This book presents a clear, concise history of the extraordinary multicultural civilizations of the ancient Near East.
Bestselling narrative of the complex history of the ancient Near East Addresses political, social, and cultural developments Contains in-depth discussion of key texts and sources, including the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh Includes numerous maps, illustrations, and a selection of Near Eastern texts in translation Integrates new research, and greatly expands the guides to further reading for this second edition

The first critical edition of the Hittite laws since 1959, containing much new textual material. Presents manuscripts in the "score" format, distinguishing Old Hittite from later copies, and based upon a fresh collation of the original tablets. The commentary examines the linguistic, jurisprudential and cultural aspects of the laws against the background of the entire Hittite textual corpus, archaeological data, and other Ancient Near Eastern law corpora. In addition the volume contains a concordance of the manuscripts, an analysis of the palaeographic and linguistic criteria used in dating the manuscripts, a glossary of words occurring in the laws, identifying both law number and manuscript where each occurrence is found, indexes of Hittite, Sumerian and Akkadian words, of ancient texts cited, and of topics mentioned. Photographic plates of Old Hittite copies are also included.

"This splendid work of scholarship . . . sums up with economy and power all that the written record so far deciphered has to tell about the ancient and complementary civilizations of Babylon and Assyria."--Edward B. Garside, "New York Times Book Review"
Ancient Mesopotamia--the area now called Iraq--has received less attention than ancient Egypt and other long-extinct and more spectacular civilizations. But numerous small clay tablets buried in the desert soil for thousands of years make it possible for us to know more about the people of ancient Mesopotamia than any other land in the early Near East.
Professor Oppenheim, who studied these tablets for more than thirty years, used his intimate knowledge of long-dead languages to put together a distinctively personal picture of the Mesopotamians of some three thousand years ago. Following Oppenheim's death, Erica Reiner used the author's outline to complete the revisions he had begun.
"To any serious student of Mesopotamian civilization, this is one of the most valuable books ever written."--Leonard Cottrell, "Book Week"
"Leo Oppenheim has made a bold, brave, pioneering attempt to present a synthesis of the vast mass of philological and archaeological data that have accumulated over the past hundred years in the field of Assyriological research."--Samuel Noah Kramer, "Archaeology"
A. Leo Oppenheim, one of the most distinguished Assyriologists of our time, was editor in charge of the "Assyrian Dictionary" of the Oriental Institute and John A. Wilson Professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Chicago.