Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History

by Nicholas Postgate

Old World civilization began in the Near East, in Egypt and in Mesopotamia, where two very different cultures prospered. Egypt, isolated as it was within the Nile Valley, largely failed to export its culture. Early Mesopotamia, however, exerted its influence throughout the Near Eastern world, and thence to Greece. Early Society and Economy at the Dawn of History offers an entirely new account of this complex and influential society.
Early Mesopotamia has left us many thousands of inscribed clay tablets, ranging from the archives of government offices and merchant houses to diplomatic and private correspondence. These reveal the most intimate details of law, commerce, irrigation and agriculture two thousand years before Classical Greece. With the help of a wealth of illustrations and quotations from these documents, Nicholas Postgate explores the organization of the world's first urban society. Surprisingly modern at times, Mesopotamia was technologically and socially innovative, as well as acutely self-analytical and dominated by bureaucracy and commerce.
Early Mesopotamia integrates historical and archaeological data which until now have been largely scattered in specialist literature. It will prove invaluable to students of archaeology, ancient history, anthropology and Biblical studies.

Genres: History, Archaeology, Ancient History, Nonfiction, Ancient, Anthropology, Prehistory

367 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1992

About the author

John Nicholas Postgate

Nicholas Postgate is a British Assyriologist. He is Professor of Assyriology at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
From 1982 to 1985, he was a university lecturer in the history and archaeology of the Ancient Near East. He was promoted to Reader in Mesopotamian studies in 1985. He was promoted to Professor of Assyriology in 1994.
He undertook excavations at Abu Salabikh, a Sumerian city in Iraq, from 1975 to 1989. From 1994 to 1998, he was the director of excavations at Kilise Tepe, a Bronze and Iron Age site in Turkey.

Reviews

[Iset · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely a work meant for consumption by academics, full of the technical language and concepts specific to the field. So if you’re a complete newcomer to the history and archaeology of ancient Mesopotamia, I’d advise against starting with this book. That said, this book is not as dense as you might expect. Rather than focusing on one very narrow question and going into great detail about it, this book is more of a handy overview of early Mesopotamian society for the academic audience, collating data and providing a summary that creates a coherent broad picture of aspects from life in the temple to life in the palace, the agricultural calendar to trade in distant lands, and much more. A caveat must be added of course that the field has moved on quite a bit in the 26 years since this was published in 1992, so tread cautiously when relying on the text’s conclusions, and read up on more recent information. I also must add that the Kindle version of the book includes numerous errors where the original print was mistakenly read and then clearly has not been proofread; ‘I’ is often rendered as ‘l’, ‘from’ is rendered as ‘froin’ and other such irritants. A useful book, just for a specific audience and with a caveat due to its age.

6 out of 10

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully presented account of Mesopotamian civilisation as it was getting off the ground, before all the empire building. Lots of cylinder seal impressions.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book is on an obscure and perhaps specialized subject, it is interesting and well-written. The degree of research and scholarship is enormous, yet it remains accessible to the lay reader who it interested and willing to put in a little effort.

According the blurb on the cover, the author is "Reader in Mesopotamian Studies at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of the British Academy." The focus of the book is Mesopotamia from 3000-1500 BCE. After the latter date (the era of the Kassite hegemony, a foreign people probably from the Zagros Mountains to the Northeast), the author states, Mesopotamian society changed so much, despite retaining language, script and literary traditions that the history becomes something of a different order, its relationship rather like that of the Byzantine Empire with 5th century BCE Athens. His interest is, as the title states, economics, though he does not ignore the rich literary texts. Most of these, though, come from the period after which he wishes to write about.

[Ivan Savić · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a good book, well written, full with information. I read it all but for some reason didn't find it very interesting and didn't learn much from it.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

neat

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really useful book. I read it because I'm hoping that if I go back to the beginning and understand old institutions, then maybe I'll stand a chance of understanding the ones in place today. This book is user-friendly in a way that most history books written for historians are not. I enjoyed this book and I learned a lot from it.

[Juan Fuentes · Rating 4 out of 5]

El autor nos da una descripción de la sociedad mesopotámica, su organización, su agricultura, las leyes, el día a día… todo documentado mediante textos de la época que lo ilustran con ejemplos concretos.

Me ha resultado muy interesante tanto por la erudición que demuestra como por el enfoque.

[Rob Markley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was supposed to be the best book on the Sumerians etc but I was rather disappointed. It rather too much focuses on 'society' (perhaps fair enough given the title) and really fails to give the history, which was what I was seeking.

[Vanttefan · Rating 4 out of 5]

the book is amazing. the words which auther used are very cautious, this's very good, and in addition, the information of the early mesopotamia is abandant.

[Ayesha · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good informative and authentic book

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scholarly tome that hews closely to the available archaeological record. A good reference for those going deep into the subject.