The Cambridge Ancient History

1971-12
 |  History
The Cambridge Ancient History

Author: Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 0521077915

Category: History

Page: 1092

View: 597

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Part II of volume I deals with the history of the Near East from about 3000 to 1750 B.C. In Egypt, a long period of political unification and stability enabled the kings of the Old Kingdom to develop and exploit natural resources, to mobilize both the manpower and the technical skill to build the pyramids, and to encourage sculptors in the production of works of superlative quality. After a period of anarchy and civil war at the end of the Sixth Dynasty the local rulers of Thebes established the so-called Middle Kingdom, restoring an age of political calm in which the arts could again flourish. In Western Asia, Babylonia was the main centre and source of civilisation, and her moral, though not always her military, hegemony was recognized and accepted by the surrounding countries of Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, Assyria and Elam. The history of the region is traced from the late Uruk and Jamdat Nasr periods up to the rise of Hammurabi, the most significant developments being the invention of writing in the Uruk period, the emergence of the Semites as a political factor under Sargon, and the success of the centralized bureaucracy under the Third Dynasty of Ur.

The Cambridge Ancient History

1970-12-02
 |  History
The Cambridge Ancient History

Author: I. E. S. Edwards

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 0521070511

Category: History

Page: 844

View: 530

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Provides an account of what is known about the remotest geological ages, comprising chapters on the different kinds of evidence concerning man and his physical environment.

The Cambridge Ancient History

1970-12-02
 |  History
The Cambridge Ancient History

Author: I. E. S. Edwards

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 0521070511

Category: History

Page: 0

View: 102

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The present volume begins with an account of what is known about the remotest geological ages and comprises chapters on the different kinds of evidence concerning man and his physical environment up to the end of the Predynastic Period in Egypt and the parallel stages of development in Mesopotamia, Persia, Anatolia, Palestine, Cyprus, Greece and the Islands. To trace the history of these very early times it is necessary to rely chiefly on material remains, since writing had not then been invented. The text offers a setting against which the cultural progress of the historical epoch can be viewed. Archaeological investigation may be expected to bring to light more evidence to fill some of the present gaps in our knowledge, but already it is clear that the gulf between historical and prehistorical times in much of the ancient world is narrower than was once supposed.