Customer Reviews

Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia

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If you're interested in ancient Mesopotamian civilization, you'll probably love this book. It's full of fascinating information about the day-to-day lives of the ancient Sumerians and Akkadians. Chapters include such topics as Love and Sex, Women's Rights, Food and Cuisine, the Law, Religion, and so on. The book is written mostly by Bottero, but there are also several other scholars who contribute some of the chapters. Most are well written and not too technical or difficult to read, and as I said, full of lots of interesting and intriguing information and facts.

The ancient Mesopotamians come across as practical, no-nonsense people who, in contrast to the ancient Egyptians, weren't especially religious and believed in living life in the here and now as best one could. Although they did have a religion, it was mostly for propitiating various gods and deities who they hoped would bestow their blessings on them in their personal or public affairs. There was a concept of the afterlife, but it was basically a dark, dingy, netherworld where not much happened, it seems, and they regarded the present life as far preferable to it.

A good example of their practical approach to affairs is that marriage was a simple contract without much ceremony. Women could marry who they wanted and could divorce much as men could, although adultery was tolerated much less for women than for men. A surprising fact is how extensive their food and cuisine was. According to the writer of the chapter, the Sumerians knew how to make hundreds of different types of breads, soups, beer, and other dishes, depending on the ingredients and how they were prepared.

Overall, a fine book and addition to the practical history and understanding of the ancient Mesopotamians.

"Everyday Life in Ancient Messopotamia" offers an interesting option to the general reader who is interested in Ancient Mesopotamia but is put off by most of the dry and academic texts that are currently available on this topic. As Bottero stated in his foreword, he wanted the reader to become acquainted with the Mesopotamian culture through vivid impressions, much as a tourist would gain when visiting a foreign country for the first time. All exaggerations aside, Bottero really manages to do a very good job of igniting the reader's interest in this part of the ancient world.

Although I felt that the chapters on food and wine were a bit overextended, the rest of the book provides a solid and entertaining discussion of Mesopotamia. The chapters dealing with women in Mesopotamian society were quite interesting, where Bottero suggests that women may have had more leverage power in dealing with men than would be suggested by the textual evidence. Additionally, Georges Roux's discussion of the origins of the Semiramis legend are equally appealing. One of the things that impressed me about this book was the ability of the various contributors to throw a new light on old ideas, thus allowing the reader to gain new insights. For example, one theory that made me think was Bottero's idea that the use of writing to communicate decrees made by the king may have prepared the Mesopotamians to accept the possibility that the gods might issue their decrees through the movements of the celestial bodies. And just as there were experts to read the texts, there originated the need to obtain experts in astrology who could interpret the heavenly bodies. I do not know if this is a widely supported idea in the Assyriological community, but nevertheless, the ability of the various contributors to communicate to the general reader is a definite strong point of this book.

I highly recommend this book as a good starting point to Mesopotamia, since it will leave the reader (like myself) wanting to learn more.

This excellent book is a series of sixteen articles on the subject of life in ancient Mesopotamia. The articles are written by four leading authorities on the subject, and cover everything from the origins of the Sumerians to how they lived to what they believed. Indeed, I must say that I found the chapter, Love and Sex in Babylon to be quite interesting, covering a topic that most history books shy away from.

Overall, I found this to be an excellent book on the subject, informative without being dry and academic. Indeed, if you are interested in extending your knowledge of ancient Mesopotamia, then you must get this book. I give this book my highest recommendations.

This book is a compilation - in translation - of essays written by Jean Bottero, along with those written by various authors whose qualifications are described on the back cover. It was not surprising to learn that Bottero is a distinguished chef, for I found the chapters on food and cooking to be especially fascinating. Fortunately for those of us interested in the ancient world of Mesopotamia, the Sumerians and others recorded ample, detailed narratives of their lives for us to translate and study.

The chapter on women's rights was particularly interesting, full of surprises about what privileges women were entitled to - or not. I also liked the chapters covering accounts of The Flood and the Legends of Gilgamesh. There is much to ponder in these discussions of how the Mesopotamians viewed the gods or of how we might view the origins of our own religions.

I would have appreciated more maps, charts or time lines, although there is a useful chronology at the end of the book.

Altogether I found this book extremely informative. It whets the appetite for reading more about those ancient peoples who carefully and fully recorded so much for us to contemplate.