Mesopotamia;

by Jean-Claude Margueron, H.S.B. Harrison (Translator)

English, French (translation)

212 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Mikey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book didn't feel especially inspired. It is quite clear that it is merely part of a series and came across as being produced. The focus is primarily on the history of the archeological efforts surrounding Mesopotamia itself and had a breezy approach towards the actual culture or underlying belief systems. A good amount of illustrations are provided which are minimally explained. The author throws around some names from Mesopotamian mythology here and there with hardly any background. To fully keep up with this book you need to have a fairly sizeable amount of knowledge going into it as very little is done to make the subject matter approachable for the layperson. On the other hand, if you have a sizeable amount of knowledge going into this then there's probably nothing new you're going to walk away with. If you happen to see it heavily discounted somewhere like at a used book store it could be worth picking up because it does provide some information and the illustrations are nice but this book has faded into obscurity for a reason. It's not terrible by any means but gives the subject a superficial treatment. Despite this Margueron writes in a sweet way which suggests that his heart was in the right place and his love of history and archeology shine through. If it's what you have to work with at your local library you could do worse.