Tan and brown hard board binding with tan title.

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Ancient Mesopotamia: An Enthralling Overview of Mesopotamian History, Starting from Eridu through the Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, Hittites, and … Alexander the Great (History of Mesopotamia)

How much do you know about the “cradle of civilization?” Come explore the legacy of the brilliant ancient Mesopotamians who transformed the world.

Ancient Mesopotamia’s legacy was truly revolutionary. Childlike pictures scratched into wet clay evolved into the first written language. The Mesopotamians wrote the first epic poems, the first hymns, the first histories, and the first law codes. They developed the first wheel for transportation; simple carts that hauled bricks or produce morphed into chariots racing along at thirty-five miles per hour. They gazed at the sky and mapped it, observing the planets’ retrograde motions and predicting lunar and solar eclipses. They developed the concept of time, measurements, basic counting, higher math, and hydraulic engineering.

Mesopotamia gave birth to the world’s first great empires—the Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Achaemenids—which stretched over three continents.

A glimpse at the questions this overview unpacks includes:

• How old is the world’s first city?
• How did the Eridu Genesis compare to Noah and the ark?
• How fast was the world’s first postal system?
• How many times did Babylon’s patron god Marduk get stolen?
• How did Hammurabi’s law code compare to the Law of Moses?
• Who calculated pi (π) to the value of 3.125 and understood the Pythagorean theorem twelve centuries before Pythagoras was born?
• Did Xerxes really have a million men in his army?
• Which empire encompassed 44 percent of the world’s population?
• What eunuch poisoned most of the Persian royal family?
• And much, much more!

Review: “Ancient Mesopotamia lives on through us all.” This, the concluding sentence of the book, is so true. In culture, knowledge and economy this region of the world laid the basis, the foundation, of the subsequent civilizations and nations. A fascinating account makes clear these roots; an account that is well structured and illustrated. The story grabs the reader’s attention from the start with the description of “The Eridu Genesis” from a Sumerian cuneiform tablet, circa 1600 BCE. From then on it is difficult to put the book down as you discover the origins of the first cities and organized irrigated agriculture plus the beginnings of writing, bureaucracy and mathematics. The maps make clear the importance of the rivers and the Persian Gulf that facilitated trade and the interaction of ideas and cultures. Mythologies are not neglected such as the Sumerian creation myth called The Marriage of Martu, The structure of these early societies is explained and the major political changes are outlined without sinking into superfluous details. Even the importance of climate changes for these civilizations are touched upon: “Core samples taken from the Sea of Galilee in 2014 revealed a megadrought that lasted from 1250 to 1100 BCE. It would have killed off populations and encouraged mass migrations, perhaps even the mysterious Sea People. »

Basically the book tells you all you needed and wanted to know about Mesopotamia. It is excellent for the general reader but also an asset for the inquisitive and intelligent youngster.