Stone Age Sailors

Stone Age Sailors
Author: Alan H Simmons
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2016-06-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1315419726

Alan Simmons summarizes and synthesizes the evidence for prehistoric seafaring and island habitation in the Mediterranean as part of the mounting evidence that our ancestors developed sailing skills early in prehistory.

Stone Age Sailors

Stone Age Sailors
Author: Alan H Simmons
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2016-06-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1315419718

Over the past decade, evidence has been mounting that our ancestors developed skills to sail across large bodies of water early in prehistory. In this fascinating volume, Alan Simmons summarizes and synthesizes the evidence for prehistoric seafaring and island habitation worldwide, then focuses on the Mediterranean. Recent work in Melos, Crete, and elsewhere-- as well as Simmons’ own work in Cyprus-- demonstrate that long-distance sailing is a common Paleolithic phenomenon. His comprehensive presentation of the key evidence and findings will be of interest to both those interested in prehistory and those interested in ancient seafaring.

Archaeology and History in Sardinia from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages

Archaeology and History in Sardinia from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages
Author: Stephen L. Dyson
Publisher: UPenn Museum of Archaeology
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781934536025

With one of the richest archaeological records and most complicated histories in the Mediterranean, Sardinia provides an important laboratory for studying the interaction of indigenous societies and outside forces in a partly isolated geographical context. Stephen L. Dyson and Robert J. Rowland, Jr. use both material culture and written documents to reconstruct the social and economic processes of an island society that showed both cultural creativity and continuity but responded to invasions from the Phoenicians through the Romans to the Aragonese. This first accessible reconstruction of island archaeology provides a balanced picture of the sweep of Sardinian history.

Seafaring and Seafarers in the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean

Seafaring and Seafarers in the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean
Author: Arthur Bernard Knapp
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Bronze age
ISBN: 9789088905551

This book presents a diachronic study of seafaring, seafarers and maritime interactions during the Early, Middle and Late Bronze Ages of the eastern Mediterranean (Cyprus, Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt)

The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age

The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age
Author: Jean-Claude Poursat
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 994
Release: 2022-06-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1108571190

The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age offers a comprehensive chronological and geographical overview of one of the most important civilizations in human history. Jean-Claude Poursat's volume provides a clear path through the rich and varied art and archaeology of Aegean prehistory, from the Neolithic period down to the end of the Bronze Age. Charting the regional differences within the Aegean world, his study covers the full range of material evidence, including architecture, pottery, frescoes, metalwork, stone, and ivory, all lucidly arranged by chapter. With nearly 300 illustrations, this volume is one of the most lavishly illustrated treatments of the subject yet published. Suggestions for further reading provide an up-to-date entry point to the full richness of the subject. Originally published in French, and translated by the author's collaborator Carl Knappett, this edition makes Poursat's deep knowledge of the Aegean Bronze Age available to an English-language audience for the first time.

Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age

Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age
Author: Joan Aruz
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2014-09-15
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0300208081

Bringing together the research of internationally renowned scholars, Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age contributes significantly to our understanding of the epoch-making artistic and cultural exchanges that took place across the Near East and Mediterranean in the early first millennium B.C. This was the world of Odysseus, in which seafaring Phoenician merchants charted new nautical trade routes and established prosperous trading posts and colonies on the shores of three continents; of kings Midas and Croesus, legendary for their wealth; and of the Hebrew Bible, whose stories are brought vividly to life by archaeological discoveries. Objects drawn from collections in the Middle East, Europe, North Africa, and the United States, reproduced here in sumptuous detail, reflect the cultural encounters of diverse populations interacting through trade, travel, and migration as well as war and displacement. Together, they tell a compelling story of the origins and development of Western artistic traditions that trace their roots to the ancient Near East and across the Mediterranean world. Among the masterpieces brought together in this volume are stone reliefs that adorned the majestic palaces of ancient Assyria; expertly crafted Phonecian and Syrian bronzes and worked ivories that were stored in the treasuries of Assyria and deposited in tombs and sanctuaries in regions far to the west; and lavish personal adornments and other luxury goods, some imported and others inspired by Near Eastern craftsmanship. Accompanying texts by leading scholars position each object in cultural and historical context, weaving a narrative of crisis and conquest, worship and warfare, and epic and empire that spans both continents and millennia. Writing another chapter in the story begun in Art of the First Cities (2003) and Beyond Babylon (2008), Assyria to Iberia offers a comprehensive overview of art, diplomacy, and cultural exchange in an age of imperial and mercantile expansion in the ancient Near East and across the Mediterranean in the first millennium B.C.—the dawn of the Classical age.

Seagoing Ships and Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant

Seagoing Ships and Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant
Author: Shelley Wachsmann
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Total Pages: 436
Release: 2018-05-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1623497000

During the Bronze Age, the ancient societies that ringed the Mediterranean, once mostly separate and isolate, began to reach across the great expanse of sea to conduct trade, marking an age of immense cultural growth and technological development. These intersocietal lines of communication and paths for commerce relied on rigorous open-water travel. And, as a potential superhighway, the Mediterranean demanded much in the way of seafaring knowledge and innovative ship design if it were to be successfully navigated. In Seagoing Ships and Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant Shelley Wachsmann presents a one-of-a-kind comprehensive examination of how the early eastern Mediterranean cultures took to the sea--and how they evolved as a result. The author surveys the blue-water ships of the Egyptians, Syro-Canaanites, Cypriots, Early Bronze Age Aegeans, Minoans, Mycenaeans, and Sea Peoples, and discusses known Bronze Age shipwrecks. Relying on archaeological, ethnological, iconographic, and textual evidence, Wachsmann delivers a fascinating and intricate rendering of virtually every aspect of early sea travel--from ship construction and propulsion to war on the open water, piracy, and laws pertaining to conduct at sea. This broad study is further enhanced by contributions from other renowned scholars. J. Hoftijzer and W. H. van Soldt offer new and illuminating translations of Ugaritic and Akkadian documents that refer to seafaring. J. R. Lenz delves into the Homeric Greek lexicon to search out possible references to the birdlike shapes that adorned early ships' stem and stern. F. Hocker provides a useful appendix and glossary of nautical terms, and George F. Bass's foreword frames the study's scholarly significance and discusses its place in the nautical archaeological canon. This book brings together for the first time the entire corpus of evidence pertaining to Bronze Age seafaring and will be of special value to archaeologists, maritime historians, philologists, and Bronze Age textual scholars. Offering an abundance of line drawings and photographs and written in a style that makes the material easily accessible to the layperson, Wachsmann's study is certain to become a standard reference for anyone interested in the dawn of sea travel.

Cedar Forests, Cedar Ships

Cedar Forests, Cedar Ships
Author: Sara A. Rich
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2017-04-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1784913669

It is commonly recognized that the Cedars of Lebanon were prized in the ancient world, but how can the complex archaeological role of the Cedrus genus be articulated in terms that go beyond its interactions with humans alone?