“A readable and up-to-date introduction to a most fascinating culture” from a world-renowned Sumerian scholar (American Journal of Archaeology). The Sumerians, the pragmatic and gifted people who preceded the Semites in the land first known as Sumer and later as Babylonia, created what was probably the first high civilization in the history of man, spanning the fifth to the second millenniums B.C. This book is an unparalleled compendium of what is known about them. Professor Kramer communicates his enthusiasm for his subject as he outlines the history of the Sumerian civilization and describes their cities, religion, literature, education, scientific achievements, social structure, and psychology. Finally, he considers the legacy of Sumer to the ancient and modern world. “An uncontested authority on the civilization of Sumer, Professor Kramer writes with grace and urbanity.” —Library Journal

For forty years, this widely acclaimed classic has remained unsurpassed as an introduction to art in the Western world, boasting the matchless credibility of the Janson name. This newest update features a more contemporary, more colorful design and vast array of extraordinarily produced illustrations that have become the Janson hallmark. A narrative voice makes this book a truly enjoyable read, and carefully reviewed and revised updates to this edition offer the utmost clarity in contributions based on recent scholarship. Extensive captions for the book’s incredible art program offer profound insight through the eyes of twentieth-century art historians speaking about specific pieces of art featured throughout. Significantly changed in this edition is the chapter on “The Late Renaissance,” in which Janson offers a new perspective on the subject, tracing in detail the religious art tied to the Catholic Reform movement, whose early history is little known to many readers of art history. Janson has also rearranged early Renaissance art according to genres instead of time sequence, and he has followed the reinterpretation of Etruscan art begun in recent years by German and English art historians. With a truly humanist approach, this book gives written and visual meaning to the captivating story of what artists have tried to express—and why—for more than 30,000 years.

The Sumerians, the pragmatic and gifted people who preceded the Semites in the land first known as Sumer and later as Babylonia, created what was probably the first high civilization in the history of man, spanning the fifth to the second millenniums B.C. This book is a compendium of what is known about them. The author outlines the history of the Sumerian civilization and describes their cities, religion, literature, education, scientific achievements, social structure, and psychology. Finally, he considers the legacy of Sumer to the ancient and modern world.

The story of one of the first and most important civilisations in history, and the first to invent writing.

The Sumerians are widely believed to have created the world’s earliest civilization on the fertile floodplains of southern Iraq from about 3500 to 2000 BCE. They have been credited with the invention of nothing less than cities, writing, and the wheel, and therefore hold an ancient mirror to our own urban, literate world. But is this picture correct? Paul Collins reveals how the idea of a Sumerian people was assembled from the archaeological and textual evidence uncovered in Iraq and Syria over the last one hundred fifty years. Reconstructed through the biases of those who unearthed them, the Sumerians were never simply lost and found, but reinvented a number of times, both in antiquity and in the more recent past.

This book examines the sculptures created during the Early Dynastic period (2900–2350 BC) of Sumer, a region corresponding to present-day southern Iraq. Featured almost exclusively in temple complexes, some 550 Early Dynastic stone statues of human figures carved in an abstract style have survived. Chronicling the intellectual history of ancient Near Eastern art history and archaeology at the intersection of sculpture and aesthetics, this book argues that the early modern reception of Sumer still influences ideas about these sculptures. Engaging also with the archaeology of the Early Dynastic temple, the book ultimately considers what a stone statue of a human figure has signified, both in modern times and in antiquity.