Manual of Oriental Antiquities

This volume offers a compact yet richly illustrated tour through the architecture, sculpture, and everyday crafts of the ancient Near East. Covering cultures from Chaldea and Assyria to Persia, Syria, Judea, Phoenicia, and Carthage, it brings together more than two hundred images that clarify the forms and motifs that defined each civilization. The author frames the material as a single, coherent picture, showing how these distant societies shared and reshaped artistic ideas long before the rise of Greece and Rome.

The narrative follows the Chaldæo‑Assyrian current from its earliest roots near the legendary Garden of Eden, across the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, and into the palaces of Susa and Persepolis. A newly added chapter surveys the latest excavations at Susa, revealing fresh details about monumental stonework and bronze reliefs. Readers gain a clear sense of how Egyptian and Assyrian traditions intertwined, producing a vibrant, hybrid visual language that spread as far as Cyprus, Sicily, and even Spain.