Celebrating Our Chaldean Heritage

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings by Amanda H. Podany

By Weam Namou

April marks the Babylonian Akitu Festival, the New Year in ancient Mesopotamia. Professor Amanda H. Podany describes the history of that festival in her book Weavers, Scribes and Kings. She also shares other important details related to the study of Chaldeans.

“The Babylonians believed that the order of the universe was reestablished every spring with the Akitu Festival taking place,” she said, adding that the main god was Marduk, and a statue of him, likely made of gold, was paraded along with statues of other gods throughout the city as people celebrated. The statues were then taken north of Babylon to a shrine where Marduk and the other gods (statues) would meet.

“It really would’ve been a spectacular sight,” says Podany, who specializes in the study of Syria and Mesopotamia in the middle and late Bronze Age. A professor emeritus of History at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, Podany writes scholarly works as well as books for the general public, most recently Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East.

Amanda H. Podany

“These were valuable statues and were considered very sacred,” says Podany, explaining that the first seven days of the twelve day festival were private and took place between the priests, the statues of Marduk, and his wife, Sarpanitum. A high priest read the creation story to Marduk while other priests purified the room in various ways, including singing and playing music.

“They read the story to the statue to remind Marduk of his role as king of the gods in the creation and to also create cosmic order – which, they believed, was assured when Marduk controlled the Tablet of Destinies,” said Podany.

The purpose of his later joining the other gods was a means of unifying the land. The people believed that, together, they decided the future of the year. Then all the gods were brought back to Babylon for grand celebrations.

At one point, the king had to swear before Marduk that he hadn’t hurt Babylon or the god’s temple, after which the high priest had to hit the king’s cheek and if the king cried, that was a good omen. His tears were an indication of humility. It made the gods happy that the king knew his place and didn’t think himself too important.

With Mesopotamia’s fascinating and rich history that dates back thousands of years, Chaldeans often wonder why Mesopotamia doesn’t get enough recognition in comparison, for example, to Greece, Rome, and Egypt.

“The history of ancient Mesopotamia couldn’t be studied until the mid-1900s, when cuneiform was deciphered,” says the professor. “Documents from other civilizations could be read and studied and placed into curriculums. It took a while for curriculums to change.”

In the case of Egypt, Podany notes that its popular appeal is due to the pyramids and other monuments which are still standing; they offer a unique view of death and of Egyptian culture.

In Mesopotamia, cities were built of mud brick which doesn’t survive, so there’s little to see there. “It was the most amazing culture but in terms of tourists, there’s less to see,” she says, adding, “Mesopotamia hasn’t had the attention it deserves. It needs a publicist.”

One of Podany’s goals is to help the public know about this incredible culture that developed a great many ideas which we adopted into our world today - such as writing, diplomacy, and law. For decades, she has made research accessible for those who are not familiar with scholarly work.

“I love doing microhistories,” she says. “Instead of trying to cover the whole region at once, I choose a small group of people or a person to analyze and to use them to explore the time and place in which they lived. That’s what I did with Weavers, Scribes, and Kings. For example, what did the weavers do and how did they live their lives? Then, looking at the palace in which they worked, making it possible almost to visit the place in your mind.”

Aside from authoring books, she is also the author and instructor of an audio and video lecture series for Wondrium called Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization.

But what about Chaldeans, specifically? Why has so little academic study been done on them?

There’s a great debate in the diaspora about what “Chaldean” means.

“The ancient Chaldeans were a group that’s not very well understood, because of the change of what it meant,” Podany explains. “[The term] ‘Chaldean’ started out as referring to a certain group of people in the south and later changed to a term for all Babylonians. We’ve got 3,000 years of history in Mesopotamia and there are scholars working on the study of Chaldeans, but there is always more research to be done, on all periods of history.”

Over half a million cuneiform tablets that have been found, the majority of which are lists, such as records of taxes and rations and of people going to work. They’re non-literary. The letters, royal inscriptions, hymns, and contracts have mostly been read and deciphered. According to Podany, there’s an increasing interest among scholars in the Middle East and archaeologists who are being trained in Iraq and elsewhere.

“This is a vibrant field, and there’s so much research done on the Mesopotamians but most of that has not been made popular through documentaries and popular books,” says Podany. “And that’s something we can change.”

Professor Amanda H. Podany’s book, Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East, is available on Amazon.com.