This is the perfect introduction to Mesopotamian history and the way the Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian peoples lived for school or home study, for reference and for practical learning. With themes such as Family, Food, Religion, Clothes, Weapons and Medicine, the book is stimulating, authoritative, accessible and fun to use, and the 15 step-by-step practical projects are the perfect way for children aged 8-to-12 years to learn about the lives of these fascinating peoples."

Readers learn about life in the world's earliest civilization, known as Mesopotamia, from 6000-539 B.C.

“Thoroughly entertaining, with an offbeat sense of humor . . . There’s a solid mystery here, underneath the goofiness” (Booklist). Things have not been going well for journalist Sandy Bloomgarten. Her job went down the drain and her marriage quickly followed. After a lengthy bender, she awakens one morning to the stark realization that she is flat broke. Nonetheless, she’s still a crack reporter, and when a tabloid offers her a freelance assignment in Memphis—just a stone’s throw from her childhood home in Mesopotamia, Tennessee—she takes it. Though sent there for one story, she winds up tracking down another: someone is killing Elvis impersonators who perform at the annual Sing-the-King festival. The few available clues lead her to several unlikely characters: a cheating local minister constantly on the make, a strange band of misfits who only cover Elvis tunes, and a small-town private eye who blew himself up along with his crystal meth lab. As Sandy’s investigation closes, she realizes that she is sitting on what could be the story of the century. The only problem is she can never reveal what she has found . . . “The immortal shadow of Elvis Presley gyrates wildly through this satiric exploration of America’s fascination with tabloid journalism.” —Publishers Weekly

"This splendid work of scholarship . . . sums up with economy and power all that the written record so far deciphered has to tell about the ancient and complementary civilizations of Babylon and Assyria."—Edward B. Garside, New York Times Book Review Ancient Mesopotamia—the area now called Iraq—has received less attention than ancient Egypt and other long-extinct and more spectacular civilizations. But numerous small clay tablets buried in the desert soil for thousands of years make it possible for us to know more about the people of ancient Mesopotamia than any other land in the early Near East. Professor Oppenheim, who studied these tablets for more than thirty years, used his intimate knowledge of long-dead languages to put together a distinctively personal picture of the Mesopotamians of some three thousand years ago. Following Oppenheim's death, Erica Reiner used the author's outline to complete the revisions he had begun. "To any serious student of Mesopotamian civilization, this is one of the most valuable books ever written."—Leonard Cottrell, Book Week "Leo Oppenheim has made a bold, brave, pioneering attempt to present a synthesis of the vast mass of philological and archaeological data that have accumulated over the past hundred years in the field of Assyriological research."—Samuel Noah Kramer, Archaeology A. Leo Oppenheim, one of the most distinguished Assyriologists of our time, was editor in charge of the Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute and John A. Wilson Professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Chicago.

Describes the enormous accomplishments of the Sumerians and Babylonians of ancient Mesopotamia in every scientific area, a heritage which affects our own everyday lives.

Did you know the wheel was invented in Mesopotamia? Thousands of years ago in the area of Asia called The Fertile Crescent, people who had been nomadic hunters and gatherers settled in Mesopotomia and began to create some of the first civilizations. Before long, Mesopotamian farming villages grew into the world's first cities, where large buildings were built, beautiful art was created, and the first system of writing was developed, leading to the earliest literature known. Mesopotamians even had "modern" things that are hard to imagine people having thousands of years ago. They cooked gourmet meals using all kinds of ingredients and cooking techniques. They even had toilets that flushed! Step back into the world of the Sumerians, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians, and learn how many of their inventions and discoveries are still used by people all over the world today.

This book explores the lands of the ancient Near East from around 3200 BCE to 539 BCE. The earth-shaking changes that marked this era include such fundamental inventions as the wheel and the plow and intellectual feats such as the inventions of astronomy, law, and diplomacy.

Our ancestors, the Mesopotamians, invented writing and with it a new way of looking at the world. In this collection of essays, the French scholar Jean Bottero attempts to go back to the moment which marks the very beginning of history. To give the reader some sense of how Mesopotamian civilization has been mediated and interpreted in its transmission through time, Bottero begins with an account of Assyriology, the discipline devoted to the ancient culture. This transmission, compounded with countless discoveries, would not have been possible without the surprising decipherment of the cuneiform writing system. Bottero also focuses on divination in the ancient world, contending that certain modes of worship in Mesopotamia, in their application of causality and proof, prefigure the "scientific mind."

Explores the history of the Sumerians of Mesopotamia through archaelogical discoveries.