Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture

by William H. Stiebing Jr.

Organized by the periods, kingdoms, and empires generally used in ancient Near Eastern political history, Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture interlaces social and cultural history with a political narrative. Charts, figures, maps, and historical documents introduce the reader to the material world of the ancient Near East, including Egypt. The emphasis on historical debates and areas of uncertainty helps students understand how historians use evidence to create interpretations and that several different interpretations of history are possible.
New features in this edition













The most important change is the addition of co-author Susan N. Helft, a specialist in the art and archaeology of the ancient Near East, who has applied her considerable knowledge, insight, research, and editing skills throughout the book. This new edition of Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture will remain a crucial text for students beginning to learn about the fascinating civilizations of the Near East.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ancient History, School, Academic, Ancient

486 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2002

Reviews

[Jared Saltz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely excellent. Stiebing has provided one of the best introduction texts I've read--regardless of period--but to have provided this to an era as sprawling and complex as the ANE is truly remarkable. This book is easy enough to read, and strong enough in the level of information provided, that I'd have no qualms recommending it to anyone from advanced high school through graduate school.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly a good enough book to give you a broad outline centering around Ancient Mesopotamia covering nearly 3000 years of archaeology and history from all four corners of the known world with touches all the way out to the straights of Gibraltar in the West and India in the East, above the Black Sea in the North and all the way down to Nubia in the South. Though of course the bulk of material falls into the Fertile Crescent and Egypt, it manages to covers all eras and peoples of the times so that you can get an appreciation of their interrelationships in all things from Religion to Politics, to Science, to Architecture, Language, the Arts and Migrations with much in between to include many of the personalities of the times with enough story snippets to make the read interesting.

It's a lot to shove into 400 plus pages but over all it does it in a fairly coherent and balanced manner while also digging into many of ambiguations and alleged distortions involved in presenting the material which at times will seem as a distractor, though one apparently necessary to give you the proper picture of what is known vs guessed at, after which you may make your own conclusions. If anything this should leave you wanting for more for which the book has ample notes, bibliographies, pictures, glossary and index to spur you on.

Recommended for the big picture it provides and the many smaller stories it gives all of which should give the reader a fuller understanding of how complex the world was before Christ and the common era.

[Adam Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent, detailed survey of the ancient Near East which sweeps through the area and the period. It was incredibly useful for me, years ago, to get a feel for the history of the region. The book does suffer from the usual plight of works like this which is not being able to go into much detail with such a broad scope. However, there are numerous tables, maps, notes, and recommended readings to counteract this problem.

[Olives Erickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is DENSE, fair warning. There are a lot of simple slips of dry humor, but ultimately I found this a rather difficult read for what is normally an engaging topic. Exceptionally informative and ultimately meets or exceeds every academic expectation, just... dry and dense.

[Eavan]

I sort of read this for class. Sorry Professor Worsham

[Matthew Crowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stiebing's text is a great introduction to the Ancient Near East. Each chapter is packed with details and consistently gives a balanced overview of each culture and era.

Stiebing provides numerous maps, pictures of artifacts, and excerpts from relevant primary documents in each chapter and his attention to detail is impressive. Each chapter ends with a long bibliography for further reading. Sadly, however, the book employs cumbersome endnotes instead of footnotes. Granted these footnotes usually have great information or elaborations in the text, on principle I am not interrupting my reading to find that pesky page in the back if the book then scan for the endnote number, then flip back to the text. It's not laziness as much as sheer irritation.

Being a high quality textbook that it is, the book had a ludicrous price attached, so buy used if you are interested.

One more critical note: Stiebing appears to be biased against the biblical text in several instances. A work like this has to be critical--that is not the problem. Instead, Stiebing does not apply this criticism evenly. For example, he suggests that 2 Kings 18-19 is not as trustworthy as the Prism of Sennacherib, which records the same event (Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem) from an Assyrian perspective. Stiebing expresses doubt about the veracity of the Deuteronomistic History but does not suggest the possibility of Assyrian propaganda in artifacts such as Sennacherib's prism.

Nonetheless, Stiebing's book is solid work, up-to-date, and a fine starting point for Ancient Near Eastern studies.

[Ancillar Bradingus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Horribly sequenced. Terribly edited: every second sentence begins "However," or "Nevertheless," largely when there is _zero_ contrast being drawn between the preceding point and the next one, as if the author has a special type of Tourette's that only manifests through the bludgeoning abuse of contrast interjections. Generalizations are made at every turn betraying thinking that's sloppy as hell, snarky with respect to opposing viewpoints on unsettled issues of scholarship, and more than a few times, blatantly self-contradictory.

No joy, humor or style of any kind in the writing. The inclusion of Egypt in what I have to assume was _meant_ to be a unified narrative for the greater Near East resulted in a miserably disconnected pastiche that helped no one. This particular failure made reading this book like watching a poorly-written movie _while also_ being repeatedly interrupted by odiously tedious commercial breaks.

Please, for your own quality of life: just find and read van de Mieroop's Ancient Near East survey instead. It is everything this book wishes it was.

Except an extraneous, awkward history of Egypt.