Synopses & Reviews
What is a city, and what forms did urbanization take in different times and places? How do peoples and nations define themselves and perceive foreigners? Questions like these serve as the framework for
The Ancient Mediterranean World: From the Stone Age to A.D. 600. This book provides a concise overview of the history of the Mediterranean world, from Paleolithic times through the rise of Islam in the seventh century A.D. It traces the origins of the civilizations around the Mediterranean--including ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Rome--and their interactions over time.
The Ancient Mediterranean World goes beyond political history to explore the lives of ordinary men and women and investigate topics such as the relationships between social classes, the dynamics of the family, the military and society, and aristocratic values. It introduces students not only to the ancient texts on which historians rely, but also to the art and architecture that reveal how people lived and how they understood ideas like love, death, and the body. Numerous illustrations, chronological charts, excerpts from ancient texts, and in-depth discussions of specific art objects and historical methods are included. Text boxes containing primary source materials examine such diverse subjects as warfare in early Mesopotamia, sculpting the body in classical Greece, the young women of Sappho's chorus, and early descriptions of the Huns. Combining excellent chronological coverage with a clear, concise narrative, The Ancient Mediterranean World is an ideal text for undergraduate courses in ancient history and ancient civilization.
Synopsis
What is a city, and what forms did urbanization take in different times and places? How do peoples and nations define themselves and perceive foreigners? Questions like these serve as the framework for The Ancient Mediterranean World: From the Stone Age to A.D. 600. This book provides a
concise overview of the history of the Mediterranean world, from Paleolithic times through the rise of Islam in the seventh century A.D. It traces the origins of the civilizations around the Mediterranean--including ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Rome--and their interactions over
time.
The Ancient Mediterranean World goes beyond political history to explore the lives of ordinary men and women and investigate topics such as the relationships between social classes, the dynamics of the family, the military and society, and aristocratic values. It introduces students not only to the
ancient texts on which historians rely, but also to the art and architecture that reveal how people lived and how they understood ideas like love, death, and the body. Numerous illustrations, chronological charts, excerpts from ancient texts, and in-depth discussions of specific art objects and
historical methods are included. Text boxes containing primary source materials examine such diverse subjects as warfare in early Mesopotamia, sculpting the body in classical Greece, the young women of Sappho's chorus, and early descriptions of the Huns. Combining excellent chronological coverage
with a clear, concise narrative, The Ancient Mediterranean World is an ideal text for undergraduate courses in ancient history and ancient civilization.
Synopsis
The Ancient Mediterranean World provides a concise overview of the growth of Mediterranean civilizations from Paleolithic times through the rise of Muhammad in the 7th century A.D. The book surveys ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and examines life in various Roman provinces, such as Judaea and Britain. It ends with a discussion of the rise of Christianity in the late Antique world.
Table of Contents
List of Maps
List of Chronological Tables
List of Boxes
Preface: The Value of History
Acknowledgements
CHAPTER ONE: The First Civilizations
What Is History?
The Origins of Civilization
The Archaeological Record--The First Modern Humans--The Beginnings of Agriculture--A New Complexity: Some Neolithic Sites
The First Civilizations: The Eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age
The Bronze Age--Mesopotamian Civilization--Egypt in the Bronze Age--The Canaanites--The Hittites--The Agean--The Collapse of Bronze Age Civilization
Israel and Judah
Myth and History--The Hebrew Bible--Early Israel--The Monarchy and the Babylonian Exile--Society and Family--Religion and Law
Summary
CHAPTER TWO: Greek Civilization: Hellas and Hellenism
The Dark Age
Population Decline and Dark Age Culture--Lefkandi--Homer and Oral Poetry
The Archaic