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

'Offers an invaluable and beautifully illustrated resource, incomparable in its scope, depth and originality' - History Today 'A masterly synthesis that shows us just how much Greece, Rome and other later societies owed to earlier millennia. Beautifully written, up-to-date and elegantly argued' - Brian Fagan, University of California, author of Beyond the Blue Horizon 'Imposing and engaging ... A major intellectual feat ... This is one of those rare books - I can think of no other - in which the treatment of prehistoric times moves seamlessly into the historic period of the ancient world. It is to be applauded as a major work which sets new standards in scholarship, coherence and readability' - Colin Renfrew, Times Literary Supplement

The Mediterranean has been for millennia one of the global cockpits of human endeavour. 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 bc . 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. 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.