Author’s insight into library of ancient wisdom to be explored at Literary Leicester festival

An expert in Middle Eastern heritage will be giving a free talk about a once-lost library of ancient wisdom, as part of the Literary Leicester festival.

Dr Selena Wisnom’s talk coincides with the publication of her new book, The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History.

When a team of Victorian archaeologists dug into a grassy hill in Iraq, they chanced upon one of the oldest and greatest stores of knowledge ever seen: the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, seventh century BCE ruler of a huge swathe of the ancient Middle East known as Mesopotamia. After his death, vengeful rivals burned Ashurbanipal’s library to the ground and this priceless treasure of ancient wisdom remained buried for millennia.

Dr Wisnom’s talk will take the audience on an immersive tour of this extraordinary library, bringing ancient Mesopotamia and its people to life.

She said: “This was a civilisation home to advanced mathematics, astronomy and banking, law and literature; a culture critically influential to the ancient Greeks, and whose myths were precursors to Bible stories. In short, a culture without which our lives today would be unrecognisable.”

A Lecturer in the Heritage of the Middle East, from the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, Dr Wisnom recently hit the news headlines when she analysed a sheep’s liver to predict an Oscar winner.

The talk takes place on Tuesday 4 March, between 5.15pm and 6.30pm and will be held on campus. Free tickets are available online.