Journey to the ancient past with cutting-edge science and new data to discover how horses forever altered the course of human history. From the Rockies to the Himalayas, the bond between horses and humans has spanned across time and civilizations. In this archaeological journey, William T. Taylor explores how momentous events in the story of humans and horses helped create the world we live in today. Tracing the horse's origins and spread from the western Eurasian steppes to the invention of horse-drawn transportation and the explosive shift to mounted riding, Taylor offers a revolutionary new account of how horses altered the course of human history. Drawing on Indigenous perspectives, ancient DNA, and new research from Mongolia to the Great Plains and beyond, Taylor guides readers through the major discoveries that have placed the horse at the origins of globalization, trade, biological exchange, and social inequality. Hoof Beats transforms our understanding of both horses and hum
Generally it is believed that the cradle of civilization is Mesopotamia. Importance is given to India's role also. Number of Western scholars have shown that India was the first civilization, from whe
We often think of the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome as discrete incubators of Western culture, places where ideas about everything from government to art to philosophy were free to develop
The Goths are truly a “lost civilization.” Sweeping down from the north, ancient Gothic tribes sacked the imperial city of Rome and set in motion the decline and fall of the western Roman
Iran, or Persia as it was formerly known, has been a melting pot of civilizations for millenia. The Islamic revolution in 1979 and subsequent events led to a long estrangement with most western nation
A short and comprehensive political and military history of ancient Rome, from the origins of the city in the Italian Iron Age, until the deposition of the last emperor in 476 AD. Outlining Rome's absorption of the Italian peninsula, Christopher Mackay explains how this conquest provided the Romans with the man power that allowed them to conquer the Mediterranean in a mere half-century. Mackay details how the military responsibilities of empire undermined the political institutions of the Republic and how the Imperial adoption of Christianity as the state religion, as well as the military and economic pressures of the third and fourth centuries, eventually led to the downfall of the western empire through invasion. Illustrated with the relevant art works from Rome's long history, this volume will serve as a timely and up to date overview of one of the most extraordinary civilizations of human history.
A short and comprehensive political and military history of ancient Rome, from the origins of the city in the Italian Iron Age, until the deposition of the last emperor in 476 AD. Outlining Rome's absorption of the Italian peninsula, Christopher Mackay explains how this conquest provided the Romans with the man power that allowed them to conquer the Mediterranean in a mere half-century. Mackay details how the military responsibilities of empire undermined the political institutions of the Republic and how the Imperial adoption of Christianity as the state religion, as well as the military and economic pressures of the third and fourth centuries, eventually led to the downfall of the western empire through invasion. Illustrated with the relevant art works from Rome's long history, this volume will serve as a timely and up to date overview of one of the most extraordinary civilizations of human history.
Ancient GreeceThe foundation of democracy, the genesis of the Olympic Games, the cradle of Western thinking; the inspiration of the Renaissance—the world owes Ancient Greece a lot more than one might
Charles Freeman's The Greek Achievement traces the entire course of ancient Greek history across thousands of years--from the Mycenaean and Minoan civilizations of the Bronze Age through the Archaic,
The ancient civilizations of the South American Andes created some of the most spectacular monuments and buildings in the Western Hemispere, and these edifices had a wide range of impacts on the cultu
For over a century, scholars have recognized an 'orientalizing period' in the history of early Greek art, in which Greek artisans fashioned works of art under the stimulus of Near Eastern imports or resident foreign artisans. Previous studies have emphasized the role of Greek and Phoenician traders in bringing about these contacts with the civilizations of the ancient Near East and Egypt, debating their duration or intensity in the Greek world. In this study, Ann Gunter interrogates the categories of 'Greek' and 'Oriental' as problematic and shifts emphasis to modes of contact and cultural transfers within a broader regional setting. Her provocative study places Greek encounters with the Near East and Egypt in the context of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which by the 8th and 7th centuries BCE extended from southern Turkey to western Iran. Using an expanded array of archaeological and textual sources, she argues that crucial aspects of the identity and meaning of foreign works of art were co
For over a century, scholars have recognized an 'orientalizing period' in the history of early Greek art, in which Greek artisans fashioned works of art under the stimulus of Near Eastern imports or resident foreign artisans. Previous studies have emphasized the role of Greek and Phoenician traders in bringing about these contacts with the civilizations of the ancient Near East and Egypt, debating their duration or intensity in the Greek world. In this study, Ann Gunter interrogates the categories of 'Greek' and 'Oriental' as problematic and shifts emphasis to modes of contact and cultural transfers within a broader regional setting. Her provocative study places Greek encounters with the Near East and Egypt in the context of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which by the 8th and 7th centuries BCE extended from southern Turkey to western Iran. Using an expanded array of archaeological and textual sources, she argues that crucial aspects of the identity and meaning of foreign works of art were co
