The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (Oxford Handbooks)

Review

by Mark Cartwright
published on 12 May 2012

At nearly a thousand pages this is a titan of a book covering 3000 to 1000BC. This period includes two of the Mediterranean's most influential civilizations - the Minoan and Mycenaean. This volume is a compilation of more than sixty specially commisssioned articles by leading experts in their relevant fields and often by the excavators of the archaeological sites themselves.

Sections covered are: a systematic chronology of the Greek mainland, Crete, and the Cyclades; art and architecture; society and culture; seals and writing; material crafts; the eruption of Thera and the Torjan War; and a dedicated article on each of thirty different sites, including the more well known such as Knossos and Cyprus to the lesser sites like Pylos and Ayia Triada. Also included are many maps, illustrations, black and white photos and index.

Concise, up to date and with extensive bibliographies for further reading, this book is suitable for both scholars and the general reader. An indispensable addition to the literature on early Mediterranean cultures.

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