Return to Babylon : travelers, archaeologists, and monuments in Mesopotamia / Brian M. Fagan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fagan, Brian M.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Archaeologists.

Iraq--Antiquities.

Iraq.

Antiquities.

Excavations (Archaeology)--Iraq.

Excavations (Archaeology).

Archaeologists--Iraq--Biography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xix, 386 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Edition:

Revised edition.

Place of Publication:

Boulder, Colo. : University Press of Colorado, [2007]

Summary:

This revised and updated edition of Brian Fagan's 1979 classic chronicles an archaeological history steeped in excitement, danger, and international competition, when extraordinary men and women, working in delbilitating heat amidst feuding tribes and bands of thieves, made stupendous discoveries at ancient cities such as Babylon, Nineveh, and Ur. Fagan tells the story of archaeological travel and excavation in Iraq?then Mesopotamia?from the time of the great Ara + geographers to the devastation of the Iraq Museum. The excavators were sometimes gifted scholars and sometimes unscrupulous amateurs who looted sites for national museums and even used bribery or force to achieve their goals. Fagan tells the stories of both the famous and the infamous. Bringing this remarkable history up to date, he chronicles the development of scientific archaeology in Mesopotamia, the growing Iraqi involvement in archaeology, and the tragic events of recent years.

Contents:

Preface

Acknowledgments

Author's note

Chronology: 10,000 B.C. to A.D. 1515

I. Lost kingdoms and Biblical lands

A legacy of civilizations

Early travelers

Carsten Niebuhr at Persepolis

II. Consuls and cuneiform

Claudius James Rich

Diplomacy and archaeology in Baghdad

The Euphrates expedition

Cuneiform deciphered

III. Palaces of kings

Excavations at Khorsabad

Layard of Nineveh

Nimrud and Khorsabad

IV. Tablets and tells

Excavations in Babylonia

The royal lion hunt

The deluge tablets

Gates and palaces

A scramble for tablets

Sumer discovered

Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon

Leonard Woolley at Carchemish

V. Science and nationalism

Gertrude Bell and the new Iraq

Woolley at Ur

Nationalism and archaeology

Catastrophe

Notes

Guide to further reading

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [343]-374) and index.

ISBN:

9780870818677

0870818678

OCLC:

76416657