The Babylonians

by Gwendolyn Leick

Gwendolyn Leick's approachable survey introduces the Babylonians, the people, the culture and the reality behind the popular myth of Babylon. Spanning some 1800 years in the history of the Babylonians, from the time of Hammurabi, famous for his Law-Code, to the time when Alexander's heirs ruled the Near East, Leick examines how archaeological discoveries and cuneiform tablets recovered from Babylonian cities allow us an impression of the Babylonian people and their society, their intellectual and spiritual preoccupations. Exploring the lives of kings and merchants, women and slaves, and the social, historical, geographical and cultural context in which their extraordinary civilization flourished for so many centuries, The Babylonians has provided scholars and students with a dazzling new insight into this fascinating world.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Archaeology, Classical Studies, World History, Anthropology

188 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 2002

About the author

Gwendolyn Leick is an anthropologist and Assyriologist. She is the author of various publications on the Ancient Near East, including A Dictionary of Near Eastern Mythology and Sex & Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature. She also acts as a cultural tour guide in the Middle East, lecturing on history, archaeology and anthropology.

Reviews

[Iset · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having recently read The Babylonian World, published by Routledge and edited by Gwendolyn Leick, it is obvious to me why the publishers approach Leick to put together the aforementioned volume. The Babylonians: An Introduction is clearly a nascent version of The Babylonian World, being released four years earlier. The way this book attempts to present a broad overview of ancient Babylonian history, and even the order in which the topics are presented – we start with geography, moving into society and economy, and later in the book delve into the complexities of religion – make it pretty clear that The Babylonian World draws from The Babylonians: An Introduction. Please note, this is not plagiarism – a collection of different authors wrote each chapter for the former book, whilst Leick alone wrote the latter, and when writing about history, obviously certain facts are immutable and going to get repeated. So what are the differences between the two books? Why would a reader choose one book over the other book? The Babylonian World, being written later, is more up-to-date, and more comprehensive, drawing on topics that The Babylonians: An Introduction doesn’t have the time to delve into. So if you want a more thorough and recent look at ancient Babylonian history, I’d recommend The Babylonian World instead. However, if you’re a newcomer to all this and aren’t familiar with the language frequently used in academic textbooks, The Babylonians: An Introduction will explain more clearly and with more brevity what you want to know.

7 out of 10

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have great interest in history, so I thought I'd be a good autodidact and check this out. This was very much a textbook type of education., densely packed with information and written in dispassionate academese. Those who like their history to be exciting and entertaining might be bored/exhausted by this one. However, it was very informative for such a slender volume and at no point (almost disappointingly so) given to speculation, just facts, facts, facts. I learned a decent amount about the subject, which was the point really.

[Maria Eduarda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mesopotamia: An Introduction, another book by Gwendolyn Leick full of incredible detail about an Ancient People whose deeds do not stop wondering all Humanity. The Invention of the City, another book from the same author, pictures how stone over stone a civilization is reconstructed and the concept of city invented. This concept is fully demonstrated in that book. In the Mesopotamia: An Introduction I kept recalling what I already read about the different cities. Different aspects are specifically addressed in a different structured discussion and many details urge us to want to pursue our own personal investigations. An awesome bibliography and an unimaginable source of information that does not usually appear in regular history textbooks come with this book. The lives of women their roles and their institutions become clarified. Religion is analyzed and the structure of the society, monarchy, temple and merchants become evident and clear. One almost can imagine the living cities with all of its characters going about with their daily lives. The school of scribes, a topic she focus in one of the chapters show that going to school paid off and from their learning and teaching methodology we still have reminiscence in today schools. A lot of tablets not yet interpreted make this civilization fresh for further study. My curiosity was peaked!

[Sarah Coller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my second read for this year's first quarter of Historathon. I feel like it was a really good introduction to Babylonian history and culture without "taking sides". I love that there is an 8-page bibliography following 11 pages of notes and references. Take a cue, Mary Beard. (See my review on her Confronting the Classics)

I learned several interesting things, such as:

Ziggurats were not made to go inside like pyramids were. They were basically artificial mountains that allowed people to be up high, closer to the "gods".

Kingship was given to a city, not a family line. I see this Biblically -- see Genesis 14.

Chaldeans (another Biblical term) were from a specific line of scribes and were specifically learned in magic and astrology.

Most interestingly, I made a connection between the account in Matthew 15 of Yeshua admonishing the Pharisees for bugging the people about eating with unwashed hands. Maybe it was more than just getting on them for adding to the law --- what they were adding likely came from this Babylonian custom of being very clean and purified before you eat. Maybe it was also about them taking on the requirements of other gods.

After ripping out the pages with the very graphic sexual incantations and gluing two partial pages together, (hahaha!) I'm glad I read this and I plan to keep it in my home library.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this short but very informative introduction to the Babylonians. It is difficult to condense three thousand years of history into one chapter (#2) and she just barely skims the surface which is quite understandable. The other three chapters focus on ‘society & economy’, ‘religion’ (very interesting), and ‘material culture’ (also informative and interesting). The book examines some aspects of Babylonian life through passages from ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’. Overall, this introduction of ‘The Babylonians’ is very good and can easily make the reader want to know more. This is good because Gwendolyn Leick has written many other in-depth books on the subject of which I am now tempted to purchase.

[Johnny Tyrrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative. I have wanted to know more about Babylonian history for a very long time and this was a great start.
I learned a lot, things I did not know.
I am a preacher and I want to know more of the history surrounding the Bible.
The story of Daniel has always fascinated me and I wanted to know more of the history surrounded his time of captivity in Babylon.
This book gave me a look into what it must have been like for Daniel. I got to see what Daniel lived.
I am continuing my studies on Babylonian history, but this is a great start.
If you are wanting to know more about Babylonian history this is a must read

[Liam Malone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good book. The chapter on history serves as perfect summary of Babylonian history. It will cause readers to pursue a more lengthy, detailed history. The chapters on society, economy, religtion, and material culture are wonderful. I learned much from these chapters. The fault is that much of the extant texts are from the final years of Babylonia but the author makes this clear. So you can't assume that what happened in 650 BC is how it was in 1800 BC.

[Naomi Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Well-written, engaging, didn't want to put it down. Useful for class since we were just talking about Xenophon and the Battle of Cunaxa (by the Euphrates).

[Ben Beiermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, concise introduction into the culture and history of ancient Babylon. It is perfect for anyone without prior knowledge of the topic.

[Rick Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really fun book to read. It was very broad and general in its scope, but at the same time scholarly. It also has a great bibliography.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book. This was a hard read. The information was rapid fire with little interpretation heavily reliant on cuneiform tablets. Not for the faint at heart.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice little book about their history.

[Thom Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published first in 2003, a good place to start or start over, especially in re Babylonian gods.