The definitive story of the seven Cleopatras, the powerful goddess-queens of ancient EgyptOne of history’s most iconic figures, Cleopatra is rightly remembered as a clever and charismatic ruler. But few today realize that she was the last in a long line...

The history and culture of the area that now forms parts of Iran, Iraq, and Syria are described in terms of artifacts found there dating from the Stone Age to 539 B.C. and the Persian invasion

Archaic Bookkeeping brings together the most currentscholarship on the earliest true writing system in humanhistory. Invented by the Babylonians at the end of thefourth millennium B.C., this script, called proto-cuneiform,survives in the form of clay...

Surveys the progress of Egyptian civilization by concentrating on the twin themes of the Nile and Egypt's natural resources and the influences of Egypt's god incarnate, the pharaoh.

"Superbly acute and unashamedly complex."—The Telegraph"Rich and provocative."—Times Literary Supplement"An engaging exploration."—The New Yorker"The phenomenal Ms. Beard has written another cracking book, one of her best."—The Independent What made the...