Customer Reviews

Changing Watercourses in Babylonia: Towards a Reconstruction of the Ancient Environment in Lower Mesopotamia (Mesopotamian History and Environment. Series II, Memoirs, V. 5)

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This fascinating book was published in 1998, and reflects an up-to-date understanding on the watercourses of Babylonia. Like the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were subject to a yearly flooding, which brought a great deal of rich silt, which helped to create the Mesopotamian riverine complex. However, as the rivers deposited this silt, they rose in level, until they exploded their banks and took up new courses. This book, examines the mechanics of this hydrology, and its effects.

Overall, I found this to be a fascinating book. The authors go a long way towards showing that any ancient map of Mesopotamia should not be drawn with the present courses of the rivers used, as the rivers have moved repeatedly throughout history, with cities actually changing which side of the river they were on! (Or, more truthfully changing which side of them the river flowed past.)

Now, my biggest complaint is that while the bulk of this book is in English, some of it is in French. But, that said, this is a goldmine of information about ancient Mesopotamia, and how the river courses (not to mention the Gulf shoreline) have changed. I highly recommend this book to any scholar of ancient Mesopotamia and it environment.