Ishtar Diaries by Columbia Global Center Istanbul

In this episode, we are following the trail of Ishtar from Southern Mesopotamia into the ancient Land of Cilicia. In the Mound of Tarsus and the hill-top citadel of Azatiwataya, we will talk about riveting ancient objects which bear traces of Ishtar as well as the illustrious women archaeologists who discovered and worked on them. We will talk about the contributions of Hetty Goldman, Machteld J....

The looting and illicit trafficking of antiquities is an issue that has gained considerable attention especially over the last few years due to the impact of several armed conflicts on the tangible cultural heritage of several countries in Western Asia. An interview with professor Erin Thompson provides some insight into the various aspects and complexities of this topic including the sale of loot...

In this episode we invite the Curator in Charge of the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art at the Metropolitan Museum, Dr. Kim Benzel, to speak to us of ancient jewelry and how jewelry, in its shapes, materials, motifs and making is imbued with far more than the eye beholds. Dr. Kim Benzel who is an expert of ancient Near Eastern jewelry, and herself a maker having studied goldsmithing techniqu...

What did the Babylonian sciences look like, and how did they read and interpret natural phenomena? What paradigms were at the basis of their predictive sciences? What role did the cuneiform script play in their philosophy of science? These are some of the questions that we will explore in a conversation with professor Marc Van de Mieroop. We discuss rational astronomy and irrational astrology, and...

A marble head of a woman excavated from the ancient city of Uruk is an important piece of Sumerian sculpture that is considered to be the oldest representation of the goddess Inana, Ishtar's predecessor and counterpart. The history of this object extends from the fourth millennium BC to the present day, as it has tremendous significance for Iraqi heritage and continues to inspire contemporary...

In this episode titled In Praise of Ishtar, we invite the renowned Iraqi-American poet Dunya Mikhail to read excerpts from the "Exaltation of Inana", a hymn dedicated to the great Mesopotamian goddess Inana/Ishtar and composed by the priestess Enheduanna, daughter of King Sargon and high-priestess to the moon god Nanna. The hymn is dated to the 3rd millennium BC and makes Enheduanna the fi...

In this episode, Ipek Cem Taha, the founding director of Columbia Global Center Istanbul, and Zainab Bahrani, the Edith Porada professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, talk about how the idea of the podcast was sparked by a conversation between them in the early days of the Covid pandemic in March 2020.  Zainab Bahrani is the Edith Porada Professor of Art History and Archae...