The Making of the Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean from the Beginning to the Emergence of the Classical World

Book excerpt: An award-winning history of the Mediterranean from prehistory to the Classical world reissued with an extended new preface by the author. For millennia, the Mediterranean has been one of the global cockpits of human endeavor. World- class interpretations exist of its classical and subsequent history, but there has been remarkably little holistic exploration of how its societies, culture, and economies first came into being, despite the fact that almost all the fundamental developments originated well before 500 BCE. The Making of the Middle Sea offers a full interpretive exploration into the rise of the Mediterranean world from its beginning, before the emergence of our own species, up to the threshold of classical times. Extensively illustrated and ranging across disciplines, subject matter, and chronology, from early humans and the origins of farming and metallurgy to the rise of civilizations—Egyptian, Levantine, Hispanic, Minoan, Mycenaean, Phoenician, Etruscan, early Greek—the book is a masterpiece of archaeological and historical writing. Now featuring a new preface exploring the most recent archaeological research on the Mediterranean world.