Table of Contents

List of Plates
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
List of Maps
Foreword to the Third Edition
Introduction to the First Edition
1. The Geographical Setting
The Twin Rivers
Regional Variations
Trade Routes

2. In Search of the Past
The Buried Cities of Iraq
Dating the Past
Archaeological Research in Iraq

3. From Cave to Farm
Palaeolithic
Mesolithic
Neolithic

4. From Village to City
The Hassuna Period
The Samarra Period
The Halaf Period
The Ubaid Period

5. Birth of a Civilization
The Uruk Period
The Jemdat Nasr Period
The Sumerian Problem

6. The Gods of Sumer
The Sumerian Pantheon
Tales of Creation
Life, Death and Destiny

7. An Age of Heroes
From 'Adam' to the Deluge
The Great Flood
Dynasties of Supermen
The Story of Gilgamesh

8. The Early Dynastic Period
The Archaeological Context
The Sumerian City-states
Early Sumerian Rulers
Outline of History

9. The Akkadians
The Semites
Sargon of Akkad
The Akkadian Empire

10. The Great Kingdom of Ur
Ur-Nammu and Gudea
Shulgi, Amar-Sin and the Sumerian Empire
The Fall of Ur

11. The Amorites
Isin, Larsa and Babylon
Eshnunna and Assur
Mari and the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia

12. Hammurabi
The Statesman
The Lawgiver

13. In the Days of Hammurabi
The God in his Temple
The King in his Palace
The Citizen in his House

14. New Peoples
The Indo-Europeans
Asia Minor and the Hittites
Hurrians and Mitannians
Syria and Egypt

15. The Kassites
Hammurabi's Successors
Iraq under Kassite Rule

16. Kassites, Assyrians and the Oriental Powers
Egypt versus Mitanni
The Time of Suppiluliumas
Assur and Susa versus Babylon

17. The Time of Confusion
Israelites and Phoenicians
The Neo-Hittites
The Aramaeans
The Dark Age of Mesopotamia

18. The Rise of Assyria
Genesis of an Empire
Ashurnasirpal
Shalmaneser III

19. The Assyrian Empire/b>
Assyrian Eclipse
Tiglathpileser III
Sargon II

20. The House of Sargon
Sennacherib
Esarhaddon
Ashurbanipal

21. The Glory of Assyria
The Assyrian State
The Assyrian Army
Assyrian Arts

22. The Scribes of Nineveh
Mesopotamian Science
Mathematics and Astronomy
Medicine

23. The Chaldaean Kings
The Fall of Nineveh
Nebuchadrezzar
The Fall of Babylon

24. The Splendour of Babylon
Babylon, the Great City
The New Year Festival
Economic Life

25. Death of a Civilization
The Achaemenian Period
The Hellenistic Period
The Parthian Period

Epilogue
List of Abbreviations
Bibliography and Notes
Chronological Tables
Maps
Index

About the Author

Georges Roux (1914-1999) had a remarkable career both as a medical officer in the Middle East and in Europe, and as a writer on the ancient civilizations of the Fertile Crescent. He spent much of his childhood in Syria and Lebanon, and was educated in Beirut. He worked in the 1950s in Qatar and Iraq before returning to Europe after the 1958 revolution in Iraq. He became head of the international medical department at Glaxo Wellcome (now GSK), retiring in 1980. He was involved for many years in writing Ancient Iraq, which appeared in three editions - the last of these in 1992.