The Ancient Mediterranean World

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.

A whirlwind tour for general readers by historians Winks (Yale U.) and Mattern-Parkes (U. of Georgia) of pre-classical eastern Mediterranean civilizations, Greece through the Hellenistic period, Rome from villages to empire, and Christianity to the rise of Islam. Annotation ♭2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

One of the greatest benefits of studying the ancient Greek and Roman past is the ability to utilise different forms of evidence, in particular both written and archaeological sources. The contributors to this volume employ this evidence to examine ancient housing, and what might be learned of identities, families, and societies, but they also use it as a methodological locus from which to interrogate the complex relationship between different types of sources. Chapters range from the recreation of the house as it was conceived in Homeric poetry, to the decipherment of a painted Greek lekythos to build up a picture of household activities, to the conjuring of the sensorial experience of a house in Pompeii. Together, they present a rich tapestry which demonstrates what can be gained for our understanding of ancient housing from examining the interplay between the words of ancient texts and the walls of archaeological evidence.

This book uses network ideas to explore how the sea connected communities across the ancient Mediterranean. We look at the complexity of cultural interaction, and the diverse modes of maritime mobility through which people and objects moved. It will be of interest to Mediterranean specialists, ancient historians, and maritime archaeologists.

The Lived Ancient Religion project has radically changed perspectives on ancient religions and their supposedly personal or public character. This volume applies and further develops these methodological tools, new perspectives and new questions. The religious transformations of the Roman Imperial period appear in new light and more nuances by comparative confrontation and the integration of many disciplines. The contributions are written by specialists from a variety of disciplinary contexts (Jewish Studies, Theology, Classics, Early Christian Studies) dealing with the history of religion of the Mediterranean, West-Asian, and European area from the (late) Hellenistic period to the (early) Middle Ages and shaped by their intensive exchange. From the point of view of their respective fields of research, the contributors engage with discourses on agency, embodiment, appropriation and experience. They present innovative research in four fields also of theoretical debate, which are “Experiencing the Religious”, “Switching the Code”, „A Thing Called Body“ and “Commemorating the Moment”.

Major scholars in North America, Europe, and the Middle East provide a variety of fresh studies on the history, literature, religion, and art of Egypt, Israel, Phoenicia, and the rest of the ancient Mediterranean world. The first part of the book features chapters on ancient Egyptian inscriptions, art, history, and religion. The second part deals with biblical studies, the histories of ancient Israel, Canaan, and the relations among societies in the ancient Near East. The periods covered in the volume range from Old Kingdom Egypt to the late antique era. Most of the art historical and archaeological essays on ancient Egypt, Israel, and Canaan deal with previously unpublished finds. Many of the essays dealing with literary and historical issues explore the relations among ancient cultures, explaining the development of and interest in international trade, warfare, and travel. The book is amply illustrated with photos, drawings, graphs, and tables. "Egypt, Israel, and the Ancient Mediterranean World is a rich and wide-ranging collection of papers that well honors the distinguished scholar to whom it was dedicated. It also has much to offer all scholars interested in political and cultural interactions in the ancient eastern Mediterranean basin." Stanley M. Burstein, California State University, Los Angeles

An examination of remedies for violent rage rediscovered in ancient Greek myths Millennia ago, Greek myths exposed the dangers of violent rage and the need for empathy and self-restraint. Homer's Iliad, Euripides' Hecuba, and Sophocles' Ajax show that anger and vengeance destroy perpetrators and victims alike. Composed before and during the ancient Greeks' groundbreaking movement away from autocracy toward more inclusive political participation, these stories offer guidelines for modern efforts to create and maintain civil societies. Emily Katz Anhalt reveals how these three masterworks of classical Greek literature can teach us, as they taught the ancient Greeks, to recognize violent revenge as a marker of illogical thinking and poor leadership. These time-honored texts emphasize the costs of our dangerous penchant for glorifying violent rage and those who would indulge in it. By promoting compassion, rational thought, and debate, Greek myths help to arm us against the tyrants we might serve and the tyrants we might become.