John M. Weeks
This series provides comprehensive introductions to key ancient civilizations, incorporates up-to-the-minute archaeological developments, highlights controversies, and provides directions for future research.
How did the Greeks recover their nearly extinct language? Is the Bible a useful field guide? How do Mayan pyramid builders compare with their Egyptian counterparts? Archaeologists and others tackle these kinds of questions to piece together the past. What they know about the great civilizations—and how they know it—is the focus of this eye-opening series.
In ABC-CLIO's Understanding Ancient Civilizations series, top scholars bring long-vanished worlds back to life, telling the stories of how great cultures of the past flourished and declined—and how their influence continues today.
Drawing on the latest interpretations of ruins, artifacts, documents, and other sources, the handbooks reveal what we know about daily life in each culture, how we know it, and what questions remain unresolved. Coverage ranges from historical and environmental settings to politics and economics, religion, technology, and artistic and intellectual achievements, all in a concise, easy-to-use format that offers both experienced and beginning researchers quick access to a wealth of information and insights.
Highlights
- Takes readers inside the process of historical discovery, with authors who are working researchers, showing what we know, how we know it, and what we don't yet know
- Focuses primarily on archaeological investigations, but incorporates new findings from linguistics, art history, literature, ecology, and other fields
- Draws parallels among different civilizations and gauges the continued impact of ancient cultures on our world today
Features- Each volume includes chapters on geography and environment, history and chronology, economics, social structure, politics, religion and ideology, material culture, and intellectual achievements. A concluding chapter looks at controversial topics and unanswered questions that are driving research forward
- Each volume includes an A–Z reference section of key concepts, events, persons, and institutions
- Chronological charts outline cultural developments and archaeological discoveries
- Extensive illustration programs include regional maps, architectural plans, and examples of material culture
- Comprehensive indexes provide personal names, place names, and key terms
- Annotated bibliographies include both print and online resources
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