Mesopotamian Cultures

“Gilgamesh the tall, magnificent and terrible, who opened passes in the mountains, who dug wells on the slopes of the uplands, and crossed the ocean, the wide sea to the sunrise; who scoured the world ever searching for life, and reached through sheer force Uta-napishti the Distant; who restored the cult-centres destroyed by the Deluge, and set in place for the people the rites of the cosmos.”

— The Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 1750 BCE

Mesopotamia, the land of the Fertile Crescent, was never as unified nor as homogeneous as the two lands of Egypt, but its influence on later cultures is at least as great, if not greater. The various cultures of this land have not received as much public attention as Egypt, but they probably should. Aspects of their social structures, myths, legends, and laws, entered Western culture through the Bible, Greece, and Rome.

Because of the close connection Mesopotamia had with the Levant and Anatolia, I have included here the cultures of those lands as well.

PRIMARY SOURCE

  • Coogan, Michael D., and Mark S. Smith, eds. and transll. Stories from Ancient Canaan. 2nd ed. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012.

  • George, Andrew, trans. The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian. London: Penguin Books, 1999.

SECONDARY SOURCES

  • Beaulieu, Paul-Alain. A History of Babylon. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2018.

  • Collins, Billie Jean. The Hittites and Their World. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007.

  • Gurney, O. R. The Hittites. London: The Folio Society, 1990.

  • Haywood, John. The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Civilizations. London: Penguin Books, 2005.

  • Leick, Gwendolyn. Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City. New York: Penguin Books, 2001.

  • Markoe, Glenn E. The Phoenicians. London: The Folio Society, 2005.

  • McEvedy, Colin. The New Penguin Atlas of Ancient History. London: Penguin Books, 1967, 2002.

  • Pruzsinszky, Regine. Mesopotamian Chronology of the 2nd Millenium B.C. Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien, 2009.

  • Saggs, H. W. F. The Babylonians: A Survey of the Ancient Civilization of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. London: The Folio Society, 1988.

  • Van De Mieroop, Marc. A History of the Ancient Near East. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2016.

  • Wooley, C. Leonard. The Sumerians. New York. W. W. Norton & Company, 1965.

AUDIO/VISUAL RECORDINGS

  • Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization, DVD. Taught by Amanda H. Podany. The Great Courses, 2018.

  • Between the Rivers: The History of Ancient Mesopotamia, DVD, 3 Parts. Taught by Alexis Q. Castor. The Great Courses, 2006.

  • Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor, DVD. Taught by Kenneth W. Harl. The Great Courses, 2001.

  • Great Battles of the Ancient World, DVD. Taught by Garrett G. Fagan. The Great Courses, 2005.

  • Origins of Great Ancient Civilizations, DVD. Taught by Kenneth W. Harl. The Great Courses, 2005.

  • Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World, DVD, 4 Parts. Taught by Glenn S. Holland. The Great Courses, 2005.