Our ancestors, the Mesopotamians, invented writing and with it a new way of looking at the world. In this collection of essays, the French scholar Jean Bottero attempts to go back to the moment which marks the very beginning of history.
To give the reader some sense of how Mesopotamian civilization has been mediated and interpreted in its transmission through time, Bottero begins with an account of Assyriology, the discipline devoted to the ancient culture. This transmission, compounded with countless discoveries, would not have been possible without the surprising decipherment of the...

The 317 texts in this volume belong to the Isin craft archive and are in typographical and chronological order.

Cuneiform Texts and the Writing of History discusses how the abundant Mesopotamian cuneiform text sources can be used for the study of various aspects of history: political, social, economic and gender. Marc Van De Mieroop provides a student-friendly introduction to the subject and:
* criticises disciplinary methodologies which are often informed by a desire to write a history of events
* scrutinises the intellectual background of historical writings
* examines how Mesopotamia's position as the 'other' in Classical and Biblical writings has influenced scholarship
*...

History does not begin in Classical antiquity. Several cultures in the Near East predate Greek historical tradition by many centuries. To understand the history of one of the main ancient Near Eastern cultures, that of Mesopotamia, the scholar has to rely on cuneiform texts which represent the oldest tradition of writing in human history, in use for nearly 3,000 years. The number and variety of texts written in the cuneiform script are enormous, and present a unique source for the study of history. This book describes the possibilities and challenges this material presents to the modern...

The essays included in this volume analyze important historical texts from various regions of the Ancient Near East. The distinguished Italian historian Mario Liverani suggests that these historiographical texts were of a "true" historical nature and...

This is the first biography in English of King Hammurabi, who ruled Babylon from 1792 to 1750 BC and presents a rounded view of his accomplishments.

• Describes how Hammurabi dealt with powerful rivals and extended his kingdom.
  
• Draws on the King's own writings and on diplomatic correspondence that has only recently become available.
  
• Explores the administration of the kingdom and the legacies of his rule, especially his legal code.
  
• Demonstrates how Hammurabi's conquests irrevocably changed the political organization of...

Uruk: the First City is the first fully historical analysis of the origins of the city and of the state in southern Mesopotamia, the region providing the earliest evidence in world history related to these seminal developments. Contrasting his approach -- which has been influenced by V. Gordan Childe and by Marxist theorywith the neo-evolutionist ideas of (especially) American anthropological theory, the author argues that the innovations that took place during the Uruk period (most of the fourth millennium B.C.) were a true revolution that fundamentally changed all aspects of society and...

This is the first biography in English of King Hammurabi, who ruled Babylon from 1792 to 1750 BC and presents a rounded view of his accomplishments.

• Describes how Hammurabi dealt with powerful rivals and extended his kingdom.
  
• Draws on the King's own writings and on diplomatic correspondence that has only recently become available.
  
• Explores the administration of the kingdom and the legacies of his rule, especially his legal code.
  
• Demonstrates how Hammurabi's conquests irrevocably changed the political organization of...