Near East Archaeology in the `Cradle of Civilization

In The Near East: Archaeology in the Cradle of Civlization, Charles Maisels charts the emergence of scientific archaeology from antiquarianism during the nineteenth century. He highlights the work of nineteenth- and twentieth-century pioneer excavators, whose drive and imagination showed that before texts did not have to mean unknowable. He then details the causes and effects environmental, organizational, demographic and technical of the worlds first village farming cultures some eight thousand years ago. Charles Maisels explains how cities such as Uruk and Ur, Nippur and Kish formed under ecological pressure and identifies the role of key features of Sumerian society in generating the worlds first script, system of calculation and literature.Maisels, Charles K. is the author of 'Near East Archaeology in the `Cradle of Civilization' with ISBN 9780415047425 and ISBN 0415047420.