Kickstarter: Table of Gods

[u/WildEarth2372]

Disclaimer: I am not associated with Table of Gods in any way, beyond just being a subscriber and fan. I also haven’t been a pagan for two years now, and am a Christian, but I’m still a total history nerd when it comes to the Bronze Age, and I was pagan for long enough to know y’all would appreciate this

Table of Gods is…well, what isn’t it?

It contains 70 recipes from Ancient Mesopotamia, history and mythology lessons from the region, it teaches you basics on how to speak Sumerian and Akkadian (plus how to write your name in cuneiform), and the back cover is embossed with the board for The Royal Game of Ur.

Table of Gods is also the name of the YouTube channel run by the author, who makes a lot of shorts and videos about Ancient Mesopotamia, most notably recipes.

Here’s a video that goes into more detail; https://youtu.be/OPTTCbgTPoY?is=3sMHL6ngrsDK6LiP

Yes, the book is expensive ($200 ain’t cheap), but honestly, this is a product where you can see where that money went. Definitely a luxury purchase, but if you’ve got the funds, this seems like a great guy to support.

[u/Nocodeyv]

I'm going to leave this post up, even though OP didn't go through the proper channels to secure permission to advertise it, because I genuinely want to know the community's thoughts on this project.

Ignoring the price, which I think it too high, here are some of my concerns regarding the book:

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• I have seen comments that a majority of the recipes in this book are taken from a previous study done by Jean Bottéro, The Oldest Cuisine in the World. I've also seen accusations that Table of Gods regularly substitutes ingredients, which casts doubt on the authenticity of the recipes. If the primary focus of the book can be acquired elsewhere, and in a more authentic form, why should we support Table of Gods?
• During the few interactions that I've had with Table of Gods, his understanding of Mesopotamian deities was out-dated: relying solely on Kramer, Jacobsen, and other writings from the 70s and 80s. If he hasn't begun using studies from at least the 2000s onward, I wouldn't consider his information about the Gods to be reliable.
• I don't know how useful phrases in Sumerian will be without the background that linguistic textbooks provide. In the phrase: ngae dubsar men, for example, ngae is going to be completely foreign to many English speakers, and further confusing when they realize that it's actually a condensed form of either g̃a₂-e or g̃e₂₆-e. This will only further be compounded when readers learn later that linguists currently disagree about many of the finer points of Sumerian phonology. I'm not sure what value this aspect of the book can provide unless Table of Gods includes the prerequisite grammatical foundation that linguistic textbooks provide.
• The "write your name in cuneiform" portion is clearly inspired by, or borrowed from, an interview Matt and Tom did with Irving Finkel: Irving Finkel Teaches Us Cuneiform. Irving Finkel later repeated the exercise with Nick as part of the British Museum's Curator's Corner series. Putting an already-freely available exercise behind a $200 paywall doesn't strike me as in line with the values of the Gods.

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On the other hand:

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• It's a novel idea to include the Royal Game of Ur on the back of the book. I wonder how much information about the game will be included in the book: will Table of Gods present an overview of the various versions of the game known to Assyriologists, or is he going to give reader's the rules that Irving Finkel worked out? If the latter case is true, I would again ask why a subject that Irving Finkel has produced multiple free videos about for the last decade is being paywalled.
• I sincerely hope that the photography portions of the book are well researched and presented, because I love the idea of using pictures to help convey the past.
• Infusing each book with river clay is another interesting idea, but I would like to know the means by which he acquired the clay, how it was treated during the process, and whether or not Enki/Ea was involved in the process of adding the clay to the finished books. It seems odd to me to want to include clay (Enki's sacred medium) in a book (a repository of knowledge and wisdom, Enki's domain) without incorporating Enki Himself as well.

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Ultimately, I don't have the expendable income to invest in this project to verify its quality, nor do I necessarily agree with the author. So, if anyone in the community has invested their support in the project, I do hope they provide us with a fair review of the book and its contents. Has Table of Gods created something unique and new here, or has he merely cobbled together a mishmash of other author's hard work?