The Ancient Near East edited by JamesPitchard

I have spent the last year reading about ancient civilizations with my youngest son and today he leaves his teens behind and begins his young adulthood, so I write this with him in mind.  This summer we have been reading the original ancient texts, as translated , and I have really loved reading the original rather than a summary of it.

One of my favorites is the Code of Hammarabi.  First of all, it reminds me of the Book of Leviticus, but much older (it is a Mesopotamian text, carved into a rock in cuneiform about 1700 BCE) and more broadly applicable to life as a whole.   The rules about judges seem almost modern to me, although the laws they enforce are about what you would expect for the culture and the time.  The Code also describes life at the time of Prince Hammarabi, which was a time when the Near East was a place where eeking out a living for those not in royalty was hard (the Babylonians did not enjoy the more luxurious life of the Egyptians--those stories are included here as well, and are equally interesting to read).

I thought that I had a liberal education, but in reading these texts I realize that there were many gaps that I have just now been able to start filling in.  While this might sound like a chore to read, there are some very enjoyable and some remarkably accessible texts within.