Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and Rome

This book surveys the cities of the Ancient Near East, Egypt, and the Greek and Roman worlds, with a focus on their physical appearance, on urban form, and on their cultural and histori-cal contexts. Architecture is key: the buildings that marked ancient cities, streets, squares, andother spaces in between; the arrangement of these elements in a city plan; and their functionsin ancient societies. Our aim is to see how buildings and objects made by people long gonehelp us understand the urban environments created and lived in by our distant ancestors in theMediterranean basin and the Near East. Geographical conditions are also important; they arehighlighted throughout. In addition, through most of the centuries treated here written recordsgive invaluable information about people and their activities and concerns. The written sourcesare constantly called upon to illuminate ancient life. Archaeology as presented in this book is thusa discipline nourished by many specialties: art and architectural history, urbanism, anthropology, geography, history, philology and literary studies; Ancient Near Eastern studies; Biblical studies;Egyptology; and Greek and Roman studies. 502Pag