Life in the Ancient Near East: 3100-322 B.C.E.

• Author: Sack, Ronald H.
• Position: Review

By DANIEL C. SNELL. New Haven: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1997. Pp. xvii + 270, illustrations. $30.

The first paragraph in this book's preface provides the reader with a clear statement of the author's objectives. "This book is addressed first to the educated lay reader," Daniel Snell writes, "who has some interest in the ancient world but no detailed knowledge of it" (p. ix). In an era when publications in the fields of Assyriology, Egyptology, and the Old Testament are increasingly specialized, it has become easier literally to lose touch with the general audience "who pays the scholar for her or his time and work." In the introduction the reader will find an outline of fifteen topics that are treated in the book's chapters. Ranging from the family and social groups to money, government and prices, these chapters provide glimpses of diverse aspects of the economic history of the ancient Near East.

Through this approach, the book differs from studies with similar titles. Even though reaching the general reader is among its goals, the volume is clearly "specialized," in that its primary focus is economic and social history. The title of the book is, therefore, a bit misleading. It does not offer anywhere near as complete a treatment (even in a general way) as such useful works as H. W. F. Sagg's Civilization before Greece and Rome (also published by Yale University Press, 1989). Although Snell's purpose in writing his book is clearly more narrowly focused (he correctly notes that the study of ancient economic history "is so fascinating and so far-reaching in its implications for the understanding of human life now that it must be pressed forward on all fronts" [p. ix]), the general audience is provided with an overview that is entirely too sweeping, given the title of the book.

The narrative is entertaining and easy to follow, yet the later chapters dealing with the Assyrian Empire, Chaldean and Persian domination, and relations with the classical Greek world are considerably less informative than those dealing with the rise of the Sumerians and Amorites. One of the drawbacks of a general study, even one designed to focus specifically on economic and social history, is the tendency to become all-inclusive. Inevitably, sweeping conclusions can result that are not carefully thought out and which require more than just a few words of explanation. One such comment can be found on p. 115, where Snell asserts that an "increasing racism" characterized...