Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek
There is nothing that I want more from a history book that “Babylon” has not achieved: dramatic, entertaining, organic, informative, interesting, fun, insightful, well-researched, superbly and professionally written, this book ticks all the boxes for what it means to be a good book well worth your time and attention.
After reading it, I felt a deep satisfaction and wonder at the many stories, histories, myths, and technological advancements that have sprawled across all the region of Mesopotamia from the creative minds of its people. This is a history that covers well over 5000 years from the early dawn of Mesopotamian civilization to the final perishing of its last glow after the victory of Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic culture on one hand, and the victory of the Persian Emperor Cyrus on the other. But before all that, there was the invention of writing in the form of cuniform, there was the technological shift from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, there was political and religious formation and maturation, there was the consolidation of different ethnicities and languages under a single rule and a single culture. For Mesopotamia was far reaching and deeply rooted in its geographical parameters and it swallowed and assimilated any newcomers to its land. The Babylonians and the Assyrians were the major players in the region for a long time although some ethnic groups have vied for the throne. Their laws were draconian, their myths seeped into neighboring cultures. They seemed to have invented everything from agriculture, architecture, medicine, astrology and math. But it was the invention of the alphabet, that came to Mesopotamia from Egypt that changed the playground for those who held onto the old cuniform script and those who sought more simple and faster means of communication.
The author shows Mesopotamia at the center of an ever-changing wheel of history and it is remarkable and a testament to its power that it has been able to survive for so long.
Having said that, the author does lean into the dramatic at times to emphasize and underline some important changes in Babylonian history. This is to be expected from a book that is popular history not an academic one. I have found some of his interpretations on the influence of Babylonian law and myth on the Bible interesting, though the arguments remain biased to a certain point of view, aimed at finding similarities between the old religions and the newer monotheistic religions as if the new is a natural outgrowth of the old.
I believe that although paths have crossed between the old and the new, that some stories have been handed down from one era to the next with some variation, it remains that there are only specific instances of conjectural overlap and that what we know of Mesopotamian myth is very limited and inconclusive, or so this book has lead me to believe. I still have a long way to go to make up my mind on this topic and I have not read enough to make my judgement clear. Did the author — I dare to assume — cherry-pick certain passages from certain stories and laws to make his point more valid or more reasonable? Surly, the human mind seeks patterns everywhere, and when we see similarities we can’t help but point them out, as causal or consistent or connected in some way. The effort is admirable and it reflects an inquiring and curious mind, but how much do we truly know of the past? Can we trust those broken fragments written in a language long dead and forgotten? My stance at this point is that I am skeptical of the archeological finds. There is still more work to be done in terms of understanding the ancient mind and its myths.
This book has opened a new door for me where I will continue to pursue my interest in history. I recommend this book for curious minds.
