Showing posts with label sumer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sumer. Show all posts

An Introduction to the Ancient World Review

An Introduction to the Ancient World
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This book is a great introduction to the History of the Fertile Crescent, Greece, and Rome. Needless to say, the Romans get the most attention, but the coverage is good all around (Rome lasted longer anyway, right?). The translation into English is clear and, interestingly, flows well; you wouldn't know the book was originally in Dutch unless you read it in the copyright section. This is the text for the Greco-Roman civilization class I took at FSU, and most of the students in there paid like a hundred and twenty dollars for the hardcover edition. Can't say it's that great but buy this paperback if you would like a primer in Ancient History.

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Integrating the results of scholarly work from the past decade, the authors of An Introduction to the Ancient World, Lukas de Blois and R.J. van der Spek, have fully-updated and revised all sixteen chapters of this best-selling introductory textbook. Covering the history and culture of the ancient Near East, Greece and Rome within the framework of a short narrative history of events, this bookoffers an easily readable, integrated overview for students of history, classics, archaeology and philosophy, whether at college, at undergraduate level or among the wider reading public. This revised second edition offers a new section on early Christianity and more specific information on the religions, economies, and societies of the ancient Near East. There is extended coverage of Greek, Macedonian and Near Eastern history of the fourth to second centuries BC and the history of the Late Roman Republic. The consequences of Julius Caesar's violent death are covered in more detail, as are the history and society of Imperial Rome.Thisnew edition is:comprehensive: covers 3,000 years of ancient history and provides the basis for a typical one-semester course lavishly illustrated: contains maps, line drawings and plates to support and supplement the text, with updated captions clearly and concisely written: two established and respected university teachers with thirty years' experience in the subject areas well-organized: traces the broad outline of political history but also concentrates on particular topics user-friendly: includes chapter menus, an extensive and expanded bibliography organized by subject area and three appendices, an improved introduction and the addition of an epilogue.

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In the World of Sumer: An Autobiography Review

In the World of Sumer: An Autobiography
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This is the autobiography of Samuel Noah Kramer, who for many years was a leading authority on the reading and interpretation of Sumerian literature. This literature, consisting of myths, epics, proverbs, lamentations, love poetry, and more, was written in cuneiform on clay tablets roughly 4000 years ago. Thousands of tablets, often broken, often at least partly illegible, were uncovered at various archeological sites in Iraq in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
How does one come to be an expert in cuneiform and Sumerian literature? Kramer was born in 1897 in Ukraine. Fearing anti-Jewish persecution, his family moved to Philadelphia when he was eight, where his father established a Hebrew school. After graduating from high school and obtaining a bachelor's degree, Kramer taught in his father's school, tried and failed to become a writer, tried and failed in business, and was approaching 30 without a career. "Finally it came to me that I might well go back to my beginnings and try to utilize the Hebrew learning on which I had spent so much of my youth, and relate it in some way to an academic future." Thus, he enrolled in the Dropsie College of Philadelphia for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, where he became passionately interested in Egyptology. He then enrolled in the Oriental Studies Department of the University of Pennsylvania. There he decided to work with "the brilliant young Ephraim Avigdor Speiser, who was to become one of the world's leading figures in Near Eastern Studies." Since Speiser was at that time interested in cuneiform tablets dating from about 1300 BC, Kramer began his life-long studies in cuneiform.
The book details his remarkable career, from his Ph.D. in 1929, through his retirement in 1968, to his very active post-retirement years and the writing of this autobiography in 1986. He writes in a straightforward non-technical manner, but with obvious enthusiasm. We learn not only about him, but also about the Sumerian literature which clearly enthralled him and which he wrote about for specialist and non-specialist alike. He sums up his accomplishments as follows: "First, and most important, is the role I played in the recovery, restoration, and resurrection of Sumerian literature, or at least of a representative cross section...Through my efforts several thousand Sumerian literary tablets and fragments have been made available to cuneiformists, a basic reservoir of unadulterated data that will endure for many decades to come. Second, I endeavored...to make available reasonably reliable translations of many of these documents to the academic community, and especially to the anthropologist, historian, and humanist. Third, I have helped to spread the name of Sumer to the world at large, and to make people aware of the crucial role the Sumerians played in the ascent of civilized man."
Samuel Noah Kramer died in 1990. I finished the book thinking that it would have been wonderful to know this man.

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Science in Ancient Mesopotamia Review

Science in Ancient Mesopotamia
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The editorial review of this series from School Library Journal is wrong. The new editions of these books do not "expand greatly" on the original 1988 editions; they greatly contract. The 1988 edition of the books on Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia had eight chapters and 92 pages. This new edition gives them only only six chapters and 64 pages, and the word count per page is reduced. Indeed color pictures and illustrations were added and the glossary expanded, but the text is reduced to about two thirds of the original. Students are better off reading the original editions in the Watts "First Book" series.

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Describes the enormous accomplishments of the Sumerians and Babylonians of ancient Mesopotamia in every scientific area, a heritage which affects our own everyday lives.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia Review

Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia
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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.

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Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization Review

Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization
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Simply put, this is the best book on Ancient Egypt I have ever read. It's also the kind of volume one can only produce after years of careful study and thought. Over the last two decades, as he conducted extensive excavations at Akhetaten's ancient city of Amarna, Kemp has achieved an extraordinary depth of knowledge about Egyptian culture. Among other issues, his thematic investivation ("anatomy" is exactly the right word), examines the founding of the state, the bureaucratic mind, and the use of propaganda. Throughout, the author employs abundant visual evidence to support and illustrate his ideas. He also carefully connects this "other" world to our own, repeatedly demonstrating that we are far more closely related than we might like to admit. This is an ambitious book. As he notes in the introduction, Kemp's real goal is to reveal "basic aspects of human thought and organization." That he is so successful, is in large part due to the author's extraordinary ability to clarify the most complex ideas in lucid, engaging prose.

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This comprehensive survey of Egyptian society and history transforms our understanding of this remarkable civilisation.

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