The recent reopening of Iraq's National Museum attracted worldwide attention, underscoring the country's dual image as both the cradle of civilization and a contemporary geopolitical battleground. A sweeping account of the rich history that has played out between these chronological poles, "From Mesopotamia to Iraq "looks back through 10,000 years of the region's deeply significant yet increasingly overshadowed past.

Hans J. Nissen and Peter Heine begin by explaining how ancient Mesopotamian inventions--including urban society, a system of writing, and mathematical texts that anticipated Pythagoras--profoundly influenced the course of human history. These towering innovations, they go on to reveal, have sometimes obscured the major role Mesopotamia continued to play on the world stage. Alexander the Great, for example, was fascinated by Babylon and eventually died there. Seventh-century Muslim armies made the region one of their first conquests outside the Arabian peninsula. And the Arab caliphs who ruled for centuries after the invasion built the magnificent city of Baghdad, attracting legions of artists and scientists. Tracing the evolution of this vibrant country into a contested part of the Ottoman Empire, a twentieth-century British colony, a republic ruled by Saddam Hussein, and the democracy it has become, Nissen and Heine repair the fragmented image of Iraq that has come to dominate our collective imagination.

In hardly any other continuously inhabited part of the globe can we chart such developments in politics, economy, and culture across so extended a period of time. By doing just that, the authors illuminate nothing less than the forces that have made the world what it is today.

Hans J. Nissen here provides a much-needed overview of 7000 years of development in the ancient Near East from the beginning of settled life to the formation of the first regional states. His approach to the study of Mesopotamian civilization differs markedly from conventional orientations, which impose a sharp division between prehistoric and historic, literate, periods. Nissen argues that this approach is too rigid to explain the actual development of that civilization. He deemphasizes the invention of writing as a turning point, viewing it as simply one more phase in the evolution of social complexity and as the result of specific social, economic, and political factors.
With a unique combination of material culture analysis written data, Nissan traces the emergence of the earliest isolated settlements, the growth of a network of towns, the emergence of city states, and finally the appearance of territorial states. From his synthesis of the prehistoric and literate periods comes a unified picture of the development of Mesopotamian economy, society, and culture. Lavishly illustrated, "The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000-2000 B.C." is an authoritative work by one of the most insightful observers of the evolution and character of Mesopotamian civilization.

Mehr als Mesopotamien Jeder, der bei den Hochkulturen Vorderasiens nur an Mesopotamien denkt, wird durch Hans J. Nissen eines Besseren belehrt: Er erfasst die gesamte Region als dynamisches Gebilde, dessen Einzelteile in intensiver Abhangigkeit zueinander stehen. Innerhalb eines Zeitraums von 8000 Jahren zeichnet er die Entwicklung dieses Grossraumes nach, dessen Aussengrenzen und Machtschwerpunkte sich standig verschieben. Fur die zweite Auflage hat der Autor sein Buch vollig uberarbeitet und stark erweitert. Neue Funde und Literatur wie der Fundkomplexe von Qatna (Syrien) und Jiroft (Iran) wurden selbstverstandlich einbezogen und vor allem die Geschichte der Nachbarlander des alten Mesopotamien starker herausgestellt. Dadurch werden die gegenseitigen Verflechtungen noch deutlicher."

The recent reopening of Iraq's National Museum attracted worldwide attention, underscoring the country's dual image as both the cradle of civilization and a contemporary geopolitical battleground. A sweeping account of the rich history that has played out between these chronological poles, "From Mesopotamia to Iraq "looks back through 10,000 years of the region's deeply significant yet increasingly overshadowed past.

Hans J. Nissen and Peter Heine begin by explaining how ancient Mesopotamian inventions--including urban society, a system of writing, and mathematical texts that anticipated Pythagoras--profoundly influenced the course of human history. These towering innovations, they go on to reveal, have sometimes obscured the major role Mesopotamia continued to play on the world stage. Alexander the Great, for example, was fascinated by Babylon and eventually died there. Seventh-century Muslim armies made the region one of their first conquests outside the Arabian peninsula. And the Arab caliphs who ruled for centuries after the invasion built the magnificent city of Baghdad, attracting legions of artists and scientists. Tracing the evolution of this vibrant country into a contested part of the Ottoman Empire, a twentieth-century British colony, a republic ruled by Saddam Hussein, and the democracy it has become, Nissen and Heine repair the fragmented image of Iraq that has come to dominate our collective imagination.

In hardly any other continuously inhabited part of the globe can we chart such developments in politics, economy, and culture across so extended a period of time. By doing just that, the authors illuminate nothing less than the forces that have made the world what it is today.