Tilling the Hateful Earth

Tilling the Hateful Earth
Author: Michael Decker
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2009-07-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780199565283

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A study of the agrarian landscape and economy of the late-antique eastern Mediterranean. Michael Decker describes the ways in which Roman farmers succeeded in producing food surpluses, fuelling a surge in population and a flowering of cultural expression and economic prosperity in the century before the arrival of Islam.

The Making of the Medieval Middle East

The Making of the Medieval Middle East
Author: Jack Tannous
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 664
Release: 2020-03-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691203156

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In the second half of the first millennium CE, the Christian Middle East fractured irreparably into competing churches and Arabs conquered the region, setting in motion a process that would lead to its eventual conversion to Islam. Largely agrarian and illiterate, Christians often called “the simple” outnumbered Muslims well into the era of the Crusades, and yet they have typically been invisible in our understanding of the Middle East's history

Across the Corrupting Sea

Across the Corrupting Sea
Author: Cavan Concannon
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2016-03-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317185803

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Across the Corrupting Sea: Post-Braudelian Approaches to the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean reframes current discussions of the Mediterranean world by rereading the past with new methodological approaches. The work asks readers to consider how future studies might write histories of the Mediterranean, moving from the larger pan-Mediterranean approaches of The Corrupting Sea towards locally-oriented case studies. Spanning from the Archaic period to the early Middle Ages, contributors engage the pioneering studies of the Mediterranean by Fernand Braudel through the use of critical theory, GIS network analysis, and postcolonial cultural inquiries. Scholars from several time periods and disciplines rethink the Mediterranean as a geographic and cultural space shaped by human connectivity and follow the flow of ideas, ships, trade goods and pilgrims along the roads and seascapes that connected the Mediterranean across time and space. The volume thus interrogates key concepts like cabotage, seascapes, deep time, social networks, and connectivity in the light of contemporary archaeological and theoretical advances in order to create new ways of writing more diverse histories of the ancient world that bring together local contexts, literary materials, and archaeological analysis.

Bringing in the Sheaves

Bringing in the Sheaves
Author: Brent D. Shaw
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2013-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1442644796

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The annual harvesting of cereal crops was one of the most important economic tasks in the Roman Empire. Not only was it urgent and critical for the survival of state and society, it mobilized huge numbers of men and women every year from across the whole face of the Mediterranean. In Bringing in the Sheaves, Brent D. Shaw investigates the ways in which human labour interacted with the instruments of harvesting, what part the workers and their tools had in the whole economy, and how the work itself was organized. Both collective and individual aspects of the story are investigated, centred on the life-story of a single reaper whose work in the wheat fields of North Africa is documented in his funerary epitaph. The narrative then proceeds to an analysis of the ways in which this cyclical human behaviour formed and influenced modes of thinking about matters beyond the harvest. The work features an edition of the reaper inscription, and a commentary on it. It is also lavishly illustrated to demonstrate the important iconic and pictorial dimensions of the story.

A Companion to Science, Technology, and Medicine in Ancient Greece and Rome

A Companion to Science, Technology, and Medicine in Ancient Greece and Rome
Author: Georgia L. Irby
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 1112
Release: 2016-01-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1118373049

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A Companion to Science, Technology, and Medicine in Ancient Greece and Rome brings a fresh perspective to the study of these disciplines in the ancient world, with 60 chapters examining these topics from a variety of critical and technical perspectives. Brings a fresh perspective to the study of science, technology, and medicine in the ancient world, with 60 chapters examining these topics from a variety of critical and technical perspectives Begins coverage in 600 BCE and includes sections on the later Roman Empire and beyond, featuring discussion of the transmission and reception of these ideas into the Renaissance Investigates key disciplines, concepts, and movements in ancient science, technology, and medicine within the historical, cultural, and philosophical contexts of Greek and Roman society Organizes its content in two halves: the first focuses on mathematical and natural sciences; the second focuses on cultural applications and interdisciplinary themes 2 Volumes

Writing and Reading Byzantine Secular Poetry, 1025-1081

Writing and Reading Byzantine Secular Poetry, 1025-1081
Author: Floris Bernard
Publisher: Oxford Studies in Byzantium
Total Pages: 395
Release: 2014
Genre: History
ISBN: 0198703740

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In the mid-eleventh century, secular Byzantine poetry attained a hitherto unseen degree of wit, vividness, and personal involvement, chiefly exemplified in the poetry of Christophoros Mitylenaios, Ioannes Mauropous, and Michael Psellos. This is the first volume to consider this poetic activity as a whole, critically reconsidering modern assumptions about Byzantine poetry, and focusing on Byzantine conceptions of the role of poetry in society. By providing a detailed account of the various media through which poetry was presented to its readers, and by tracing the initial circulation of poems, this volume takes an interest in the Byzantine reader and his/her reading habits and strategies, allowing aspects of performance and visual representation, rarely addressed, to come to the fore. It also examines the social interests that motivated the composition of poetry, establishing a connection with the extraordinary social mobility of the time. Self-representative strategies are analyzed against the background of an unstable elite struggling to find moral justification, which allows the study to raise the question of patronage, examine the discourse used by poets to secure material rewards, and explain the social dynamics of dedicatory epigrams. Finally, gift exchange is explored as a medium that underlines the value of poetry and confirms the exclusive nature of intellectual friendship.

The Byzantine-Islamic Transition in Palestine

The Byzantine-Islamic Transition in Palestine
Author: Gideon Avni
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2014-01-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0191507342

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Using a comprehensive evaluation of recent archaeological findings, Avni addresses the transformation of local societies in Palestine and Jordan between the sixth and eleventh centuries AD. Arguing that these archaeological findings provide a reliable, though complex, picture, Avni illustrates how the Byzantine-Islamic transition was a much slower and gradual process than previously thought, and that it involved regional variability, different types of populations, and diverse settlement patterns. Based on the results of hundreds of excavations, including Avni's own surveys and excavations in the Negev, Beth Guvrin, Jerusalem, and Ramla, the volume reconstructs patterns of continuity and change in settlements during this turbulent period, evaluating the process of change in a dynamic multicultural society and showing that the coming of Islam had no direct effect on settlement patterns and material culture of the local population. The change in settlement, stemming from internal processes rather than from external political powers, culminated gradually during the Early Islamic period. However, the process of Islamization was slow, and by the eve of the Crusader period Christianity still had an overwhelming majority in Palestine and Jordan.

Life in an Egyptian Village in Late Antiquity

Life in an Egyptian Village in Late Antiquity
Author: Giovanni Ruffini
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2018-10-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107105609

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The most detailed glimpse to date of daily life in a small town at the end of the Roman Empire.

A History of the Later Roman Empire, AD 284-700

A History of the Later Roman Empire, AD 284-700
Author: Stephen Mitchell
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 630
Release: 2023-07-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1119768551

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A sweeping historical account of the Later Roman Empire incorporating the latest scholarly research In the newly revised 3rd edition of A History of the Later Roman Empire, 284-700, distinguished historians Geoffrey Greatrex and Stephen Mitchell deliver a thoroughly up-to-date discussion of the Later Roman Empire. It includes tables of information, numerous illustrations, maps, and chronological overviews. As the only single volume covering Late Antiquity and the early Islamic period, the book is designed as a comprehensive historical handbook covering the entire span between the Roman Empire to the Islamic conquests. The third edition is a significant expansion of the second edition—published in 2015—and includes two new chapters covering the seventh century. The rest of the work has been updated and revised, providing readers with a sweeping historical survey of the struggles, triumphs, and disasters of the Roman Empire, from the accession of the emperor Diocletian in AD 284 to the closing years of the seventh century. It also offers: A thorough description of the massive political and military transformations in Rome’s western and eastern empires Comprehensive explorations of the latest research on the Later Roman Empire Practical discussions of the tumultuous period ushered in by the Arab conquests Extensive updates, revisions, and corrections of the second edition Perfect for undergraduate and postgraduate students of ancient, medieval, early European, and Near Eastern history, A History of the Later Roman Empire, 284-700 will also benefit lay readers with an interest in the relevant historical period and students taking a survey course involving the late Roman Empire.

Food, Virtue, and the Shaping of Early Christianity

Food, Virtue, and the Shaping of Early Christianity
Author: Dana Robinson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2020-08-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1108479472

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Greco-Roman food culture provides important concepts, grounded in everyday experience, which allow ordinary Christians to define virtue and create community.