Ancient Middle Niger

Ancient Middle Niger PDF Author: Roderick J. McIntosh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521813006
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Survey of the emergence of the ancient urban civilization of Middle Niger.

Ancient Middle Niger

Ancient Middle Niger PDF Author: Roderick J. McIntosh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521813006
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Survey of the emergence of the ancient urban civilization of Middle Niger.

The Peoples of the Middle Niger

The Peoples of the Middle Niger PDF Author: Roderick James McIntosh
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0631173617
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
The Peoples of the Middle Niger This book provides the first comprehensive history of the peoples of the Middle Niger written by an English-speaking scholar. ‘The Island of Gold’ was the medieval Muslim and later European name for a fabled source of gold and other tropical riches. Although the floodplain of the Niger river lies far from the goldfields, the mosaic of peoples along the Middle Niger created a wealth of grain, fish, and livestock that supported some of Africa’s oldest cities, including Timbuktu. These ancient cities of the region that came to be known as Western Sudan were founded without outside stimulation and their inhabitants long resisted the coercive, centralized state that characterized the origins of earliest towns elsewhere. In this book, Roderick James McIntosh uses the latest archaeological and anthropological research to provide a bold overview of the distant origins of life for the inhabitants of the Middle Niger, and an explanation for their social evolution. He shows, for instance, the difficulties the peoples faced in adapting to an unpredictable climate, and how their particular social organization determined the unusual nature of their responses to that change. Throughout the book oral traditions are integrated into the story, providing vivid insights into the inhabitants' complex culture and belief systems.

African Dominion

African Dominion PDF Author: Michael A. Gomez
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400888166
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 521

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Book Description
A groundbreaking history that puts early and medieval West Africa in a global context Pick up almost any book on early and medieval world history and empire, and where do you find West Africa? On the periphery. This pioneering book, the first on this period of the region’s history in a generation, tells a different story. Interweaving political and social history and drawing on a rich array of sources, including Arabic manuscripts, oral histories, and recent archaeological findings, Michael Gomez unveils a new vision of how categories of ethnicity, race, gender, and caste emerged in Africa and in global history more generally. Scholars have long held that such distinctions arose during the colonial period, but Gomez shows they developed much earlier. Focusing on the Savannah and Sahel region, Gomez traces the exchange of ideas and influences with North Africa and the Central Islamic Lands by way of merchants, scholars, and pilgrims. Islam’s growth in West Africa, in tandem with intensifying commerce that included slaves, resulted in a series of political experiments unique to the region, culminating in the rise of empire. A major preoccupation was the question of who could be legally enslaved, which together with other factors led to the construction of new ideas about ethnicity, race, gender, and caste—long before colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade. Telling a radically new story about early Africa in global history, African Dominion is set to be the standard work on the subject for many years to come.

The Ancient Middle Classes

The Ancient Middle Classes PDF Author: Emanuel Mayer
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674065344
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
"Our image of the Roman world is shaped by the writings of Roman statesmen and upper class intellectuals. Yet most of the material evidence we have from Roman times--art, architecture, and household artifacts from Pompeii and elsewhere--belonged to, and was made for, artisans, merchants, and professionals. Roman culture as we have seen it with our own eyes, Emanuel Mayer boldly argues, turns out to be distinctly middle class and requires a radically new framework of analysis. Starting in the first century B.C.E., ancient communities, largely shaped by farmers living within city walls, were transformed into vibrant urban centers where wealth could be quickly acquired through commercial success. From 100 B.C.E. to 250 C.E., the archaeological record details the growth of a cosmopolitan empire and a prosperous new class rising along with it. Not as keen as statesmen and intellectuals to show off their status and refinement, members of this new middle class found novel ways to create pleasure and meaning. In the décor of their houses and tombs, Mayer finds evidence that middle-class Romans took pride in their work and commemorated familial love and affection in ways that departed from the tastes and practices of social elites."--Jacket.

Forgotten Africa

Forgotten Africa PDF Author: Graham Connah
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134403038
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Forgotten Africa provides an introduction to Africa's past from an archaeological perspective.

Africa in the Iron Age

Africa in the Iron Age PDF Author: Roland Anthony Oliver
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521099004
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
A textbook providing the only comprehensive and up-to-date account of African history between 500 B.C. and 1400 A.D. Also useful to students of archaeology.

Trade in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond

Trade in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond PDF Author: D. J. Mattingly
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108195407
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
Saharan trade has been much debated in modern times, but the main focus of interest remains the medieval and early modern periods, for which more abundant written sources survive. The pre-Islamic origins of Trans-Saharan trade have been hotly contested over the years, mainly due to a lack of evidence. Many of the key commodities of trade are largely invisible archaeologically, being either of high value like gold and ivory, or organic like slaves and textiles or consumable commodities like salt. However, new research on the Libyan people known as the Garamantes and on their trading partners in the Sudan and Mediterranean Africa requires us to revise our views substantially. In this volume experts re-assess the evidence for a range of goods, including beads, textiles, metalwork and glass, and use it to paint a much more dynamic picture, demonstrating that the pre-Islamic Sahara was a more connected region than previously thought.

The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History

The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History PDF Author: Peter Clark
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199589534
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 913

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Book Description
In 2008 for the first time the majority of the planet's inhabitants lived in cities and towns. Becoming globally urban has been one of mankind's greatest collective achievements over time. Written by leading scholar, this is the first detailed survey of the world's cities and towns from ancient times to the present day.

Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond

Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond PDF Author: Martin Sterry
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108494447
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 765

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Book Description
This ground-breaking volume pushes back conventional dating of the earliest sedentarisation, urbanisation and state formation in the Sahara.

Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara

Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara PDF Author: Alisa LaGamma
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 1588396878
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
This groundbreaking volume examines the extraordinary artistic and cultural traditions of the African region known as the western Sahel, a vast area on the southern edge of the Sahara desert that includes present-day Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, and Niger. This is the first book to present a comprehensive overview of the diverse cultural achievements and traditions of the region, spanning more than 1,300 years from the pre Islamic period through the nineteenth century. It features some of the earliest extant art from sub Saharan Africa as well as such iconic works as sculptures by the Dogon and Bamana peoples of Mali. Essays by leading international scholars discuss the art, architecture, archaeology, literature, philosophy, religion, and history of the Sahel, exploring the unique cultural landscape in which these ancient communities flourished. Richly illustrated and brilliantly argued, Sahel brings to life the enduring forms of expression created by the peoples who lived in this diverse crossroads of the world.