Bottero, Jean. Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning and the Gods. Univ of Chicago
Press, Chicago, 1992.
Presented as a collection of essays by an eminent French historian, this book offers a historian’s point of view of the significance of writing to the human mind. As an Assyriologist (that is, a historian devoted to the study of ancient cultures), Bottero is especially interested in examining
Mesopotamian writing since they were the people who invented it. His examination of the use of writing allows us to see into the minds of these ancient people. He provided useful analysis of
Mesopotamian elements of society through the perspective of the modern consciousness, while at all times affirming the mythic consciousness as a valid way of seeing the world. This book is helpful for considering the importance of Mesopotamia philosophically.
Ellis, Elisabeth Gaynor and Anthony Esler, eds. World History: Connections to
Today. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, 2005.
The student textbook provided an excellent start to researching Mesopotamia, as all the basic information needed was easily presented and offered a basic orientation point. The textbook offered key terms, essential timeframes and maps and helped shape the introductory narrative of this time and place. As a textbook entry, its usefulness lay in its brief overview and succinct analysis. This was the best place to start researching this civilization and offered an easy to access print source.
Hawkes, Jacquetta and Sir Leonard Woolley. History of Mankind:
Prehistory and the Beginnings of Civilization. Harper and Row, New York, 1963.
This deeply researched volume offers a comprehensive overview of humanity from our beginnings through about 1200 BCE in areas around the world where civilizations are known to have developed, including Africa and the Middle East, the Americas, India and China. This book was underwritten by UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations and so the veracity of the work is established. Though we might consider the scholarship dated, in fact it establishes an exhaustive examination of these societies and offers a useful basis for understanding them through its analysis of material culture, including art and architecture and its intellectual and social elements, such as writing systems, religion and political organization. Each aspect of human activity during this time before 1200 BCE is given attention.
Roaf, Michael. Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East.
Equinox Press, Oxford, 1990.

This oversized book provides an invaluable source of both geographic as well as cultural information on the civilizations that sprang up in the ancient Near East. Through a series of glossy photos and detailed maps and illustrations, the text traces the origins of settled societies through to the rise of the established civilizations of the region. The political, technical and cultural achievements of the region are zoomed in on and amplified by the use of a variety of visuals, including site plans and computerized projections of urban designs. This book is aimed to be easily accessible by a range of readers and succeeds by presenting the extensive culture and history of the region visually.
Saggs, HWF. Civilization Before Greece and Rome. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven,
1989.
This book is shaped around the premise that to understand Western culture, looking to ancient
Greece and Rome is not nearly as helpful as tracing the West back to ancient Mesopotamia.
Here, the author argues, the Western mind developed its value systems and all the elements of society. Ancient Greece and the Mediterranean world were deeply influenced by these people living thousands of miles away and who preceded them by thousands of years. The book is broken into easy to manage categories, such as “writing,” “education,” “living in cities,” trade,”
“law,” “religion,” and other categories of daily life. The author, a professor emeritus from the
University of Wales, has spent his entire life researching this civilization.