on an incredible journey back to the earliest recorded human history, old before pyramids rose at Giza. Parts of this story are dry but others read like adventures from the Arabian Nights or Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the origins of writing, a window opening up to us the working of the minds of ancient peoples.
May 1, 2025
In which I accidentally read a nonfiction book thinking that it was going to be fiction. lol would that this wasn't the first time that this happened to me, but here we are
This was fairly dry (for me) and if I had to take a test over the names and people, I don't think I could give you a clear description of the plot or intricacies. The narrator for this was giving Edmond Dantes, and the count would absolutely be involved in this if he had the opportunity (would read that fanfic)
There's a podcast ep from You're Dead To Me that covers this same topic and I got more out of it than this book, so that's a real tough book look
This was fairly dry (for me) and if I had to take a test over the names and people, I don't think I could give you a clear description of the plot or intricacies. The narrator for this was giving Edmond Dantes, and the count would absolutely be involved in this if he had the opportunity (would read that fanfic)
There's a podcast ep from You're Dead To Me that covers this same topic and I got more out of it than this book, so that's a real tough book look
April 19, 2025
I enjoyed Hammer's THE BAD ASS LIBRARIANS OF TIMBUKTU. His style is literate and fluid. This book, his newest, covers the mid-nineteenth century by the efforts of British scholars to decipher the written language of the ancient Assyrians. While some may find that topic a little dry and technical, Hammer also delves into the history of the ancient Near East, the archeological efforts to learn more about the era, the founding of the British Museum, and the craze for all things Mid Eastern that swept Europe in the nineteenth century. The technical aspects of the deciphering at times can be a little dry, but the rest of the book is a vivid portrait of a fascinating period of history.
May 28, 2025
Fascinating account of the re-discovery of Mesopotamian civilizations and the race to decipher cuneiform languages of Akkadian, Sumerian, and ancient Persian. From adventures excavating Ninevah and spiriting the loot fown the Tigris to ships waiting to carry it to the Louvre and the British Museum, to skulduggery in claiming/apportioning credit for the transliterations and translations, Hammer tells the whole story.
August 30, 2025
I finished this, but I have no idea why this needed such a long book with so many words to tell the story. Three obsessed white men with huge egos and big brains figure out cuneiform. I liked one of them, mostly because he told his uncle to f off and left for another continent at around age 20. Good for him. Otherwise, the other rich guy is a prat and the clergyman...of course, got screwed by history, not that he did himself a lot of favors in the meantime.
Oh, well.
Oh, well.
March 30, 2025
I wish we could get back to being a society where we value the pursuit of knowledge as a grand adventure.
This is peak Gentleman Adventurer/Explorer stuff, and I love that as with Champollion and the Rosetta Stone, this book narrates the deciphering of an ancient language as an adventure story.
Of course loads of scholarship has been published on this topic, but in terms of commercial nonfiction there has been very little good work done on the subject. Which means this is sort of a follow-up to/expansion on the section in Gods, Graves, and Scholars that discusses the topic.
Given that, this isn’t exactly “new” information, but it will be new to many readers, and full of previously undiscovered detail for those who were aware of the facts in general.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
This is peak Gentleman Adventurer/Explorer stuff, and I love that as with Champollion and the Rosetta Stone, this book narrates the deciphering of an ancient language as an adventure story.
Of course loads of scholarship has been published on this topic, but in terms of commercial nonfiction there has been very little good work done on the subject. Which means this is sort of a follow-up to/expansion on the section in Gods, Graves, and Scholars that discusses the topic.
Given that, this isn’t exactly “new” information, but it will be new to many readers, and full of previously undiscovered detail for those who were aware of the facts in general.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
May 14, 2025
There are a lot of great things in this book but I really wish it could have gone further into the intricacies of the types of cuneiform, how it evolved, what it may have or did influence(d, as the case may be), but still very intriguing. (I hope the person he encountered at British Museum that he recounts in the epilogue wasn't Irving Finkel ... )
July 9, 2025
How does one set about deciphering an extinct language written only on symbols that are letters and logograms? This book is a fascinating account of the 19th century European efforts to do that with Assyrian artifacts. I knew very little about these countries and this history so learned a lot. In addition to the history and the philology, the author discusses the political and academic rivalries as well as the looting of these artifacts.
March 20, 2025
How do we know what we know? And how do we recover lost knowledge? Joshua Hammer's The Mesopotamian Riddle focuses on the rediscovery and recovery of cuneiform literacy. Focused on the 19th century, Hammer alternates between the work of scholars at home as well as archeologists, diplomats, soldiers and adventurers at the frontiers of empire.
Hammer biographies three of the key figures, alluded to in the subtitle. Austen H Layard a law clerk adventurer, later a celebrated archeologist; joined by Henry Creswicke Rawlinson on a shared first journey. Rawlinson was a military officer in the employment of the East India Language, who also had a lifelong interest in languages and worked on learning and deciphering them in his limited free time. The third figure, is Edward Hickes an overworked and financial struggling Irish county parson with a talent for languages, who was able to translate many ancient texts.
Hammer links the overall attitudes of the populace and imperial ambitions with the small scale, day to day struggles of the featured three. There is also their very different personalities and the sometimes petty world of academia or mindsets of racial superiority.
As much of the work is focused on deciphering a forgotten language, Hammer reconstructs the intuitive process the translators used, reproducing many of the cuneiform characters and what was learned from their efforts.
Touching on the amateur to expert process and political tensions between a weakening Ottoman empire, it's peoples and European Powers.
Recommended to readers or researchers of linguistics, triumphs of empire or the roles of privilege in scholarship.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
Hammer biographies three of the key figures, alluded to in the subtitle. Austen H Layard a law clerk adventurer, later a celebrated archeologist; joined by Henry Creswicke Rawlinson on a shared first journey. Rawlinson was a military officer in the employment of the East India Language, who also had a lifelong interest in languages and worked on learning and deciphering them in his limited free time. The third figure, is Edward Hickes an overworked and financial struggling Irish county parson with a talent for languages, who was able to translate many ancient texts.
Hammer links the overall attitudes of the populace and imperial ambitions with the small scale, day to day struggles of the featured three. There is also their very different personalities and the sometimes petty world of academia or mindsets of racial superiority.
As much of the work is focused on deciphering a forgotten language, Hammer reconstructs the intuitive process the translators used, reproducing many of the cuneiform characters and what was learned from their efforts.
Touching on the amateur to expert process and political tensions between a weakening Ottoman empire, it's peoples and European Powers.
Recommended to readers or researchers of linguistics, triumphs of empire or the roles of privilege in scholarship.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
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