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They Wrote on Clay: The Babylonian Tablets Speak Today Paperback – February 15, 1956

by Edward Chiera (Author), George G. Cameron (Editor)

4.8 14 ratings

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Edward Chiera was that most remarkable of men, a competent and respected scholar possessed of an ardent desire to make his research readily and entertainingly available to laymen. More remarkable, Chiera had extraordinary gifts to equal to his desire. They Wrote on Clay combines fascinatingly the fruits of sound and painstaking archeology with the natural-born storyteller's art. As transmitted by Chiera, the message of the recently discovered Babylonian clay tablets becomes an absorbing exrusion into the common life of a vanished civilization. Few will read They Wrote on Clay without becoming infected with something of Chiera's love for the rich archeological lore of the ancient Near East.

"The book presents, briefly and clearly, a vivid picture of a long-dead people who in numerous ways were very like ourselves."—L. M. Field, New York Times

"No mystery story can be as exciting."—Harper's

"Plainly and fetchingly written."—New Republic

Print length

251 pages
Language

English
Publisher

University of Chicago Press
Publication date

February 15, 1956
Dimensions

8.01 x 5.38 x 0.7 inches
ISBN-10

0226104257
ISBN-13

978-0226104256
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Diane Wolkstein
406
Paperback
82 offers from $3.43

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press (February 15, 1956)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 251 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0226104257
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0226104256
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.01 x 5.38 x 0.7 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,014,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #537 in Iraq History (Books)
- #561 in Ancient Mesopotamia History
- #691 in Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer History

Customer Reviews:
4.8 14 ratings

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Madeleine Davis

calling every horrible sinful place "Babylon" is an insult to humanity itself ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 16, 2018

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This book is fascinating because it revealed to me, in a scientific way, the truth about the ancient Babylonians, who were in fact very civilized people. And it made me aware of the lies that were written about them in the past. In particular, calling every horrible sinful place "Babylon" is an insult to humanity itself because Babylonians gave the human kind the basics for everything including writing, language and literature.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 27, 2019

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Great book, great price, great service

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 7, 2014

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Straight from the horse's mouth, an experienced thoughtful archeologist who was there to dig up the past.

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tepi

An excursion into the life of a vanished civilization

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 17, 2001

THEY WROTE ON CLAY : The Babylonian Tablets Speak Today. By Edward Chiera. Edited by George G. Cameron. 235 pp. Chicago and London : The University of Chicago Press, 1964 (1955). (pbk.)
The civilizational achievements of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians only started to become known over the course of the last century or so. For our new understanding of the past we have to thank archaeology, in particular for its discovery of many tens of thousands of baked clay tablets which have miraculously preserved the complex cuneiform writing system, languages, and literatures of the ancient Mesopotamians, and for the patient decipherment of these tablets and other cuneiform-bearing artefacts by a small and dedicated group of international scholars.
The literature on this subject today is vast, and much of it is accessible only to specialists. Of the studies that are generally available - such as those by A. Leo Oppenheim, Samuel Noah Kramer, and Thorkild Jacobsen - most tend to be aimed at a more scholarly type of audience, the kind of people who like detailed footnotes, precise references to sources, bibliographies, etc., and little seems to be available in the way of a more popular treatment for the general reader.
This is where the present book comes in. Edward Chiera, though a competent and respected scholar, was exceptional in having an ardent desire to share his knowledge by making the results of his research readily and entertainingly available to the general reader. Consequently, instead of giving us, for example, a lengthy and detailed analysis of the religious ideas or political history of the Babylonians, he has chosen instead to offer an absorbing excursion into the common life of this ancient civilization.
Chiera's 'They Wrote on Clay' is both well-written and easy to read since the pages are small, the font used is gratifyingly large and readable, and there are numerous black-and-white photographs and line drawings which illustrate various aspects of life in the near East : people, places, animals, domestic scenes, archaeological sites, buildings, artworks and other artefacts etc. These illustrations perfectly supplement Chiera's written account, and although many are contemporary, they do serve to suggest something of what life must have been like in the past.
Chiera has managed to pack an awful lot into this small book. We learn about the discovery of the ancient cities, the amazing libraries of clay tablets that were unearthed, the exciting story of the decipherment of the complex cuneiform writing system, the worlds of business and religion, of kings, priests, scribes and ordinary folk, and of their multifarious doings, and of much else besides.
The author clearly loved his subject, and it's invariably from such writers that we get the best books. So if you're looking for a well-written, well-illustrated, easy-to-read popular treatment of this fascinating world, a world that is vastly more important to you than you may realize since it is there and not in Greece that the real roots of Western civilization lie, you'd be hard put to better 'They Wrote on Clay.'
And if Chiera succeeds in whetting your appetite, as I'm sure he will, you might go on to read one of the best-loved stories to come out of that world, the deeply moving story of the adventures of Gilgamesh, his friendship with the wild man Enkidu, and his search for immortality. I'm pretty sure that, if you don't already know it, you would very much enjoy that too. One good popular edition of this story that can be recommended is:
THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH : An English Version with an Introduction by N. K. Sandars. Penguin Classics Revised Edition. 128 pp. London : Penguin, 1972 (1964) and Reissued.

23 people found this helpful

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OneWho Seeks

Kudos to Cameron for ensuring this work was published after Chiera's death

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 29, 2015

Chiera's breadth of knowledge succeeds in highlighting why it is important to understand that civilization advanced in the region of Persia/Iraq at a time when Greece and Rome were disorganized tribes.
Chiera has treated many parts of archaeology in a way that is understandable to a student yet still presents tidbits that more recent literature has fails to present. His style is perfect for a broader audience than most academics works and amazingly still not outdated - he presents opinions of the future that are still in progress 70 years after his passing.
The book is not a good source for quantity of translated inscriptions, but he nails the intricacies of the issues in translation which other presenters of translations do not give enough homage to - many who publish now are pushing their translations and diminishing the idea that even verbatim translations have range of meaning.
This would be a good text for someone presenting an argument against Greek dominance of historical thought.

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Robert L. France

much useful information

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 12, 2007

I found this interesting book to be a very good source of translated inscriptions, some of which found their way into my own recent compilation "Wetlands of Mass Destruction: Ancient Presage for Contemporary Ecocide in Southern Iraq". From all the reference books I consulted for my writing project, this particular one was of a handful of those I found to be most useful in terms of the diversity of material presented.

6 people found this helpful

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xto77@dial.pipex.com

The perfect introduction to Ancient Babylon

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 21, 1998

Before the beginning of this century, the only information we had about Ancient Babylon was from the Bible. Consequently, most of the literature that I have read on the subject (written during the height of Iraqi Archeaology in the 1920's and 30's) has been on a religious note rather than a historical one. This book changed all that. It brought a highly academic subject to the layman. It is a simple, informative account of how the real Babylonians lived. It describes the Babylonians as an advanced people who appreciated art and literature, as well as entering into contracts and having mortgages. It is a great introduction to an ancient civilisation.

22 people found this helpful

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Lewis Woodford

Readable, usable book.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 11, 2021

Verified Purchase

Much older edition than I expected.

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