Product Description
This book traces the earliest history of architecture at its birthplace in the ancient Middle East (primarily the current Iran and Iraq) and ancient Egypt, and covers archeological sites, temples, tombs, and early dwellings - several of which have been the subject of recent news coverage on sites and treasures threatened by the Iraq war and political instability. The History of World Architecture is one of Electa's most popular architecture series, with each book in the series providing a comprehensive overview of its subject by a world-renowned expert in the field, accompanied by 200-300 black-and-white photographs, plans, and drawings and 24 colour plates. First published in the 1970s and 1980s, the Italian editions of these books remain standard reference works in architecture history and continue to sell well due to the authority of their authors, their judicious combination of text and illustrations, and careful use of accurate yet accessible terms. The English editions, after being out of print for several years, are now available again exclusively through Phaidon. The books are ideal for college-level students of architecture history, and for anyone who seeks one basic and i ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A pictorial "Ferrari" of history of architecture books
A part of the series History of World Architecture originally published by Electa in Italian in 1971-7 under a general editorship of Pier Luigi Nervi, it was translated to English and published by Abrams in 1971-80 in b&w only, but at 10 x 11 1/4 inches. Subsequently, the series was reedited, shrunk to 8 5/7 x 9 1/2 inches, and published by Electa / Rizzoli in 1985-9 with a few color photos added including each front cover. In the early 2000's, the series was reissued by Phaidon unchanged except for the front cover photo. It is a pictorial "Ferrari" of history of architecture books. Almost every page contains one or - usually - more than one illustration as photo, plan, section, elevation, axonometric view, etc. of the highest quality. They depict the best examples of topical architecture covering the most significant ones. The text was written by one of the best experts in the field. While relatively concise, it is still comprehensive and complete enough even for students of architecture.
The Abrams' edition combines Ancient and Greek Architectures and contains 525 black & white illustrations, including 179 diagrams and reconstructions.

PUBLISHER'S SYNOPSIS:

*ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE*:
(24 color and 249 black & white illustrations in non-Abrams' editions.)
Seton Lloyd and Hans Wolfgang Müller describe the beginnings of architecture in the Ancient Near Middle East and Egypt, the brithplace of Western civilisation, where the newly born science of construction merged with an emerging aesthetic practice. This book examines sites and structures from neolithic temples in Anatolia to the royal tombs of Egypt. Each page combines reconstruction drawings of site plans, building perspectives, and decorative elements with photographs of archeological sites including aerial views and details. An extensive section is devoted to Egyptian architecture from its origins to the first century AC. Also included are the first dwellings on a circular plan, dating from the 8th millenium BC in Jordan, the famous site of Catal Hayuk, the ziggurat towers of the Neo-Assyrians and Neo -Babylonians, and the Achaemenids. The book examines the theological requirements, organization, and hierarchies in the architectural practices of the era.

*GREEK ARCHITECTURE*:
(24 color and 276 black and white illustrations in non-Abrams' editions.)
This volume presents an extraordinary collection of images and covers the whole range of Greek architecture, from a thorough analysis of Minoan Crete - which marked the beginning of the history of Western architecture - through Mycenae, to the magnificence of the Doric places of worship: from the temples of Corinth, Delphi and the Acropolis to those of Magna Graecia. The book covers the birth and evolution of the doric and ionic orders, religious architecture, and the temples and structures of Classical Greece. There is a substantial section on civic architecture, which closely reflects the formation and evolution of the political community, the most original aspect of ancient Greece. Important centres outside Greece are discussed, including Agrigento and Segesta in Sicily. The final section documents the Hellenic phase, with its unparalleled innovations and its influence on the greater Mediterranean. ... Read more

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Cradle of civilization. Neolithic Revolution, Urban revolution, Copper Age, History of Mesopotamia, Sumer, Ubaid period, Ancient Egypt, Indus Valley Civilization, Iron Age India ... Read more

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Chapters: Mesopotamia, Fertile Crescent, History of the Levant, Classical Authorities of Babylonia and Assyria, Postage Stamps and Postal History of Palestine, Short Chronology Timeline, Daniel 8, Chronology of the Ancient Near East, Mesha Stele, Bronze Age Collapse, Names of the Levant, Cities of the Ancient Near East, Near Eastern Archaeology, 5.9 Kiloyear Event, Chart of Ancient Near East Rulers, Tell, Mina, Levantine Corridor, Neolithic Founder Crops, Pitru, Umman Manda, Proto-City. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 190. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The postage stamps and postal history of Palestine emerges out of its geographic location as a crossroads amidst the empires of the ancient Near East, the Levant and the Middle East. Postal services in the region were first established in the Bronze Age, during the rule of Sargon of Akkad, and successive empires have established and operated a number of different postal systems over the millennia. In the era of modern postage, the postal administrations in Palestine have included Austrian, French, Italian, German, Egyptian, and Russian post offices (through arrangements made with the Ottoman Empire), the Egyptian Expeditionary Forces, the British Mandate, and various interim authorities in the lead up to and after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Since 1948, postal services have been provided by Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian National Authority. When discussing the pre-1948 postal history, most philatelists refer to this geographic area as Palestine or the Holy Land, though some also use Eretz Israel. This article surveys the postal history leading up to the area's two current postal administrations, that of the State of Israel and the Palestinian National Authority. Prior to modern postal history, imperial administration...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=15570268 ... Read more

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This out of print volume Contains contributions from V.V. Struve, A.I. Tyumenev, I.M. Diakonoff, N.B. Jankowska, V.A. Jakobson, Muahmmad Dandamayev & G. Kh. Sarkisian. Mostly in English with some Russian, mostly in footnotes and on title page. 335 pages. Red cover with gold letters. Contains a pullout Outline Map of Near Eastern Trade Routes (based onn Assyrian annals). ... Read more

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Who were the people of the ancient world?What was it like to be a farmer, a soldier, or an artisan in ancient times?What did their experiences contribute to modern-day culture? Find out as you journey back in time for an extraordinary look at People of the Ancient World. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Ancient Mesopotamia
This bookis not for great study but it gives you a very brief look at the history of ancient Mesopotamia, with nice photos .

Anyone going to Iraq should have this.
I bought this for my son for his 6 month stay in Iraq. We both enjoyed it. He was in Balad which is in Mesopotamia.

Lovely.
Very lovely, informative, entertaining, elegant, delightful.
Practically a mini-encyclopedia in one volume, covering the major aspects of the Mesopotamian civilization.
I just loved it from cover to cover.
Get it right away!

Well made and informative
This attractive and informative book is part of the People of the Ancient World series of books by Scholastic, Inc. The book explains the culture of ancient Mesopotamia, describing the inhabitants' government, economy, science, and culture. Along the way, the reader is treated to many pictures and sidebars.

Overall, I found this to be a well made and informative book. Now, as you might expect with a book written for young readers, the book does not go into any great depth on any subject. But, it is nonetheless very broad in its reach, and it is an excellent resource for readers of any age who want an introduction in the culture of the peoples of ancient Mesopotamia. I highly recommend this book.

Good book for an 8th grader
While I do feel that the information in this book is good, it is written so that your 14 year old will have no problem gliding through this book.This is by no means a college level book, although it does have some really nice pictures.I personally would have preferred more thorough information as opposed to large fonts with full page pictures. ... Read more

Product Description
The ancient world of Mesopotamia (from Sumer to the subsequent division into Babylonia and Assyria) vividly comes alive in this portrayal of the time period from 3100 BCE to the fall of Assyria (612 BCE) and Babylon (539 BCE). Readers will discover fascinating details about the lives of these people taken from the ancientsÂ’ own descriptions. Beautifully illustrated, this easy-to-use reference contains a timeline and a historical overview to aid student research. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

messing up basic terms
...very dissapointed to start reading the book of an "expert" by reading at the preface the phrase "with diverse ethnic groups occupying the region": what is an "ethnic" group in a pre-ethnic world?

kp
ph.d. student in pol. sciences & history

Wonderful, readable, brilliant, comprehensive.
Informative and engrossing. Well-organized and well-researched. The best book on Mesopotamia I've read! It definitely gets a lot more of the daily-life issues correct than others (which occasionally suggest citizens lived in large two-story houses--what a joke).

All books I've read, however, make the same error about the map pictured on the cover of an earlier version of this book--a circle with triangular shapes coming from it. This map is often mistakenly cited as partly being of Scandinavia, as it has been translated as "country where the sun has not been seen." An understandable mistake, but what it actually signifies is unknown country--no one has seen the sun there because no one from the known world at the time had explored it. A more comprehensive (intact) map would have shown that this symbol was only one part of the world, not the entire world.

I hope Ms. Nemet-Nejat accepts this bit of information in the spirit in which it is offered. :-)

Helpful addition to general ANE studies
Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia is an excellent volume and highly recommended for the general audience, especially those who are interested in learning more about ancient Near Eastern backgrounds. Chapters center on major areas of life and society, for example, society, scholarship, recreation, religion, economy, and etc. Nemet-Nejat is sensitive to both the diachronic and synchronic development of topics so discussion is quite well developed in each chapter. With such an arrangement, however, there is some repetition, though minor, throughout the book. The beginning historical review is very helpful, even if most brief, and sets the stage for the development of topics in each chapter. The author's strength is in the area of mathematics and technology and they get emphasis in the book. Less discussion is found on integrated matters like environmental issues. There is a wealth of material in this book and so much is covered it is a bit encyclopedic at times but, nevertheless, well done. This book will be of interest to students of ancient history or any seeking a greater appreciation of biblical background material. There are very limited reference to the Bible and some strange. Saul's change of mind (literally heart) is take by the author as "he went off his rocker," 81, an older and limited perspective, indeed. Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat is conversant in many areas of ANE studies and balances her discussion with excerpts from ancient texts and relevant contemporary sources. The book would be enhanced by a better bibliography. The book is a welcome contribution to the field and will be a very informative to any who read it!

Excellent Overview of Ancient Mesopotamia
Nemet-Nejat has compiled a great deal of information into this book.Although the historical overview was a little long and dry, most of the book was very interesting. Nemet-Nejat quotes from a number of originalwritings of the ancient Mesopotamians, giving a unique view into thethinking and culture of this ancient civilization.

The insights intoeducation, religion, writing, and recreation were most interesting. ... Read more

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In these 4 all-new titles-each with its own clip-art CD and wall chart-DK shines its Eyewitness spotlight on vital topics from the past, present, and future. While Mesopotamia explore the cradle of civilization and Great Scientists reveals the minds that shaped the modern world, China investigates the present-day culture of the most populous country on the planet, and Oil takes a look at the controversial substance responsible for the beginning-and, if we're not careful, the end of life as we know it today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Better than expected
I just thought I was getting a book but I got a cd and poster with it. The whole book is good visual reference for mesopotamia. Good for adults too. This is an EXCELLENT book for your mesopotamia collection.

Good buy!
Very good illustrated introduction to Mesopotamia. I bought it because of the pictures, as a complement of my bibliography, and it works great. Has a lots of pic in great quality. Highly recomended

A great primer on Mesopotamia
I bought this book as a supplement for home schooling.We have been studying Mesopotamia, but it was difficult to sort out all of the different civilizations that arose in the area.This book helps to clarify that. I also understand so much more about the region and all of its magnificent contributions to the world.I would recommend it for everyone.A great primer.

Great for homeschooling
This book is great.I use it for homeschooling my children along with The Great Courses DVD course "Between the Rivers:Mesopotamia".It is easy to match each lecture and the page number that it correlates to in this DK book.As usual, the photography is fantastic.We watch one 30 minute lecture and read one part of the book each day and along with some extra discussions, crafts, and supplemental reading, we have a two month course on Ancient History in Mesopotamia that is top notch. ... Read more

Product Description
This beautifully illustrated book features art activities based on museum collections of Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Islamic culture, with early architectural and design styles adapted to paper, commercial tiles, and other materials. Good-luck charms, calligraphy, and traditional containers augment the simplified but authentic motifs found throughout the Moslem world. Children use paper, markers, and glue to reproduce the brilliant mosaic work of the Babylonians. They learn to create a wheel, board games, the ziggurat, and other objects pioneered in the ancient world. Full page color photographs, inviting illustrations, a history of each artifact, and stories, bring long vanished cultures to life. ... Read more

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Ages 8 to 14 years.With a history that stretches back over 8,000 years, ancient Mesopotamia was home to many great cultures and empires. Illustrative maps and timelines will teach children the complex history of the area that is now modern-day Iraq.Topics include: The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and the cradle of civilisation; The great cities of Ur and Babylon; The Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians and many other ancient peoples; The eye for an eye system of ancient justice; Ancient cuneiform writing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Don't let the cover fool you.
Don't let the cover of this book fool you.The lovely cover makes this book look like a high school or college text, but upon opening it you will find it appeals to a younger crowd.Their are lovely pictures and illustrations.The text is succinct and relatively easy to read.There are many pictures to keep the reader engaged.If your upper elementary to middle school age child finds ancient history a little boring, give this book a try.It is fact-filled but well-illustrated and to-the-point.A great addition to your library if you homeschool; great to flesh out your history lesson if you use MOH or TOG. ... Read more

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Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, based on articles originally published in L'Histoire by Jean Bottéro, André Finet, Bertrand Lafont, and Georges Roux, presents new discoveries about this amazing Mesopotamian culture made during the past ten years. Features of everyday Meopotamian life highlight the new sections of this book. Both gourmet cuisine and popular cookery used fish, meats, fruits, vegetables, and grains, available fresh or preserved (through methods still used today), and served with beer and wine. While feelings toward love and sex are rarely found in personal writings or correspondence, myths, prayers, and accounts of an acceptance of a wide range of behaviors (despite monogamy, prostitution flourished) argue that both were considered natural and necessary for a happy existence.

Under law woman existed as a man's property, yet stories show that wives frequently used beauty and wits to keep husbands in hand, and a wife's financial holdings remained her property, reverting to her family at her death. Women were allowed to participate in activities that could increase this wealth and some, pledged to the gods and shut away in group homes, were nonetheless able to participate in lucrative business ventures. Also included are accounts of the exceptional life of the queen and the women of Mari, the story of the great Queen Semiramis, and chapters on magic, medicine, and astrology.

The concluding section offers a fascinating in-depth comparison of ancient Sumerian myths and stories similar to those found in the Hebrew bible. The new information found in Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia makes a significant contribution, one that deepens our knowledge and understanding of this great, ancient civilization.

Customer Reviews (4)

Travel Back in Time
This book is a compilation - in translation - of essays written by Jean Bottero, along with those written byvarious authors whose qualifications are described on the back cover.It was not surprising to learn that Bottero is a distinguished chef, for I found the chapters on food and cooking to be especially fascinating.Fortunately for those of us interested in the ancient world of Mesopotamia, the Sumerians and others recorded ample, detailed narratives of their lives for us to translate and study.

The chapter on women's rights was particularly interesting, full of surprises about what privileges women were entitled to - or not. I also liked the chapters covering accounts of The Flood and the Legends of Gilgamesh.There is much to ponder in these discussions of how the Mesopotamians viewed the gods or of how we might view the origins of our own religions.

I would have appreciated more maps, charts or time lines, although there is a useful chronology at the end of the book.

Altogether I found this book extremely informative.It whets the appetite for reading more about those ancient peoples who carefully and fully recorded so much for us to contemplate.

An excellent book on the subject
This excellent book is a series of sixteen articles on the subject of life in ancient Mesopotamia. The articles are written by four leading authorities on the subject, and cover everything from the origins of the Sumerians to how they lived to what they believed. Indeed, I must say that I found the chapter, Love and Sex in Babylon to be quite interesting, covering a topic that most history books shy away from.

Overall, I found this to be an excellent book on the subject, informative without being dry and academic. Indeed, if you are interested in extending your knowledge of ancient Mesopotamia, then you must get this book. I give this book my highest recommendations.

An entertaining and insightful book for the general reader
"Everyday Life in Ancient Messopotamia" offers an interesting option to the general reader who is interested in Ancient Mesopotamia but is put off by most of the dry and academic texts that are currently available on this topic.As Bottero stated in his foreword, he wanted the reader to become acquainted with the Mesopotamian culture through vivid impressions, much as a tourist would gain when visiting a foreign country for the first time.All exaggerations aside, Bottero really manages to do a very good job of igniting the reader's interest in this part of the ancient world.

Although I felt that the chapters on food and wine were a bit overextended, the rest of the book provides a solid and entertaining discussion of Mesopotamia.The chapters dealing with women in Mesopotamian society were quite interesting, where Bottero suggests that women may have had more leverage power in dealing with men than would be suggested by the textual evidence.Additionally, Georges Roux's discussion of the origins of the Semiramis legend are equally appealing.One of the things that impressed me about this book was the ability of the various contributors to throw a new light on old ideas, thus allowing the reader to gain new insights.For example, one theory that made me think was Bottero's idea that the use of writing to communicate decrees made by the king may have prepared the Mesopotamians to accept the possibility that the gods might issue their decrees through the movements of the celestial bodies.And just as there were experts to read the texts, there originated the need to obtain experts in astrology who could interpret the heavenly bodies.I do not know if this is a widely supported idea in the Assyriological community, but nevertheless, the ability of the various contributors to communicate to the general reader is a definite strong point of this book.

I highly recommend this book as a good starting point to Mesopotamia, since it will leave the reader (like myself) wanting to learn more.

Very interesting
If you're interested in ancient Mesopotamian civilization, you'll probably love this book. It's full of fascinating information about the day-to-day lives of the ancient Sumerians and Akkadians. Chapters include such topics as Love and Sex, Women's Rights, Food and Cuisine, the Law, Religion, and so on. The book is written mostly by Bottero, but there are also several other scholars who contribute some of the chapters. Most are well written and not too technical or difficult to read, and as I said, full of lots of interesting and intriguing information and facts.

The ancient Mesopotamians come across as practical, no-nonsense people who, in contrast to the ancient Egyptians, weren't especially religious and believed in living life in the here and now as best one could. Although they did have a religion, it was mostly for propitiating various gods and deities who they hoped would bestow their blessings on them in their personal or public affairs. There was a concept of the afterlife, but it was basically a dark, dingy, netherworld where not much happened, it seems, and they regarded the present life as far preferable to it.

A good example of their practical approach to affairs is that marriage was a simple contract without much ceremony. Women could marry who they wanted and could divorce much as men could, although adultery was tolerated much less for women than for men. A surprising fact is how extensive their food and cuisine was. According to the writer of the chapter, the Sumerians knew how to make hundreds of different types of breads, soups, beer, and other dishes, depending on the ingredients and how they were prepared.

Overall, a fine book and addition to the practical history and understanding of the ancient Mesopotamians. ... Read more

Product Description
More than seven thousand years ago, the first urban civilization began in Mesopotamia, in an area corresponding to present-day Iraq. This remarkable book is the first to reveal everyday life as it was in ten long-lost Mesopotamian cities. Using archaeological fragments of jewelry, textiles, and writings, anthropologist Gwendolyn Leick paints a colorful picture of the lives of Mesopotamians-from poets and priests to businesswomen and divorc&eacutees-and the incredible achievements of their advanced and imaginative society. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Best short summary available
The dawn of civilization has long been a dark mystery to everyone except a handful of scholars in dusty libraries and museum collection rooms.While endless material has been written and published about Egypt, Rome, and Greece, almost nothing has been available for the layman with an abiding interest in the very dawn of civilization: Sumer and Akkad.Gwendolyn Leick's book "Mesopotamia" has changed everything.This is far more complete, far more readable, and far more detailed than anything currently available on the market.If you are looking for one book with a complete, impartial view of how civilization began, then this is the book you're looking for!

excellent review site by site
This book has the merit of paying careful attention to sites not often included in the usual accounts, and evaluating their significance for developments such as writing.

great introduction to cities and ancient Iraq
Leick seems to have inherited from Kramer the ability to be the most engaging writer for the educated lay public in topics concerning Mesopotamia. I personally found this work useful in 3 regards: (1) as a good source of material from which to prepare a keynote lecture at a Harvard Design School conference about the Mesopotamian marshes and at which many urban planners and designers were present; (2) as a source of inscriptions for my recent compilation of such (Wetlands of Mass Destruction: Ancient Presage for Contemporary Ecocide in Southern Iraq); and (3) as an inspiration to use part of a similar frieze from Ninevah on the cover of that book; i.e. Assurbanipal representing Saddam Hussein. And I will continue to dip into Leick's book for information for future writing projects.

The Tale of Ten Cities
Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City by Gwendolyn Leick is a book only a history major could fall in love with.But even non-history majors can enjoy it.The book is ten chapters, each chapter a detailed history of one city, using archaeological information in the form of textiles, writings and ruins.From the first city of Eridu, to the last city of Babylon, we follow the lives of the people, as they go from city-state, to Kingdoms to large Empires, from waiting for the rain to come feed their gardens to redirecting rivers to feed their fields.Artists, soldiers, priests and Kings, we learn how the region developed and follow the history of one of the first civilizations by how the cities developed.
Because the history of each city overlaps, weaving a complex history of warfare, trade, worship and power.The only problem some readers might have it how detailed it truly becomes in the last few chapters.Also some of the text accompanying the photos were placed on the wrong part of the page.Or the photos were placed on the wrong part of the page. Either way some photos don't match the text that go with them.
The chapters come with a simple timeline, a useful map, a helpful index and a not so helpful glossary (as some words I wanted to look up were not in it).
Overall it is still a great find and worth getting for any library on history, urban development or the Middle East.

Good introduction
I enjoyed this book a lot. It's a book that manages to be both scholarly and readable as it introduces the archaeology and history of various cities around Mesopotamia. Archaeology is the main focus, but Leick draws on written texts, notably literary texts, to illuminate the physical evidence. This book also shows how much more investigative work there is to be done in that region of the world.
A good read. ... Read more

Product Description
Thisis an in-depth treatment ofthe antecedents and first flourescence of early state and urban societies in lowland Mesopotamia over nearly three millennia, from approximately 5000 to 2100 BC. The approach is explicitly anthropological, drawing on contemporary theoretical perspectives to enrich our understanding of the ancient Mesopotamian past. It explores the ways people of different genders and classes contributed and responded to political, economic, and ideological changes. The interpretations are based on studies of regional settlement patterns, faunal remains, artifact distributions and activity patterning, iconography, texts and burials. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A cold and biased view of Mesopotamia
Dr. Pollock presents a cold, distant and very biased view of a fascinating subject. She is, for instance, very worried about the role of women in Sumerian societies from the very first pages, continues to complain about "male domination" throughout the book, and finishes by proposing that future studies focus on this subject (women role in Mesopotamia). I wonder why she did not develop any such study herself. Unfortunately, since she was not able to present a feminist history of early Mesopotamia, she has apparently chosen to present us a history without men as well.

Dr. Pollock description of the "household" economy is unconvincing, obscure, and it is not rare that she begins some paragraph with several "maybes" and "ifs" only to end it with some sweeping statement. It would be ok to present a somewhat speculative view of early Mesopotamian economy if it was not so blatantly ideologic. She actually concludes her book by stating that any other approach would be "to participate" (her words) on the side of oppressors against the oppressed.

Her disdain for the written record is amazing! According to Dr. Pollock, it reflects the life of the elite and is riddled with maleness, and therefore she ignores it until about page 142. But even after recognizing that written records do exist, nothing of it is used in her interpretations of the archeological data.

The entire Mesopotamian religion(s) is presented as a domination tool of the elite against the poor. At the same time she (following Oppenheim) claims that the Mesopotamian religion we know was not that of the common people, but an elite business. She perhaps forgets that in order to be a domination tool, a religion must be believed by the dominated.

I read the book throughout and did not learn anything about possible distinct peoples inhabiting the area, their languages, their beliefs, the tension between city-states and the evolution of regional countries. No mention (except for Sargon and his son and even so in the briefest manner) is made of rulers. In fact one may finish reading the book and believe that rulers had no impact at all on the daily lives and the economy of the region.

Unfortunately Dr. Pollock's ideological battle against objectivity irritates and detracts from some useful information she compiles. If some older views of Mesopotamian history were excessively romantic, Dr. Pollock's view is one that conveys the impression that the author dislikes her study subject.

Through a glass darkly
I did not find the book as dry as the one reviewer did. The author is well informed and provides lots of interesting information as well as good bibliography. She is also mostly lucid and engaging. The book is well illustrated. A serious distraction in the presentation for this reader was the very heavy ideological slant adopted by the author. The political and social agendas seemed very pronounced and illustrated to some extent the idea of Foucault that all history writing is fiction. Marx's hostility to class differentiation and his dream of a future paradise of undifferentiated life in the absence of civil society shine through on many pages of the book. For example, the word "tribute" occurs ad nauseum. The author also displays some hostility to the development of complexity of social and economic life in early Mesopotamian civilization. Scholars of the Ancient Near East should give more thought to the idea of epoche or bracketing of personal prejudices as practiced in the history of religions.Despite the ideological distraction, the book is well-written and worth reading but should be balanced by a more main-stream presentation such as that by J.N. Postgate, Early Mesopotamia.

An excellent, readable under grad textbook on Mesopotamia
I have been reading a ton about Mesopotamia lately, and this book was terrific. Be warned, though - it is written very clearly in a text book style.

It is dry writing - Dr. Pollack does not really attempt to liven up her writing with colorful stories, myths, etc. An example to contrast with is Kramer's book "History Begins at Sumer," where he tries to give a more informal, evocative spin on similar issues. (Kramer's book is itself another take on his own dry, previous book on Sumeria. Amazon has both of these, if interested.)

She is matter of fact and gets right down to business, in each of her chapters.She covers a standard set of topics for a culture - death, writing, bureaucracy, economics, etc.

So be warned - it's not written to enchant or lure you in. It feels very much like a college textbook. In this respect, it is very brief - each chapter is only 25 pages long or so.The whole bookhas only 224 pages of core text.Very short for a textbook - I have the trade paperback version, so it is light and thin - very easy to read,too.

But now to the meat of it: the reason I liked this book so much was exactly for the strengths that come with it being an undergrad textbook: she presents evidence and little details that are very, very interesting.

Most other books will just SAY that the Uruk period had less social differentiation than the later, more urbanized Early Dynasty periods.But she gives you little, easy to read tables and graphs that show the actual breakdowns of how much pottery was found at each time.You get to think a little for yourself as to what that means.My favorite example was when she discusses gender in pictures on Mesopotamian art.Women (or what are interpreted to possibly be women) are shown in groups making textiles.Men are shown with textiles too, but also alone, also in combat, herding animals, etc. She infers that women are not individuated like the men can be on occasion in the artwork.

The concise tables she gives are easy to peruse yourself and fun to see how archaeologists actually form conjectures as to what it actually means.I loved that.By the way, she focuses on gender along the way, a nice surprise and refreshing for most of these types of books.

Another great bit was on burial methods - in the earlier Ubaid period, the official (but not necessarily actual) societal position was that in death, we are all part of the community, notso much individuals.Graves show mostly similarity to each other. Not so for the Early Dynastic, where social differentiation is now heavily emphasized.Graves have objects that show striking disparities of wealth and status between members of society.So we can see that over time, stratification is increasing as civilization 'progresses.' Fascinating.

Are these observations interesting to you? If they seem obvious, then this book may not be so good for you. If you like a little more info on what anthropologists actually FIND, then thisis a worthwhile book.Lots of little details - how scientists gauge stratification by the types of bones found in different houses;the age at which animals are killed helps determine whether they were raised primarily for meat (males killed young), or wool (both genders killed later)- these are the little things that abound, and that I just had a ball with. I liked seeing how archaeologists try to make sense of the brute artifacts themselves.

I already have a strong interest in Mesopotamia. I'm not sure if this book will be lively enough to spark an interest not already present. But I read it in a day - very easy to read.It is dry, official in its style, yet not terminologically dense.You can just see her trying to write in that academic style while having her undergrads be able to understand what her point is.

I recommend this book.I wish, though, that she spent more time on certain details: more on how widespread the infamous death pits at the Royal Cemetary at Ur were.What is the overall evidence for human sacrifice, for the death pits.Also, I was very unsatisfied with the depth she went into the actual mythology of the area.At the end, she states that two areas she wants to explore more in the future are gender and the lives of ordinary folk.So it was surprising that the meaning and the themes of the literature and mythology are not more than cursorily addressed here.I guess that is due to her archaeological approach: she talks a great deal about tombs, houses, plant findings.You can find these things in the ground. Meaning? Well....

In addition, what about sex? She addresses gender - how males and females relate socially, but not sexually.Let me tell you, I recently read a translation of the 12 tablets that Gilgamesh was written on, and there is a great deal of ripe, vivid sexuality to be seen there. Raised on Christianity, I was not used to seeing the divine and explicit sexuality together.Enkidu and the courtesan, as well as in other myths: Enlil rapes (!) his future wife Ninlil.Perhaps sexuality is too touchy for undergrads...

So in sex and the meaning of the Mesopotamian literature and religion I think she either overlooks it altogether or glides right over it.

But all in all, a great book. I'm on Amazon now seeing what else she's written...

Anthropology Text
This is the book we used in our college anthropology class. There are lots of facts on farming so if you want more information on artifacts this may not be the book for you. ... Read more

Product Description
First Civilizations is an introductory overview of the civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. It was conceived primarily for students who have little or no knowledge of ancient history or archaeology. The book begins with the role of history and archaeology in understanding the past, and continues with the origins of agriculture and the formation of the Sumerian city-states in Mesopotamia. Three subsequent chapters concentrate on Assyrian and Babylonian history and culture. The second half of the book focuses on Egypt, beginning with the physical environment of the Nile, the formation of the Egyptian state and the Old Kingdom. Subsequent chapters discuss the Middle Kingdom, the Hyksos period, and the 18th Dynasty, with space devoted to Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, the Ramesside period. The text ends with the Persian conquest of Mesopotamia and Egypt.

First Civilizations also contains sections on astronomy, medicine, architecture, eschatology and burial practices, mummification, religion and discusses the myths of Gilgamesh, Isis and Osiris. Each chapter has a basic bibliography which emphasizes English language encyclopedias, books and journals specializing in the ancient Near East. ... Read more

Product Description
Did you know the wheel was invented in Mesopotamia? Thousands of years ago in the area of Asia called The Fertile Crescent, people who had been nomadic hunters and gatherers settled in Mesopotomia and began to create some of the first civilizations. Before long, Mesopotamian farming villages grew into the world s first cities, where large buildings were built, beautiful art was created, and the first system of writing was developed, leading to the earliest literature known. Mesopotamians even had modern things that are hard to imagine people having thousands of years ago. They cooked gourmet meals using all kinds of ingredients and cooking techniques. They even had toilets that flushed! Step back into the world of the Sumerians, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians, and learn how many of their inventions and discoveries are still used by people all over the world today. ... Read more

Product Description
Ancient Mesopotamia was a rich, varied and highly complex culture whose achievements included the invention of writing and the development of sophisticated urban society. This book offers an introductory guide to the beliefs and customs of the ancient Mesopotamians, as revealed in their art and their writings between about 3000 B.C. and the advent of the Christian era. Gods, goddesses, demons, monsters, magic, myths, religious symbolism, ritual, and the spiritual world are all discussed in alphabetical entries ranging from short accounts to extended essays. Names are given in both their Sumerian and Akkadian forms, and all entries are fully cross-referenced. A useful introduction provides historical and geographical background and describes the sources of our knowledge about the religion, mythology and magic of "the cradle of civilisation". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Review of Black and Green's Dictionary
This is a wonderful resource for understanding the everyday cultural aspects of ancient Mesopotamian society. I'm not sure how often certain entries would be looked up for a dictionary, but it certainly works as a plainly readable text.

Great book and resource
This is a great book with excellent art work throughout.It is a wonderful resource for writters looking to add exotic info on strange old gods and demons to their work.You can learn a lot about this old culture and their ways of worship from this titles, highly recommended.

Dictionary ? (For Serious Explorers Only)
This volume is classified as a dictionary, I think only because it's topics are alphabetically arranged. Of much greater value to me would be an index which grouped the entries according to the chronology of the artifacts discussed. And for cross reference purposes, a table which illustrated the geographical locations of the cultures who seeded the artifacts would reveal a larger picture of how certain practices are relevant to which social groups. (Which would alleviate the need of having to read through the sociological and psychological guesswork of an individual history book produced for each one of those cultural groups. The title says Mesopotamian, but when I open it up I find entries all over the book for:

Sumerian;

Pre-Babylonian Chaldean;

But mostly Assyrian.

Artist illustrations from Tessa Rickards are outstanding. Some of the black and white photos are replications of color plates in books I've either borrowed from the library, or have in my stacks.

Which brings me to that magenta-toned cover illustration. (what were you thinking ?)

According to an inside cover caption, it's supposed to be `green' jasper. Hmm. OK, guys we have green jasper in the Mojave desert, and it's not magenta ! (maybe the original was a black & white which accidentally got color toned at the publishers ?) Please see my attached `green' jasper color-corrected photo.

Topical articles are very well written and some subjects are cross referenced. However, as a dictionary, this volume would make a better companion glossary to a much larger work.

For whom would this tool be the most useful ?

If I were an archaeologist with independent means to travel around the globe visiting sites and studying cultural objects, this might be an outstanding field guide for my purposes. (regrettably I'm not) To a student engaged in `Cradle of Civilization' graduate study, this work can provide a very condensed time line to the religious practices associated with several mythologies. (provided that person already knows a lot of the names of the nouns referenced in this work)

Because I'm somewhat of a novice at sorting them out, my average hits to misses ratio has netted me about 2 successful finds per 5 lookups. So my focus seems to have been more or less pre-Hellenic, Canaanite, Persian, and Egyptian, none of which I'll be persuaded to recognize as `Oriental', despite all the theological dogma in tow. You see, the Chinese have plenty of wondrous gods and sophisticated culture of their own, without having anything to do with the Babylonian or Persian empires. It's refreshing to review a text by authors who don't start by presenting the arrogant presupposition that the people they're studying were somehow incapable of independent thought.

Treasure Of Ancient Knowledge
"Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia" (An Illustrated Dictionary) is the best resource on the Gods of the different cultures from that region that exists.Though they call it a dictionary, Jeremy Black and Anthony Green (editors) have put together an encyclopedia of knowledge on the subject.They cover Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Hurrian mythologies, and touch on several more as well.This review is based off of the fifth edition of the book, which was published in 2003 by the University of Texas Press.

There is a lot of material here, and it would be easy to give this book five stars based on what it does provide.However, as I use this resource I often think about what more they could have done to make it more useful. One big thing would have been more visual resources.I would have liked to see a map section where it shows the various eras and empires and the extent of their control.There is one map near the front of the book, but it provides only a limited view.

A big area of improvement would have been to provide sections instead of including all the material together from A to Z.For example the maps mentioned above could have gone into a geography section which could have also shown the evolution of the city names as they spanned eras, including the modern names for those which still exist.Another section could have covered the kings, queens, and heroes for each of the empires.The section on deities could have covered the evolution of deities as they were adopted by the later empires, as well as the new deities which arose during the passage of time.You will find that some of this material is scattered throughout the resource, but it is not complete, and it is difficult to find unless you already know where to look.

Despite all the things I would have liked to have, I still think this is a very good reference, and one which anyone who studies the ancient history of that region will want to have in their library.It is easy to come up with ideas of ways to improve things, but the work that was done in putting together this reference was exceptional, and as with most things which whet one's appetite, it leaves the reader wanting more.

Hidden Truth
This illustrated dictionary is excellant, and informative.The authors have a knack for noting out of the ordinary tidbits, which enhance their profiles.Unfortunately, they do not recognize that Mythology is 95%
Propaganda.Thus, Ea, called "favorable to man", is in fact the Ultimate
Architect of Evil, who along with his "two-faced" minister Usmu, and the
scribe Nabu, propagated a Revisionist Mythology, that has subjugated and
subverted the 5% Truth, ever since.
... Read more

Product Description
The Pocket Timeline of Ancient Mesopotamia is a beautifully illustrated guide to this region's rich and fascinating history, from its first nomadic inhabitants to the fall of the Neo-Babylonian empire. The lively and engaging 32-page book is divided into sections that cover a different periodor civilization that sprang up between the Euphrates and the Tigris, each section containing short but satisfying chapters on such diverse topics as farming, writing, religion, and arts and crafts. The book describes the nomadic lifestyle of the area's first settlers, and their transformation intofarmers and then city-dwellers, such as the growth of Ur in southern Mesopotamia from a village in 2500 BC to a city of around 20,000 people by 4500 BC. We see how the Mesopotamians developed writing and math, the establishment and fall of an empire at Babylon, and the restoration of aNeo-Babylonian empire with a palace so grand that King Nebuchadnezzar called it "the marvel of all people, the center of the land, the shining residence, the dwelling of majesty."The book is beautifully illustrated with dozens of color photos of ancient sites and artifacts; readers will seeancient idols, an board game known as the Royal Game of Ur, a ferocious feline guard from the temple of Ishtar from 665 BC, and statues, seals, musical instruments, maps, and monuments. Published in association with the British Museum. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (7)

an excellent introduction to the topic
This is an excellent book.For a course I just completed on Mesopotamian religion, we frequently read small sections of this book as introductions to topics we studied each week, finishing all sections of the book by the end of the course.It is very well written and intelligent.I always looked forward to reading the sections from this book first, before tackling published essays and primary source material.The author has written many books on the subject.You would also never know that it had been translated from French.

Readable, Comprehesible, Succinct
I started reading about Mesopotamia (ancient mesopotamia is a little redundant isn't it?Unless you are talking geography) after reading about early Greek culture, specifically, I trace my interest to the works of Robin Lane Fox.So I'm not a scholar in the subject, just a guy who reads books about ancient mesopotamia.First I read the terrible "50 Firsts at Sumer" or whatever it's called- awful.Then I found Bottero's "Mesopotamia: Writing Reasoning and the Gods" and I said, "This guy is much better!"

So he is- Bottero conciesely explains the progression of three thousand years of ancient civilization, specifcally their religion, in a little over 200 pages, at the end I felt like I'd learned 500 pages of material.Bottero is sure to emphasize the broader eras: Sumerian (most ancient), Akkadian, Assyrian, each period had it's own language (though they shared a Sumerian derivied alphabet) and a broad, polythesitic religion.Really, "Mesopoatmia" is about the mixing of Sumerian with Semites, so it really shouldn't be suprising that Mesopotamian themese run throughout the Bible.

Bottero pretty much presents this argument as a non-controverial statement of fact, and I wonder how the Christian crazies would react if they read this book.Christian crazies?I know you're out there.Come out!

Empathetic, experiential, but factual
There are several excellent reviews of this book (although one review posted here appears to be of Black and Green's "Illustrated Dictionary: Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia" - another excellent but very different book). Nevertheless, I thought I'd add my two cents worth. This book is very verbally descriptive and packed with facts by an expert. The facts are embedded in the text mostly, there isn't much "at-a-glance" information. However, when you get into the text, it is extremely worthwhile - clear, beautifully written, informative, packed with information, but factual. The author clearly has a deep empathy and understanding of the worldview of this most ancient of cultures (even though he obviously is himself from and assumes his reader is from a Judeo-Christian worldview), and through his elegant writing he is able to transport the reader into that world. In the final analysis, there aren't many academics who can do this. Many books either venture into the fantastic or too far into speculation on the one hand, or on the other hand refuse to enter into the experience the facts present leaving the reader with a dry summary. This book manages to remain with the factual while transporting the reader into the experience.

For those who know either of the extremely ancient languages of Mesopotamia, throughout, both Sumerian and Akkadian names are given for various deities, priesthoods, religious elements etc. The book is not a compendium of myths or texts although the most important myths are explained and used to situate cosmology with relation to the religion. Also, quite a number of samplings of texts (in English) are given which enable the reader to experience firsthand through example the principle being illustrated by the author. Chapter 6 p152 gives the standardized Mesopotamian calendar from which the ancient but later Hebrew calendar is partially derived. A few of the most important festivals are described with explication of what is known, what can be guessed at, what is unknown.

If you like reading text, then this is a very good book and you will come to a good feeling for Mesopotamian religion backed up by facts. There is a respectable bibliography at the end and notes.

An Illustrated Dictionary of Ancient Mesopotamia
Teachers and students have needed this book for a long time; previously, we had to depend on skimpy glossaries at the end of anthologies. Inevitably, for reasons of space and cost, those glossaries were very brief and not cross-referenced. This book, put together by two scholars in the field, solves this problem.In 192 illustrated pages, Black and Green have, in dictionary-style defined, explained, and cross-referenced to other items and illustrations, every god, demon, and symbol mentioned in the available Mesopotamian literature. Like good scholars, they are very careful when they speculate about meanings; they are factual and write clearly,linking, whenever possible, the item they're defining to parallels in architecture, sculpture, and literature. This is a very valuable resource since it puts into one text the best, most up-to-date scholarly understanding of the many gods, demons, and symbols that the ancient Mesopotamians poured so many of their imaginative energies into creating.

The Religion/s of Mesopotamia
Bottero offers a fairly concise review of Mesopotamian history and religion.The book is a good introduction to the topic for both students of religion, as well as general readers.My original interest in the book pertained to the correlations between Mesopotamian mythology and the stories found in the `Old Testament,' i.e. my interests were more literary than historical.Bottero does discuss some of the myths, etc.; yet his main focus is on religious practices and/or behavior.It's still an interesting read, and, overall, I enjoyed the book.But if you are, like I was, looking for an analysis of the Mesopotamian myths themselves and how said myths influenced the entire Mediterranean basin, I recommend the book "Slaying the Dragon" by Bernard F. Batto. ... Read more