About the Author:
Irving Finkel, philologist and Assyriologist, is a spellbinding storyteller and a familiar figure in academic and literary circles. He is the Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Department of the Middle East in the British Museum, where he reads cuneiform inscriptions on tablets of clay from ancient Mesopotamia. An expert on the history of board games, he is also the author of many children’s books as well as the best-selling The Ark Before Noah, which recounts his discovery of a cuneiform tablet that contained a Flood narrative far older than the story of Noah and which led to the recreation of the ark for a 2014 TV documentary.
Review:
Some things are worth waiting for, and this book falls well within that category [...] This is a book for the scholar as well as the inveterate gamester.' (Peter A. Clayton Minerva, 2008)
This beautifully-produced volume is a magnificent milestone in the study of ancient board games.' (Andrew Robinson Current World Archaeology, 2008)
What might stand out most in this book is the wide variety of methodologies and goals... it is refreshing to see them rub shoulders in the same text. This book should have quite a broad appeal, not only to students and scholars of a wide range of cultures and civilizations, but also to individuals with an interest in board games.' (John Aveline Bryn Mawr Classical Review)
this book is alive with history and ideas and knock about debate. The sheer mixture and scope of topics is mind blowing... Interesting and satisfying academic writing that succeeds in being engaging and entertaining.' (Graham Brown 2007)
All the contributors are experts, and they base their information on original sources. Particularly impressive is Micaela Soars discussion of board games and backgammon in ancient Indian sculpture [...] superbly illustrated...' (S.A. Riess, Northeastern Illinois University Choice)
For the reader who wants to learn everything about the origins, antiquity, spread of, and similarity between board games around the world from 10,000 BC to the twenty-first century AD, this impressive book will be more than satisfactory.' (Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, University of California, Berkeley Journal of Anthropological Research, Vol. 65, 2009)
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