Empires of the Ancient Near East. . the Babylonians: A Survey of the Ancient Civilisation of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley

This survey of ancient Mesopotamia, first published in 1962 as The Greatness That Was Babylon, traces the civilisations of the Tigris-Euphrates plain from early Sumer through Akkad, Assyria, and the city of Babylon. Saggs covers kingship, law, irrigation, temples, and daily life, then the intellectual apparatus of writing, mathematics, astronomy, and religion. Trade, warfare, and the rise and fall of empires sit beside archaeology and cuneiform texts. The book is a single-volume account of how urban society first took shape in southern Iraq and what that society believed, administered, and built along the two rivers.

Green cloth binding. Light brown cloth binding. Maroon cloth binding. Blue cloth binding. Cloth bindings with extensive gilt design to upper board and spine. Decorative map endpapers. Illustrated with colour and black & white photographs and maps. Dark red four-volume slipcase titled in gold.