Cuneiform writing of the ancient Sumerian or Assyrian civilization in Iraq Photo: swisshippo
Receipts for beer, instructions for exorcising a ghost and a lullaby for a restless child - are just some inscriptions from the ancient people of Mesopotamia we can use to look back in time.
And what these ancient texts often show is that we are not so different from our forebears who came thousands of years ago, says historian Dr Moudhy Al Rashid.
Her new book Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History takes readers on a journey in time through what has been able to be read from bricks and tablets found at the site believed to be an ancient museum in the ruins of a city called Ur.
It is considered the first museum in the world - and reveals much about how different Mesopotamians lived as well as how they documented their own history in an area now part of southern Iraq.
An Honorary Fellow at Oxford University's Wolfson College, Moudhy has spent much of her career translating the stories of the world's first cities, the origins of writing, and the people who lived along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates thousands of years ago.
Beyond her academic work, Moudhy has also been a prominent figure on social media because of her fascinating translations of the first form of writing known as cuneiform.
Photo: Supplied by Hachette
