Back to Iraq, Volumes 1-5

Back to Iraq is a 10-hour journey through Sumerian and Akkadian literature. From creation stories to apocalypses; from zany tales of ribald gods to hymns and laments that sound quite like the Bible; from epics to philosophy; and from a short Akkadian poem about a fart to the longest surviving text in the Sumerian language, Back to Iraq is a deep and detailed look at the most important literature of ancient Mesopotamia. The series begins deep in the Middle Bronze Age with Sumerian literature, spends a great deal of time with the Sumerian Renaissance and Third Dynasty of Ur, moves on to the centuries when Sumerian was the literary language of Babylon, and then, fittingly, ends with Akkadian language works written far later in ancient near eastern history. Moving from roughly 2125 down to 700 BCE, this bonus sequence not only offers some of the most wonderful tales from the ancient world that you’ve probably never heard, but also provides a lot of information about Sumerian and Akkadian culture. Uruk, Ur, Babylon, Nineveh, and Ashur were arguably the most culturally influential cities that ever existed, and the 10-hours of Back to Iraq will acquaint you with the most famous written works that they managed to leave behind.