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Article: ARTS: BOOKS: No bull mounted cow, no donkey impregnated jenny (phew!) A new study of ancient Mesopotamia intrigues A C Grayling by its understanding of law, literature and divine libido;
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- August 26, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2001 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City By Gwendolyn Leick ALLEN
LANE pounds 25
Because of Saddam Hussein, British and American pilots every day
look down from the cockpits of their jet fighters at Eden, the home
not of mankind but of civilisation. They do this because they patrol
southern Iraqi airspace, and their view includes the evocative land
where the Tigris and Euphrates join together to run into vast
marshlands, which in turn dissolve into the Persian Gulf. Just north
of the marshes, between the Euphrates and the margins of the Arabian
Desert, lies the site of the first city known to mankind: Eridu. If
an F-14 were to fly from this 7,000- year old city north-west up the
alluvial ...