Customer Reviews

Uruk Mesopotamia & Its Neighbors: Cross-Cultural Interactions in the Era of State Formation (School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series)

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This book really is an incredible, informative read. Collecting experts on the Uruk period from across the world, we finally have a coherant, balanced account that gives an excellent overview of the strides in development that have been made Uruk scholarship over the last decade. Each essay takes a slightly different view and focus, which together provides a whole new picture of early Mesopotamia society; it also highlights the areas in which further research is needed, for many of these experts disagree with each other to varying degrees. What we have here is not a definitive, absolute history but instead a thought-provoking collection that illustrates the new understanding that is slowly emerging and re-writing what was assumed about the period. Most striking is that, for example, Algaze's "World System" theory is remarkably out of date in light of archeological development made in the decade since that explanation was first proposed.

This book, it should be noted, is for the expert; it is not written with the layman in mind, and it is often very technical as well. For those who wish to learn about the society of early Mesopotamia, a general, working knowledge is pretty much a required prerequisite to fully understand much of the content here. However, for those looking for a closer look at a fascinating period, this book is a remarkable, illuminating and informative read that brings the new research out of the more obscure pages of archeological journals and into a more available format. I cannot say enough good things about this book.

"Uruk..." is a collection of scientific articles. The articles were written by leading scientists. The book discusses the rise of an urban way of life and the rise of Western civilization in the fourth millennium BC, the so-called Uruk period; the name Uruk period comes from the city of Uruk (Biblical Erech) in ancient Sumer (present-day Iraq). It discusses more or less new data and more or less new theories which make sense of the data. The different articles highlight different aspects or different regions of the ancient Middle East during the fourth millenium BC. Pre-knowledge is required to understand the book, but I'm not an expert and found it easy to read.