The Mesopotamian Riddle: an archaeologist, a soldier, a clergyman, and the race to decipher the world's oldest writing

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Author:
Hammer, Joshua, 1957-
Language:
English
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15 copies, 2 people are on the wait list.
Athens Drive Community - Adult Non-Fiction
492 HAMME
Cary Regional - Adult Non-Fiction has 2
492 HAMME
Duraleigh Road - Adult Non-Fiction
492 HAMME

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ISBN:
9781668015445
9781668015452

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Grouping Information

Grouped Work ID5fac3c93-1776-5df3-9cfa-e1c30df0ec16
Grouping Titlemesopotamian riddle an archaeologist a soldier a clergyman and the race to decipher the worlds oldest writing
Grouping Authorjoshua hammer
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2025-08-02 17:38:46PM
Last Indexed2025-08-02 17:39:20PM

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author
Hammer, Joshua, 1957-
author_display
Hammer, Joshua
available_at_catalog
Athens Drive Community
Cary Regional
Duraleigh Road Community
Eva H. Perry Regional
Green Road Community
Leesville Community
Middle Creek Community
Oberlin Regional
Southeast Regional
Wendell Community
collection_catalog
Adult Non-Fiction
detailed_location_catalog
Athens Drive Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Cary Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Duraleigh Road - Adult Non-Fiction
Eva H. Perry Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Green Road Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Leesville Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Middlecreek Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Morrisville Community - Adult Non-Fiction
North Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Oberlin Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Southeast Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Wendell Community - Adult Non-Fiction
display_description
"It was one of history's great vanishing acts. As early as 3500 BCE, scribes in the mud-walled city-state of Sumer used a reed stylus to press tiny wedge-shaped symbols into clay. For three thousand years, the script chronicled the military conquests, scientific discoveries, and epic literature of the grand kingdoms of Mesoptamia - Assyria, Babylon, the mighty Achaemenid Empire - along with precious minutia about every day life so long ago ever the palaces of these once great kingdoms sank beneath the desert sands, the meaning of these characters was lost. London, 1857. Colossal sculpture of winged bulls and alabaster bas-reliefs depicting cities under siege and vassals bearing tributes to Biblical kings lined the halls of the British Museum. In the Victorian era's obsession with the triumphs of human progress, the mysterious kingdoms of ancient Mesopotamia - the very cradle of civilization - had captured the public imagination. Yet Europe's best philologists struggled to decipher the strange characters. Cuneiform seemed to have thousands of symbols - with some scholars claiming each could be pronounced in up to eight, nine, even ten different ways. Others insisted they'd cracked the code and deciphered inscriptions that corresponded precisely to the Old Testament - provind the veracity of the Word of God. Was it all a hoax? A delusion? A rollicking adventure through the holden age of archaeology, The Writing on the Wall tracks the decades-long race to decipher the oldest script in the world. It's the story of a swashbuckling young archaeologist, a suave British military officer, and a curmudgeonly Irish rector, all vying for glory - from the ruins of Persepolis to the opulence of Ottoman-era Baghdad - in a quest to unearth the relics of lost civilizations and unlock the secrets of humanity's past"--
format_catalog
Book
format_category_catalog
Books
id
5fac3c93-1776-5df3-9cfa-e1c30df0ec16
isbn
9781668015445
9781668015452
last_indexed
2025-08-02T21:39:20.669Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
local_callnumber_catalog
492 HAMME
local_time_since_added_catalog
Year
owning_library_catalog
Wake County Public Libraries
owning_location_catalog
Athens Drive Community
Cary Regional
Duraleigh Road Community
Eva H. Perry Regional
Green Road Community
Leesville Community
Middle Creek Community
Morrisville Community
North Regional
Oberlin Regional
Southeast Regional
Wendell Community
primary_isbn
9781668015445
publishDate
2025
publisher
Simon & Schuster
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Assyriology -- History
Cuneiform inscriptions
Cuneiform writing
title_display
The Mesopotamian Riddle : an archaeologist, a soldier, a clergyman, and the race to decipher the world's oldest writing
title_full
The Mesopotamian Riddle : an archaeologist, a soldier, a clergyman, and the race to decipher the world's oldest writing / Joshua Hammer
title_short
The Mesopotamian Riddle
title_sub
an archaeologist, a soldier, a clergyman, and the race to decipher the world's oldest writing
topic_facet
Assyriology
Cuneiform inscriptions
Cuneiform writing
History

Solr Details Tables

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record_details

Bib IdFormatFormat CategoryEditionLanguagePublisherPublication DatePhysical DescriptionAbridged
ils:797831BookBooksEnglishSimon & Schuster2025400 pages ; 22 cm

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