Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D.
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Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D.
@blindscholar.bsky.social
1.4K followers 440 following 580 posts
PhD in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East from Brandeis, postdoc at Stanford. Interests in disability, myth, economics, and materiality. More at www.blindscholar.com.
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If you're free this Thursday morning, I'll be giving a virtual lecture titled "The Real Lives of Blind Mesopotamians" as part of the 2025−2026 public lecture series hosted by the Bade Museum and Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley. Come join the fun!
Oct 23,2025 9:30 am PDT Disability in the Ancient Middle East and Mediterranean Dr. Eric Harvey | Stanford University "The Real Lives of Blind Mesopotamians" Watch live on the ARF YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/arf-channel Image Credit: Left: Figurine of musician (Trustees of the British Museu) Right: POW being blinded after defeat in battle (Joan Aruz 2003) ARCHAEOLOGICAL
October 21, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Labubu is not Pazuzu, but you know what does sound like Labubu? Labbu, an ancient Mesopotamian monster, a bašmu (serpent) or mušḫuššu (lion-headed serpent), whose body was 50 or 60 leagues long.
Unfortunately, some heroic deity killed it long ago, so you can’t hook it onto your purse.
A mushhushshu probably not Labbu), a serpentine creature with clawed limbs, holding up a gate post. The image was carved on the bottom of the cylinder Gudea C, which tells of King Gudea's royal exploits. It dates to the 21st century BCE.
August 18, 2025 at 5:11 PM
To labor is human,
to revolt, divine.
Feeding and caring for gods in antiquity took a lot of work, and deciding who should do it was a big economic deal. Download my book while it's free and learn all about it!

https://tinyurl.com/2ahr97an
Impression from a cylinder seal portraying a ritual banquet scene. A royal or divine figure is seated at a table and various others are presenting food offerings. The seal comes from the 9th or 8th century BCE and is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
August 13, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Ooooooh, my forthcoming Element now has a web page and publication date. Get excited!

https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/reading-creation-myths-economically-in-ancient-mesopotamia-and-israel/FB232A57D83E91577D25BD674343AB11
Landing page for my little book. It reads: Reading Creation Myths Economically in Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel Expected online publication date: 21 August 2025 Eric J. Harvey Summary Creation myths in the ancient Middle East served, among other things, as works of political economy, justifying and naturalizing materially intensive ritual practices and their entanglements with broader economic processes and institutions. These rituals were organized according to a common ideology of divine service, which portrayed the gods as an aristocratic leisure class whose material needs were provided by human beings. Resources for divine service were extracted from the productive sectors of society and channeled inward to the temple and palace institutions, where they served to satiate the gods and support their human servants. This Element examines various forms of the economics of divine service, and how thev were supported in a selection of moths cambridge.org
May 22, 2025 at 5:22 PM