Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization
by A. Leo Oppenheim
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Description
"This splendid work of scholarship . . . sums up with economy and power all that the written record so far deciphered has to tell about the ancient and complementary civilizations of Babylon and Assyria."-Edward B. Garside, New York Times Book Review Ancient Mesopotamia-the area now called Iraq-has received less attention than ancient Egypt and other long-extinct and more spectacular civilizations. But numerous small clay tablets buried in the desert soil for thousands of years make it show more possible for us to know more about the people of ancient Mesopotamia than any other land in the early Near East. Professor Oppenheim, who studied these tablets for more than thirty years, used his intimate knowledge of long-dead languages to put together a distinctively personal picture of the Mesopotamians of some three thousand years ago. Following Oppenheim's death, Erica Reiner used the author's outline to complete the revisions he had begun. "To any serious student of Mesopotamian civilization, this is one of the most valuable books ever written."-Leonard Cottrell, Book Week "Leo Oppenheim has made a bold, brave, pioneering attempt to present a synthesis of the vast mass of philological and archaeological data that have accumulated over the past hundred years in the field of Assyriological research."-Samuel Noah Kramer, Archaeology A. Leo Oppenheim, one of the most distinguished Assyriologists of our time, was editor in charge of the Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute and John A. Wilson Professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Chicago. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Primarily a cultural history of Mesopotamian civilization, than a political history.
Easily understood inroduction for interested lay person.
Easily understood inroduction for interested lay person.
Revised Edition of the most distinguished and battle-hardened presentation of the civilization of Babylonia and Assyria. Oppenheim was unusually receptive to anthropological terms and influences -- particularly of Frank Boas and Claude Levi-Strauss.
With extensive Index, Notes, Bibliographical Notes, and very adequate Glossary and Maps.
With extensive Index, Notes, Bibliographical Notes, and very adequate Glossary and Maps.
One of the first social histories of mesopotamia.
For some reason this book occasionally shows up under the author "Erica Reiner"
For some reason this book occasionally shows up under the author "Erica Reiner"
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Books in the Bibliography of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber & Wengrow
478 works; 2 members
Author Information
10+ Works 429 Members
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1964
- Important places
- Mesopotamia
- First words
- The word "portrait" in the subtitle "Portrait of a Dead Civilization" is meant to convey, as reliably as can be expected of a programmatic statement, the kind of presentation of a civilization which I intend to give. [from th... (show all)e revised 1977 edition]
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Moreover, it would have yielded a book twice the size of the present one. [from the revised 1977 edition]
- Original language
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- Originally published in 1964. The Revised Edition of this work was published in 1977, three years after A. Leo Oppenheim's death. Erica Reiner completed the work.
Classifications
- Genres
- History, Nonfiction, Anthropology, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 935 — History & geography History of ancient world (to ca. 499) Mesopotamia to 637 and Iranian Plateau to 637
- LCC
- DS69.5 .O6 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania Asia History of Asia Iraq (Assyria, Babylonia, Mesopotamia) Antiquities
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 351
- Popularity
- 90,401
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.79)
- Languages
- 6 — Czech, English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 4
