This volume breaks new ground in approaching the Ancient Economy by bringing together documentary sources from Mesopotamia and the Greco-Roman world. Addressing textual corpora that have traditionally been studied separately, the collected papers overturn the conventional view of a fundamental divide between the economic institutions of these two regions. The premise is that, while controlling for differences, texts from either cultural setting can be brought to bear on the other and can shed light, through their use as proxy data, on such questions as economic mentalities and market development. The book also presents innovative approaches to the quantitative study of large corpora of ancient documents. The resulting view of the Ancient Economy is much more variegated and dynamic than traditional ïprimitivistÍ views would allow. The volume covers the following topics: Babylonian house size data as an index of urban living standards; the Old Babylonian archives as a source for economic history; Middle Bronze Age long distance trade in Anatolia; long-term economic development in Babylonia from the 7th to the 4th century BC; legal institutions and agrarian change in the Roman Empire; papyrological evidence for water-lifting technology; money circulation and monetization in Late Antique Egypt; the application of Social Network Analysis to Babylonian cuneiform archives; price trends in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, as well as the effects of locust plagues on prices.

This classic history, first published in 1883, is the first English-language work to provide a comprehensive history of Burma, now Myanmar, based on Burmese sources. It incorporates the early history not only of Burma proper, but also those of the surrounding kingdoms of Pegu, Taungu, Tenasserim, and Arakan, comparing when possible differing accounts of events as described in those chronicles. Includes original extensive appendixes and large foldout map.

Sri Lanka is an ancient civilization, shaped and thrust into the modern globalizing world by its colonial experience. With its own unique problems, many of them historical legacies, it is a nation trying to maintain a democratic, pluralistic state structure while struggling to come to terms with separatist aspirations. This is a complex story, and there is perhaps no better person to present it in reasoned, scholarly terms than K.M. de Silva, Sri Lanka’s most distinguished and prolific historian. A History of Sri Lanka, first published in 1981, has established itself as the standard work on the subject. This fully revised edition, in light of the most recent research, brings the story right up to the early years of the twenty-first century. The book provides comprehensive coverage of all aspects of Sri Lanka’s development—from a classical Buddhist society and irrigation economy, to its emergence as a tropical colony producing some of the world’s most important cash crops, such as cinnamon, tea, rubber and coconut, and finally as an Asian democracy. It is a study of the political vicissitudes of Sri Lanka’s ancient civilization and the successive phases of Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial rule. The unfortunate consequences of becoming a centre of ethnic tension and Sri Lanka’s long-standing relationship with India are also discussed. Exhaustively researched and analytical, this book is an invaluable reference source for students of ancient, colonial and post-colonial societies, ethnic conflict and democratic transitions, as well as for all those who simply want to get a feel of the rich and varied texture of Sri Lanka’s long history.

Indian Buddhist Pandits, describing the life and works of the major Buddhist Master of Ancient India, translated from the second volumne of The Jewel Garland of Buddhist History, compiled by the Tibetan Masters,will surely serve as an inspiration to all the students and scholars of the Buddhist philosophy. Between the covers of this slim volumn, the reader is offered glimpses of the courage, compassion, dedication and the devotion with which luminous Buddhist Masters like Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Asanga, Chandrakīrti, Šāntideva, Šāntirakşita and Dharmakīrti, etc. upheld the Buddhist philosophy and contributed to its enrichment and propagation. Abve all, this volumn offers a well-abridged biography of the beloved Atiśa, the Indian Buddhist Master, who arrested the decline and fall of Buddhism in Tibet and revived it once again with his chief disciple Dromtonpa.