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Title: The Kingdom of the Hittites by Trevor Bryce ISBN: 0-19-924010-8 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: May, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Why Should You Care About The Hittites?
Comment: For starters, these are not the Hittites of the Bible (who are later, located in Syria and/or Canaan and are only to an unclear extent influenced by the earlier Hittites). No, these are the Indo-European speaking Hittites of second millennium B.C. (1700 to 1200) Anatolia. So if you're not a budding Hittitologist yourself, you can be forgiven for wondering why you should care.
Well, here's why: context. The Hittites were a superpower, and without knowing something about them, you can't get a clear picture of any of their neighbors. The history recounted in _The Kingdom of the Hittites_ interacts with and impacts upon the death of pharaoh Tutankhamen, the Trojan War and the migration of the Sea Peoples, for instance and just for starters.
Beyond that, their history is interesting reading in its own right. The sources available reveal an astonishing wealth of detail, and Bryce is able to recount all kinds of bloody family squabbles and intrigue, quoting from contemporary records and correspondence. Different Hittite monarchs emerge with clearly distinct personalities and character, and the book is an entertaining read.
I can't give it five stars, though, because I think a few small additions would immensely improve it. The book needs more maps. Some illustrations would also be useful. Bryce himself suggests that "a comprehenive, up-to-date treatment of Hittite civilization and society might well provide a valuable complement to the present work." Fair enough: Bryce is writing a history, not an anthropological treatise. Nevertheless, the history would be more accessible and sometimes more interesting if preceded by an introductory chapter on Hittite culture -- marriage patterns, for instance, and religion, are points that recur in the history but are never thoroughly explained.
Rating: 4
Summary: Excellent book
Comment: (...)The only deficiency suffers from is a lack of detailed maps of Turkey and Syria. This is why I give it only 4 stars. But it is certainly worth every cent of one's money and I highly recommend it. In my View, it is by far the best study of the Hittite Kingdom in English and one of the most readable too.
Rating: 5
Summary: Good book, made better by prolific use of primary sources.
Comment: This book is an excellent read. It's principal strength lies in the use by the author of the ancient sources within the main body of the text, with good translations permitting the reader to see the evidence for the authors interpretations. This puts the reader in a better position to critically assess these interpretations and agree or disagree with them. Normally, access to any ancient sources other than Greek and Roman ones is difficult. In this book they are placed within the main text and so the reader does not even have to keep flipping forwards to appendices. Overall this is an excellent book on Hittite history.
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Title: The Hittites: And Their Contemporaries in Asia Minor (Ancient Peoples and Places Series) by J. G. MacQueen ISBN: 0500278873 Publisher: Thames & Hudson Pub. Date: November, 1996 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: Collapse of the Bronze Age : The Story of Greece, Troy, Israel, Egypt, and the Peoples of the Sea by Manuel Robbins ISBN: 0595136648 Publisher: Author's Choice Press Pub. Date: 21 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization by A. Leo Oppenheim, Erica Reiner ISBN: 0226631877 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: September, 1977 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: The Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East (The Cultural Atlas Series) by Michael Roaf ISBN: 0816022186 Publisher: Checkmark Books Pub. Date: November, 1990 List Price(USD): $50.00 |
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Title: The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford Illustrated Histories) by Ian Shaw ISBN: 0192802933 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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