CHAPTER 1: IN THE BEGINNING
Of Tigris and Euphrates 1
The First Villages 7
From the Foothills to the Plains 12
CHAPTER 2: THE BIRTHPLACE OF CIVILIZATION
The First Cities 15
From City to State 27
Sumerians Abroad 29
Setting Words on Clay 30
The Uruk Phenomenon 33
CHAPTER 3: EARLY CITY-STATES
New Polities 35
Ur and the Royal Graves 36
When Kingship Came down from Heaven 39
Shuruppak, City of Wisdom 40
A Tale of Two Cities 42
CHAPTER 4: KINGS OF THE FOUR QUARTERS OF THE WORLD
The First Empire 51
Naram-Sin: When Kingship Went up to Heaven 55
A Golden Age of Sumerian Culture 61
Management and Crisis 67
CHAPTER 5: THE AGE OF HAMMURABI
The Amorites 71
Rim-Sin, King of Larsa 73
Shamshi-Adad, King of Upper Mesopotamia 74
Hammurabi, King of Babylon 76
Arts of the Table and Bedroom 81
The Epic of Gilgamesh 83
The End of Amorite Rule 85
CHAPTER 6: BABYLONIA IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS
The Kassites 87
Kassite Statecraft and Society 90
The Club of Great Powers 93
Science and Literature 94
The Hurrians 99
The End of Kassite Rule 100
CHAPTER 7: THE ASSYRIAN ACHIEVEMENT
The Rise of Assur 105
The Middle Assyrian Empire 109
The Neo-Assyrian Empire 113
Assurnasirpal II and Nimrud 115
Sennacherib and Nineveh 119
The Library of Assurbanipal 123
The Fall of Assyria 126
CHAPTER 8: THE GLORY OF BABYLON
The Last Babylonian Empire 129
Nabonidus, King of Babylon 132
Learning and Memory in Babylonia 134
Works and Days 140
The Persian Empire 142
CHAPTER 9: MESOPOTAMIA BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
Alexander the Great and the Seleucids 147
Antiochus I Soter, King of Asia 149
The Realm and Its Economy 152
The Culture of Hellenistic Babylonia 154
The Rise of Parthia 156
Mithridates I and the Reunification of Iraq 158
Parthian Iraq 160
Roman Armies in Iraq 164
The End of Mesopotamian Civilization 166
CHAPTER 10: SASSANIAN IRAQ
The Sassanian Empire and Religious Pluralism 168
By the Waters of Babylon: Judaism in Iraq 173
Christianity in Iraq 176
Sassanian Society, Statecraft, and Economy 178
Arab Settlement in Iraq 180
Sassanian Art 182
Shapur I and Shapur II 184
The Sassanians and Byzantium 187
Prelude to Conquest 189
EPILOGUE: Discovery and Destruction of Ancient Iraq
Exploration and Decipherment 191
Archaeology Past and Present 198
The Nation of Iraq and Cultural Heritage 201
The Gulf War and Cultural Destruction 205
The Iraq War and Cultural Devastation 206
Notes 211
Bibliography 231
Index 283
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