History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others (Oxford World's Classics)

Average customer rating:

Modern Translation in an Attempted Perfectionism
This is the one scholars quote from . . .
Very Interesting
Great Collection Of Early Mesopotamian Literature
A good introduction, but not the most recent translation

Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others (Oxford World's Classics)
Stephanie Dalley
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192835890

Book Description

The ancient civilization of Mesopotamia thrived between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates over 4,000 years ago. The myths collected here, originally written in cuneiform on clay tablets, include parallels with the biblical stories of the Creation and the Flood, and the famous Epic of Gilgamesh, the tale of a man of great strength, whose heroic quest for immortality is dashed through one moment of weakness. Recent developments in Akkadian grammar and lexicography mean that this new translation, complete with notes, a glossary of deities, place-names, and key terms, and illustrations of the mythical monsters featured in the text, will replace all other versions.

Customer Reviews:

Modern Translation in an Attempted Perfectionism.......2007-08-06

Revised review: I read the revised edition of 2000 - with 10 new primary sources - of the originally 1989 book. The author chose rather the Akkadian versions over the Sumerian ones. Included are ten stories of variating length: Atrahasis, The Epic of Gilgamesh*, The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld, Nergal and Ereshkigal*, Adapa, Etana, Anzu*, The Epic of Creation, Theogony of Dunnu, Erra and Ishum. (* = including standard version and older & shorter version). As you see, there isn't a story called "The Flood" as suggested by the title of the book. However, the flood is a recurring theme in several of the other stories.

Usually I detest footnotes, however, it makes perfect sense to use them here, as a translated text by someone else, from a distant civilisation has to be explained. Lost in translation puns and alliterations are pointed out. Also variating translations, which differ considerably. If the Bible translations via various languages have been done in a similar vagueness, I am not surprised that one or the other message has been misinterpreted. This book now uses modern English, which I am very thankful for, as it wouldn't make any sense to indulge in some sort of pretentious antique "translation". Stephanie Dalley is a perfectionist in the sense that she meticulously includes any missing line and lost word. Which sometimes leaves only a word per line extant. That is frustrating for sure occasionally, but unavoidable, if a reliable translation is sought. With some pages I was happy that I still have 99% of human vision, this tiny the text has been printed.

Though at times purposefully repetitious, the stories themselves are mostly interesting or/and indeed worthy to read. Not only for themselves, but also for the origin of some Western-known stories. However, one should be careful to draw direct lines of origin, as for one thing the same subject may be very different or, as the author points out, may variate considerably WITHIN the very long time of the Mesopotamian culture(s). In fact, the longer stories have largely been pieced together from different sources.

What she fails to mention is that the Mesopotamian culture(s) are derived from the Egyptian culture, as she avers the Mesopotamian one would be the first of mankind. That's an old Western urban legend attempting to dissociate from African culture, from Black culture as far as possible. Which is rather futile as Mesopotamia is located in Africa in geological reality for one thing and for the other, these specific ancients had been Black just the same. Which doesn't become clear at all in this book. Read The Africans Who Wrote the Bible or When We Ruled: The Ancient and Medieval History of Black Civilisations among many other books elaborating on that. However, I find it amazing that the derivations of the goddess Ishtar are mentioned, but she herself is presented as the original. Whereas it is long and officially accepted fact, even by the conservative science establishment that Ishtar in turn is derived from the Egyptian "Isis". In other words the Mesopotamian version may just be a sister derivation from Egypt, not the direct source for Western culture. In some instances that sister culture got remarried into the sources for later Western culture.

Speaking of conservatism and pseudo-origins: Elsewhere, the Epic of Gilgamesh is fancied as the first homosexual story in the world. To begin with, again, the Egyptians are able to top that. (For example with the story of Horus and Seth, though of course the concept of "homosexuality" differs from the modern one.) For another, the Gilgamesh story is rather bisexual, using modern Western terminology, as that concept was viewed differently back then and there as well. However, I find it remarkable that Stephanie Dalley isn't including that information in her veneration list. Accordingly, one can almost read this translation without noticing its however homosexual content. Gilgamesh's mother clearly speaks of Enkidu as if a son-in-law, but in the rest of the text he is translated in the like-a-brother routine. Well, maybe a "warm brother" as dated German slang would term him. Personally, I don't care about the translator's or my own view on this issue. It's even fun and safe for me, no matter my personal opinion, as in Rasta terminology, homosexuals happen in "Babylon" anyway (smile)... It's just interesting that she obviously leaves her path of perfectionism as soon as it comes to her bias. As I am a layperson on this, I wouldn't know, where else she missed some points. But maybe the reason for this is that the running gag in this story is that as soon as it turns homosexual, further text has been lost... Sure interesting to read in the ancient text that God made some humans nonbreeders to slow overpopulation. That almost sounds like modern slang.

I do recommend this book. Be sure to get the latest revision or another more recent book respectively.

This is the one scholars quote from . . ........2005-09-06

A collection of the major Mesopotamian myths translated by a respected scholar. This is an excellent source for those desiring an authoritative translation. Even so, these myths can be somewhat awkward to read given Dalley's use of square brackets to indicate gaps in the text and omission dots to indicate an unknown word or phrase. No doubt these are accepted academic techniques for translating ancient texts, but I do hope someone will come along and render these myths in a more enthralling format. For just such an example of how ancient texts can be made to come alive for the modern reader, see "Gilgamesh: A New English Version" by Stephen Mitchell . Nonetheless, I give Dalley five stars, but also highly, highly recommend Mitchell's new version of Gilgamesh.

Very Interesting.......2005-02-20

This is a thorough compilation of Akkadian myths. These are modern translations based on up to date scholarship. While Dalley does a good job of bringing out the poetry of these myths, these are direct translations of the original texts showing all omissions and as yet untranslated words and phrases. This approach gives a very good idea of both the character of the myths and also of the difficulties encountered by scholars in reconstructing these texts from the fragmentary available records. Readers will end numerous echoes of better known myths in these translations. The introductory essays, footnotes, and background information are excellent.

Great Collection Of Early Mesopotamian Literature.......2004-10-27

This is an excellent collection of several ancient Mesopotamian mythical stories. The original sources used for these translations were all written in Akkadian (which includes Semitic Babylonian and Assyrian dialects). Included in this collection are "Atrahasis", "The Epic of Gilgamesh" (standard and Old Babylonian versions), "The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld", "Nergal and Ereshkigal" (standard and Amarna versions), "Adapa", "Etana", "Anzu" (standard and Old Babylonian versions), "The Epic of Creation", "Theogony of Dunnu", and "Erra and Ishum".

This large collection of stories, along with the well written introductions and notes provided, enables the reader to put these epic stories into context, and recognize the parallels within the different stories. I prefer this book to those that concentrate only on the Gilgamesh epic.

A good introduction, but not the most recent translation.......2004-10-05

Dalley presents many of the major myths of the Mesopotamian culture including "The Epic of Creation", "Atrahasis" (The Flood Myth), and "The Epic of Gilgamesh". Additionally, short essays are provided for most of the translations that help the modern reader to understand the stories. I thought Dalley's introduction did a good job of discussing structural markers and literary devices used in Mesopotamian poetry.

Since this book was published in 1990, more recent translations have become available. For example, Benjamin Foster's "From Distant Days" was published in 1995 and provides more complete translations of many of the same myths presented in Dalley. For example, the "Etana" myth in Foster includes a major portion of Tablet IV, which is completely missing in Dalley. Andrew George's "The Epic of Gilgamesh", which was published in 2003, contains a more complete translation of this story, along with Old Babylonian and Sumerian predecessors.

Despite these translation issues, general readers who want to sample a bit of Mesopotamian literature will most likely be pleased with Dalley's book. Dalley's translations are very accessible, despite the numerous gaps and ommissions present in the texts. For the person who wants a more complete anthology of Mesopotamian literature, I would recommend Foster's book, since he presents other types of literary genre, such as king legends, prayers, and love charms, in addition to more current translations of the major myths.

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)

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Check and see
Suprise! Suprise!
Prescient St Augustine?
Something of a disappointment
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy..

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Anatoly T Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621066

Product Description

`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.

Customer Reviews:

Check and see.......2007-06-21

I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.

Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22

Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.

Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05

We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:

a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;

b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;

c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.

Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:

It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.

- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.

- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.

Fomenko goes by the following axioms:

- Chronology is the basis of history;

- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;

- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;

- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;

- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;

- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.

Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?

The Russians:

Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.

The Westerners:

Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.

The Chinese:

Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.

The Arabs:

Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.

The Divinity:

Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.

According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.

St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."

Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09

After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.

However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:

- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.

I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.

The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.

It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?

Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.

Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).

Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30

If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?

Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.

Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..

Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.

The History of Costume: From Ancient Mesopotamia Through the Twentieth Century

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Color illustrations would bee an improvement
Best Resource for Actors and Costumers

The History of Costume: From Ancient Mesopotamia Through the Twentieth Century
Blanche Payne , Geitel Winakor , and Jane Farrell-Beck
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060471417

Customer Reviews:

Color illustrations would bee an improvement.......2002-02-05

This is costume history on the broad line, as the title says. It gives a good overwiev and as a work of reference, not a specialised deepstudy in a short period or a single item, it is a satisfaying book. An improvement could however bee made in the illustrations, I do appreciate the correctness of stating that some pictures are "reedrawn from ..." I have seen other books were it was not stated although I knew it must have been done, but I would have prefered reproductions of the original pictures, and at least some of the illustrations to bee in color. I presume it was a matter of cost. But the book is not inexpensive as it is and there might bee others besides me who would seriuosly consider paying more if the illustrations were informative as to the colors as well. I have had the possibility to see the earlier edition (1960-thies) as well and compare them a bit and even if I can understand the wish to bee serious. There are a few alterations I wish they had not made.Had it for instance been such a problem to keep a photograp of an reconstruction of an ancient egyptian dress when it was so clearly stated that it was a reconstruction? And why on earth eliminate almost everyone of the of the patterns taken from existing pieces of costume. Yeas some of them have been mesured and published in other books as stated in the introduction, but what would have been wrong with the possibility to compare unless there were serious errors in their making? I could not spot any.

Best Resource for Actors and Costumers.......2000-05-21

This new edition of one of the best costume history books I've ever seen is very welcome. This edition has all of the power of the original with an added preface and a further, more detailed chapter on 20th Century dress. I have learned more about period details which have helped me as an actor from this book than from many classes. A necessary and pleasurable resource for the actor, costumer, designer and history buff. Worth the money!

Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization

Average customer rating:

A paradigm shift for Assyriology?
more racism whats next, white ppl come from a differ planet
Classic Introduction
Lively, Insightful and Wide-Ranging
A revolutionary view from a revolutionary scholar

Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization
A. Leo Oppenheim , and Erica Reiner
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0226631877

Book 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 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.

Customer Reviews:

A paradigm shift for Assyriology?.......2005-01-22

"Ancient Mesopotamia" struck me as being a wake-up call to Assyriologists to get their act together regarding the study of Mesopotamia. In his preface and introduction, Oppenheim bewails the Western bias of Assyriology and its imminent fossilization if things didn't change. It seemed to me that the crux of Oppenheim's argument was that the field's emphasis on the humanities put undue focus on the surviving literary texts, which as he pointed out, make up only a tiny fraction of the cuneiform tablets that the ancients deemed worthy of collecting in their libraries. As a result, in our attempts to understand Mesopotamian culture, too much importance may have been placed on texts that were not even part of the "mainstream of tradition". Even if we ignore this difficulty, Oppenheim argued that using literary techniques to study these texts ignores the possibility that the tablets had an altogether different meaning for the ancient Mesopotamians than just "great literature".

Rather, Oppenheim suggested that Assyriologists should decipher tablets that would shed light on various cultural aspects such as the economy, trade, technology, and medicine. Doing this would lead to a more accurate impression of Mesopotamia in a way that the ancients themselves may have seen it. And this would also avoid the danger of Assyriology becoming a self-justifying field with only limited relevance to its namesake culture.

Although my review has focused on the author's views of his own field, most of the book itself deals with a broad survey of the culture and history of the Semitic-speaking peoples of Mesopotamia. After giving us his ideas at the beginning of the book on what the paradigm of Assyriology should be, Oppenheim proceeded to do a remarkable job of putting these ideas into practice in the rest of the book. Limited use is made of direct quotations from texts, since as the author put it, "Translated texts tend to speak more of the translator than their original message". Additionally, some of the author's thoughts on the Mesopotamians are different from others in the field. For example, in describing the Code of Hammurabi and other publicly displayed law codes, Oppenheim speculated that they were meant to serve as the king's acknowledgement of social injustice and his vision of how things should be. In other words, the law codes were meant to be statements of the king, not necessarily a collection of laws to be enforced.

I felt that "Ancient Mesopotamia" provides an excellent narrative of the history, culture, and religion of this civilization, and would be well-regarded by those who have an interest in this time and place. I am not an Assyriologist and I have only limited knowledge of the impact that Oppenheim may have had on the field, but I would also suggest that this book does a good job of marking the evolutionary development of Assyriology as it occurred up to the 1960's.

more racism whats next, white ppl come from a differ planet.......2004-04-27

This is just another sad attempt to put Euro-asia ahead of Africa. The reason why there are not a lot of artifacts which would show that mesopotamia is older than Eypt is the same reason why a few racist moronic (pretend) scholars would go out of their way to make up false claims. For the record, migration started from Africa to Euro-Asia and before then, Africa had already produced its pyramids in its mother country of Nubia, or Sudanic territory (black negroids), and its agriculture through out the continent. Come on ppl lets get beyond ones short comings, besides, there is more validation for hinduism coming from the iranian aryans. Who in turn receive their influences from the contact of African so called animist, which in fact is the belief that everything is the supreme source in a loop sequence of vibrating which is believe to be the only way the sun gods, rock gods, animal gods, human gods(neteru), etc., can exist. It was the greeks,iranian aryans who took this knowledge out of context, as they were the ones who were truly polytheistic in their beginning, as they treated there different gods as seperate beings who existed independant of one another. Hindu, and greek mythology went through a change once the invading Europeans were reeducated by the Egyptians, and Dravidians influences which in the beginning they were accused of being inferior civilizations with lame gods, but more likely it was just the ignorant outside view, as proved. Mesopotamians were a combination of African negroids (Sudanic-Nubians), Mediterranean Indo-Euro's, and pre-nomadic Arabs(the offspring of different ethnic groups). The teachings were concentrated around the African stories of civilization from beings of a different world which can be dated earlier in African stories throughout South Africa spreading up to the later north, east, and central migrations. The Ancient Africans claim to have gotten their knowledge about space-time, geometrics of objects, and consciousness being absolute, from these beings, inwhich the universe was said to exist psycho-physically, from a supreme being that was absolute conscious reality. Not all Africans societies receive the exact same knowledge so this is why it varies, other reasons were do to fueds domestically and abroad. There is no evidence that Mesopotamians invaded South Africa and brought there knowledge and stories with them of e.t visitors, but the migration from Africa to Euro-Asia supports the latter. The sad truth is the more that white racist try to seperate themselves from their source they will only reveal it more.

Classic Introduction.......2003-03-23

Georges Roux's outstanding book on ancient Iraq - which opens my eyes - seems amateurish compared to this one - probably the single best introduction to ancient Mesopotamia written in the English language.

Iraq's civilization is interesting for two reasons. From a purely archaeological/anthropological point of view, ancient Mesopotamia is by far the oldest civilization on this planet - even older than Egypt. The reasons why there's much less attention to it than to Egypt are the fact that there are so few monumental structures remaining there and the fact that Egypt is closer to the Graeoco-Roman civilization.

The other reason why Iraq's civilization is interesting is its potential importance IN THE FUTURE. With the war's outcome almost certain (truly it's like an Iron Age army crushing a Stone Age one), Iraq's long term prospects are quite good. Sitting on the second largest proven crude oil reserves in the world, Iraq has the potential to wield much influence, like Saudi Arabia.

Useful (but rather short) bibilography and glossary.

Oppenheim regrets not being able to make this book "twice the size of the present one." (p.334) I only regret that this book ISN'T three times as long. If this book isn't flying off the shelves, it should be. Get it before it's too late.

(Warning: This book does not include the Sumerian civilization, as the author makes explicit. For this subject you must turn to Sam N. Kramer.)

Lively, Insightful and Wide-Ranging.......2002-06-01

A. Leo Oppenheim's "Ancient Mesopotamia:Portrait of a Dead Civilization" is one lively read. It is not a chronologically arranged history, (you'll have to go to Georges Roux's "Ancient Iraq" for that), but it is an unusually comprehensive series of essays on aspects of ancient Mesopotamian civilization. After introducing Assyriology as a discipline, Oppenheim situates Mesopotamia geographically and culturally within the ancient world, and discusses its relations with and influence on its neighbors. From there he goes on to analyze the root forms of almost everything we know of as civilization: urbanism, political and social organization, religion, writing, literature, and scientific thought. Particularly interesting are the discussions on the care and feeding of the gods, ancient psychology, and the scribal subculture. Throughout the book, Oppenheim refers to historical and literary data of every sort in an even-handed way. A helpful chronology, glossary, notes, and index fill the final 100+ pages of the book. Illustrations and maps could be a little better, but that's small change in a book of this scope. Come visit the impossibly exotic, yet oddly accessible, past

A revolutionary view from a revolutionary scholar.......2002-05-04

Without any doubt, this book is one of the most comprehensive works on ancient Near Eastern cultures with its distinguished structure and unique style. Mr Oppenheim, a well-known Assyrologist of the sixties, provides us a brief but deep and highly detailed portrait of Ancient Mesopotamia, as the subtitle of the book suggests ("Portrait Of A Dead Civilization".) First, I have to inform the enthusiastic reader that this is not a book for "beginners" - it requires a background on ancient history and an acquaintance with Mesopotamian civilizations. But you don't have to be a specialist or a scholar to enjoy the unique taste of the book.

While Samuel Noah Kramer's works feed us with the Sumerian part of Mesopotamian culture, Oppenheim focuses the main axis on Babylonia and Assyria. The book is not a plain history textbook in a chronological order. Oppenheim presents the "portrait" under well-designed chapters with essential concepts: The first chapter of the book is an overview on Mesopotamia. Then in the second chapter, Oppenheim leads us to the depths of urbanism, social texture and economical facts of the region in ancient times. Chapter 3 deals with the difference of "historical sources" and "literature" in Mesopotamia, and presents two essays on Assyrian and Babylonian history. The next chapter is, about ancient Mesopotamians' relations with their "gods": Oppenheim discusses why a "Mesopotamian Religion" should not be written. (According to my opinion, this is one of the most important parts of the book which underlines the "revolutionary" nature of the work.) The last two chapters deal with "the writing" and "science" in Mesopotamia, respectively. J. A. Brinkman's "Mesopotamian Chronology of the Historical Period" is presented as an appendix at the end of the book.

Book Description

When nurse Amy Leatheran agrees to look after American archaeologist Dr Leidner’s wife Louise at a dig near Hassanieh she finds herself taking on more than just nursing duties – she also has to help solve murders. Fortunately for Amy, Hercule Poirot is visiting the excavation site but will the great detective be in time to prevent a multiple murderer from striking again?

Customer Reviews:

Near Perfect.......2007-08-24

I've recently reread Agatha Christie's "Murder in Mesopotamia". This is one of her best. Even knowing the solution I still enjoy the narrative and watching how she lays out the clues. Having Nurse Latheran tell the story is a nice change although I miss Capt Hastings.

One of the impressive features of this book is what Ms Christie does not include. There is just enough description of Iraq to set the atmosphere but not overwhelm us with local color. There is a bare minimum of archaelogical information when she easily could have piled it on. And thankfully she just not let Nurse Leatheran get involved in romances.

The plot is somewhat far-fetched but is definitely "fair play". The characters, especially the victim, have distict well-defined personalities. Hercule Poirot is pleasantly fallible, but fear not -- he does eventually arrive at the truth.

Bad narration almost spoil this one for me.......2006-08-28

I love Agatha Christie and I really like this particular story. It's a lot of fun seeing Hercule Poirot from the perspective of a totally different person, the nurse, Amy Leatheran. But the reader, Anna Massey, does a terrible job on some of the voices in this one. Poirot's French accent is so thick that you can hardly understand him sometimes. And in the last few chapters, that's a big problem, as it is almost exclusively told by Poirot. She does fine with the English voices, but since she's English, that's not very hard. Even the American voices are not quite right. If I hadn't really wanted to hear the story, I wouldn't have bothered with this recording.

CMB

Atmospheric, Intricate, and Psychologically Complex.......2006-08-02

MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA has atmosphere and an intricate plot and is a fascinating psychological study. In these respects it is like Christie's DEATH ON THE NILE (also starring Hercule Poirot) - but unlike that classic it has no extraneous characters and subplots; it does have, however, the most engaging of Christie's first-person narrators, a nurse named Amy Leatheren. And for those mystery fans who relish the "gather everyone in a room for an explanation of the solution"-type denouement, MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA's is superb.

Another Great Classic.......2006-04-19

This is another one of those great classics. Easy and relatively quick to read. At first, I was a little worried about the approach of the book (the author pretends that a nurse with only simple writing skills wrote the book), but it actually is very readable. I couldn't put it down, and I was very surprised in the end, which rates highly for me when I read this sort of book.

Adventure and Murder in an Exotic Land.......2006-01-24

This fabulous mystery by Agatha Christie was written shortly before the more famous Murder on the Orient Express and has long been a favorite of mine. It outshines many of her other mysteries, in my opinion, because her famous detective, Hercule Poirot, sort of plays second fiddle to the wonderful atmosphere and a very likable heroine in Amy Leatheren. This is a fun journey for the reader, as entertaining a murder mystery as any in the genre.

Murder in Mesopotamia differs from many of her other mysteries in that it has much less of a drawing room feel than an adventure set in an exotic land where a murder occurs. The first half of the book almost has the feel of an M.M. Kaye mystery. Though one could not put Christie in the same class with Kaye in regards to romantic description of a time and place, there is certainly atmosphere to spare, and it is only when Hercule Poirot is introduced into the story that we see the classic elements of mystery fiction Agatha Christie helped perfect come to the forefront.

Amy Leatheren is a young nurse asked to accompany an archaelogical expedition to the middle east to look after Louise Leidner, the wife of the man heading the dig. She is supposed to be a nervous case, full of "fancies" and such. But what Amy finds is something quite different. It will bring about events leading to an adventure she will be asked to put down with paper and pen. Murder in Mesopotamia is her acount of the events that transpired.

Louise Leidner is a beautiful woman capable of both sweetness and offhand cruelty. And she is frightened. Just what she is frightened of is unclear. The team on the dig has been together a long time. On the suface it is friendly and familiar. But there is unrest just beneath the surface, an uneasiness that seems dangerous. Once Amy discovers the reason for Louise's fear, she is found brutally murdered in her bed. It has happened in such a manner and time that no one could have made Louise Leidner's fears come to fruition. But her crushed skull and lifeless body say otherwise.

There is a wonderful atmosphere here. From the Tigris Palace Hotel in Baghdad to Tell Yarimjah, from bazaars where people from various nationalities and backgrounds gather to tea and scones ovelooking the ruins, and to the inevitable murder, Christie makes the archaelogical expedition come alive. You really get a sense of people moving about in a passion to discover this Assyrian city like Niveveh, close to Hassanieh. You can see the beautiful and unusal Louise, almost asking to be murdered yet at the same time oblivious to the true danger that lies in wait.

It is only when the conveniently close Hercule Poirot is asked to help that the story becomes familiar. But even Hercule Poirot can not stop the fun, and it is only the few pages where he initially questions the suspects that seem slow. Soon young Amy Leatheren is acting as Poirot's helper, and to her delight and embarrassment, having the time of her life. There are both secret relationships and secret identities, and before too long, another murder. It is the second killing which will lead Poirot to the truth. Whether he can prove it, however, is another thing entirely!

Agatha Christie's second husband, Max Mallowan, was an archaeologist, and the two maintained a home in Baghdad. Christie's interest in this land and the history beneath it is quite evident in Murder in Mesopotamia. There are some complaints that the solution to Murder in Mesopotamia is too complicated and implausible. That is nonsense. This is a fun and atmospheric mystery read that is as enjoyable as anything Christie ever wrote. You will get lost reading this as I have, many times. It is murder and adventure in an exotic land, a famous detective with a likable heroine helping him out. No mystery lover can ask for more.

The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad: The Lost Legacy of Ancient Mesopotamia

Average customer rating:

"The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Bagdad -- a Disappointment
The Pity of War
Lootng of the Iraq Museum
The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad
"My goodness, were there that many vases?"

The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad: The Lost Legacy of Ancient Mesopotamia
Milbry Polk , and Angela M.H. Schuster
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Museums & Collections | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0810958724

Amazon.com

At once heartbreaking and inspiring, this remarkable art book seeks to document what was lost when 15,000 objects at Baghdad's Iraq Museum were lost in the 2003 war and the ongoing art destruction. Treasures like the beautiful carved-ivory Mona Lisa of Nimrud survived ten centuries, only to fall victim to chaos and looters, some sent by international art dealers. The scholar authors show that the loss isn't local, it's everybody's. Iraq saw the birth of cities, epic verse, and codified religion; the lions guarding the New York Public Library are esthetic descendants of the smashed terracotta masterpieces of Baghdad. The book is a quickie history course, with 190 handsome color illustrations. Editorially, it's a bit rushed and confusing. But look: these aren't ivory-tower scholars, they're heroes putting themselves on the line to save humanity's legacy. One had to be rescued from kidnappers with the help of Muqtada al-Sadr. Part of what you pay for the book goes to reconstruct the museum, and the book itself constitutes a kind of virtual museum preserving some works that are lost, and some that will be relocated, in part because it exists. --Tim Appelo

Book Description

In April of 2003, the world reacted in shock at the news of the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. Priceless antiquities, spanning ten thousand years of human history, were smashed into pieces or stolen, and one of the most important storehouses of ancient culture was forever compromised. This exquisitely illustrated volume is a reconstruction in book form of one of the world's great museums, and it stands as the definitive single-volume history of the art and archaeology of ancient Mesopotamia-the cradle of civilization.

The contributors to this book consist of a cadre of international archaeologists whose excavations helped piece together the rich tapestry of Mesopotamian life from earliest prehistory to the advent of Islam. A portion of the book's royalties will aid in the reconstruction of the museum and in the preservation of Mesopotamia's cultural treasures. Told through the art and artifacts that were lost recently in Iraq, this fascinating history of the civilizations of the Near East is sure to be a timeless and enduring book. AUTHOR BIO: Milbry Polk, a photojournalist and author of A History of Arabian Transportation and Egyptian Mummies, has edited a series of biographies on women explorers and coauthored the award-winning book Women of Discovery. Angela M. H. Schuster, editor of the award-winning preservation magazine Icon and The Explorers Journal, is also a contributing editor of Archaeology magazine and frequent contributor to The New York Times.

Customer Reviews:

"The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Bagdad -- a Disappointment.......2005-09-14

Instead of writing about the looting, what was lost, what has since been recovered and how, the various contributors seem to be very busy tell the reader how they had discovered the various items in the museum. If one were interested in discoveries, there are plenty of places to have read about them previously. The book seems to have been put together with minimum thought, poor photos of items that have already been published in much better form.

The Pity of War.......2005-08-23

As discontent over the continued American presence and the mounting loss of lives of not only soldiers from this country but also from other supporting countries and certainly for the countless loss of civilian lives in Iraq, artists and writers are responding in kind to the woe of war. One of the saddest tragedies of the Iraq invasion was the decimation of the Iraq Museum of Baghdad. Many of the rarest of antiquities housed there are now reduced to dust while others suffered irreparable damage.

This fine book provides many illustrations of the collection of the Iraq Museum and with that, naturally, comes a timeline of civilization as we know it. The treasures are/were wondrous and the history as summarized by Milbry and William Polk, Selma Al-Radi, Angela Schuster, Zainab Bahrani, Usam Ghaidan, Anna Paolini, and Donny George in their fine essays should be required reading for all of us.

This fine and beautifully designed book marks a sad moment in our history, but it also provides an invaluable resource guide for those interested in the cradle of civilization that was Mesopotamia - aka Iraq! Highly recommended. Grady Harp, August 05

Lootng of the Iraq Museum.......2005-07-28

This edited book offers a summary of archaeology in Iraq and some assessment of the damage done by the Iraq war. It will serve as a basic source, which can be amplified by a growing specialist literature. Useful for students and people teaching about conservation and the archaeology of Mesopotamia.

The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad.......2005-07-16

This gorgeously illustrated and very detailed guide to the cultural atrocoties committed in April of 2003 is a masterpiece of literature. I am very glad that someone took the time to make a wonderful guide to this event. Flipping through the pages and looking at the many artifacts, one cannot help feeling a sense of melancholy. Looking at the gorgeous photos of the artifacts taken much before the looting occured, admiring them, and knowing that they are now damaged are destroyed is very unsettling, but it is wonderful that many of these brilliant archeologists, curators, and journalists took the time to create such a wonderful book to aknowledge the horrible event and show the world, even just the few people that actually buy the book and spend the time reading it. I truly enjoyed the book, which has so much information not just about the looting, but of the history of Mesopotamian, Persian and Islamic society, and the country of Iraq, specifically Baghdad, a beautiful, but tragic metropolis between the Tigris and Euphrates. The Land Between Two Rivers is brought back to life, for a brief, but beautiful, glimpse.

"My goodness, were there that many vases?".......2005-05-20

I remember Secretary Rumsfeld getting a laugh when he tried putting the looting of Baghdad in proper perspective. "The images you are seeing on television you are seeing over, and over, and over," he said, "and it's the same picture of some person walking out of some building with a vase, and you see it twenty times, and you think, 'My goodness, were there that many vases? Is it possible that there were that many vases in the whole country?'" Well, this book shouts out from the audience, "Yup!" and in doing so, puts a new face on the war in Iraq, and tells a story as ironic and poignant as what we saw in the Iraqi soccer team at the Olympics last summer. Here the team is a group of experts -- a kind of dream team of Iraqis, Americans, Italians and Brits -- each taking a turn as an expert witness in the most talked about art heist in history. Unlike most of the reporting at the time, this book doesn't presume you already know your Ancient Near Eastern and Islamic history. Ralph Solecki takes us to the very beginning and recalls his prehistoric discoveries in Northern Iraq, where we have possibly the earliest known evidence of human compassion. Harriet Crawford's coverage of the dawn of civilization brings the dawning realization that ancient Mesopotamia is a lot closer to life today than we thought. Paul Collins presents an account of the amazing developments in Sumer, illustrated with some of the most beloved pieces from the Iraq Museum. All right, the Iraqis invented human emotion, agriculture, cities, empires -- what else? Robert Biggs adds writing and literature, using macro lens close-ups and a cuneiform comparison chart. And if you wonder why a quarter million people in America call themselves Assyrians, you'll certainly know after reading Julian Reade's chapter about these great achievers 2500 years ago. The East-meets-West story, starting with Alexander the Great, is vividly told by Elisabetta Fino. After seeing news photos of the mosque in Samarra vandalized, reading Alastair Northedge's piece on Islamic architecture was a form of grief counseling for me. Now as I watch daily footage of car bombings in Baghdad, I think of Vincenzo Strika's review of Baghdad through the ages, and put my hope in his last line: "Baghdad, for all its tumult and suffering, has the potential to become again, as it was in the Middle Ages, the cultural bridge between East and West." Other parts of the book use the museum building itself or specific artifacts as a point of departure: the essential "A Museum is Born" by Lamia Al-Gailani Werr and the exquisite "Small Treasures of the Iraq Museum" by Fiorella Strika. When I first opened the book, I skipped through it reading the double-page spreads here and there by Diana McDonald, and that made me want to read everything else. It was strong stuff for me to read kidnapping survivor Micah Garen's words on universal ideas - heroism, friendship, and our fear of death - drawing a comparison between the quest of Gilgamesh and the purpose of archaeology. Garen and his partner, Marie-Helene Carleton, remind us that we are all Gilgamesh, and archaeologists are our genius scribes. This elegant invitation to preserve our historical memory is echoed throughout the book, in most urgent terms by Selma Al-Radi, by Angela Schuster and Zainab Bahrani, by William and Milbry Polk, by Usam Ghaidan and Anna Paolini, and by the tireless Iraqi archaeologist, Donny George. All of these contributors are within two degrees of separation from everyone else in the cultural heritage community that reacted to the looting of the Iraq Museum. Although they are distinguished writers individually -- worthy of their own Listmania List -- this is a fine ensemble piece. Of course, the real stars of the book are the antiquities themselves, the figurines, bas reliefs, stelae and other vocabulary-building artifacts, along with, yes, the vases. The 190 color pictures on heavy paper make this a compact coffee-table book, but not too heavy to read in bed as well. University archaeology departments would be nuts not to make this required reading for new students. I can't think of a book that will more directly engage and motivate the newcomer, and possibly spark a thousand careers as luminous as those referenced in its pages. The book itself is an example of how people can work together across borders, across cultures and civilizations, clash or no clash. Many of these writers were first responders, rushing in to protect fragile human knowledge, and in the process modeling for the rest of us what we most need these days in Iraq: charity, hope and faith.

Ancient Mesopotamia: The Sumerians, Babylonians, And Assyrians (People of the Ancient World)

Average customer rating:

Well made and informative
Good book for an 8th grader
Solid information, good illustrations

Ancient Mesopotamia: The Sumerians, Babylonians, And Assyrians (People of the Ancient World)
Virginia Schomp
Manufacturer: Franklin Watts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0531167410

Customer Reviews:

Well made and informative.......2007-03-13

This attractive and informative book is part of the People of the Ancient World series of books by Scholastic, Inc. The book explains the culture of ancient Mesopotamia, describing the inhabitants' government, economy, science, and culture. Along the way, the reader is treated to many pictures and sidebars.

Overall, I found this to be a well made and informative book. Now, as you might expect with a book written for young readers, the book does not go into any great depth on any subject. But, it is nonetheless very broad in its reach, and it is an excellent resource for readers of any age who want an introduction in the culture of the peoples of ancient Mesopotamia. I highly recommend this book.

Good book for an 8th grader.......2007-02-03

While I do feel that the information in this book is good, it is written so that your 14 year old will have no problem gliding through this book. This is by no means a college level book, although it does have some really nice pictures. I personally would have preferred more thorough information as opposed to large fonts with full page pictures.

Solid information, good illustrations.......2005-02-25

This book is good for anyone seeking an overview of ancient Mesopotamia. There are plenty of color photographs of artifacts, as well as substantial information that seems to be well-researched. Chapters focus on the daily life of people in different occupations (e.g., Merchants and Traders, Peasant Farmers, Doctors and Scientists). The glossary, biographical dictionary, and timeline (covering the period c. 9000 BC to 539 BC) add to the value of this resource.

Average customer rating:

The Art and Architecture of Mesopotamia
Giovanni Curatola , Jean-Daniel Forest , Nathalie Gallois , Carlo Lippolis , and Roberta Venco Ricciardi
Manufacturer: Abbeville Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Ancient & Classical | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

Iraq | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0789209217

Book Description

The artistic traditions of ancient Iraq, or Mesopotamia, are among the oldest in the world, for it was in this flat, fertile land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that the world's first advanced civilization, that of the Sumerians, arose around 3000 BC. But the long history of Mesopotamian art was marked by change as much as continuity; the region was then as now a center of political conflict, and the Sumerians gave way to a succession of powers both indigenous and foreign, each of which left a cultural imprint.

This volume's contributing authors, all art historians and archaeologists specializing in the ancient Near East, provide accessible and lively overviews of the successive phases of this eventful artistic saga. The first two chapters cover the "classic" age of the great Mesopotamian city-states, from the pre-Sumerian Ubaid culture to Alexander's conquest of Babylon; the remains of this era range from the fabulous treasures of the royal cemeteries at Ur to the mighty ziggurats of Uruk and Babylon. The third chapter concerns the Greco-Mesopotamian art of the Hellenistic dynasty founded by Alexander's general Seleucus; the ruins of Seleucia, his capital on the Tigris, cover some 1500 acres. The fourth chapter investigates the artistic contributions of the two Persian dynasties, the Parthian and the Sassanid, that dominated the region from the first century BC to the seventh century AD and established the soaring iwan, or vaulted portico, as one of its typical architectural forms. The final chapter is devoted to the area's early Islamic period, during which the Abbasid caliphs (eighth to thirteenth century AD) made Iraq the center of the Islamic world, constructing splendid mosques in their capitals of Baghdad and Samarra and elaborating the fantastic arabesques that have never disappeared from Islamic decorative art.

The ancient masterpieces discussed in these chapters are depicted in 217 stunning illustrations, most of them full-color photographs, and appended to the main text is a unique visual guide to Iraq's principal archaeological sites, which provides a further 247 black-and-white photographs. With its authoritative, up-to-date texts and this wealth of illustrations, Iraq: The Art and Architecture of Mesopotamia is an essential publication for anyone with an interest in the cultural heritage of mankind.

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