Selena Wisnom

Podcasts & Radio

History Hit, The Ancients: Ashurbanipal: The Last Great King of Assyria

Known as the 'King of the World' and the last great king of Assyria, Ashurbanipal bestrode the ancient Mesopotamian world as a warrior but also a scholar, ruling the great Assyrian empire at the height of its power.

In this episode, Tristan Hughes is joined by Assyriologist Dr Selena Wisnom to uncover the dual legacy of this fearsome conqueror and passionate intellectual. From brutal military triumphs to the vast Library of Nineveh - packed with texts on medicine, mathematics, law, and literature - they explore how Ashurbanipal turned his capital into the greatest empire and the greatest knowledge hub of the ancient Mesopotamian world.

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BBC 6 Radio Music Cerys Matthews' Show

Cerys handpicks your eclectic Sunday soundtrack and welcomes UK based singer-songwriter Yoshika Colwell live from Maida Vale to perform tracks from her new album, On The Wing. Known for her introspective, folk-inflected music, Yoshika's new album explores themes shaped by a decade of significant life changes, and touches on self-discovery, nature, time, and mortality. Plus, lecturer in the Heritage of the Middle East at the University of Leicester, Selena Wisnom discusses her latest book, The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History, which explores how ancient Mesopotamian knowledge—preserved in King Ashurbanipal’s library—shaped the roots of modern civilisation. All this alongside a mixed bag of records from Cerys' vintage and classic collection, in addition to her favourite new finds this week

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A Lost Library Holds Secrets to Our Past: New Lines Magazine Podcast

A Lost Library Holds Secrets to Our Past

Historian Selena Wisnom and New Lines’ Lydia Wilson discuss why ancient Mesopotamia is such an important, but underlooked, part of the West’s heritage.

New Books in Ancient History Podcast with Dr. Miranda Melcher

In this episode, Assyriologist Selena Wisnom delves into the discovery of the world’s first known library—unearthed in the ruins of ancient Nineveh. She unpacks how thousands of cuneiform tablets from the 7th century BCE reveal the intellectual world of the Assyrian Empire, including science, omens, and literature like the Epic of Gilgamesh. Wisnom also discusses the challenges of decoding these texts and how they still influence modern understanding of knowledge and power. A must-listen for history lovers and anyone curious about humanity’s earliest written legacy.

History Extra Podcast

In the seventh century BC, the ancient Assyrian king Ashurbanipal created a gigantic library in his capital city – one that contained centuries of wisdom. And this vast wealth of ancient knowledge can reveal a lot about how the people of the Near East thought about their gods. Dr Selena Wisnom tells David Musgrove more about the Assyrians' religious views, including how they tried to keep gods – and other supernatural entities – happy.

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The Spectator: Book Club with Sam Leith

My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is the Assyriologist Selena Wisnom, author of The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History. Selena tells me about the vast and strange world of cuneiform culture, as evidenced by the life and reign of the scholar-king Ashurbanipal and the library – pre-dating that of Alexandria – that he left to the world. She describes the cruelty and brilliance of the Ancient Near East, the uses of lamentation, the capricious Babylonian gods, the ways in which we can recognise ourselves in our ancestors there – plus, what The Exorcist got wrong about Sumerian demons.

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How to Academy Podcast

Mesopotamian civilisation filled more than half of human history: a culture with advanced mathematics and astronomy, a religion that influenced both ancient Greece and the Bible, and a literature that continues to inspire the blockbuster movies of 2025. Yet few of us today know anything about it. Taking us into the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, scholar and playwright Selena Wisnom reveals a world of gods and monsters, poets and bureaucrats that is both utterly strange and strangely familiar.

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Very Loose Women, Resonance FM, London

Dr Selena Wisnom is an expert in cuneiform studies. She uses ancient divination techniques, reading sheep guts and livers, learned from tablets to tell us whether the United Kingdom will leave the European Union without a deal.

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Very Loose Women, Resonance FM, London

Selena Wisnom, a doctor in Assyriology, joins Leo and Emma in the studio with some detailed knowledge of Ancient Mesopotamia and a load of photographs of dead Armenian sheep. Combining these two things, she practices "extispicy" to predict whether Donald Trump will rise to power.

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Panels and public talks

HistFest: Ancient Mesopotamia with Moudhy Al-Rashid, Selena Wisnom and Shaparak Khorsandi

Ancient Mesopotamia is known as the ‘cradle of civilisation’: a region that gave us the first cities, the first system of writing, the foundations of mathematics and astronomy, and numerous myths and legends that were later absorbed by the Greeks and Romans. Yet compared to other ancient civilisations, its culture and contributions are not widely known or celebrated. Featuring Dr Moudhy Al-Rashid, author of Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History, and Dr Selena Wisnom, author of The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History, this HistFest session took us on a tour of this rich, sophisticated and complex society

Gilgamesh: Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Epic’s Rediscovery

Organised by the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, this anniversary panel marks 150 years since the rediscovery of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Panellists Sophus Helle, Selena Wisnom, Jenny Lewis, and Walid Siti will discuss the circumstances of its discovery, its enduring impact, and the many translations and interpretations that have brought this ancient epic to life for modern audiences

Oct 2025: Overboard! Classics for All fundraising panel.

May 2025: The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Lecture and Book Launch for The Library of Ancient Wisdom.

Jun 2025: The Engelsberg seminar: The History of the Middle East, ‘Mesopotamian Religion and the History of Science’.

Mar 2019: Pembroke College (University of Cambridge), London: alumni event.

Dec 2012: ‘Myth and Poetry from Mesopotamia’ University of the Third Age, Witney.

TV

BBC Ideas The ancient secrets revealed by deciphered tablets

This episode uncovers how the deciphering of cuneiform tablets has brought ancient Mesopotamian civilization back to life. From forgotten myths and rituals to the world’s first literature, these texts reveal the deep roots of modern culture and language. Learn how scholars cracked the code of the world’s oldest writing system and what it tells us about human history. A fascinating look at how the distant past still shapes our present.

The Poor Man of Nippur as a work of literature

Further to Cambridge Assyriology’s making a film out of the Babylonian folk tale The Poor Man of Nippur, in this short documentary students and scholars discuss the story as a work of literature, including questions such as: where is it from, what is the language like, is it humorous, and who should we be rooting for.

The Poor Man of Nippur - World's first film in Babylonian

The History of Narrative Art

Dorothy Street Pictures Nov 2024
Spoke with Dr Janina Ramirez about the Code of Hammurabi as a part of a documentary commissioned by George Lucas to be shown at his museum of Narrative Art in LA.