November 27th saw the launch of a world first in cinema. Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology produced the first ever movie in the ancient Babylonian language.

“The Poor Man of Nippur” is based on a Mesopotamian folk tale of the same name and as promoted by current student and Luzio scholar Silvia Ferreri “features ancient magic, mystery and… a goat!”

The movie was shot in Cambridge and its surroundings in June 2017. It constitutes the result of more than one year of work undertaken at the Department of Archaeology and aims at making ancient Mesopotamia and the discipline of Assyriology more accessible to those outside of academia.

The project has been led by Dr Martin Worthington (Dept of Archaeology) and features many students and researchers from the Department. Silvia has been part of the project as production manager and actress. The beautiful music of the movie has been composed by Dr Stef Conner, who gave a concert at St Edmund’s in 2016 in the College Chapel during which she performed some splendid ancient Mesopotamian music.

Congrats to Silvia and the team! If you’re interested, you can watch the film below.