Abulafia David. The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean. London: Allen Lane; Penguin Books,2012. — 816 p.. 2012

‘Mediterranean history’ can mean many things. This book is a history of the Mediterranean Sea, rather than a history of the lands around it; more particularly, it is a history of the people who crossed the sea and lived close by its shores in ports and on islands. My theme is the process by which the Mediterranean became in varying degrees integrated into a single commercial, cultural and even (under the Romans) political zone, and how these periods of integration ended with sometimes violent disintegration, whether through warfare or plague. I have identified five distinct periods: a First Mediterranean that descended into chaos after 1200 BC, that is, around the time Troy is said to have fallen; a Second Mediterranean that survived until about AD 500; a Third Mediterranean that emerged slowly and then experienced a great crisis at the time of the Black Death (1347); a Fourth Mediterranean that had to cope with increasing competition from the Atlantic, and domination by Atlantic powers, ending around the time of the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869; finally, a Fifth Mediterranean that became a passage-way to the Indian Ocean, and found a surprising new identity in the second half of the twentieth century.

<< | >>

↑

Contents

System of Transliteration and Dating

Preface

Introduction: A Sea with Many Names

PART ONE The First Mediterranean, 22000 BC–1000 BC

Isolation and Insulation, 22000 BC–3000 BC

Copper and Bronze, 3000 BC–1500 BC

Merchants and Heroes, 1500 BC–1250 BC

Sea Peoples and Land Peoples, 1250 BC–1100 BC

PART TWO The Second Mediterranean, 1000 BC–AD 600