Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
-18% $15.59$15.59
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
$13.83$13.83
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: 1984 Treasure Trove Lane
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City Paperback – June 24, 2003
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length384 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Books
- Publication dateJune 24, 2003
- Dimensions7.8 x 5.08 x 0.94 inches
- ISBN-100140265740
- ISBN-13978-0140265743
Frequently bought together
Similar items that may deliver to you quickly
Editorial Reviews
Review
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Penguin Books; Illustrated edition (June 24, 2003)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 384 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0140265740
- ISBN-13 : 978-0140265743
- Item Weight : 9.9 ounces
- Dimensions : 7.8 x 5.08 x 0.94 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #313,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #85 in Ancient Mesopotamia History
- #109 in Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer History
- #592 in History of Civilization & Culture
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
The map and chronology at the beginning of the book are useful tools in helping you through. Having had some minor exposure to the once lost era will make the read more enjoyable. Perhaps Leonard Woolley's "The Sumerian's" or Samuel Noah Kramer's "The Sumerian's, Their History Culture and Character" will help as both authoritarians are still quite relevant, most readable and are hardly a waste of your time. Now if you need a good flavoring and first place to start I'd highly recommend "Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth" by Diane Wokstein and Samuel Noah Kramer as well as "Inanna, Lady of the Largest Heart (Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna {first known author in the history of the world-2,300 BC}) by Betty De Shong Meador. Neither book covers the same literature and both will leave you wondering if these stories can be true while through your further readings you will find them to be just that
The manner in which the author has broken the various cities into "chapters" makes it easier to follow the information being laid down. As far as I can see she doesn't try to extrapolate information that doesn't seem to belong in the context. While she doesn't go into quite the depth that others do, she covers the topics quite throughly.
I found that I could read this easily in bites and chunks and digest the chapter before moving onto the next one. Since each chapter is pretty much a history of one place over one general timespan, it makes it relatively easy to put a "pin" in the mental map of my mind.
If you are looking for a very in-depth and scholarly work, this is probably not the best book although it is very good. If you are looking for a book that is easy to deal with and is quite comprehensive without being overly pedantic then I suggest that this is a great place to start.
We can see from the degree of detail, intertwining periods and locational events that the author has really put in her hours and apparently given everything she could to deliver a thorough presentation of the subject.
What were missing for me were more pictures and illustrations. There are some photos at the end of the entire ebook, which I didn't know were there until I finally arrived. But the author has given us a lot of explanation about the building structures, temple layouts, layers of consecutive cultures, etc. Without images, much of it was hard to grasp or picture in my mind. A few images spread throughout the text would have done a great deal to keep me a very happy reader.
Gary Judge
Author of The Timeline History of the English Language
With records available, there is an understandable over emphasis on rulers in the narrative, but there is also a healthy dose of information on others in the narrative, particularly scribes. One unexpected extra bit of takeaway in the approach here was that, with an emphasis on monumental architecture and temples, including temple related transactions, there is also a surprisingly concise rendering of early cult practice from 4th miillennium BC onward for Inanna & Ishtar, of the Inanna/Ishtar/Cypriot goddess/Aphrodite/Venus continuum.
I'd recommend it for those with some familiarity who would like to learn more about civilization prior to the second millennium BC.
Top reviews from other countries
I feel that if you are not very familiar with the topic, or if this is your first book on the matter, you will get quite confused about the timeline and the events. Especially with these geographically and politically related entities, you have to understand they were not isolated from one another in their courses of history. It is somehow like the Greek city states. While they were developing individually, they also interacted with each other. Thus their history were inseparable. One thing about dividing chapters by cities is that the timeline got messed up. One may think that the first city rose and declined before the second flourished. But this is absolutely not the case. They happened at the same time. Readers have to bear it in mind when reading the book.
Besides, all chapters started with an archaeological record with names and years. It increased the difficulty of understanding. It is very easy to get lost in the archaeological accounts and forgot what you are looking for. If this is your first book on Mesopotamia, I suggest you to go through it once quickly to get a brief knowledge and then go for another book that explains everything following the timeline. After that, if you come back to this book you will find it much clearer and easier to digest the information.
Lastly, the font is a bit too small. If will be better if they are slightly larger. Plus the descriptions do not match some of the pictures. They were put in wrong order if you examine carefully.
Overall, I quite enjoy the book though it seems I am not recommending it with my comments above. As I have a solid understanding on the subject, I have no difficulty finishing it and found the details very interesting and informative. It is up to you whether it is something for you.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 5, 2023
I feel that if you are not very familiar with the topic, or if this is your first book on the matter, you will get quite confused about the timeline and the events. Especially with these geographically and politically related entities, you have to understand they were not isolated from one another in their courses of history. It is somehow like the Greek city states. While they were developing individually, they also interacted with each other. Thus their history were inseparable. One thing about dividing chapters by cities is that the timeline got messed up. One may think that the first city rose and declined before the second flourished. But this is absolutely not the case. They happened at the same time. Readers have to bear it in mind when reading the book.
Besides, all chapters started with an archaeological record with names and years. It increased the difficulty of understanding. It is very easy to get lost in the archaeological accounts and forgot what you are looking for. If this is your first book on Mesopotamia, I suggest you to go through it once quickly to get a brief knowledge and then go for another book that explains everything following the timeline. After that, if you come back to this book you will find it much clearer and easier to digest the information.
Lastly, the font is a bit too small. If will be better if they are slightly larger. Plus the descriptions do not match some of the pictures. They were put in wrong order if you examine carefully.
Overall, I quite enjoy the book though it seems I am not recommending it with my comments above. As I have a solid understanding on the subject, I have no difficulty finishing it and found the details very interesting and informative. It is up to you whether it is something for you.
My only gripe would be that there wasn't a good conclusion to the book to tie it together. It ends suddenly on the last chapter leaving you feeling like you didn't have closure.
It's comprehensive and well written, and should appeal to students of archaeology and ancient history, as well as to those interested in urban development, architecture, Middle Eastern religions and related subjects. I read it because I'm an author, and I write, among other things, fantasy fiction set in an imaginary world loosely based on the the Middle Eastern Bronze age.
While I found the writing good, I didn't find it compelling. One aspect that could have been improved is the layout, by placing the illustrations next to the text section they're mean to illustrate. This would be more practical and reader-friendly.
In a remarkable manner Leick choses to discuss the history of the Mesopotamian cities through a detailed, vibrant overview of its various cities and their stages of development. This suited me well. However I must say that I’ve read quite a few books on the topic and from this background I found this approach highly interesting and refreshing.
It begins with almost mythical Eridu from there you’ll be taken on a journey to Ur, undiscovered enigmatic Akkad, Nineveh ect to eventually conclude with Babylon the cosmopolitan metropolis. One city is covered per chapter and each chapter starts off with the site’s archaeological backdrop. For each city you’ll learn about culture, specific local customs, known leaders and preeminent inhabitants Each section concludes with the religion and gods worshipped in the city.
In general the book covers a myriad of Mesopotamian everyday life aspects. Poets, traders, priests and business-women all get proper attention. The author also discussed the subsequent immigration waves that the region saw, like the Elamites, Medes, Aramaeans and Semitic tribes. Needless to say I learned a lot from this work, I was just constantly soaking up the information.
It’s a book from 15 years ago and despite the tragic destruction in the region, knowledge and insights must have progressed. So I’m very curious for an update.
Next this I would point to the lack of illustrations. The centrefold photos are a helpful visual aid, but it was disappointing that they weren't in colour and it remains pretty minimal. Books like these would massively benefit from timeline graphs, dress examples and schematics of cities, buildings and art - just to bring the imagination to life even more. After all pictures and graphs often say more than a 1000 words. Yet, this appears to remain a taboo in academic circles even in this digital age where digital books defy costly and complex printing restrictions.
Nevertheless a highly fascinating, enlightening book.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 30, 2019
In a remarkable manner Leick choses to discuss the history of the Mesopotamian cities through a detailed, vibrant overview of its various cities and their stages of development. This suited me well. However I must say that I’ve read quite a few books on the topic and from this background I found this approach highly interesting and refreshing.
It begins with almost mythical Eridu from there you’ll be taken on a journey to Ur, undiscovered enigmatic Akkad, Nineveh ect to eventually conclude with Babylon the cosmopolitan metropolis. One city is covered per chapter and each chapter starts off with the site’s archaeological backdrop. For each city you’ll learn about culture, specific local customs, known leaders and preeminent inhabitants Each section concludes with the religion and gods worshipped in the city.
In general the book covers a myriad of Mesopotamian everyday life aspects. Poets, traders, priests and business-women all get proper attention. The author also discussed the subsequent immigration waves that the region saw, like the Elamites, Medes, Aramaeans and Semitic tribes. Needless to say I learned a lot from this work, I was just constantly soaking up the information.
It’s a book from 15 years ago and despite the tragic destruction in the region, knowledge and insights must have progressed. So I’m very curious for an update.
Next this I would point to the lack of illustrations. The centrefold photos are a helpful visual aid, but it was disappointing that they weren't in colour and it remains pretty minimal. Books like these would massively benefit from timeline graphs, dress examples and schematics of cities, buildings and art - just to bring the imagination to life even more. After all pictures and graphs often say more than a 1000 words. Yet, this appears to remain a taboo in academic circles even in this digital age where digital books defy costly and complex printing restrictions.
Nevertheless a highly fascinating, enlightening book.