Yet those same societies have come to symbolise the remote and the exotic; a world of walking mummies, possessive demons, unfathomable gods and tyrannical kings. Most people today, I would have thought, are more likely to encounter the ancient Near East through the lens of Hollywood than through the biblical and Greco-Roman literature that informed the views of earlier generations.
Still, when the Iraq Museum in Baghdad was looted in , eight decades after its foundation by the British diplomat and archaeologist Gertrude Bell, our newspapers proclaimed 'the death of history'. The headlines, for once, were in my opinion proportionate to the truth. Ancient Mesopotamia and surrounding parts of the Middle East were the setting for some of the most momentous turning points in human history the origins of farming, the invention of the first writing system, of mechanised transport, the birth of cities and centralised government.
They also, however, developed familiar ways of cooking food, consuming alcohol, branding commodities, and keeping our homes and our bodies clean. That is what archaeologists and ancient historians mean when they talk a little coyly, these days about 'the birth of civilization', 5, years ago, on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. And the layout of modern museums often militates against an understanding of the relationships between ancient societies.
According to Huntington, civilizations both ancient and modern are built on cultural fault-lines, and are in origin a series of utterly disconnected phenomena. I suggest that we can no longer talk of ancient civilizations as isolated phenomena, except perhaps as a mythical charter of origin for our own nation-states.
Our modern superpowers turn the world upside down to ensure a constant flow of things we have become culturally addicted to, oil being an obvious and relevant example. The first complex societies were no different in this regard. The result was an astonishing flow of commodities and cultural resources which—thousands of years before the Silk Road—transformed the fate of societies and reshaped environments from the mountains of Afghanistan to the Turkish Plateau, and from the forests of Lebanon to the deserts of Arabia.
Our Privacy Policy sets out how Oxford University Press handles your personal information, and your rights to object to your personal information being used for marketing to you or being processed as part of our business activities. We will only use your personal information to register you for OUPblog articles.
Shelves: history. The shorter, second part of his work takes on Fukuyama and the apotropaic delusions of modern empire. It is clear that Wengrow has studied ancient economies. His treatment of trade relations, currency, manufacturing, banking, commodity standardization and branding in the fertile crescent and environs is detailed with examples and arguments which are suggestively illuminating and impressive. If employed in a classroom, his portrayal of ancient economics would lead to discussion and debate.
His second part, however, is less impressive. Fukuyama's short-sighted faith in an end of history is on the level of Hegel's Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts or Marx and Engel's Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei It is all-too-easy to show the falsity of such eschatological myths by the simple recounting of some of them.
This is what Wengrow does, most broadly by contrasting the hoary beliefs in sacral kingship against more modern beliefs in democratic republicanism, while suggesting how such apparently antithetical faiths share common, irrational roots. Apr 07, Jonathan rated it it was amazing. This is one of the best books I have read in the last year or so.
There is more meat here than in books twice its size. Points worth considering: The short comings of the Three Age System Differences and similarities in river valley cultures The way the collective interacts with the divine comparisons between Egyptian and Mesopotamian practice Dynastic cultures The uses of the ancient near east in the self conception of the modern west.
This book jumps from Sumer to the steppe to the French Revolution This is one of the best books I have read in the last year or so. I really can't recommend this book highly enough.
It was great. Mar 08, Tamara Agha-Jaffar rated it liked it Shelves: reading-challenge , ancient-egypt-and-mesopotamia , books-i-ve-reviewed , non-fiction , owned-books. In What Makes Civilization? The Ancient Near East and the Future of the West , David Wengrow argues the connections of Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt with the West go beyond the perception of the former as the birthplace of civilization. He does this by dissolving the concept of distance and arguing that civilization consists of the exchange of culture between different societies.
Part 1 of his book focuses on a discussion of metals, gems, food preparation, food cultivation, trade, currency, dwell In What Makes Civilization? Part 1 of his book focuses on a discussion of metals, gems, food preparation, food cultivation, trade, currency, dwellings, and culture in the civilizations of the ancient Near East. Through detailed and concrete examples, Wengrow demonstrates that prehistoric and ancient societies did not exist in isolation of each other.
They were interconnected and inter-related in spite of geographical distances. His detailed and extensive analysis shows how the raw materials found in one location were consumed in a different location. He then demonstrates the similarities and differences in how the cultures tried to dissolve the distance between humans and gods.
Part 2 focuses on dissolving the distance between the ancient Near East with modern European history by drawing parallels between a belief in sacral kingship with the modern institution of monarchy. Rather, he sees strong evidence of cultural sharing between civilizations—both past and present.
Recommended for its exploration of daily life in ancient Near East societies and for arguing for a fresh look at the meaning of civilization. Oct 27, Stephen Palmer rated it really liked it Shelves: history. A very good book which looks at the two main civilisations of the Near East - Sumerian and Egyptian - and looks at how they were inter-related, through culture, trade, religious practice and ideas.
The book is well written and readable, with much of interest to say. A concluding section examines how the notion of 'the birth of civilisation in the Near East' has contributed to Western ideas of our own genesis. The earlier sections on the nature of religious practice and commerce are particularly A very good book which looks at the two main civilisations of the Near East - Sumerian and Egyptian - and looks at how they were inter-related, through culture, trade, religious practice and ideas.
The earlier sections on the nature of religious practice and commerce are particularly good. Aug 04, Piers Haslam rated it really liked it Shelves: iraq , history. This book is fantastic, but far too short.
A wonderful forceful repudiation of the idea of the strict demarcation "between civilisations", Wengrow masterfully compares and contrasts ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian cooking, religion, and kingship. We have come to expect Aug 01, Andix rated it really liked it. There was a constant flow of goods between then that used the same volumetric system, but distinct seals and ceramics.
The cities had a similar organization and used metal ingots as currency - Eurasian metallogenic belt from the Alps to the Himalayas down to the Indian Ocean : deposits of gold, silver, copper, tin -vast amounts of silver, gold, bronze and lapis lazuli were kept in temples and palaces, and, when not returned in the society as currency, they were the source for weapons and jewelry - Atrahasis myth about how a man survives a great flood by building an ark contains the description of the creation of the world: the primeval gods sky, air, fresh water, salt water and fluvial mud had the terrible burden of maintaining the beds of Tigris and Euphrates and procreate to make lesser gods in order to delegate the work.
His research explores early cultural transformations across the boundaries of Asia, Africa, and Europe, including the emergence of the first farming societies, states, and systems of writing. He has also written on the history of archaeological thought and the role of the remote past in shaping modern political identities. Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.
Academic Skip to main content. Search Start Search. Choose your country or region Close. Dear Customer, As a global organization, we, like many others, recognize the significant threat posed by the coronavirus.
Please contact our Customer Service Team if you have any questions. To purchase, visit your preferred ebook provider.
0コメント