Return to Babylon: Travelers, Archaeologists, and Monuments in Mesopotamia

by Brian M. Fagan

This revised and updated edition of Brian Fagan's 1979 classic chronicles an archaeological history steeped in excitement, danger, and international competition, when extraordinary men and women, working in debilitating heat amidst feuding tribes and bands of thieves, made stupendous discoveries at ancient cities such as Babylon, Nineveh, and Ur. Return to Babylon tells the story of archaeological travel and excavation in Iraq--then Mesopotamia--from the time of the great Arab geographers to the 2003 devastation of the Iraq National Museum.
The excavators were sometimes brilliant linguists and gifted scholars and sometimes unscrupulous amateurs who looted sites for national museums and even used bribery or force to achieve their goals. Fagan tells of Henry Rawlinson, Jules Oppert, and Edward Hincks, decipherers of cuneiform; Claudius and Mary Rich, observers of Nineveh and Babylon; and Émile Botta and Austen Henry Layard, who revealed the Assyrian civilization to an astonished world. Here, also, are men like Hormuzd Rassam, whose illegal digging and plundering horrified local officials, and Wallis Budge, consummate smuggler of cuneiform tablets. Fagan also recounts the careers of the multi-talented administrator Gertrude Bell, a primary influence in the creation of the nation of Iraq, and of Leonard Woolley, renowned for his excavation of Sumerian civilization at Ur.
Bringing this remarkable history up to date, Fagan chronicles the development of scientific archaeology in Mesopotamia, the growing Iraqi involvement in archaeology, and the tragic events of recent years that led to the looting of the Iraq National Museum and many archaeological sites.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Archaeology, Middle East, Science, Art, Asia

386 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Brian Murray Fagan was a British author of popular archaeology books and a professor emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Reviews

[Matt Kuhns · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is decent. Fagan set an enormous task for himself, and did a reasonable job. I was already familiar with one or two pieces of the larger story he recounts, which probably reduced the narrative's fascination a bit.

(I wonder if a bit more artwork would have helped. There are a number of illustrations, and a few maps, but no plans or diagrams, and leafing back through I can scarcely find a single cuneiform character.)

The end of this revised edition is depressing, for which the author is by no means to blame, and in fact his brief overview of the looting of Iraq was one of the most engaging sections of the story.

[S. Niehart · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good!

[Joyceling]

Actually, I have the 1979 edition, which is still wildly informative. Historical overview of archaeology in Mesopotamia from gross plundering to scientific documentation.

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