The earliest contacts between the Aegean and the Indus were once thought to begin in the sixth century BCE, and yet there is now growing evidence of much earlier, indirect connections that extend into the third and fourth millennia BCE. There and Back Again evaluates the evidence for such contacts, particularly commodities such as tin and lapis lazuli, and discusses recently discovered objects, new methods of materials analysis techniques and topics, as well as iconographic investigation. Such studies clearly indicate the presence of indirect, or 'trickle down' contacts, where Mesopotamia functions as an intermediary between Africa and Europe in the west and Asia. In such a system, objects, iconography, and culture accumulate material and social value as they were exchanged through Mesopotamia and the Near East, to the Aegean and beyond. From the Early through Late Bronze Age, the Indus (and more broadly South Asia) remained critical to western regions for valuable, indispensable commodities destined for elites from Mesopotamia and other regions to the west. The volume's case studies are complex and multifaceted, including but not limited to linguistics, iconography, paleobotany, archaeology, ancient disease and medicine, as well as scientific, materials, and technological analysis. As such, this collection of 11 papers constitutes the first of a series that seek to address a lingering lacuna in prehistoric studies: multi-disciplinary case-studies of Afro-Eurasian exchange.

This book evaluates the evidence for indirect connections between the Aegean and the Indus extending back to the third and fourth millennia BCE, particularly commodities such as tin and lapis lazuli, and discusses recently discovered objects, new methods of materials analysis techniques and topics, as well as iconographic investigation.

Provides the first global analysis of the relationship between trade and civilisation from the beginning of civilisation until the modern era.

Europe's place in history is re-assessed in this first comprehensive history of the ancient world, centering on the Indian Ocean and its role in pre-modern globalization. Philippe Beaujard presents an ambitious and comprehensive global history of the Indian Ocean world, from the earliest state formations to 1500 CE. Supported by a wealth of empirical data, full color maps, plates, and figures, he shows how Asia and Africa dominated the economic and cultural landscape and the flow of ideas in the pre-modern world. This led to a trans-regional division of labor and an Afro-Eurasian world economy. Beaujard questions the origins of capitalism and hints at how this world-system may evolve in the future. The result is a reorienting of world history, taking the Indian Ocean, rather than Europe, as the point of departure. Volume I provides in-depth coverage of the period from the fourth millennium BCE to the sixth century CE.

The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction is a new look at an ancient subject: the silk road that linked China, India, Persia and the Mediterranean across the expanses of Central Asia. James A. Millward highlights unusual but important biological, technological and cultural exchanges over the silk roads that stimulated development across Eurasia and underpin civilization in our modern, globalized world.

A thought-provoking book on the archaeology of power, knowledge, social memory, and the emergence of classical tradition in early China.

The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean offers new insights into the material and social practices of many different Mediterranean peoples during the Bronze and Iron Ages, presenting in particular those features that both connect and distinguish them. Contributors discuss in depth a range of topics that motivate and structure Mediterranean archaeology today, including insularity and connectivity; mobility, migration, and colonization; hybridization and cultural encounters; materiality, memory, and identity; community and household; life and death; and ritual and ideology. The volume's broad coverage of different approaches and contemporary archaeological practices will help practitioners of Mediterranean archaeology to move the subject forward in new and dynamic ways. Together, the essays in this volume shed new light on the people, ideas, and materials that make up the world of Mediterranean archaeology today, beyond the borders that separate Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.