Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City

By

Gwendolyn Leick

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More than seven thousand years ago, the first urban civilization began in Mesopotamia, in an area corresponding to present-day Iraq. This remarkable book is the first to reveal everyday life as it was in ten long-lost Mesopotamian cities. Using archaeological fragments of jewelry, textiles, and writings, anthropologist Gwendolyn Leick paints a colorful picture of the lives of Mesopotamians-from poets and priests to businesswomen and divorc&eacutees-and the incredible achievements of their advanced and imaginative society.

Gwendolyn Leick is the author of various publications on the ancient Near East.

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Uruk: The First City

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Uruk:

The First City

Mario Liverani,

Translated by Zainab Bahrani and Marc Van De Mieroop

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 theory-with 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 culture.

This book is unique in its historical approach and its combination of archaeological and textual sources. It develops an argument that weaves together a vast amount of information and places it within a context of contemporary scholarly debates on such questions as the ancient economy and world systems.It explains the roots of these debates briefly without talking down to the reader. The book is accessible to a wider audience, while it also provides a cogent argument about the processes involved to the specialist in the field.

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