Amélie Kuhrt, nos ofrece una visión global de la historia antigua del Oriente Próximo -un territorio que abarca Afganistán hasta el mediterráneo, y desde el Mar Negro hasta Egipto- en un amplio período que va desde los más antiguos docuentos escritos, que aparecieron unos tres mil años antes de nuestra era, hasta la conquista de Alejandro Magno.
Informative read on these great ancient civilizations of the Near East but the author writes in a rather boring and turgid style....thus the 3 star review!
In winter I started reading about mythology (again). I ventured into Ancient Israel and realized that I knew so little that the presumed knowledge was not part of my everyday knowledge period. So I read a short, introductory atlas of the Holy Land. It helped get me started. Than I decided to read the 2 volume Ancient Near Eastern history from Routledge press.
The volumes were excellent. I learned so much about the inner workings of some states and kingdoms. I learned most about the peoples who lived on the periphery of Assyria, the Hittites, and Persians. I have more respect for the enormous Persian, Achaemenid empire. I think this is one aim of the editors. Westerners have a bad image ancient Persia.
If you are only going to read one history of ancient western Asia, this is it. You will learn much. I certainly did despite embarking on this read with a lot of information in my head.
While reading about the last great culture, the Persians, I realized I wanted to reread Herodotus. So he may be up next depending on when the new book arrives. I already read the Landmark Herodotus over a decade ago. So I ordered David Green's translation. Hope it arrives soon. I also ordered Arrian's Landmark Campaigns of Alexandar, and their edition of Thucydides.
Reading the 2 Volumes now sets me up to read the 5 Volume history from Oxford University Press. These were published last year and this year. They are not cheap. I plan to take my time reading these and intersperse more mythology reading (the real aim of this 2023 Reading Project)