The Life and Death of Ancient Cities

The Life and Death of Ancient Cities PDF Author: Greg Woolf
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190618566
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
The dramatic story of the rise and collapse of Europe's first great urban experiment The growth of cities around the world in the last two centuries is the greatest episode in our urban history, but it is not the first. Three thousand years ago most of the Mediterranean basin was a world of villages; a world without money or writing, without temples for the gods or palaces for the mighty. Over the centuries that followed, however, cities appeared in many places around the Inland Sea, built by Greeks and Romans, and also by Etruscans and Phoenicians, Tartessians and Lycians, and many others. Most were tiny by modern standards, but they were the building blocks of all the states and empires of antiquity. The greatest--Athens and Corinth, Syracuse and Marseilles, Alexandria and Ephesus, Persepolis and Carthage, Rome and Byzantium--became the powerhouses of successive ancient societies, not just political centers but also the places where ancient art and literatures were created and accumulated. And then, half way through the first millennium, most withered away, leaving behind ruins that have fascinated so many who came after. Based on the most recent historical and archaeological evidence, The Life and Death of Ancient Cities provides a sweeping narrative of one of the world's first great urban experiments, from Bronze Age origins to the demise of cities in late antiquity. Greg Woolf chronicles the history of the ancient Mediterranean city, against the background of wider patterns of human evolution, and of the unforgiving environment in which they were built. Richly illustrated, the book vividly brings to life the abandoned remains of our ancient urban ancestors and serves as a stark reminder of the fragility of even the mightiest of cities.

The Life and Death of Ancient Cities

The Life and Death of Ancient Cities PDF Author: Greg Woolf
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190618566
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 512

Get Book Here

Book Description
The dramatic story of the rise and collapse of Europe's first great urban experiment The growth of cities around the world in the last two centuries is the greatest episode in our urban history, but it is not the first. Three thousand years ago most of the Mediterranean basin was a world of villages; a world without money or writing, without temples for the gods or palaces for the mighty. Over the centuries that followed, however, cities appeared in many places around the Inland Sea, built by Greeks and Romans, and also by Etruscans and Phoenicians, Tartessians and Lycians, and many others. Most were tiny by modern standards, but they were the building blocks of all the states and empires of antiquity. The greatest--Athens and Corinth, Syracuse and Marseilles, Alexandria and Ephesus, Persepolis and Carthage, Rome and Byzantium--became the powerhouses of successive ancient societies, not just political centers but also the places where ancient art and literatures were created and accumulated. And then, half way through the first millennium, most withered away, leaving behind ruins that have fascinated so many who came after. Based on the most recent historical and archaeological evidence, The Life and Death of Ancient Cities provides a sweeping narrative of one of the world's first great urban experiments, from Bronze Age origins to the demise of cities in late antiquity. Greg Woolf chronicles the history of the ancient Mediterranean city, against the background of wider patterns of human evolution, and of the unforgiving environment in which they were built. Richly illustrated, the book vividly brings to life the abandoned remains of our ancient urban ancestors and serves as a stark reminder of the fragility of even the mightiest of cities.

Ancient Cities

Ancient Cities PDF Author: Charles Gates
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113467662X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
Well illustrated with nearly 300 line drawings, maps and photographs, Ancient Cities surveys the cities of the ancient Near East, Egypt, and the Greek and Roman worlds from an archaeological perspective, and in their cultural and historical contexts. Covering a huge area geographically and chronologically, it brings to life the physical world of ancient city dwellers by concentrating on evidence recovered by archaeological excavations from the Mediterranean basin and south-west Asia Examining both pre-Classical and Classical periods, this is an excellent introductory textbook for students of classical studies and archaeology alike.

America's Ancient Cities

America's Ancient Cities PDF Author: Gene S. Stuart
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Examines ancient cities in the Americas, revealing how settlements evolved and how urban centers grew and functioned.

Mesoamerica's Ancient Cities

Mesoamerica's Ancient Cities PDF Author: William M. Ferguson
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 9780826328014
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
William Ferguson's classic photographic portrayal of the major pre-Columbian ruins of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras is now available from UNM Press in a completely revised edition. Magnificent aerial and ground photographs give both armchair and actual visitors unparalleled views of fifty-one ancient cities. The restored areas of each site and their interesting and exotic features are shown within each group of ruins. The authors have thoroughly revised the text for this new edition, and they have added over 30 new photographs and illustrations as well as a completely new chapter by Richard E. W. Adams on regional states and empires in ancient Mesoamerica. Over a span of three thousand years between 1500 B.C. and A.D. 1500 great civilizations, including the Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Toltec, Zapotec, and Aztec, flourished, waned, and died in Mesoamerica. These indigenous cultures of Mexico and Central America are brought to life in Mesoamerica's Ancient Cities through stunning color photographs. The authors include the most recent research and most widely accepted theoretical perspectives on Mesoamerican civilizations. Ideal for the general reader as well as scholars of Mesoamerica, this volume makes a significant contribution to our knowledge of the Americas.

Making Ancient Cities

Making Ancient Cities PDF Author: Andrew Creekmore
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107046521
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 443

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Book Description
Investigates how the structure and use of space developed and changed in cities, and examines the role of different societal groups in shaping urbanism.

Hidden Cities

Hidden Cities PDF Author: Roger G. Kennedy
Publisher: Free Press
ISBN: 9781451658750
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Robert Kennedy, director of the National Park Service, analyzes the discovery of North America and the loss of ancient civilization, from the cities, roads, and commerce of the past as the nation evolved into present day. In Hidden Cities, Robert Kennedy sets out on the bold quest of recovering the rich heritage of the North American peoples through a reimagination of the true relations of their modern-day successors and neighbors. From the Spanish and French explorers that discovered the land that would one day make up the United States to present day in the country, very few Euro-Americans have paid attention to the evidence and meaning of the nation’s heritage. As Kennedy shows the magnificence of the mound-building cultures through the sometimes prejudiced eyes of the founding generation, he reveals the astounding history of the North American continent in a way that sheds important light on the credit Native American predecessors deserve but many refuse to give.

Historic Cities

Historic Cities PDF Author: Jeff Cody
Publisher: Getty Publications
ISBN: 1606065939
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 634

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Book Description
This new volume in the GCI's Readings in Conservation series brings together a selection of seminal writings on the conservation of historic cities. This book, the eighth in the Getty Conservation Institute’s Readings in Conservation series, fills a significant gap in the published literature on urban conservation. This topic is distinct from both heritage conservation and urban planning despite the recent growth of urbanism worldwide, no single volume has presented a comprehensive selection of these important writings until now. This anthology, profusely illustrated throughout, is organized into eight parts, covering such subjects as geographic diversity, reactions to the transformation of traditional cities, reading the historic city, the search for contextual continuities, the search for values, and the challenges of sustainability. With more than sixty-five texts, ranging from early polemics by Victor Hugo and John Ruskin to a generous selection of recent scholarship, this book thoroughly addresses regions around the globe. Each reading is introduced by short prefatory remarks explaining the rationale for its selection and the principal matters covered. The book will serve as an easy reference for administrators, professionals, teachers, and students faced with the day-to-day challenges confronting the historic city under siege by rampant development.

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age PDF Author: Annalee Newitz
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039365267X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and Science Friday A quest to explore some of the most spectacular ancient cities in human history—and figure out why people abandoned them. In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes readers on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii on Italy’s southern coast, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today. Newitz travels to all four sites and investigates the cutting-edge research in archaeology, revealing the mix of environmental changes and political turmoil that doomed these ancient settlements. Tracing the early development of urban planning, Newitz also introduces us to the often anonymous workers—slaves, women, immigrants, and manual laborers—who built these cities and created monuments that lasted millennia. Four Lost Cities is a journey into the forgotten past, but, foreseeing a future in which the majority of people on Earth will be living in cities, it may also reveal something of our own fate.

Buried Beneath Us

Buried Beneath Us PDF Author: Anthony Aveni
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
ISBN: 1596439130
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
A beautifully illustrated look at the forces that help cities grow—and eventually cause their destruction—told through the stories of the great civilizations of ancient America. You may think you know all of the American cities. But did you know that long before New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Boston ever appeared on the map—thousands of years before Europeans first colonized North America—other cities were here? They grew up, fourished, and eventually disappeared in the same places that modern cities like St. Louis and Mexico City would later appear. In the pages of this book, you'll find the astonishing story of how they grew from small settlements to booming city centers—and then crumbled into ruins.

Cities that Shaped the Ancient World

Cities that Shaped the Ancient World PDF Author: John Julius Norwich
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0500293406
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
John Julius Norwich presents a sweeping tour of forty great cities that shaped the ancient world and its civilizations—and which in turn have shaped our own. The cities of the ancient world built the foundations for modern urban life, their innovations in architecture and politics essential to cities as we know them today. But what was it like to live in Babylon, Carthage, or Teotihuacan? From the first cities in Mesopotamia to the spectacular urban monuments of the Maya in Central America, the cities explored in Cities That Shaped the Ancient World represent almost three millennia of human history. Not only do they illustrate the highest achievement of the cultures that built them, but they also help us understand the rise and fall of these ancient peoples. In this new compact paperback, eminent historians and archaeologists with first-hand knowledge of each site give voice to these silent ruins, bringing them to life as the teeming, state-of-the-art metropolises they once were.