Imagining Babylon: The Modern Story of an Ancient City (Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records

by Mario Liverani

Ever since the archaeological rediscovery of the Ancient Near East, generations of scholars have attempted to reconstruct the "real Babylon,” known to us before from the evocative biblical account of the Tower of Babel. After two centuries of excavations and scholarship, Mario Liverani provides an insightful overview of modern, Western approaches, theories, and accounts of the ancient Near Eastern city.

Genres: History

746 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Antonio Fanelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Molto interessante.
Estremamente ben documentato come tutti i saggi di Liverani, ricco di note, rimandi, bibliografia completa.
Non facile da leggere, ma appassionante quanto basta.
Spiega i meccanismi della ricerca archeologica e interpretazione dei dati raccolti con dovizia di particolari e passione.

[Salam Taha · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتب الاستاذ لافراني ليست سهلة الهضم والاستيعاب من قراءة اولى، الرجل موسوعي و متوغل بالموضوع من مختلف زواياه، يحتاج القارئ الى صبر لكي يتشبع بالافكار المختلفة ثم يجمعها سوية ليخرج بالنتيجة التي يود لافراني ان يلتقيه بها. الترجمة بها هنّات رغم ان امترجم متمكن وله باع.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I always to write reviews like the one I am about to write, because in a way it says more about me then the book I read.

Mario Liverani's imaging Babylon is an attempt at a full overview on how the anciant city of Babylon has been perceived and well Imagined over the last 200 years by archeologists, political theorists and museum exhibitors and how it's imagine has been influenced by the various political focus's such as colonialism, the cold war, globalization and modern ecological concern.

You learn how long it took for Babylon to even be acknowledged as a city due to obsessive fixation on an idealized representation of the greek Polis and biblical tower of Babel stories as well as a refusal of political and world history theorists to read up on the latest archaeological discoveries. Archaeology Liverani spends a lot of time on, the role of certain individuals to change the ways of archaeology from its start as a glorified treasure hunts in impressive ruins looking for loot to fill museums to more modern and scientific approaches using careful layer by layer work and active imagining how cities looked whose remains are in essence rubble heaps.

The problem for me is, that after hundred and forty pages of this I had enough. It is just one vision and imagining after other who get 5 or 8 pages and on to the next one. See this kind of book is great for a student if they need an overview like this for example as for a paper about the impact of ideology on archaeology for example. For a reader who is looking for more information on Babylon, it is way to dry and lacks any form of narrative. It is kinda like a lecture and a museum exhibit but without objects to look at.

To be fair the second half of the book does go a bit deeper in the whole imaging thing; but at that point I simply had enough and still lacked a narrative; something I really need in a historical book. My humble opinion would be to have every chapter be a imagining of Babylon based on a number of relevant academics who share a similar image and to deconstruct it, so the epilogue could be a commentary on how the image of Babylon has changed throughout the years. Let the narratives speak more for themselves instead of talking about the narratives.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book; Liverani has an extremely well-considered and critical perspective. This book is for specialists and accomplishes more than its stated goal. An indispensable resource for those wishing to understand (historiographical, theoretical, technological, perspectival) developments in Near Eastern studies since the 18th century.

[حوريه · Rating 4 out of 5]

من أكثر الكتب التي أحببتها آنذاك،كتاب تخيل بابل العظيمة والتي طالما سمعنا قصصها في حكايات علي بابا والسندباد لم نراها يوماً أو نطئ أرضها أو يبقى عوالمها، بقيت آثارها فقط وبآثارها اهتدى الكاتب لنسج أجمل قصة عنها وعن تاريخها وعن شعبها، مبنياً على تواريخ ومآثر و أثريات أيضاً