Review (PDF) Babylon: Mesopotamia And The Birth Of Civilization
Civilization was born eight thousand years ago, between the floodplains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, when migrants from the surrounding mountains and deserts began to create increasingly sophisticated urban societies. In the cities that they built, half of human history took place. In Babylon, Paul Kriwaczek tells the story of Mesopotamia from the earliest settlements seven thousand years ago to the eclipse of Babylon in the sixth century BCE. Bringing the people of this land to life in vibrant detail, the author chronicles the rise and fall of power during this period and explores the political and social systems, as well as the technical and cultural innovations, which made this land extraordinary. At the heart of this book is the story of Babylon, which rose to prominence under the Amorite king Hammurabi from about 1800 BCE. Even as Babylon's fortunes waxed and waned, it never lost its allure as the ancient world's greatest city. Engaging and compelling, Babylon reveals the splendor of the ancient world that laid the foundation for civilization itself.
Paperback: 338 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (March 27, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250054168
ISBN-13: 978-1250054166
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #35,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #4 in Books > History > Ancient Civilizations > Mesopotamia #4 in Books > History > Ancient Civilizations > Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer #12 in Books > History > Middle East > Iraq
"The land extended and the people multiplied / The land was bellowing like a bull / The god was disturbed by their uproar / Enlil heard their noise / And addressed the great gods / 'The noise of mankind has become too intense for me / With their uproar I am deprived of sleep.'" This is the beginning of the explanation of the Great Flood of biblical recounting, found in an Akkadian writing dating to 1600 BCE. Apparently, the "real" reason for the flood (which was initiated by a minor god) was that humans were making too much noise! If you live in a modern city where everyone talks loudly on phones that are arguably smarter than their owners to someone else while blithely ignoring their companions nearby, you may sympathize. This story is one of many to be found in Kriwaczek's book on the origin of Babylonian civilization, a dramatic human story unfolding from roughly 4000 BCE to the conquest of Babylon by the Persian emperor Cyrus in 539 BCE. While following Kriwaczek in this exploration you will glean here and there how life was in Ur, Babylon and other places that played a crucial role in human history. You will be surprised to find about the high degree of multicultural diversity of the Babylonian and Assyrian dominions, not to mention their practice of quite advanced forms of capitalism all those millennia ago (a capitalism that, interestingly, seemed to have had the same advantages and drawbacks of our own: it generated a vibrant economy, but it also increased inequality). Kriwaczek's writing is not always engaging, there are a bit too many parochial references to British archeologists and historians, and at times he tries too hard to describe local life at the time in a personalized way that surely relies more on imagination than on the actual record.
Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization Atlas de arquitectura / Architectural Atlas: Generalidades. De Mesopotamia a Bizancio / From Mesopotamia to Byzantium (Spanish Edition) Babylon: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Mesopotamia's Greatest City Hollywood Babylon Strikes Again!: More Exhibitions! More Sex! More Sin! More Scandals Unfit to Print (Blood Moon's Babylon) The Purge of Babylon: A Novel of Survival (Purge of Babylon, Book 1) Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization The Birth of the State: Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China Offensive and Defensive Lawfare: Fighting Civilization Jihad in America's Courts (Civilization Jihad Reader Series Book 7) Offensive and Defensive Lawfare: Fighting Civilization Jihad in America's Courts (Civilization Jihad Reader Series) (Volume 7) The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89, Fourth Edition (The Chicago History of American Civilization) Active Birth - Revised Edition: The New Approach to Giving Birth Naturally (Non) Raising Multiple Birth Children: A Parent's Survival Guide, Birth-Age 3 Berossos and Manetho, Introduced and Translated: Native Traditions in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt The Greatest Civilizations of Ancient Mesopotamia: The History and Legacy of the Sumerians, Babylonians, Hittites, and Assyrians The Invention of Enterprise: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Times (The Kauffman Foundation Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship) Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East Mesopotamia: Asirios, Sumerios Y Babilonios/ Assyrians, Sumerians and Babylonians (Los Diccionarios De Las Civilizaciones/ Dictionaries of Civilizations) (Spanish Edition) Between the Rivers: The History of Ancient Mesopotamia Sumerians: The Land Of The Civilised Kings: Discover The Truth About - The Sumerians (Babylonia, Nibiru, Gilgamesh & Planet X) (Genesis, Assyrians, Ziggurat, Lexicon, Pantheon, Mesopotamia, Sumer) Mesopotamia (Cultures of the Past)
