Hans J. Nissen's Books

The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000–2000 B.C.

By: Hans J. Nissen,Kenneth J. Northcott

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The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000–2000 B.C.

By: Hans J. Nissen,Kenneth J. Northcott

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.

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Page Count

230

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022618269X

ISBN 13

9780226182698

From Mesopotamia to Iraq

A Concise History

By: Hans J. Nissen,Peter Heine

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From Mesopotamia to Iraq

A Concise History

By: Hans J. Nissen,Peter Heine

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.

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Page Count

190

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University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226586650

ISBN 13

9780226586656

Archaic Bookkeeping

Early Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East

By: Hans J. Nissen,Peter Damerow,Robert K. Englund

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Archaic Bookkeeping

Early Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East

By: Hans J. Nissen,Peter Damerow,Robert K. Englund

This work brings together current scholarship on the earliest true writing system in human history. Invented by the Babylonians at the end of the fourth millennium BC, this script, called proto-cuneiform, survives in the form of clay tablets that have until now posed formidable barriers to interpretation. Many tablets, excavated in fragments from ancient dump sites, lack a clear context. In addition, the purpose of the earliest tablets was not to record language but to monitor the administration of local economies by means of a numerical system.

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210

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University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226586596

ISBN 13

9780226586595

The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000-2000 B.C.

By: Hans J. Nissen

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The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000-2000 B.C.

By: Hans J. Nissen

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Page Count

229

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

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ISBN 10

0226586588

ISBN 13

9780226586588

Book's by Hans J. Nissen

The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000–2000 B.C.

The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000–2000 B.C.

From Mesopotamia to Iraq

From Mesopotamia to Iraq

Archaic Bookkeeping

Archaic Bookkeeping

The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000-2000 B.C.

The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000-2000 B.C.

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