After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam (Proceedings of the British Academy) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0197263844 ISBN 13: 9780197263846

Publisher: British Academy, 2007

Synopsis

This is a new study of the history, archaeology and numismatics of Central Asia, an area of great significance for our understanding of the ancient and early medieval world. This vast, land-locked region, with its extreme continental climate, was a centre of civilization with great metropolises. Its cosmopolitan population followed different religions (Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Buddhism), and traded extensively with China, India, the Middle East, and Europe. The millennium from the overthrow of the first world empire of Achaemenian Persians by Alexander the Great to the arrival of the Arabs and Islam was a period of considerable change and conflict.

The volume focuses on recent investigations in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. It provides a complex analysis of the symbiosis between the city life based on oases, and the nomadic peoples grazing their animals in the surrounding semi-deserts. Other topics include the influence of the Greek colonists on military architecture, and the major impact of the Great Kushans on the spread of Buddhism and on the development of the Central Asian metropolis. And although written documents rarely survive, coinage has provided essential evidence for the political and cultural history of the region.

These essays will be of interest to the scholar, the student, and the armchair traveller.

About this title

About the Author

Georgina Hermann is at Honorary Professor, University College London; Fellow of the British Academy. Joe Cribb is at Keeper of Coins and Medals, The British Museum, London.

Review

"Beautifully produced...The volume is generously illustrated with black-and-white photographs, and very useful and carefully produced maps, charts, and drawings. Highly recommended."--S.C. Levi, CHOICE

Edition details

• Publisher: British Academy
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0197263844
• ISBN 13: 9780197263846
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 532
• Editor: Hermann Georgina, Cribb Joe