{"id":7448,"date":"2025-05-27T15:16:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T15:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westtisburylibrary.org\/publiclibrary\/?post_type=mec-events&p=7448"},"modified":"2025-06-11T14:46:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T14:46:47","slug":"book-talk-with-joshua-hammer","status":"publish","type":"mec-events","link":"https:\/\/westtisburylibrary.org\/publiclibrary\/events\/book-talk-with-joshua-hammer\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Talk with Joshua Hammer"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 16, at 4:30 pm, Joshua Hammer will be presenting <\/span>maps, Victorian-era sketches, and photos in celebration of his newly published book, <\/span>THE MESOPOTAMIAN RIDDLE:<\/span><\/i> An Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman and the Race to Decipher the World’s Oldest Writing<\/span><\/i> (Simon & Schuster).<\/span><\/p>\n

THE MESOPOTAMIAN RIDDLE<\/span><\/i> is a fast-paced adventure story about the decades-long quest of three free-spirited Victorians to decipher cuneiform, the oldest writing in the world.<\/span> Hammer\u2019s specialty is exhilarating adventure stories, and readers who loved his previous books will be captivated by the swashbuckling archaeologist, the suave military-officer-turned-diplomat, and the cloistered Irish rector, as they race to decipher cuneiform and reveal the secrets of lost civilizations. Chronicling decades of fierce competition, global adventures, and exciting revelations, <\/span>THE MESOPOTAMIAN RIDDLE<\/span><\/i> is unputdownable as Hammer takes readers from ancient Mesopotamia to Ottoman-era Iraq to 19<\/span>th<\/span> century London and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n

From the ruins of Persepolis to lawless outposts of the crumbling Ottoman Empire, <\/span>The Mesopotamian Riddle<\/span><\/i> whisks you on a wild adventure through the golden age of archaeology in an epic quest to understand our past.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Joshua Hammer is the <\/span>New York Times<\/span><\/i> bestselling author of six books, including <\/span>The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu<\/span><\/i>,<\/span> The Falcon Thief<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>The Mesopotamian Riddle<\/span><\/i>. His writing has appeared in <\/span>The New York Times Magazine<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>GQ<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>The Atlantic<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>The New Yorker<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>National Geographic<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Smithsonian<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>Outside<\/span><\/i>. He lives in Berlin.<\/span><\/p>\n

This event is free and open to the public.<\/span><\/p>\n

Click here to listen to Joshua Hammer on Dan Snow’s History Hit : The Mystery of Mesopotamia<\/a><\/strong>
\nJun 09 2025 \u2022 38 mins<\/p>\n

Today we journey back 5,500 years to the dawn of urban civilisation, in the mud-brick metropolis of Uruk. We hear how their ancient cuneiform script was lost to time, until being dramatically rediscovered in the 19th century.<\/p>\n

Joining us is Joshua Hammer, a former war correspondent and author of ‘The Mesopotamian Riddle’. He explains how three unlikely characters – a dashing archaeologist, an officer turned diplomat and a reclusive clergyman – raced one another to decipher this mysterious script and unlock the secrets of long-lost empires.<\/p>\n

Produced by Mariana des Forges and James Hickmann, and edited by Tim Arstall.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 16, at 4:30 pm, Joshua Hammer will be presenting maps, Victorian-era sketches, and photos in celebration of his newly published book, THE MESOPOTAMIAN RIDDLE: An Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman and the Race to Decipher the World’s Oldest Writing (Simon & Schuster). THE MESOPOTAMIAN RIDDLE is a fast-paced adventure story about the decades-long quest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"mec_category":[],"class_list":["post-7448","mec-events","type-mec-events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westtisburylibrary.org\/publiclibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mec-events\/7448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westtisburylibrary.org\/publiclibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mec-events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westtisburylibrary.org\/publiclibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/mec-events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westtisburylibrary.org\/publiclibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westtisburylibrary.org\/publiclibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westtisburylibrary.org\/publiclibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westtisburylibrary.org\/publiclibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westtisburylibrary.org\/publiclibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7448"},{"taxonomy":"mec_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westtisburylibrary.org\/publiclibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mec_category?post=7448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}