Catch The Making Of The Middle Sea: A History Of The Mediterranean From The Beginning To The Emergence Of The Classical World Showcased By Cyprian Broodbank Presented As File

this book . . Given that “The Making of the Middle Sea” won theWolfson Prize it can safely be assumed that it merits a five star rating on Goodreads.
The question is whether or not it happens to be the kind of book that is of interest to you.

Nothing that I have read in the lastmonths has given me any more pleasure, This book is an outstanding synthesis work that relates a compelling narrative of the peoples living on the shores and Islands of the Mediterranean Sea from,,toB.
C. The intense archeological work conducted in most Mediterranean countries over the last fifty years have made it possible to write a history of the “prehistorical” era.

There have been no spectacular finds since thes with exquisite artistic art treasures like those of Troy and Knossos.
Instead there have been hundreds of modest excavations that have made it possible to write history through quantitative data, The Mask of Tutankhamun's mummy is an extraordinary display piece, Pottery fragments from thirty sites allow the archeologist to identify the

trading area served by a centre of production, Analysis of the contents of human stomachs and turds reveal the timeline and the path of the spread of different types of agriculture.

For a layman like myself, Broodbanks book contains surprises at almost every page, Recent research has determined when sails were first developed, when donkeys were first used, when humans began to keep dogs, how the culture of spelt wheat spread throughout the region, when shell fish first became part of the diet, etc.
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While this book is certainly a slog its rewards are tremendous, It provides a history of the technology, demography, architecture, agriculture, languages and societies of the Mediterranean world prior to the beginning of Classical Greek and Latin civilization.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable, fascinating and thought provoking overview of the prehistory of the Mediterranean, the Middle Sea of the title, with sufficient detail to allow you to understand the local impact of larger trends and plenty of interesting facts.

Written for the educated layman, I had read a couple of books about Ancient Egypt, Ancient Mesopotamia and archaeology, so had a little knowledge before coming to this excellent synthesis.
It is written using some technical terms, but these are explained sufficiently,
Broodbank starts by providing a framework and terms of reference for his work, then in chaptercovers,million to,BC, with subsequent chapters of shorter and shorter time duration as more changes over a shorter time scale with greater information available to provide detail, finishing in chaptercoveringBC.
This may sound challenging and it is, but Broodbank's approach works very well, trying to provide sufficient overview for you to follow the overall "story arc", whilst providing sufficient specific examples for the reader to understand the practical implications of the overview.

Broodbank's approach is also, as much as possible, to tell the story for all of the Mediterranean, including Iberia and Africa, whilst admitting that often there is little archaeological evidence for Africa west of the Nile.
Broodbank also emphasises that the story is not of progress, but of change, and that there are losers as well as winners as times change.

The book is well illustrated as you would expect from Thames amp Hudson with an excellent map at the beginning of each chapter detailing the position of sites mentioned in that chapter, as well plenty of black amp white illustrations and aboutcolour illustrations.
I bought the Kindle version, which was good to jump around, but have also bought the hardback for the illustrations and map, which a Kindle cannot really show to best advantage.

A really readable and enlightening book, I now want to learn more, especially about the Stone Age and Neanderthals, but that is what a good book does.
Excellent, can't recommend highly enough, The best book I've ever read on the subject, This provides such a wealth of information about current thinking on human evolution, genetics, history and migration that the firehose comes to mind.
Broodbank poses great questions: why did humans go east, via the Near East, instead of trying to cross the Middle Sea Mediterranean Why would huntergatherers accede to emerging sedentary agricultural approaches, instead of maintaining their lifestyle And the questions I'm waiting to hear answered: is it possible Celtic culture moved east from the Atlantic Coast of Europe, as well as west to Britain and Ireland What was the "warrior culture" that adopted horses, chariots, and bronze weapons How widespread A comprehensive account of human interaction from earliest times to the dawn of the classical age.
A fascinating interpretation of this important area of the world, But is perhaps too detailed for the general reader, Abandoned. Too dense. A worthwhile endeavor to formulate a history OF the Mediterranean,

The author is engaging and thoughtful but like many "Big Picture" history books sometimes muddles the details,

That being said, the author does provide a wealth of material and references to supplement the big picture view of history presented in the book.


The book can vary from anecdotal to borderline academic jargon some background in the subject is helpful, . . or have google handy.

Highly recommend for anyone interested in the history and archaeology of the Mediterranean basin, A thoroughly amazing book of the history of the Mediterranean from the beginning to the emergence of the classical world.
Beautiful in every way copious illustrations, photographs and maps, beautifully written and a fascinating and comprehensive account of the Mediterranena in the distant past.
It covers not only at the Egyptians, the Levant, the Aegean and Iberia, but period by period looks at the whole of the Mediterranean, the individual societies and the relationships between them, the emergence of common themes and differences.
, showing that well before the socalled 'ancient world' so much was happening, being made and traded,

It is a long and detailed read, but well worth it for those interested in the ancient world and making connections across preancient societies, rather than focussing just on one culture.
Well this was a slog of a book, It is first and foremost, an incredibly ambitious project to summarize, in a big picture kind of way, the complete history of the Mediterranean, from before man left Africa, up toBC.
There are some really excellent bits of info in this book, as well as, as I think the author intended, a new way to look at the settlements and migration patterns throughout this time period.
A particularly in teresting segment for me was to learn that the Mediterranean was closed off from the Atlantic for a period and during this time was only a number of lakes and dramatic waterfalls, such as the Nile estuary.
This allowed for possible migrations that weren't along the circumference, although the mountains and valleys of the sea bed were likely deteriment to most.


This all being said, this book would serve better as a text for university than a book to read for general interest.
Much of this is the tendency of the author to run on in segments that could have been edited far more concisely.
This book could easily have been aboutpages shorter, Superb and detailed book on the prehistory and deep history/time of the Mediterranean, recommended! The Mediterranean has been for millennia one of the global cockpits of human endeavor.
Worldclass 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 beforeBC.
This book is the first full, interpretive synthesis for a generation on the rise of the Mediterranean world from its beginning, before the emergence of our own species, up to the threshold of Classical times, by which time the "Middle Sea" was already in effect made.


Thanks to unrivalled depth and breadth of exploration, Mediterranean archaeology is one of the world's richest sources for the reconstruction of ancient societies.
This book is the first to draw in equal measure on ideas and information from the European, western Asian and African flanks, as well as the islands at the Mediterranean's heart, to achieve a truly innovative focus on the varied trajectories and interactions that created this maritime world.


The Mediterranean combines unusual conditions in a strictly unique fashion that goes a long way towards explaining its precocious development: it is the world's largest inland sea, easily the largest of the five challenging, opportunityrich "mediterraneoid" environments on the planet, and adjacent to the riverine cores of two of the earliest civilizations, in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
No wonder its societies proved exceptional,

Extensively illustrated and ranging across disciplines, subject matter and chronology from early humans and the origins of farming and metallurgy to the rise of civilizationsEgyptian, Levantine, Hispanic, Minoan, Mycenaean, Phoenician, Etruscan, early Greekthe book is a masterpiece of archaeological and historical writing.
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