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These plaques, so ubiquitous in museum collections, offer superlative examples of the artistic heights attained in the so-called animal style of the prehistoric Asian steppe. This study offers a detai

The miniaturist art of gem engraving is the least familiar of the major arts of ancient Greece, yet we know it to have been practiced by the greatest artists. This book presents a comprehensive accoun

Volume III Part II carries on the history of the Near East from the close of Volume III Part I and covers roughly the same chronological period as Volume III Part III. During this period the dominant powers in the East were Assyria and then Babylonia. Each established an extensive empire which was based on Mesopotamia, and each in turn fell largely through internal strife. Assyrian might was reflected in the imposing palaces, libraries and sculptures of the Assyrian kings. Babylonian culture was outstanding in literature, mathematics and astronomy, and the great buildings of Nebuchadnezzar II surpassed even those of the Assyrian kings. Israel and Judah suffered at the hands of both imperial powers, Jerusalem being destroyed and part of the population deported to Babylon; and Egypt was weakened by an Assyrian invasion. The Phoenicians found a new outlet in colonising and founded Carthage. A number of small, vigorous kingdoms developed in Asia Minor, while from the north and north east t

This volume complements the publication of the second edition of The Cambridge Ancient History Volumes V and VI, which cover the history of Greece and associated areas between the Persian wars and the death of Alexander the Great - the Classical Period par excellence. It is also, however, intended to be an independent account of the physical evidence for Greek culture in this period and deals, therefore, with some subjects barely discussed in the text volumes, as well as serving as an illustrated commentary on their main themes. Major sections are devoted to the art and architecture of a period which was to prove the most influential in the development of the arts in the western world. Other sections deal with subjects for which the archaeological evidence is particularly illuminating and where it supplements the record of ancient authors in important ways: these include consideration of the economy and trade, the social and civic life of Athens, religion, the theatre, warfare and coin

This volume complements the publication of the second edition of the text volume of The Cambridge Ancient History Volume IV, but can also be used as an independent, illustrated account of the period (c. 525 to 479 BC), and of the evidence for the life and arts of Greeks and Persians in the years when they first crossed swords with one another, and the freedom of Greece was at stake. It presents a full pictorial survey, with detailed commentary, of the art and archaeology of the Persian empire and its provinces, from Thrace to India. The section on Greece concentrates on Athens of the late Archaic period, immediately before the Persian Wars, with consideration of progress in the arts and of the archaeological evidence for various aspects of Greek life and society. The fortunes of the Western Greek, colonial area and of the Etruscan and Italic peoples are similarly treated, and the volume ends with a study of the invention of coinage and its use in Greece and the Persian empire. This boo

The first kings of the Achaemenid Persian empire, Cyrus the Great and Darius, sought to devise for their capital cities new styles in monumental architecture and sculpture to express their imperial st

Volume III of The Cambridge Ancient History was first published in 1925 in one volume. The new edition has expanded to such an extent, owing to the immense amount of new information now available, tha

The years covered by this volume saw events and developments of major significance in the Mediterranean world. The first section of the book examines the Persian empire, the regions it comprised and its expansion during the reigns of Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes. In Greece, Sparta was attending maturity as the leader of a military coalition and Athens passed through a period of enlightened tyranny to a moderate democracy of dynamic energy and clear-sighted intelligence. Given the contrast between Greek ideas and Persian absolutism a clash between Greece and Persia became inevitable, and important chapters deal with the revolt of the Ionian Greeks against the Persians, and the two Persian invasions of Greece including the epic battles of Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis. The third part of the volume turns to the Western Mediterranean. Italy now becomes a significant factor in the history of the area and this section covers the Italic peoples and their languages from the Bronze to the Iron

The emergence of the Greek world from the Dark Ages to the height of its Geometric civilization was described in The Cambridge Ancient History Volume III Part I. Volume III Part III explores the new prosperity and growth of the young city-states in the eighth to the sixth centuries B.C. This was the great period of expansion and colonization which saw the establishment of Greek city-states from the Western Mediterranean to the Black Sea. This volume describes the East and Egypt, the importance of West Greece and the Aegean islands in trading and exploration, the special characteristics of the societies which were established by colonization. While societies outside the mainstream of expansion and trade retained their old institutions, those at the centre changed rapidly and the period was a time of warfare in mainland Greece. Athens is seen developing into a leading state under the influence of the reforms of Solon and assessment of the social, economic and material history of Greece d

An illustrious scholar presents an elegant, concise, and generously illustrated exploration of Alexander the Great’s representations in art and literature through the agesJohn Boardman is one of the w

From Britain’s most distinguished historian of ancient Greek art comes this account of the influence of Greek communities and their culture through Central Asia, India, and Western China, from the Bro

An innovative exploration of the arts of antiquity, from the earliest European cave paintings to the coming of Christianity and Buddhism in the Old World and the arrival of the Spaniards in the New Wo

The Greeks were obsessed with their past; it infused every aspects of their culture. In this interesting and insightful book, John Boardman explores 'How the Greeks re-created their mythical past' in

Among the gods of classical antiquity Pan - that distinctive figure combining the physical characteristics of man and goat - is one of the few to have retained a special place in the imaginations of w

Traces the development of Archaic Greek sculpture in terms of styles and regions, providing a comprehensive range of pictures for the period that includes coverage of unfamiliar, rarely reproduced scu