An Anthropology of the Material

World

In Ancient Mesopotamia

ABOUT THE RESEARCH

The people of ancient Mesopotamia did not perceive a sharp separation between nature and culture as we do today. Human beings were much more entangled with the material world, and their sciences and philosophies were built upon relationships and encounters that unite people with other living beings, ghosts, gods and demons. 

 

Looking at millennia-old texts and objects, researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam ask how exactly people of this culture made sense of the world they lived in and how technologies and tools played a role in gaining scientific knowledge.

EXPLORE

Stories from the material world

Essays, objects, and encounters from three thousand years of the material world.

Enter the archive

The science, in motion

Short films from the lab, the field. The making of the research, on camera.

Watch the films