The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Civilizations

by John Haywood

This new historical atlas - richly illustrated with photographs, artwork recreations and full-colour maps - explores the world's earliest civilisations from the first farming settlements of Mesopotamia, via Egypt, Greece and Rome, to the civilisations of the Far East, Europe and America. Informatively written, and ideal for both students and the general reader, it plots the rise and fall of empires, the nature of different societies and the evolution of technology.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Reference, Ancient, Maps, Atlases

144 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 2005

Reviews

[Miglė · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended as a companion-book, a bit dry for a standalone read.

What can I say - I LOVE ancient civilizations, and for every other book I read on the subject, I try to make some graphs and timelines in my notebooks. Not for this book - timelines are conveniently provided (you can see what happened at the same time in different parts of the relevant region) and there's a ton of beautiful maps.
It's not as much as a standalone book, but it's a great companion to reading, and, what I enthusiastically discovered, to bring to museums. This book transformed my visit to the MET from enjoyable to mindblowing.

[Nancy S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am currently somewhat obsessed with ancient history, and finding places on a map is part of the pleasure. I spent hours perusing this book, and will refer back to it countless times, I am sure.

[Leon McNair · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Penguin Historical Atlas Of Ancient Civilisation

An excellent, if but brief, handbook to discover pieces of information about the Old World and New World ancient civilisations. The book itself is in 150 pages, dedicating a few pages to each civilisation. The Atlas serves well as a sample instructional manual discussing the developments of imposing cultures and empires; what a civilisation means under certain social groups, and population and economic growths spurred on by mobilisation or concentration of newly-formed city-states within the fertile lands for agriculture and extraction of metals.

The handbook is richly assisted with artwork reconstructions and colour illustrations alongside detailed maps to provide the reader with clarity between the intermingling and neighbouring empires and civilisations that were contemporaries; and included is the examination of European, Mesoamerican, South American, Near Eastern, and Asian developments, such as Rome; Greece; Persia; Indus Valley; Assyria; Egypt; Nubia; China; Carthage; Aztec; and more.

[Brady Thomson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent companion to the study of the ancient world. It does well to offer a succinct summary of the development of key ancient civilisations and their relationships to one another. While brevity is necessitated by its broad scope, a list of further readings is helpfully provided at the end.

[Martin Ridgway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clear. OK, it's high-level and very short but it does deliver what it says - and it's not euro-centric. And the print quality for the maps and illustrations is excellent, which is an essential attribute for a book like this.

[Ad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent but too brief.

[Brooke]

Good brief introduction to a lot of ancient civilizations

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

we’re reading not sailing so why was it so choppy 💀 love pictures tho 😻

[Tacitus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a welcome addition to my library, as it is helping me to understand a wide variety of ancient civilizations all around the world. It will also serve as a handy reference in the future, not only for its maps, but for its prose, which will serve as a good introduction or refresher to each society’s history. As such, it is also a good jumping off point for further study and exploration, whether in other media or by travel. Each section is elegantly and concisely written, and as such is the best of the three Penguin atlases that I have read so far.

[Rock · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I like about books is that some of them have maps in them.

[David]

The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Civilizations was an easy primer to learn about ancient civilizations featuring brief summaries about civilizations from all the inhabited continents and maps of the territory each civilization impacted. The book made me think about the bias of recording only official civilizations throughout history- the primary characteristics of civilizations are monumental structures and social hierarchy. The book covered the more influential civilizations like the Chinese, Greek, Celtic, Egyptian, and Aztec.

The focus of the book made me consider what tribal values might be. And I think tribal values limit hierarchy. This book about civilizations made me curious about the developments within tribal societies that promoted horizontal relationships. I wonder how horizontal relationships can be effectively maintained at the scale of a civilization?

The maps throughout the book were simple and helpful to start to imagine a very different world than our current nation-state world.

I would like to read more about Ashoka, the Indian ruler from the 3rd century, who converted to Buddhism and influenced his subjects to become vegetarian. I find it very intriguing to discover how, what some might say is a progressive value, like vegetarianism, could be implemented on a grand scale thousands of years ago. Proof that societies don't necessarily become more advance or ethically better as time goes on. There are impressive examples of what we consider progressive ideas deep in the past that got buried.

I also would love to read more Mesopotamian stories to see their similarities with Torah stories.

[Biblio Curious · Rating 4 out of 5]

Includes coverage of :
The Ancient Near East
The African Civilizations (only northern Africa is included)
The First Civilizations of Asia (Only China, Indus Valley and India are included. Nothing for the rest of Asia)
First European Civilizations
The Ancient Americans (Mexico, Andes, Easter Island Eastern USA are included.)

For the areas covered, the maps are fantastic. They are standard political map that list things like cities, regions/provinces and rivers. Very useful as a reference or to compliment a history book about a certain region.

Excellent introduction to the topic. It covers all the 'popular' mainstream areas: Egyptians, Greek, Roman, Aztec, Mayan, Easter Island, Terra Cotta Warriors.

I'd recommend it for people new to this field of study and are curious. Atlas or map collectors, mythology fans, history and political buffs. Elementary and High School Projects if they are interested and need maps of these 'old' places.

[John Burridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this reference very much. I picked it up thinking it would focus only on Egypt and the Near East and was pleasantly surprised to find it also covered the Americas, Asia and Northern Europe. I did find one printing error, but otherwise the articles were informative without being overwhelming. They made good use of maps and pictures of artifacts to give an introductory taste of the civilizations being surveyed. A good starting point for further reading.

[Vincent T. Ciaramella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it. If you teach World History and need a quick reference guide or somewhere to pull new material from, this is a great source.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly presented. I bought it mainly for the maps which are very useful. John Haywood has a simple and friendly style.