Book Review: Cuneiform Texts and the Writing of History by Marc Van De Mieroop

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Some time after people stopped recording events on clay tablets and started hitting the keys of things called typewriters, I studied journalism. Even in those hoary days, we were taught that objectivity was an elusive ideal. According to author Marci Van De Mieroop it is impossible even for scholars to view the past without bias, conscious or not. The most egregious example of bias, which he mentions only in passing, is that of the German scholars of the early 20th century using the study of Mesopotamia to further their notions of anti-Semitism. A less virulent (but no less pernicious) example is that of the early archaeologists of the mid- and late 19th century, who are seen as interpreting their finds in the light of their own views of European colonial expansion. Van De Mieroop says that because bias in scholars is unavoidable, scholars must make efforts to acknowledge their own biases. Having said all that, he now wishes to review the cuneiform records, what he calls “an embarrassment of riches” to draw conclusions about ancient Mesopotamian cultures. He examines the written records from four different perspectives: "History from above," royal inscriptions, diplomatic correspondence; "history from below," an attempt to construct a social history of the "non-elite"; economic history, particularly the role of trade and the ration system; and gender. He tries to summarize a history of how each particular aspect of Mesopotamian society has been viewed up till now. In the section on economics, he discusses Karl Marx, Max Weber, Karl Polyani and others. Short though it is, the book takes a while as it is nevertheless information-dense. The longest chapter is the one dealing with material on the elite of Mesopotamian society, as might be expected since this is where the greatest wealth of information lies. But he stresses repeatedly that the texts are often difficult to understand, to translate and to place in context. He advises against using models based on the study of classical Greece or Rome, and warns that using classical texts as source material on Mesopotamia should be taken with grain of salt. For example, the Greek historian Herodotus relates that all women in Babylon are required to take money from strangers in exchange for sex at least once in their live. Most scholars see this as a misunderstanding of temple prostitution, but could it also be a bit of Greece looking down its nose at “decadent” Babylon? The ancients weren't free of bias either, and seldom saw any reason to be. The last chapter is titled "Gender and Mesopotamian History." Again, his purpose is to discard the biased expectations the reader may have and cautions (not for last time) against using models of Mesopotamian society built on the classical world or the modern Mideast. An odd example of this is found in the Middle Assyrian (roughly 15th-10th century BCE) laws, which severely punish slaves, prostitutes and unmarried women for wearing what appears to be a form of headwear translated as "veil." Married women and concubines were expected to wear this veil. "The exact intent of these rules is difficult to grasp," Van de Mieroop writes, but concludes that the purpose is quite different from the practice in modern Islamic societies, which is "the protection of their face from the male gaze." (pp. 150-151) I cannot recommend this book for the casual reader. The writing is thick as Van De Mieroop spends as much time describing history as he does describing how we know what we know about history. His explanations may seem tentative but he’s only trying to parse out what is known, what is conjectured and what is speculated. If the topic of epistemology applied to ancient history appeals to you, this might be a good book to study. It is relatively short, but it is not for everyone. This is one volume in the "Approaching Ancient History" series edited by Richard Stoneman. According to the cover blurb, author Marc Van De Mieroop is professor of Ancient Near East History at Columbia University in New York. Among his other publications are The Ancient Mesopotamian City, A History of the Ancient Near East: ca. 3000-323 BC, King Hammurabi of Babylon: A Biography and the scholarly publication of cuneiform tablets held at Columbia since 1896. I shuddered when I saw the price of this book—even used! Even the Kindle version!—at amazon. I don’t recall what I paid for it when I originally bought it, but it wasn’t it anywhere near these prices. I’m far too cheap. _____ Book: Cuneiform Texts and the Writing of History Author: Marc Van De Mieroop (b. 1958) Published: 1999 *An earlier version of this review appeared on another site. It has been updated and expanded for its inclusion in myLot.* Pages:196