"Old World civilization began in the Near East, in Egypt and in Mesopotamia, where two very different cultures prospered. Egypt, isolated as it was within the Nile Valley, largely failed to export its culture. Early Mesopotamia, however, exerted its influence throughout the Near Eastern world, and thence to Greece. Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History offers an entirely new account of this complex and influential society." "Early Mesopotamia has left us many thousands of inscribed clay tablets, ranging from the archives of government offices and merchant houses to diplomatic and private correspondence. These reveal the most intimate details of law, commerce, irrigation and agriculture two thousand years before Classical Greece. With the help of a wealth of illustrations and quotations from these documents, Nicholas Postgate explores the organization of the world's first urban society. Surprisingly modern at times, Mesopotamia was technologically and socially innovative, as well as acutely self-analytical and dominated by bureaucracy and commerce." "Early Mesopotamia integrates historical and archaeological data which until now have been largely scattered in specialist literature. It will prove invaluable to students of archaeology, ancient history, anthropology and Biblical studies."--Jacket.