The Ancient City
New Perspectives on Urbanism in the Old and New World
Will be published approx. on 30. October 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
424 pages
978-1-934691-02-1 (ISBN)
Description
Cities are so common today that we cannot imagine a world without them. More than half of the world's population lives in cities, and that proportion is growing. Yet for most of our history, there were no cities. Why, how, and when did urban life begin? Ancient cities have much to tell us about the social, political, religious, and economic conditions of their times-and also about our own. Ongoing excavations all over the world are enabling scholars to document intra-city changes through time, city-to-city interaction, and changing relations between cities and their hinterlands. The essays in this volume-presented at a Sackler colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences-reveal that archaeologists now know much more about the founding and functions of ancient cities, their diverse trade networks, their heterogeneous plans and layouts, and their various lifespans and trajectories.
Reviews / Votes
"The...book is informative and authoritative....The editors review much literature on the study of cities, especially four models of cities developed by the University of Chicago sociologists working in the 1920s and 1930s."-Norman Yoffee, Reviews in Anthropology, vol. 38, issue 4, 2009
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Santa Fe
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 254 mm
Width: 181 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
793 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-934691-02-1 (9781934691021)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Joyce Marcus
Content
Introduction
Joyce Marcus and Jeremy A. Sabloff
The City through Time and Space: Transformations of Centrality
Colin Renfrew
Early Cities: Craft Workers, Kings, and Controlling the Supernatural
Bruce G. Trigger
Analyzing Cities
Mogens Herman Hansen
Other Perspectives on Urbanism: Beyond the Disciplinary Boundaries
Karl W. Butzer
Between Concept and Reality: Case Studies in the Development of Roman Cities in the Mediterranean
Janet DeLaine
Urban Foundation, Planning, and Sustainability in the Roman Northwestern Provinces
Michael J. Jones
A Tale of Two Cities: Lowland Mesopotamia and Highland Anatolia
Elizabeth C. Stone
Royal Cities and Cult Centers, Administrative Towns, and Workmen's Settlements in Ancient Egypt
Kathryn A. Bard
Indus Urbanism: New Perspectives on Its Origin and Character
Jonathan Mark Kenoyer
Stages in the Development of "Cities" in Pre-Imperial China
Lothar von Falkenhausen
Early African Cities: Their Role in the Shaping of Urban and Rural Interaction Spheres
Chapurukha M. Kusimba
Pomp and Circumstance before Belize: Ancient Maya Commerce and the New River Conurbation
K. Anne Pyburn
Incidental Urbanism: The Structure of the Prehispanic City in Central Mexico
Kenneth G. Hirth
Links in the Chain of Inka Cities: Communication, Alliance, and the Cultural Production of Status, Value, and Power
Craig Morris
Cities and Urbanism: Central Themes and Future Directions
Joyce Marcus and Jeremy A. Sabloff
Joyce Marcus and Jeremy A. Sabloff
The City through Time and Space: Transformations of Centrality
Colin Renfrew
Early Cities: Craft Workers, Kings, and Controlling the Supernatural
Bruce G. Trigger
Analyzing Cities
Mogens Herman Hansen
Other Perspectives on Urbanism: Beyond the Disciplinary Boundaries
Karl W. Butzer
Between Concept and Reality: Case Studies in the Development of Roman Cities in the Mediterranean
Janet DeLaine
Urban Foundation, Planning, and Sustainability in the Roman Northwestern Provinces
Michael J. Jones
A Tale of Two Cities: Lowland Mesopotamia and Highland Anatolia
Elizabeth C. Stone
Royal Cities and Cult Centers, Administrative Towns, and Workmen's Settlements in Ancient Egypt
Kathryn A. Bard
Indus Urbanism: New Perspectives on Its Origin and Character
Jonathan Mark Kenoyer
Stages in the Development of "Cities" in Pre-Imperial China
Lothar von Falkenhausen
Early African Cities: Their Role in the Shaping of Urban and Rural Interaction Spheres
Chapurukha M. Kusimba
Pomp and Circumstance before Belize: Ancient Maya Commerce and the New River Conurbation
K. Anne Pyburn
Incidental Urbanism: The Structure of the Prehispanic City in Central Mexico
Kenneth G. Hirth
Links in the Chain of Inka Cities: Communication, Alliance, and the Cultural Production of Status, Value, and Power
Craig Morris
Cities and Urbanism: Central Themes and Future Directions
Joyce Marcus and Jeremy A. Sabloff