Customer Reviews

Ancient Near East-Coloring Book

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This coloring book is very interesting. It looks a great deal like the ancient near eastern temple carvings and other physical archaeology of the period-the figures are stylized in profile, very two dimentional, with clothing and hair styles carefully depicted. It's a great overview of the culture, with captions that give just enough information to make you want to find out more.

This coloring book exceeds my expectations. There are several ancient near eastern cultures represented in this book with a little bit of text for each image so that you know what you're looking at (and coloring). I highly recommend this coloring book!

I was hesitant to spend $5 on a coloring book since I've been spoiled by Dover's cheap prices. And I wish I hadn't. I didn't like this book hardly at all... the drawings are smaller, uglier, and there was at least one with breasts/nipples. I understand it is part of studying the ancient near east, but sorry I didn't want my six, seven, and eight year old boys coloring it. I like the coverage of topics/geography, but there's no real reason to buy this rather than something else.

I'm fascinated by Near East History, and also love to color with colored pencils. This coloring book is historically accurate, and contains line drawings of actual sculptures and art found in archeological sites in Ancient Mesopotamia. Artifacts that currently reside in the British Museum are acurately depicted in this coloring book beginning with the earliest Sumerian antiquities and right through the finds at Ninevah and Nimrud. Pictures of the wall carvings of Ashurbanipal, featuring lion hunts, guardian gods,famous battle scenes from the 9th century B.C., and even Xerxes,Darius, and Gilgamesh are all there waiting for color. There is a lot packed into the 24 pages, and much detail to color. Young children would not appreciate the historical importance of these pictures, nor would they be able to stay in the lines of the more detailed pictures. Someone who loves history as well as tedious detail would love this Coloring Book.

After you get through the pages of well done line drawings from Near East images, there is a "doll dress" that goes along with another book from Bellerophon of "infamous women". Once again the text and the illustrations are uncredited so I have to take a star off for that slight. The drawings are in a basic chronological ordering though it lacks a historical context for them.