Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

Mesopotamian civilization : the material foundations / D.T. Potts

By: Potts, Daniel TMaterial type: TextTextPublisher: Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 1997Description: xx, 366 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cmContent type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 0801433398; 9780801433399Subject(s): Ethnology -- Middle East | Physical geography -- Middle East | Middle East -- Civilization -- To 622DDC classification: 939.4 LOC classification: DS57 | .P67 1997
Contents:
I. The Country and its Climate -- II. The Aboriginal Population of Southern Mesopotamia -- III. Agriculture and Diet -- IV. Inedible Natural Resources -- V. Watercraft -- VI. Pottery Production -- VII. Metal Production -- VIII. Some Material Correlates of Religious Life -- IX. Kinship in an Urban Society -- X. Mortuary Practices -- XI. Functional Aspects of Writing and Sealing -- XII. East meets West -- XIII. West meets East -- XIV. Some Reflections
Summary: The best way to achieve an understanding of the art, architecture, history, and literature of a great civilization such as Mesopotamia's, D. T. Potts believes, is through an analysis of its material infrastructure. Concentrating on Southern Mesopotamia and relying preponderantly on evidence from the third millennium B.C., Potts describes a civilization from the ground up. He creates an ethnography of ancient Mesopotamia which combines knowledge of its material culture and its mental culture. Potts examines the climate, the landforms, and other conditions that enabled the area to become populated. What natural resources did the earliest Mesopotamians have at their disposal? How did Mesopotamian religious ideals reflect the basic conditions of life in the alluvial plain of Southern Mesopotamia? What contributions to Mesopotamian civilization came from the East and what from the West? In addressing such questions as these, Potts offers a new foundation for understanding an ancient civilization of great complexity
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books Books The BIAA David H. French Library
Shelf 27 - Main Room 		B3a POTTS 17696 Not for loan BOOKS*000000015684

Includes bibliographical references (p. [312]-347) and index

I. The Country and its Climate -- II. The Aboriginal Population of Southern Mesopotamia -- III. Agriculture and Diet -- IV. Inedible Natural Resources -- V. Watercraft -- VI. Pottery Production -- VII. Metal Production -- VIII. Some Material Correlates of Religious Life -- IX. Kinship in an Urban Society -- X. Mortuary Practices -- XI. Functional Aspects of Writing and Sealing -- XII. East meets West -- XIII. West meets East -- XIV. Some Reflections

The best way to achieve an understanding of the art, architecture, history, and literature of a great civilization such as Mesopotamia's, D. T. Potts believes, is through an analysis of its material infrastructure. Concentrating on Southern Mesopotamia and relying preponderantly on evidence from the third millennium B.C., Potts describes a civilization from the ground up. He creates an ethnography of ancient Mesopotamia which combines knowledge of its material culture and its mental culture. Potts examines the climate, the landforms, and other conditions that enabled the area to become populated. What natural resources did the earliest Mesopotamians have at their disposal? How did Mesopotamian religious ideals reflect the basic conditions of life in the alluvial plain of Southern Mesopotamia? What contributions to Mesopotamian civilization came from the East and what from the West? In addressing such questions as these, Potts offers a new foundation for understanding an ancient civilization of great complexity