First Published as Mésopotamie. L'écriture, la raison et les dieux / Translated by Zainab Bahrani and Marc Van De Mieroop. — University Of Chicago Press, 1992. — 326 p. — ISBN: 0-226-06726-2.
To give the reader some sense of how Mesopotamian civilization has been mediated and interpreted in its transmission through time, Bottero begins with an account of Assyriology, the discipline devoted to the ancient culture. This transmission, compounded with countless discoveries, would not have been possible without the surprising decipherment of the cuneiform writing system. Bottero also focuses on divination in the ancient world, contending that certain modes of worship in Mesopotamia, in their application of causality and proof, prefigure the "scientific mind."
Chronology.
Rules of transcription and translation.
Map.
The Birth of the West.
Assyriology.In Defense of a Useless Science.
Assyriology and Our History.
A Century of Assyriology.
Writing.The "Avalanche" of Decipherments in the Ancient Near East between 1800 and 1930
From Mnemonic Device to Script.
Writing and Dialectics, or the Progress of Knowledge.
"Reasoning": Institutions and Mentality.Oneiromancy.
Divination and the Scientific Spirit.
The Substitute King and His Fate.
The "Code" of Hammurabi.
"Free Love" and Its Disadvantages.
"The Gods": Religion.The Religious System.
Intelligence and the Technical Function of Power: Enki/Ea.
The Dialogue of Pessimism and Transcendence.
The Mythology of Death.