Description: This book is a comprehensive up-to-date survey of the Aegean Bronze Age, from its beginnings to the period following the collapse of the Mycenaean palace system. In essays by leading authorities commissioned especially for this volume, it covers the history and the material culture of Crete, Greece, and the Aegean Islands from c. 3000--1100 BCE, as well as topics such as trade, religions, and economic administration. Intended as a reliable, readable introduction for university students, it will also be useful to scholars in related fields within and outside classics. The contents of this book are arranged chronologically and geographically, facilitating comparison between the different cultures. Within this framework, the cultures of the Aegean Bronze Age are assessed thematically and combine both material culture and social history.
Brief description: Cynthia W. Shelmerdine is Robert M. Armstrong Centennial Professor of Classics Emerita at the University of Texas, Austin. Her main research interests are in Aegean Bronze Age archaeology, and Mycenaean Greek language, history and society. She was educated at Bryn Mawr College, Cambridge University and Harvard University (Ph.D. in Classical Philology, 1977). She has worked in the field as a ceramic expert with the University of Minnesota Messenia Expedition (1970s), the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project (1990s) and currently the Iklaina Archaeological Project (from 1999). She is the author of many publications on Mycenaean culture and history and is currently working on a book about Mycenaean Greek society.
Review Quotes: "...archaeologist Cynthia Shelmerdine and her co-authors synthesize a huge specialized literature on the lands and islands of the Aegean between 3000 bc and 1070 bc. The book offers one of the best regional accounts of the origins of complex societies worldwide." Jared Diamond, Nature