Mesopotamia

It was in Mesopotamia, a region broadly encompassing present-day Iraq, that the first human settlements and agriculture systems took root some 10,000 years ago. It was in this part of the globe that the Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian peoples developed the first urban civilisations, whch lasted until the first centuries AD. Here, then, is to be found the cradle of the modern world, characterised by stratified social and gender hierarchies, organised religion, autonomous political units, bureaucracy and written records, economic specialization and long-distance trade. Much research has been done into Mesopotamian culture since the mid-19th century and a great deal very recently, employing new archaeological techniques and current anthropological theory. Yet, as Leick points out in this learned and stimulating book, little of it has been communicated to a wider audience and the details of Mesopotamian civilisation remain far less salient in our consciousness than impressions of ancient Egypt, Greece or Rome. She takes in turn ten of the best excavated cities of this place and period and analyses their distinctive contribution to urban life and the development of human society as it can be inferred from fragmentary material and textual remains. Her excellent concluding chapter on Babylon, a seminal metropolitan environment, reveals just how much of what we now take for granted was anticipated four millennia ago. (Kirkus UK)