Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations From Prehistory To 640 Ce

"The most thought-provoking, contemporary, and engaging survey of the ancient world"--

Challenging the stereotypes and myths that typically characterize students' understanding of antiquity, Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations: From Prehistory to 640 CE, Third Edition, focuses on continuity and connections, along with cultural diffusion and cultural diversity, to show how history is a cumulative process and that numerous similar themes recur in different times and places. The text also explores sensitive issues and debates including attitudes toward race, ethnicity, and tolerance; gender issues and roles; slavery; social mobility; religion; political evolution; the nature of government; and imperialism.

Challenging the stereotypes and myths that typically characterize students' understanding of antiquity, Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations: From Prehistory to 640 CE, Second Edition, focuses on continuity and connections, along with cultural diffusion and cultural diversity, to show how history is a cumulative process and that numerous similar themes recur in different times and places. The text also explores sensitive issues and debates including attitudes toward race, ethnicity, and tolerance; gender issues and roles; slavery; social mobility; religion; political evolution; the nature of government; and imperialism. FEATURES New! Chapter 9: "Civilization beyond the Near East, Greece, and Rome (2300-31 BCE)" New! "Digging Antiquity" Illustrated features that discuss specific archaeological sites, many of which can still be visited today New!: "Looking Back" Chapter summaries, followed by "Looking Ahead" sections that preview the following chapters "History Laboratory" Concise observations on how historians use different methodologies to interpret historical evidence and to debunk pseudoscience "Historical Controversy" Reflections that explore conflicting modern interpretations of ancient phenomena "A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words" Illustrations of distinctive material artifacts, accompanied by brief essays "Mysteries of History" Selections that address puzzling and intriguing aspects of the past "In Their Own Words" Extended quotations that exemplify each chapter's main themes Stunning Interior Design: More than 200 maps and illustrations, including an eight-page color portfolio An Image Bank containing more than 100 PowerPoint-based slides and approximately forty maps, available to adopters

"The most thought-provoking, contemporary, and engaging survey of the ancient world"--

"This sourcebook would serve as a companion volume to R.W. Mathisen, Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations: From Prehistory to 640 CE, 2nd edition ...; it will provide ancillary materials--121 primary sources, 15 maps, and 111 illustrations, all in 505 pages--that will expand upon the material in the textbook"--Provided by publisher.

How ancient Mediterranean trade thrived through state institutions From around 700 BCE until the first centuries CE, the Mediterranean enjoyed steady economic growth through trade, reaching a level not to be regained until the early modern era. This process of growth coincided with a process of state formation, culminating in the largest state the ancient Mediterranean would ever know, the Roman Empire. Subsequent economic decline coincided with state disintegration. How are the two processes related? In Trade in the Ancient Mediterranean, Taco Terpstra investigates how the organizational structure of trade benefited from state institutions. Although enforcement typically depended on private actors, traders could utilize a public infrastructure, which included not only courts and legal frameworks but also socially cohesive ideologies. Terpstra details how business practices emerged that were based on private order, yet took advantage of public institutions. Focusing on the activity of both private and public economic actors—from Greek city councilors and Ptolemaic officials to long-distance traders and Roman magistrates and financiers—Terpstra illuminates the complex relationship between economic development and state structures in the ancient Mediterranean.

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.