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

A very nice and readable overlook of the origins of civilization. A history of the thousand of years before Rome!

Overall, I liked this book. It was a good overview. Most of the time it read quite well.A lot of the information got repeated a lot ensuring the book would be a longer read than required.I had trouble with the dates and the "author" used too many date formats ranging from the concept of centuries to millennia and switching back to years BCE. One standard date format would have worked. I found what appeared to be date conflicts that got confusing due to the use of the 3 date formats and the jumping around when making comparative illustrations.This was particularly bad in Chapter 10-Innovations and Inventions. The introduce the wheel, first used for pottery. The then state that the Sumerians invented the transportation wheel in the 4th century BCE. So like 400 to 301 BCE. A few pages late we learn the Sumerians succeeded in basic cart technology and quick developed chariots. The 4 wheeled versions dating to 2600 BCE.Confused? 400-301 BCE is thousands of years AFTER 2600 BCE. Confused? Well a page or so later horses were domesticated in Turkey around that same 4th Century BCE but the Mesopotamians didn't start using them until about 2400 BCE. Again, the 4th Century is 400-301 BCE. Perhaps they mean 4th millennia?So, it gets confusing which could have been avoided by using consistent dates as years BCE.They also got compass directions wrong, in the Chapter on Alexander the Great. The talk about the Levant and WEST to Mesopotamia. Of course it is EAST.I found these stupid inconsistencies if not blatant errors annoying.

I really enjoyed reading this overview about some of the first civilizations and empires in history. The writing style managed to keep everything interesting while also being detailed and informative. There’s a lot of information here to learn and I believe this covers some of the most important aspects of the most influential ancient Mesopotamian civilizations. Covers topics such as mythology/beliefs, culture, innovations, law, and much more. Great book and looking forward to buying more from Enthralling History.

Clarification of the ancient history that i knew little.

As an avid reader of Archaeology and Biblical Archaeology Review, I wanted to get a more in-depth look at the history and development of these ancient civilizations. This book is a good introduction. What bothers me is the number of errors and a tendency to use overeducated language instead of plain speech. For example, on page 266 in the section on the Phoenicians, the author speaks of the merchant class operating under the “auspiciousness” of the kings and nobility instead of saying the operated under the “auspices” of the kings and nobles. There are enough of these errors to be distracting.

Quality of book will last for years

No footnotes,index,bibliography. Uncritically accepts ancient texts as reliable. Even has a few passages wondering if unicorns really existed. Nice synopsis of Gilgamesh though. Oddly seems best at the more ancient periods.

Good info and enjoyable read!