Stephanie Dalley is a member of the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow of Somerville College. She has excavated in the Middle East and published cuneiform texts found in Iraq, Syria and Jordan, and in museums in Baghdad, Oxford, London and Edinburgh. She is the author of The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon (2013), which formed the basis for a successful TV documentary. Her other books include Myths from Mesopotamia (1986), The Legacy of Mesopotamia (1998), Mari and Karana: Two Old Babylonian Cities (1984) and Esther's Revenge at Susa (2007), some of which have been translated into other languages. She has lectured worldwide including at universities, schools and societies, and taught for three decades at the Oriental Institute. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.