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3 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Great Picture Book for the Casually Interested May 14, 2006
I slowly worked my way through this book over that last year and learned quite a lot from it. From the contents of Neolithic villiages to the slow evolution on Cuniform script from it's origional pictograms. I was fascinated by the Assyrian's system of empire. A system that kept things in tact so well that the subsequent empires of the Babylonians, Medes, Persions, and Greeks were able to conquer vast swaths of the world in releativly short time spans.
I kind of a technically minded person so it's easy for me to forget that this is a "Cultural Atlas". The book is filled with full-color pictures of ancient art ranging from every-day pottery to artifacts from the greatest temples and palaces of their times.
I'm a born-again Christian and one reason I got this book to try to get a glimpse of what cultures influenced the ancient Hebrews of the Old Testament and to see what evidence actually exists of the Hebrew monarchy besides the bible and temple ruins (Answer - not a lot). Roaf does give the Hebrews an honorable mention and often mentions how archaeologists use passages from the Old Testament as a cross-refernce to literature and records from neighboring cultures.
I gave the book 5 stars but it does have it's flaws. Many of the figures have a baffling lack of legend and captions to allow a better understanding of what, when, and where one is looking at. Sometimes one has to look real hard at the map figures to understand exactly what part of Mesopotamia one is looking at as there is no indication of scale or landmarks.
The figures were only a minor nuisance. Get this book for the great array of photographs and easy read.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
INCORRECT CRITICISM Feb 16, 2006
I was re-reading the above book and saw the comments of 'Susanna', who faulted the book because of a lack of information associated with the pictures shown. He/she is entirely wrong -- and in addition no one else commented in this (supposed) fault.
Each photo I saw (all) not only gave a good description, but, contrary to many similar type books, indicates from where each item was/is to be found. This is a definite 'plus'.
This is an incorrect and inaccurate criticism.
7 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Lots of pictures, lots of information Oct 16, 2005
This is an incredibly informative read with hundreds of beautiful photographs throughout. Its very factual and seems current with its research. Roaf does not waste time on speculation - he simply states the facts as they have been uncovered and leaves it up to the reader to infer meaning and implication. I read this as a text for a college course and found it loaded with info (overwhelming at times). But it having a professor explain the hows and whys was crucial.
10 of 25 found the following review helpful:
 Disorganized and hard to follow Dec 09, 2004
I found this book really wordy and confusing. The images are not numbered and do not have full refrenced captions, which makes finding infomation on a particualar image very difficult. Also, the chapters are in chronological order, yet several images and some information is not in the chapter of the correct time period. This would be fine if those images from a time period other than what the chapter covers were being compared to images from the time period, but they are not ever that i noticed.
32 of 35 found the following review helpful:
Good overview of the "Cradle of Civilization" Jul 14, 2004
This atlas covers the historical development of the ancient Near East (with an emphasis on ancient Mesopotamia) from Paleolithic times to the conquest of the Persian empire by Alexander the Great. Michael Roaf does an excellent job of illustrating the book with color photos of artifacts, stone inscriptions, and maps that reinforce the discussion in the text. At appropriate points in the book, special features are included that focus on specific archaelogical sites around the Middle East as well as on significant cultural and scientific developments that occurred.The main part of the book is 223 pages long, of which approximately half is devoted to photos, maps, and features. However, this is not simply a picture book; the atlas also includes a historical narrative that I found to be quite engaging and accessible for a general reader like myself. Additionally, besides being a good introduction to ancient Mesopotamia, this atlas provides a wealth of archaelogical data that may serve as a good reference for those who are undergoing more advanced reading. Examples of such data include the layout of existing ruins, geographical distributions of archaelogical finds, and a gazetteer that provides the coordinates of ancient sites in the Middle East. On the negative side, I found that the index often provided faulty page references to subjects and a few typos can be found throughout the text. Nevetheless, these blemishes do not take away from the book's main goal of providing an illustrated introduction to ancient Mesopotamia for the general reader. I understand that Checkmark Books (who published this atlas in 1990) has recently published a new book entitled "The Historical Atlas of Ancient Mesopotamia" by Norman Hunt. I have not seen this more recent book nor have I read any reviews about it, but potential buyers may wish to inquire about it before purchasing the 1990 atlas. In any event, I think that "The Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East" would be a valuable addition to the library of anyone who is interested in ancient history. I know that this book will be in my collection for a long time to come.
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