MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 03006cam a22003374a 4500
001 5517609
005 20221121180612.0
008 040706s2004 nyua b 001 0beng
010 $a 2004055336
020 $a0312330022
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm55939591
035 $a(NNC)5517609
035 $a5517609
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dIXA$dBAKER$dNNC$dOrLoB-B
043 $aa-iq---$ae-uk---
050 00 $aPJ3164.R33$bA674 2004
082 00 $a492/.1/092$222
100 1 $aAdkins, Lesley.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n81085240
245 10 $aEmpires of the plain :$bHenry Rawlinson and the lost languages of Babylon /$cLesley Adkins.
250 $a1st U.S. ed.
260 $aNew York :$bThomas Dunne Books,$c2004.
300 $axxiii, 424 pages :$billustrations ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [396]-402) and index.
520 1 $a"Beginning in 1827, Henry Rawlinson, fearless soldier, sportsman, and imperial adventurer of the first rank, spent twenty-five years in India, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan in the service of the East India Company. During this time he survived the dangers of disease and warfare, including the disastrous First Anglo-Afghan War. A gifted linguist and fascinated by history and exploration, he became obsessed with cuneiform, the world's earliest writing. An immense inscription high on a sheer rock face at Bisitun in the mountains of western Iran, carved on the orders of King Darius the Great of Persia over two thousand years ago, was the key to understanding the many cuneiform scripts and languages. Only Rawlinson had the physical and intellectual skills, courage, self-motivation, and opportunity to make the perilous ascent and copy the monument." "In Empires of the Plain, Lesley Adkins relates the story of Rawlinson's life and how he triumphed in deciphering the lost languages of Persia and Babylonia, overcoming his brilliant but bitter rival, Edward Hincks. While based in Baghdad, Rawlinson became involved in the very first excavations of the ancient mounds of Mesopotamia, from Nineveh to Babylon - the great flood plain of the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers that had been fought over by so many civilizations, revealing intriguing details of everyday life and forgotten historical events. By proving to the astonished Victorian public that people and places in the Old Testament really existed (and that documents and chronicles had survived from well before the writing of the Bible), Rawlinson became a celebrity and assured his own place in history."--BOOK JACKET.
600 10 $aRawlinson, Henry,$cSir,$d1810-1895.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n82116298
650 0 $aOld Persian inscriptions.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85094558
650 0 $aCuneiform inscriptions, Akkadian.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85034804
650 0 $aAssyriologists$zGreat Britain$vBiography.
852 00 $bbar$hPJ3164.R33$iA674 2004