Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia

First of all, in spite of its affordable price and approachable writing style, Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia is quite clearly a textbook. This is not a bad thing, and I would generally expect most books on the subject to be textbooks—it’s usually not a subject for the casual reader. That said, as a textbook, it is generally laid out well (there are a couple of exceptions, which I’ll get to in a moment) and it is very readable. While I am not an expert in the subject (if I were, I wouldn’t have gotten this book), it appears to be factually correct, and uses reliable source materials for reference.There are a few quirks in the layout—the first half of the book is very heavy on lists. If you’re a teacher, this can be helpful for helping your students assimilate a lot of facts very quickly. However, it also takes everything out of chronological order and makes it difficult to put anything into a chronological context. Again, if you’re a teacher, you can correct for this in your lectures, but if you’re approaching it as a layman or for independent study, you may have trouble keeping it straight whether the Akkadians or the Assyrians came first. In some cases, like the list of various gods, it is the most appropriate way to cover the information, but I do wonder if making the first two chapters a gazetteer and list of archaeologists was the best choice—indeed, I kind of feel like the archaeologists were included to take up space—they don’t appear to be mentioned again and, while relevant, would be more appropriate in an appendix than at the beginning of the book. Indeed, the chapter on archaeology really made me wonder who the audience for this book is—perhaps it’s my background in art history, but I kind of feel like if you’re taking a course on Mesopotamia, you’ve already covered carbon-14 dating in a survey class. The only reason I can see for including that would be if it were for laymen (which it’s obviously not) or if it were written for a high school class (in which case I kinda feel like I should’ve been warned that it was a high school textbook, not a college level one).Still, these are fairly minor complaints. The biggest issue I had with this book is there is a very obvious bias present. I’m not sure if this was the author’s bias, or if it was included for the audience, but there is a strong Judeo-Christian bias throughout the book. Now, I’m not saying the bible is irrelevant to this time period (much of the Old Testament takes place in this time and region), but the manner in which it is referenced is distracting and, frankly, questionable. You’ll be going along, and then there will suddenly be a biblical quote or reference. For example, in the section on archaeology, he opens up the subsection “Digging For History” as follows: “The greatest biblical mandate for archaeologists is found in the book of Job (12:8): ‘Speak to the earth and it shall teach thee.’” This is completely inappropriate, jarring, and not the only time he does it—another example can be found in the everyday life section, when he quotes Ecclesiastes in regards to the ruined tells of the region. You can find this immediately before the subsection in that chapter on clothing, which is even worse. Indeed, the section on clothing starts out like something from a bad homeschool text. He actually starts it as follows: “According to the bible, the founders of the fashion industry were Adam and Eve.” While that’s not necessarily false (it is our earliest record of humans wearing clothes, assuming you believe the bible to be a factual historical account), it’s hardly necessary to reference Adam and Eve when discussing textile production in ancient Mesopotamia. These are just some of the more glaring examples—the book is littered with biblical references and quite clearly assumes that the audience is Judeo-Christian. Indeed, the section on religion and myth includes a passage about how the pious Christian, Jew, or Muslim might be shocked by Mesopotamian polytheism. Really? Who in the western world is going to be encountering Mesopotamia as their first polytheistic experience, when references to the Greek and Roman gods are everywhere—there’s even a Disney movie about them!The biblical quotes and references that assume a Judeo-Christian audience are bad enough, but then I got to the section, “Mesopotamia and Sacred Scripture.” Given the subject of the book, I assumed that this would be about Mesopotamian Sacred Scripture (it seems odd that one wouldn’t cover that with religion, but it’s not unreasonable). It was not. This section covers the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Koran. Again, I’m not saying the bible is completely irrelevant, but this is a handbook to life in ancient Mesopotamia. The New Testament and the Koran were written hundreds years after the time periods covered in this text. They have nothing to do with the subject matter at hand. The Old Testament at least contains events that occurred in the same chronological era, and the author does at least attempt to make connections to Mesopotamian culture and literature, but the focus is much heavier on the biblical books mentioned. While it is somewhat relevant, this is a subject that would be much better suited for a book of its own than for inclusion in a general overview of the region.In short, while Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia does act as a general overview and is very readable, the obvious bias is distracting, and not appropriate to all audiences. I would not recommend this book for anyone looking for an unbiased history of Mesopotamia.

I'll give this five stars, but I'm a bit conflicted about it.In describing life in Mesopotamia, Bertman's book is very good. It left me with a feeling of understanding of the people who lived there at that time, at least as far as I can from a textbook. They are people, not dry facts.On the other hand, as another reviewer has said, it is rather stuffed full of lists. Further, it does specifically focus on Mesopotamia, dealing only peripherally with the surrounding civilizations (Egypt, Mittani, Hatti, the Levant, across the mountains in modern Iran). As a result, the impression of the chronology is pretty linear. Sumeria, Babylonia, and Assyria seem to be pearls on a temporal string rather than a group of cultures that interacted constantly with their surrounding cultures.My other complaint is that Bertman occasionally goes off the rails: after discussing the rather harsh punishments of Mesopotamian, especially Assyrian, justice, he writes, "It would be a facile and self-serving exercise for us who are spectators at our own permissive culture's decline to mock the efforts of ancients, however excessive, to stave off civilization's fall."But, limiting my review to what the book is rather than what I might like it to be, I'll give it five stars. It does exactly what the title claims, very well.

For content I'd give this five stars.But presentation docks them one. They layout and typography is really dated, I feel like I'm reading something laid out in the 80s before modern typesetting. Kind of annoying.Plus, I'm not really a fan of the Alphabetical entries. There are a ton of concise entries on more ancient cities, ancient kings, and ancient gods, but they're just listed like a dictionary with little historical or chronological context.So a good reference guide if you already have knowledge of Mesopotamia and just need to remember who the heck a particular king was. Also good if you're reading other (better) sources on the history of ancient Mesopotamia and are having trouble keeping track of who is who.If you're familiar with the phrase "to keep track of it all you'd need a score card"; this book is your score card. But it isn't actually a good starting place.

This is a textbook, but I bought it just because I wanted to read more about this time period in history. I love the author's writing style and voice. He makes everything come to life. It makes me want to track down what other work he has done.

Informative, just what I wanted

I love all history and found this book enjoyable.

USED

This is THE book for those who want to know more about this topic. You can turn to it with much appreciation. It is well-written, presented in a easy way , gives a time-line of history in the back, divides sections into logical areas ( like history, archetecture etc). Just a complete book. Goes well with Roux's book "Ancient Iraq".5 stars.

Don't think they missed anything when they put this book together!