Civilizations : Ten Thousand Years of Ancient History - Softcover

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9780563488897: Civilizations : Ten Thousand Years of Ancient History

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0563488891 ISBN 13: 9780563488897

Publisher: BBC Books, 1602

"Civilizations" takes the reader forward from the earliest days of human settlement to the civilizations of the New World overthrown by the Spanish Conquistadors. After a brief look at humanity's development as nomadic hunters and gatherers, the story begins with the crucial step taken around 10,000 years ago when some communities began cultivating plants. The settled villages of these early farmers were the forerunners of the complex cities and highly sophisticated cultures that were later to flourish in the emergent civilizations across the world. Following a basically chronological path, the book focuses on the world's key civilizations in each time period, beginning with the primary civilizations in Mesopotamia, India, Egypt and China, illuminating Greece, Rome and their contemporaries and culminating in the states of America, but not neglecting other, less familiar, civilizations.

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About the Author:

Jane McIntosh is a freelance archaeological writer, editor, and consultant. Her doctoral and post-doctoral research was on the South Indian Iron Age, and she has considerable experience in archaeological fieldwork in India, Iraq, Cyprus, and Britain. Dr. McIntosh taught archaeology at Cambridge University. She has written a number of books and multimedia texts, including Atlas of the Ancient World CD-ROM (1998), The Practical Archaeologist (1999), and A Peaceful Realm: The Rise and Fall of the Indus Civilization (2001). She has contributed many articles to encyclopedias, dictionaries, and atlases. Clint Twist studied history at Cambridge University and then worked as a consultant on various archaeology and museum projects in the Middle East. He has written over thirty books, including an eight-volume history of exploration. Many of these titles have been translated and published internationally. His recent projects include editing the Encyclopedia of Colonial America (1998); compiling World History (1999), a chronology of people and events; and writing Historical Atlas of the Celts (2001).

From Publishers Weekly:

In Civilization: Ten Thousand Years of Ancient History, Jane McIntosh (The Practical Archaeologist) and Clint Twist (Historical Atlas of the Celts) explore the first 10,000 years of civic life. Beginning with the first agricultural settlements "the moment when... the pace of change accelerated, leading rapidly to the very different world in which we live today" the authors look at Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, Greece and the Roman empire, finishing up with the Incas and Aztecs. Shipbuilding, aqueducts, pyramids, pottery and technologies of every variety are given fresh consideration. With more than 270 color photographs and illustrations, this large-format book will entertain and illuminate.

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