Grab your tablet and stylus and try to avoid the muggles! In this special role-playing game episode, we explore the life of a cuneiform scribe in the age of Babylon.

Be sure to support the show at www.patreon.com/deadideaspod to get your portrait drawn!

Co-hosts: Nick and Anna

Time/place: Ancient Babylon, c. 1800 BCE

Dead Idea: Cuneiform

A Map of Ancient Sumer, c. 3000 BCE, by Adam McKithern

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Main Sources

Bahrani, Z. (2001). Women of Babylon: Gender and Representation in Mesopotamia. New York: Routledge.

Baruch, Book of. 6:43. Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition. Retrieved 6-20-17 from: https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Baruch%206%3A43

Bertman, S. (2005). Handbook of Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. New York: Oxford University Press.

Black, J., Cunningham, G., Robson, E., and Zólyomi, G. (2004). The Literature of Ancient Sumer. New York: Oxford University Press. – “A Supervisor’s Advice to a Young Scribe”

Bottéro, J. (2001). Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Bottéro, J. (2004). The Oldest Cuisine in the World: Cooking in Mesopotamia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Budin, S. (2006). “Sacred Prostitution in the First Person.” In: Faraone, C. A. & McClure, L. K. (2006). Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

Bullough, V., and Bullough, B. (1987). Women and Prostitution: A Social History. New York: Prometheus Books.

Chalcier, P. (2011). “Cuneiform Culture’s Last Guardians.” In: Radner, K., and Robson, E. (2011). The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture. New York: Oxford.

Civil, M., Trans. “Hymn to Ninkasi.” Retrieved May 14^th, 2017, from: http://www.piney.com/BabNinkasi.html

Faraone, C. A. & McClure, L. K. (2006). Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

Fink, S. (2013). “The Genealogy of Gilgamesh.” Classica et Christiana, 8(1): pp. 81-107.

Fisher, D. S. (2008). Representations of the Poor in The Poor Man of Nippur and The Eloquent Peasant. Thesis. Nashville, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University.

Foster, B. (1982). “Administration and Use of Institutional Land in Sargonic Sumer.” Copenhagen Studies in Assyriology, Vol. 9. Copenhagen.

George, A., Trans. (1999). The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian. New York: Penguin.

Glassner, J. (2003). The Invention of Cuneiform. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Harris, S. (2010, Sep. 16). “Prostitutes of God.” Vice. Retrieved 6-20-17 from: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/prostitutes-of-god-episode-1

Herodotus. (1890). The History of Herodotus. Macaulay, G. C., Trans. Retrieved 6-20-17 from: http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh1190.htm

Jacobsen, T. (1987). The Harps That Once…: Sumerian Poetry in Translation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Kramer, S. N. (1963). The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Lafront, B. (2001). “The Ordeal.” In: Bottéro, J. (2001). Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Lahtinen, S. (n.d.). “The Naditum as Businesswoman: The Economic Role of the Naditum in Old Babylonian Sippur.” Thesis. Uppsala University. Retrieved May 17, 2017, from: https://www.academia.edu/354008/The_Old-Babylonian_naditu_as_businesswoman?auto=download

Nemet-Nejat, K. R. (1998). Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

“Proverbs, Collection 1.” The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. Retrieved May 27, 2017, from: http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/proverbs/t.6.1.01.html

Radner, K., and Robson, E. (2011). The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture. New York: Oxford.

Roth, M. T. (2006). “Marriage, Divorce, and the Prostitute in Ancient Mesopotamia.” In: Faraone, C. A. & McClure, L. K. (2006). Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

Silver, M. (n.d.). “Temple/Sacred Prostitution in Ancient Mesopotamia Revisited: Religion in the Economy.” Retrieved May 29, 2017, from: https://www.academia.edu/2360254/Temple_Sacred_Prostitution_in_Ancient_Mesopotamia_Revisited

Stone, E. C. (1982). “The Social Role of the Naditu Women in Old Babylonian Nippur.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 15(1): 50-70.

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Visicato, G. (2000). The Power and the Writing: Early Scribes of Mesopotamia. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press.

Maps, pics, references, and more at http://www.deadideas.net. Music and graphic design by Rachel Westhoff. Map by Adam McKithern.