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ithilwen22's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. It's a very thorough look at the Sumerians and their culture. The author went on archaeological digs and studied documents for a good chunk of his life, and his knowledge definitely shows. It's fascinating to see how much we have already learned of a culture that no one knew existed for a very long time. It's also interesting to see the impact Sumer had on the surrounding cultures of the Near East and Middle East. It's a good in-depth book on one of the first civilizations in history.
dee9401's review against another edition
3.0
A fast-paced, engaging and exciting history of the Sumerians. I read this in the late 80s as part of anthropology minor and turned to it in 2016 more for the Sumerian poetry. I enjoyed the book but felt at times the author made leaps he couldn't justify. I will keep this book for his wealth of translations and information. A good reference though it is showing its age today.
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
2.0
I do not recommend this book to pretty much anyone. As an academic text and work of a scholarship it's almost entirely been either supplanted, superseded, or overturned entirely in the past six decades; as an introduction to the field it's challenging at best and unforgivably misleading at worst. Read only with a good critical eye. Kramer's was important scholarship at the time, but has long since been replaced.
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