Book of translated everyday ancient writings

December 5, 2021 7:34 PM

Can anyone recommend a book with translations of everyday clay tablets or other ancient sources? The ideal would be a picture of the tablet on one page, and then on the facing page the translation and a bit of historical context.

More "you messed up my copper shipment" than "all hail the king of kings", but scribes being snarky is always great. Babylonian, Chinese, Greek, India, Japanese, Roman, Persian, Axumite, the more the merrier. Not really interested in monk's margin doodles unless they are talking about life and times. Looking for the kind of writing that makes you think "complaining, complaining never changes."

Thanks!

posted by BeeDo to Society & Culture (2 answers total)

You might like James M. Lindenberger, Ancient Aramaic and Hebrew Letters. These are, as it says on the tin, letters, often written on pottery fragments (ostraca), mostly pretty quotidian. They are all first millennium BCE. Pictures aren't included, but the original Hebrew or Aramaic is.

Moudhy Al-Rashid often posts pictures and translations of Akkadian tablets, either her own or other people's-- see @Moudhy on Twitter.

You might also check out the Amarna letters, the diplomatic correspondence of the Egyptian kings in the 1300s BCE. They are addressed to the king, but there's plenty of complaining.
posted by zompist at 8:33 PM on December 5, 2021

I think the Loeb Classical Library has volumes with Greek and Latin inscriptions. Those books have English translations opposite the source text.
posted by thelonius at 3:46 AM on December 7, 2021