An Exploration of Ancient Babylonian Chemical Techniques, otherwise known as Ina išāti tuṣād, is the 2023 project founded by Maddalena Rumor (assistant professor in the department of classics) and Rekha Srinivasan (senior instructor in the department of chemistry). We reached out to ask them more about their project and findings.
The Inspiration for Ina išāti tuṣād
It all started when Rumor taught a class focused on cuneiform scientific and technical literature, titled “Experiential Learning with Akkadian ‘STEM’ Texts. Cuneiform is the ancient writing system of Ancient Mesopotamia that survives on clay tablets. Rumor and her students began to realize how indispensable it would have been to work with a seasoned chemist who could help them reconstruct the missing pieces of the tablets.
But how did the project leaders come together? Matthew Garrett, director of the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education (UCITE), had worked with Srinivasan on projects at the interface between chemistry and the humanities. When he heard Rumor was looking for someone to collaborate with, Garrett knew Srinivasan would be the perfect person. After a long and exciting conversation, Rumor and Srinivasan decided to work on this project together.
Their Goal
The team is currently working with two unique cuneiform tablets, approximately dated to the mid-1st millennium BCE. Both tablets present methods and concerns that are generally comparable to those of the Greek alchemical tradition. What survives of Babylonian technical literature is mostly in a fragmented state.
Rumor and Srinivasan hope to reconstruct some of the missing evidence by combining a traditional textual approach with chemical experimentation. First, they must understand the tablets by interpretation and reconstruction of the language. Then, the team will fill in the gaps by considering the chemical context of the procedures.
“As historians, we are driven by a fundamental curiosity for the history of knowledge. This includes the history of what we know and ultimately who we are,” Rumor said. “As historians we also want to learn about the people who formulated them.”
“And, as chemists, we recognize in it the earliest manifestations of our discipline. It is in our roots that we often find our identity,” Srinivasan concluded.
Expanding Abroad
Thanks to the Expanding Horizons Initiative, Rumor and Srinivasan were able to hire undergraduate students from their respective departments to join the project and travel to The British Museum in London, England.
The visit allowed the team to analyze the Babylonian tablets in person and identify what an ancient scribe had recorded: a sulfur tincture that consistently and uniformly dyes silver into what looks like gold.
The trip did not stop there! The Ina išāti tuṣād team also participated in a workshop hosted by a research group specializing on ancient Greek alchemy at the University of Bologna, Italy. The team was able to present their findings, hear alternative perspectives and conceive new possibilities for the project.
An undergraduate student vital to the group, Aspen Slavick-Gierlach, described Ina išāti tuṣād as the “opportunity of a lifetime.”
“By having collaborators with a variety of backgrounds and expertise, our team has been able to problem solve from a greater wealth of knowledge and experience,” Slavick-Gierlach added.
Want to Learn More?
Aviva Rothman, associate professor in the department of history, teaches a 200-level history course class called Science in Western Thought. Students from Rothman’s class joined the Ina išāti tuṣād project to conduct experiments following the 2700-year old instructions on the cuneiform tablet. They recreated the chemical reactions needed to make a sulfur-based tincture. Each student then performed the experiment like ancient alchemists, resulting in a 100% silver coin looking like pure gold.