Book cover for Mountains and Lowlands: Ancient Iran and Mesopotamia by Paul Collins

Mountains and Lowlands

Ancient Iran and Mesopotamia

2016 Released
200 Pages
3-4 Hours
Ebook Unavailable
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Ashmolean MuseumISBN 9781910807088
Ancient Mesopotamia and Iran are usually treated separately or as part of a much broader 'Ancient Near East'. However, the developments that lie at the root of our own world - farming, cities, writing, organized religion, warfare - were forged in the tensions and relations between the inhabitants of lowland Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) and the highlands of Iran.


Mountains and Lowlands explores this relationship providing a detailed but accessible account covering the period 6000 BC AD 650, from the development of the first agricultural communities to the coming of Islam. The story is told through the superlative Ancient Near Eastern collections in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, supplemented by images of photographs of archeological sites and of iconic pieces in other collections including the Louvre, Paris. The discussion is further supported by six maps commissioned especially for this publication.

Paul Collins

Paul Collins is a former parish priest, broadcaster, historian, and writer. He is the author of including Absolute Power: How the Pope Became the Most Influential Man in the World (2018), The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century (2013), and Judgment Day: The Struggle for life on Earth (2010) and many other books. His articles and essays have appeared in the London Tablet, National Catholic Reporter, and magazines across Australia, Germany, Austria, and Italy. Collins resides in Canberra, Australia.

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