Mercury's Wings marks a milestone as the first-ever volume devoted to ancient communications. Its eighteen wide-ranging essays by art historians, Assyriologists, Classicists and Egyptologists explore communications as a powerful vehicle not just for the transmission of information, but also for the conduct of religion, commerce, diplomacy, culture and more. The individual essays are clear, informative, and (in the areas in which I am competent to judge) convincing in their particulars, and the editors have gathered an impressively rich and wide body of work. Anyone interested in the 'classical' world or the neighboring civilizations stands to learn a great deal from the collection, and I expect it will serve its inspirational purpose well.