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Letters of the Great Kings of the Ancient Near East: The Royal Correspondence of the Late Bronze Age 1st Edition
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Offering fascinating insights into the people and politics of the ancient near Eastern kingdoms, Trevor Bryce uses the letters of the five Great Kings of Egypt, Babylon, Hatti, Mitanni and Assyria as the focus of a fresh look at this turbulent and volatile region in the late Bronze Age.
Numerous extracts from the letters are constantly interwoven into the fabric of narrative and discussion, and this lively approach allows us to witness history through the eyes of the people who lived it, revealing the personalities and reactions of kings, queens, princes, princesses and royal officials more than 3500 years ago to the current events of the day.
- ISBN-10041525857X
- ISBN-13978-0415258579
- Edition1st
- PublisherRoutledge
- Publication dateOctober 23, 2003
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions6.5 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- Print length272 pages
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Editorial Reviews
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'a very useful chronology... Bryce gathers and condenses an enormous amount of primary literature that allows the reader almost unfettered access to the world of the Late Bronze Age.'- Classics Ireland
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Product details
- Publisher : Routledge; 1st edition (October 23, 2003)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 272 pages
- ISBN-10 : 041525857X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0415258579
- Item Weight : 1.46 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #6,371,804 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,240 in Ancient History (Books)
- #14,215 in Foreign Language Instruction (Books)
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Bryce explores this world through the medium of the written archives of the 5 great states that dominated this world over the bulk of this period. It is an exciting and readable story, which I completed over the course of a single weekend. Bryce does not pretend that this tells the complete picture of these societies - it is the picture of an elite at work, rest and play - but it is a wonderful overview that is well worthy of the tradition of Herodotus.
I docked one star because there were occasional signs of hasty writing / proofediting that marred my reading enjoyment. I made some notes from one single page near the end of the book, page 228.
para 4, first sentence "But it may not have failed entirely." It's not immediately obvious what the subject "it" refers to, and might be better phrased "But the viceroy's rebuke may not have been entirely without effect."
On the next line, "cap-ability" the hyphen is missing (I was left wondering for a few seconds what a "defence cap ability" was!)
And finally the penultimate paragraph, first sentence "The letter was found in the house of Rapanu." Who or what is Rapanu - i had to refer to the index to be reminded he had cropped up in a previous chapter. The sentence would be better formulated for the reader, "This letter, found in the house of a senior citizen of Ugarit named Rapanu, shows that it was clearly..."
Having written this much, one final comment - in the historical overview at the beginning, a bit more scaffolding for the reader might be helpful. I can find immediately one example of what I mean: on page 16, when hammurabi comes to power, it could be mentioned that this was towards the end of the reign of Shamshi-Adad - this both provides a useful reference point and brackets nicely the text to the point where the Assyrian kingdom finally falls under his sway.
But to sum up: I can promise that no-one with any interest in ancient history will fail to be enthralled by this book.
Top reviews from other countries
Trevor Bryce has produced another fascinating book on the late bronze age.