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Liverani ( M. ) The Ancient Near East. History, Society and Economy . Translated by Soraia Tabatabai . Pp. xxiv + 619, figs, ills, maps. London and New York : Routledge , 2014 (originally published as Antico Oriente, 1988). Paper, £35.99, US$59.95 (Cased, £140, US$220). ISBN: 978-0-415-67906-0 (978-0-415-67905-3 hbk).
Reviews
Ask any Italian student or scholar of the ancient Near East to name their principal university text book and the reply will almost certainly be L.'s Antico Oriente: Storia, Societa, Economia. L. has now updated the contents with the text translated into English by Soraia Tabatabai. Will this revised edition become a standard university reference book across the English speaking world? It certainly deserves to be. However, since the publication of the Italian version in 1988 (and a Spanish version in 1995), a number of excellent historical surveys of the ancient Near East have appeared in English: those by A. Kuhrt (The Ancient Near East: c.3000-330 bc ([1997]) and M. Van De Mieroop (A History of the Ancient Near East: ca. 3000-323 bc [2006]) justly appear on undergraduate reading lists. Indeed, as L. acknowledges in the book's preface, a volume of this size and detail may not meet the requirements of today's increasingly module-based courses. None the less, L. has certainly produced one of the finest and detailed accounts of the ancient Near East for both the expert and novice alike.
The book begins with the key question of how to define the ancient Near East. It remains a significant problem. The writings of H. Frankfort, especially his most popular work, The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient...