The fount from which all other Ancient Near Eastern dream studies flow, Oppenheim’s seminal study of the topic is essential reading for anyone interested in how dreams were perceived before Freud. Divided into two parts, the first section is Oppenheim’s insightful analysis of how dreams were interpreted in the Ancient Near East. He divides dreams into message dreams and symbolic dreams. Message dreams, as their name implies, bear direct information from gods to mortals. Symbolic dreams, further divided into mantic and prophetic dreams, required the assistance of an interpreter. After his basic analysis of the subject, the second part of the book presents the Assyrian Dream Book in all of its fragments. Other exemplars of this genre of tablets are also presented, along with a complete transcription and photographs of all the tablets used by Oppenheim in his rendition of the text. Published here with a new introduction by Scott Noegel, the text of this boundary-breaking book will be welcomed by all who have any interest in how ancients believed the divine and human world intersect.

Adolf Leo Oppenheim (1904-1974) was a deeply respected Assyriologist. After earning his Ph.D. at the University of Vienna, he was hired by the University of Chicago and became the John A. Wilson Professor of Oriental Studies. In addition to his memorable monographs, he also served as the editor-in-charge of the prestigious Chicago Assyrian Dictionary.