Ancient Civilizations

by Chris Scarre, Brian M. Fagan

Ancient Civilizations offers a comparative analysis of the field, including both old world and new civilizations, and explores the connections between all civilizations around the earth. The volume provides a jargon-free introduction to ancient civilizations from the first civilizations, and the great powers in the Near East, to the first Aegean civilizations, the Mediterranean world in the first millennium, Imperial Rome, northeast Africa, divine kings in southeast Asia, and empires in East Asia, as well as early states in the Americas and Andean civilization. For those interested in ancient civilizations.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Archaeology, Textbooks, Ancient History, Science, Anthropology

551 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Stanley Dunagin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great survey of ancient civilizations. Plants the seeds for great research in future projects.

[Bookreadingnarcissist · Rating 3 out of 5]

A surprisingly good book about Ancient Civilizations. I didn't read the parts about Greece or Rome, since I already know plenty about them, but the parts on China, Latin America, and Mongolia were fascinating. Who'd have thought that once the Ancient Chinese were unified they still had to pay tribute to the Xiongnu. 3/5

[Riversue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good solid science with a broad global approach to archaeology.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a intro-level textbook covering a wide variety of preindustrial civilizations. It gives you a little information about a lot of topics. Either it isn't very interesting or I have an aversion to textbooks: my attention wandered quite a lot while trying to read this. And not in a good thinking-about-the-topic way, but in a what-chores-do-I-need-to-do-tomorrow way.

[Benjamin Plume · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of essays of varying levels of interest.

[Serena Yates]

review to follow