The Assyrians and the Babylonians

The Assyrians and the Babylonians:
History and Treasures of an
Ancient Civilization




This beautiful book about the Assyrian and Babylonian civilizations is published by the Italian publisher White Star which specializes in hardcover picture books in a large format (also known as coffee table books).

These civilizations - which date from ca. 2000 BC to 539 BC, when Babylon was captured by the Persian king Cyrus the Great - flourished in Mesopotamia, the land between the two rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, which corresponds roughly to present-day Iraq.

The Italian publisher has covered this topic in other books:

**A book about the great discoveries in archaeology where we can find chapters about Nimrud and Nineveh, Babylon, Ur, and Ebla: The Past Revealed: Great Discoveries in Archaeology

** A book about the cities of the ancient world where we can find chapters about Babylon, Nineveh, and Ur: Lost Cities from the Ancient World

** A book about the tombs of the ancient world where we can find a chapter about the royal cemetery of Ur: Hidden Treasures of Antiquity

Let us now turn to the book under review here:

The text is written by the Italian scholar Alfredo Rizza, who has a degree in ancient Near Eastern languages and history from the University of Pavia and a doctorate from the University of Florence. The English translation is done by Richard Pierce.

The book begins with an introduction and a chronological survey. Next to this survey there is a map of Mesopotamia and the surrounding areas.

In the northern zone (Assyria) several towns are marked: Assur, Khorsabad, Nimrud, Nineveh, etc. We can also see the town Ebla, which is west of Mesopotamia, in modern Syria.

In the southern zone (Babylonia) several towns are marked: Akkad, Babylon, Lagash, Ur, Uruk, etc. We can also see the town Susa, which is east of Mesopotamia, in present-day Iran.

The main text is divided into three chapters. Here are the headlines:

       Chapter 1: “Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization and in the II Millennium”

       Chapter 2: “The Transition to the Iron Age”

       Chapter 3: “The Great Assyrian Empire”

The book concludes with an index and a bibliography (which reveals the author’s Italian origin). Most of the 27 items listed are in Italian. Four are in German; three are in French; only two are in English, and they are hardly the most recent books available: one was published in 1966, the other in 1977.

The title of one of the four German books begins with the word “Gurndzüge…” But the German word is spelled “Grundzüge…”

The author of one of the two English books is called R. McAdams. But his name is Robert McCormick Adams.

Books from White Star are often published in several languages. The English version (which was published in 2007) should have listed a few recent works in English, such as:

*** A History of the Ancient Near East (2006) by Marc van de Mieroop

*** Ancient Mesopotamia (1999) by Susan Pollock

*** Ancient Iraq (1992) by George Roux

The lack of recent English books in the bibliography is unfortunate.

The title of the book mentions two groups - Assyrians and Babylonians - but the focus is not 50-50. There is more about the former group than there is about the latter group. This uneven coverage is unfortunate.

The last Babylonian king is called Nabonedo, which is the Italian version of his name (pp. 10 & 200). In an English book I would expect the Latin version Nabonidus. For this I assume we have to blame the translator Richard Pierce. Rizza claims the last king ruled 555-539 BC. But most modern sources say he ruled 556-539 BC.

The illustrations are numerous and impressive. All photos are in colour. Many are published in a large size. Frequently one object gets a whole page. In some cases one object gets two whole pages. It is difficult to exaggerate the high quality of the illustrations.

Some of the objects shown in the book are not in Mesopotamia anymore, because they were transported to Europe following excavations during the 19th or the 20th century. Here are some examples:

One important and very large object from Babylon is now in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin: the reconstructed gate of Ishtar, which appears on pp. 6-7.

Two important objects are now in the British Museum in London:

(1) The relief showing a winged spirit from the royal palace in Nimrud, which appears on the front cover of the dust jacket and on page 168

(2) The small wooden box with decorated panels – “the side of war” and “the side of peace” - known as the standard of Ur, which appears on pp. 2-3 & 62-63

Several important objects are now in the Louvre in Paris:

* The large human-headed bull from the palace of King Sargon II in Khorsabad, which appears on the title page and on page 171

* The stele showing King Naram-Sin (from 2255 BC to 2220 BC) leading his troops to victory, which appears on page 73

* The statue of King Gudea of Lagash (from 2141 BC to 2122 BC), which appears on page 76

* The famous stele with King Hammurabi’s laws (ca. 1750 BC), which appears on page 95

* The kudurru [a small stele recording a royal gift of land] of King Melishipak (from 1186 BC to 1172 BC), which appears on page 101

* The large relief from the royal palace in Khorsabad showing the transportation of timber from Lebanon, which appears on pp. 172-173

* The glazed brick panel from the processional road in Babylon showing a lion, which appears on pp. 202-203

There is much to like in this book, in particular the fabulous illustrations, but for reasons explained above I can only give it four out of five stars.

* * *

 

Alfredo Rizza,

The Assyrians and the Babylonians:

History and Treasures of an Ancient Civilization,

White Star Books, 2007, 208 pages

 

* * *