BABYLON: MESOPOTAMIA AND THE BIRTH OF CIVILIZATION

Book ID/图书代码： 00970010B35046

English Summary/英文概要： In the sixth millennium BC, settlers on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers created the world’s first cities. In doing so, they wrote the opening chapter of the history of human civilization as we know it. Paul Kriwaczek tells their extraordinary story.

In Babylon, Paul Kriwaczek tells the story of ancient Mesopotamia from the earliest settlements around 5400 BC, to the eclipse of Babylon by the Persians in the sixth century BC. He chronicles the rise and fall of dynastic power during this period; he examines its numerous material, social and cultural innovations and inventions: The wheel, civil, engineering, building bricks, the centralized state, the division of labour, organised religion, sculpture, education, mathematics, law and monumental building.

At the heart of Kriwaczek’s magisterial account, though, is the glory of Babylon – ‘gateway to the gods’ – which rose to glorious prominence under the Amorite king Hammurabi, who unified Babylonia between 1800 and 1750 BC. While Babylonian power would rise and fall over the ensuing centuries, it retained its importance as a cultural, religious and political centre until its fall to Cyrus the Great of Persia in 539 BC.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 《巴比伦》讲述了古老的美索不达米亚平原的故事。作者从古巴比伦的建立，到公元前6世纪被波斯所灭的巨大时间跨度中，记载了整个王朝权力的盛衰。同时，他详细考察了巴比伦的物质材料、社会和文化的创新与发明，其中包括：车轮、居民生活、工程建筑、政权、分工、有组织的宗教、雕刻、教育、算学、法律以及纪念性建筑。(RH)

Awards/获奖情况：

About the Author/作者介绍： Paul Kriwaczek was born in Vienna in 1937. In 1970 he joined the BBC full-time and wrote, produced and directed for twenty-five years. A former head of Central Asian Affairs at the BBC world Service, he is fluent in eight languages, including Farsi, Pashto, Urdu, Hindi and Nepalese.
保尔与1937年生于维也纳。1970年加入英国广播公司，有着25年写作、监制和导演经验。他曾经是BBC世界服务中亚事务的负责人。保尔精通包括波斯语、普什图语、乌尔都语等在内的8种语言。

Format:照片

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE(到期可授)

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

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