Return to Babylon: Travelers, Archaeologists, and Monuments in Mesopotamia

by Brian M. Fagan

Chronicles the legendary searches of European and American archaeologists who were lured to Mesopotamia in the nineteenth century, examining the eccentricities, frustrations, hardships, and brilliance of such adventurers as Claudia and Mary Rich and Henry Rawlinson

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Archaeology, Middle East, Science, Art, Asia

300 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Brian Murray Fagan was a British author of popular archaeology books and a professor emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Reviews

[Matt Kuhns]

This is decent. Fagan set an enormous task for himself, and did a reasonable job. I was already familiar with one or two pieces of the larger story he recounts, which probably reduced the narrative's fascination a bit.

(I wonder if a bit more artwork would have helped. There are a number of illustrations, and a few maps, but no plans or diagrams, and leafing back through I can scarcely find a single cuneiform character.)

The end of this revised edition is depressing, for which the author is by no means to blame, and in fact his brief overview of the looting of Iraq was one of the most engaging sections of the story.

[S. Niehart]

So good!

[Joyceling]

Actually, I have the 1979 edition, which is still wildly informative. Historical overview of archaeology in Mesopotamia from gross plundering to scientific documentation.

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