Take an enthralling journey from the Stone Age onward, and see how our ancestors became great builders and rulers. They grew food, discovered metals, made tools, and invented writing. You will see a mighty civilization in Egypt, wise Chinese philosophy, Maya culture in Central America, the colossal Roman Empire, and much more. Illustrated maps let you compare what is happening across the globe at various moments in time. While the Santorini volcano was wiping out the Minoan civilization, flushing toilets were being invented in the Indus Valley (Pakistan). The Greeks held the earliest Olympic Games while the Zapotec built pyramids in Mexico. Find out where it all started!

Joan Oates - along with her late husband, David - first revived excavations at Tell Brak in northern Syria in the 1970s. Those excavations showed signs that civilizations existed in Syria 6,000 years ago, challenging long-held beliefs and changing the current theoretical framework about Earth's first societies.

Civilized nations popularly assume that "primitive" societies are poor, ill, and malnourished and that progress through civilization automatically implies improved health. In this provocative new book, Mark Nathan Cohen challenges this belief. Using evidence from epidemiology, anthropology, and archaeology, Cohen provides fascinating evidence about the actual effects of civilization on health, suggesting that some aspects of civilization create as many health problems as they prevent or cure. " This book] is certain to become a classic-a prominent and respected source on this subject for years into the future. . . . If you want to read something that will make you think, reflect and reconsider, Cohen's Health and the Rise of Civilization is for you."-S. Boyd Eaton, Los Angeles Times Book Review "A major accomplishment. Cohen is a broad and original thinker who states his views in direct and accessible prose. . . . This is a book that should be read by everyone interested in disease, civilization, and the human condition."-David Courtwright, Journal of the History of Medicine "Deserves to be read by anthropologists concerned with health, medical personnel responsible for communities, and any medical anthropologists whose minds are not too case-hardened. Indeed, it could provide great profit and entertainment to the general reader."-George T. Nurse, Current Anthropology "Cohen has done his homework extraordinarily well, and the coverage of the biomedical, nutritional, demographic, and ethnographic literature about foragers and low energy agriculturists is excellent. The subject of culture and health is near the core of a lot of areas of archaeology and ethnology as well as demography, development economics, and so on. The book deserves a wide readership and a central place in our professional libraries. As a scholarly summary it is without parallel."-Henry Harpending, American Ethnologist

The Emergence of Civilisation is a major contribution to our understanding of the development of urban culture and social stratification in the Near Eastern region. Charles Maisels argues that our present assumptions about state formation, based on nineteenth century speculations, are wrong. His investigation illuminates the changes in scale, complexity and hierarchy which accompany the development of civilisation. The book draws conclusions about the dynamics of social change and the processes of social evolution in general, applying those concepts to the rise of Greece and Rome, and to the collapse of the classical Mediterranean world.

Here is the first synthesis ever published of East Asian archaeology and early history. Drawing on dramatic new evidence made available since the 1970s, it charts the critical developments that culminated in the emergence of the region in the eighth century as a coherent entity, with a shared religion (Buddhism), state philosophy (Confucianism), and bureaucratic structure. The narrative begins over a million years ago, when early humans first colonized the Far East, and it continues through the growth of fishing and farming societies at the end of the Ice Age to the rise of social elites during the Bronze Age, and the emergence of civilization in Shang, Zhou, and Han China. The author follows the spread of rice-based agriculture, trade, and interactions between the different cultures, and the diffusion of common forms of city planning and administration. Copious photographs and drawings complement the text.

Many spectacular discoveries of archeaological significance have been made in the Indian subcontinent since the first appearance of Raymond and Bridget Allchin's book The Birth of Indian Civilization, for long the most authoritative and widely read text on its subject. Advances in related fields, particularly in geomorphology, palaeobotany and palaeoclimatology, have also radically altered our picture of the emergence of Indian civilisation. In The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan the authors have completely revised and rewritten their earlier work to present an integrated and dynamic account of human culture in South Asia. Drawing primarily upon the archaeological record, and supported by ethnographic, linguistic and historical evidence, the authors trace the origins and development of culture in India and Pakistan from its earliest roots in Palaeolithic times, through the rise and disintegration of the great Indus Civilization to the emergence of regional cultures, and the arrival and spread of Indo-Aryan speaking peoples. They conclude with the early Buddhist period and the appearance of city states right across Pakistan and North India, establishing the pattern of subcontinental unity and regional diversity that was to characterize the country henceforward. The authors have made every attempt to incorporate the results of the most recent research and their book is illustrated throughout with photographs, maps and line diagrams. Offering an original and stimulating perspective on the archaeology of the subcontinent, The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan will be invaluable to students of South Asian culture and early history. It will also appeal to anyone interested in historical geography, world prehistory and archaeology in general.

A bold reassessment of what caused the Late Bronze Age collapse In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No more Trojans, Hittites, or Babylonians. The thriving economy and cultures of the late second millennium B.C., which had stretched from Greece to Egypt and Mesopotamia, suddenly ceased to exist, along with writing systems, technology, and monumental architecture. But the Sea Peoples alone could not have caused such widespread breakdown. How did it happen? In this major new account of the causes of this "First Dark Ages," Eric Cline tells the gripping story of how the end was brought about by multiple interconnected failures, ranging from invasion and revolt to earthquakes, drought, and the cutting of international trade routes. Bringing to life the vibrant multicultural world of these great civilizations, he draws a sweeping panorama of the empires and globalized peoples of the Late Bronze Age and shows that it was their very interdependence that hastened their dramatic collapse and ushered in a dark age that lasted centuries. A compelling combination of narrative and the latest scholarship, 1177 B.C. sheds new light on the complex ties that gave rise to, and ultimately destroyed, the flourishing civilizations of the Late Bronze Age—and that set the stage for the emergence of classical Greece.