Weavers, Scribes, and Kings

Adopting a truly innovative approach, Podany has provided us with a wonderfully vivid and compelling account of the region. * The Past *
[A] remarkably lively...chronicle. * Science *
Podany makes her subject accessible, pointing out that, from what people ate (bread and beer) to how they amused themselves (playing board games), 'life hasn't changed dramatically from earliest times'. * The New Yorker *
This is a masterpiece. Writing in a warm, conversational tone and using ancient texts and letters, Podany tells the story of ordinary people from the ancient Near East, bringing them to life through their own words. This is a joy to read, spanning four thousand years of history, with interesting facts and details on every page. Highly recommended! * Eric H. Cline, author of 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed *
This vivid and engaging narrative offers a genuinely new and exciting approach to ancient Middle Eastern history. Combining the very latest research—there are new insights here, even for specialists—with empathy and imaginative flair, Professor Podany invites us to consider the people of the distant past as real human beings, with bodies and minds, senses and emotions. I loved every page of this book and can't wait to share it with my students. * Eleanor Robson, author of Mathematics in Ancient Iraq: A Social History *
Amanda Podany has an amazing ability to make people of the ancient Near East—from weavers to queens, farmers to kings—come alive, taking us through the millennia-long history of the region with short stories based on original documents. This book is a fascinating read. * Marc Van De Mieroop, author of Hammurabi of Babylon: A Biography *
This book is truly impressive. Podany has managed to breathe life into people who have been dead for thousands of years, whose remains are nothing more than a name on a clay tablet, and to reconstruct what life may have been like for them in the brief moments we see in the evidence. As Podany says, "each person's story becomes a window into their era", and the windows all show a colourful existence full of humanity. * Owain Williams, Ancient History *
This rich and rewarding history connects us effortlessly to a vibrant and very human place. * Paul Collins, Times Literary Supplement *
In this delightfully readable work P. describes the history and culture of ancient Mesopotamia from its urban origins (c. 4000 BCE) up to the fall of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great (331 BCE)...The book is largely held together by the remarkable stories of everyday people and their experiences. These stories are artfully narrated and animated by Podany's lively writing, and she is to be praised for her extensive research of archaeological remains together with her scrutiny of countless clay cuneiform tablets documenting Mesopotamian life in all its richness and complexity. * Classical Review *
Podany offers a great many highly entertaining historical vignettes, introducing Mesopotamian rulers, but also merchants, musicians, priests, poets, gardeners, brewers, barbers, artisans, charioteers, mercenaries, conspirators, slaves, and of course the eponymous 'weavers and scribes'. Many of them were women. They all come to life in this illuminating history, thanks to the author's impressive ability to synthesise arcane technical studies by other scholars (and herself) without dumbing them down, and to turn the data and statistics these studies provide into engaging stories... It offers an enormous amount of detailed information, in accessible prose, and stands out as a unique achievement of synthesis. Highly recommended! * Eckhart Frahm, World Archaeology *
Recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. * Choice *
This insightful history of life in the Ancient Near East from 3500 to 323 BCE is a human one, built around the stories of ordinary people...Throughout, Podany's conversational prose is warm and welcoming, bringing ancient individuals to vivid and meaningful life. * AramcoWorld *
Adopting a truly innovative approach, Podany has provided us with a wonderfully vivid and compelling account of the region. * Minerva Magazine *