M. Willis Monroe

I’m a historian of the ancient Near East with a focus on the science and scholarship of first millennium Mesopotamia. Currently I serve as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of British Columbia.

My research investigates the role of layout and structure of material text and their relation to the transmission and receptions of scientific knowledge. Most of my primary sources are Astronomical and Astrological cuneiform texts from ancient Iraq.

I’m currently writing a book entitled The Micro-zodiac Texts from Seleucid Babylonia with translations of a number of cuneiform tablets from southern Iraq dating to the Hellenistic period (4th-2nd c. BCE). The book investigates the changing nature of astrology during the end of cuneiform culture.