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This history of the ancient Near East focuses on the emergence of the earliest cities in Mesopotamia—as far back as 5500 B.C. Beginning as small communities gathered around a temple complex where the Sumerian priesthood provided both governance and defense, by the Bronze Age, or approximately 4000 B.C., the first large cities began to appear.
By 2900 B.C. the upper crust of society, which had enriched itself by extensive, international trade, began to proclaim royal prerogatives that challenged the power of the priests to rule. Sumer remained a series of disconnected “district states” that sometimes cooperated and sometimes fought with each other for the necessary access to irrigation and resources necessary to survive. By 2334 B.C. an Akkadian upstart named Sargon usurped the rule of Sumer through ruthless warfare and began the first Middle Eastern empire that had an imperial army and a huge bureaucracy.
This is just a rough outline of the author’s detailed analysis and description of the “cradle of civilization.” He describes the seven periods of Sumerian history in eight “units” that discuss the geography, language, agriculture, architecture, trade, society and warfare of the “black-headed people.” Though not a professional historian, his deep interest in the subject is substantiated by a bibliography and suggested reading list. He discusses the origins of slavery (a backbone of Sumerian society) through the proto-cuneiform symbol “man/woman + mountain” or through prehistoric warfare and slave trade with highlanders. Several interesting historical figures, including the world’s first social reformer, Urukagina, are given brief descriptions. His discussion of the role of warfare and the heroic tradition foreshadows later Greek works like The Iliad: interference by divinities in the battle also play a role in ancient Sumer. Overall, a very resourceful and interesting survey of the very beginnings of mankind’s recorded history.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review