The Near East: Archaeology in the 'Cradle of Civilization'

by Charles Keith Maisels

Overview

The transition from foraging, farming and the neolithic village to the city-state is a complex and fascinating period. Studies on the prehistory of the Near East by nineteenth and twentieth century pioneers in the field transformed archaeology through the creation of the 'Ages System' of Stone, Bronze and Iron. The Near East provides a developmental account of this period contextualised by discussion of the emergence of archaeology as a discipline.
The Near East details the causes and effects - enviromental, organizational, demographic and technological - of the world's first village farming cultures some eight thousand years ago. Charles Maisels explains how cities such as Uruk and Ur, Nippur and Kish formed as a result of geological factors and the role of key organizational features of Sumerian society in introducing the world's first script, system of calculation and literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781134664689
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/24/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Charles Keith Maisels

Table of Contents

List of figures. Maps. Plates and Tables. Acknowledgements. 1. Introduction 2. An Artefactual Basis for the Past 3. Digging Before Excavation 4. Practical Pioneers and Theoretical Problems 5. Harbingers in the Levant 6. The Land that Two Rivers Made 7. The Ubadaidian Inheritance 8. The Household as Enterprise 9. What we're Getting to Know and What we Need to Do. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

Editorial Reviews

'A useful overview of recent research.' - The Times Higher Education supplement.

'A Fascinating reconstruction of the evolutionary processes from the development of agriculture through the rise of the great Sumerian cities ... highly recommended.' - Religious Studies Review

From the Publisher