Ancient Civilizations

Ancient Civilizations: The Emergence of States and Empires offers a comprehensive and straightforward account of the world’s first civilizations and how they were discovered, drawing on many avenues of inquiry including archaeological excavations, surveys, laboratory work, highly specialized scientific investigations, and both historical and ethnohistorical records. This book covers the earliest civilizations in North Africa, Eurasia and the Americas, from Egypt and the Sumerians to the Indus Valley, Shang China, and the Maya. Gone are the days, however, when it was sufficient to study a too limited range of “classic” early civilizations to understand how early societies throughout the world experienced the transition to cities and empires. Ancient Civilizations hence also covers the first states of Africa south of the Sahara, divine kings and empires in East and Southeast Asia, the early Aegean civilizations, Greece and Rome, and the Aztec and Inka empires of Mesoamerica and the Andes.

Ancient Civilizations incorporates multiple features to support student learning: a wealth of images, including new illustrations and updated maps; feature boxes which expand on key sites, finds and written sources; and an extensive guide to further reading at the end of each chapter. Now with full color throughout, this sixth edition has been extensively updated in the light of the latest theoretical advances and spectacular discoveries made in recent years. It also acknowledges the input of a wider range of voices in the study of early states and empires, notably those from
non‑Western backgrounds.

Examining the world’s pre‑industrial civilizations from a multidisciplinary perspective and offering a comparative analysis of the field which explores the connections between all civilizations around the world, this volume provides a unique introduction to pre‑industrial civilizations in all their brilliant diversity.

Chris Scarre is an archaeologist specializing in the prehistory of Europe and the Mediterranean, with a particular interest in the archaeology of the Atlantic façade—Britain and Ireland, France, and Iberia. He is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at Durham University, UK, and is actively involved in primary research and field projects both at home and overseas. He has wide interests in archaeology and is a firm believer that we need to study the past more broadly if we are to understand it. In addition to Ancient Civilizations, he is editor of the textbook on world prehistory The Human Past.

Charles Golden is a Mesoamerican archaeologist, whose research has focused on the borders between ancient Maya kingdoms in Mexico and Central America, and the economic, social, and ritual ties that bound rural villages into larger political communities. He is Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and co‑editor of Realizing Value in Mesoamerica: The Dynamics of Desire and Demand in Ancient Economies, Continuities and Changes in Maya Archaeology: Perspectives at the Millennium, and Maya Archaeology, Vols. 1–3.

Shadreck Chirikure is an archaeological scientist specializing in the study of ancient materials and high‑temperature technologies, and how these shaped the development of societies over time. Using Africa as a primary context, his research also engages with materials and technologies from China, the Americas, and Europe, building a comparative understanding of humanity’s encounters with materials and pyrotechnologies across the world. He is Professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Oxford, Editor‑in‑Chief of Archaeometry, and author of Metals in Past Societies.