Comparative Review Of Uruk The First City - 1318 Words

Revital Ben-Haim Social Foundations I Prof. Noel Due Oct. 1st, 2014 Comparative book review Mesopotamia is without doubt one of the world’s greatest ancient civilizations. It has been studied for centuries and provides us with critical knowledge on the origins of writing, architecture and mostly, the city and the state. Uruk, in southern Mesopotamia, dates back to the end of the fourth Millennium BCE and is considered to be the first city. The first book, â€Å"Uruk: the First City† by Mario Liverani, provides a comprehensive study of the development of Uruk from a chiefdom to a state and its role in the ‘urban revolution’ as referred to by prehistoric archeologist V. Gordon Childe. â€Å"The creation of an urban society was a fundamental innovation that has affected the entirety of world history† (Liverani, Translator’s Prefix, x) Liverani recognizes revolutionary changes in various fields, from writing to architecture to agriculture, and combines them to expand on the widely recognized Uruk phenomemon. Throughout the book, Liverani brings in a variety of evidence including textual, archeological and zoo-archeological, to support his arguments. By introducing more contemporary theories, including the Marxist theory, the reader is prompted to consider the very concept of the urban revolution and not merely the history of southern Mesopotamia. Mario Liverani is a lecturer of Ancient Near East History in the University of Rome and has authored a number of books on Near East