Antioch: A History

"Antioch: A History" is the winner of the 2022 G. Ernest Wright Award for the most substantial volume dealing with archaeological material, excavation reports, and material culture from the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. It offers unprecedented insights into the complete history of Antioch, recreating the lives of the people who lived in it and focusing on the factors that affected them during the evolution of its remarkable cityscape. The book utilizes a comprehensive blend of textual sources and new archaeological data reanalyzed from Princeton's 1930s excavations and recent discoveries. It replaces the outmoded portrait of Antioch as a sadly perished classical city with one in which it shines as brightly in its medieval Islamic, Byzantine, and Crusader incarnations.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 610 pages
Publication date: 31 May 2021
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Winner of the 2022 G. Ernest Wright Award for the most substantial volume dealing with archaeological material, excavation reports, and material culture from the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean, Antioch: A History is a comprehensive account of one of the most significant major cities of the eastern Mediterranean and a crossroads for the Silk Road. Spanning from its foundation by the Seleucids to Roman rule, the rise of Christianity, Islamic and Byzantine conquests, the Crusades, and beyond, this book offers unprecedented insights into the complete history of Antioch.

Traditionally, Antioch has been portrayed as a city whose classical glory faded permanently amid a series of natural disasters and foreign invasions in the sixth and seventh centuries CE. Such studies have hindered our understanding of Antiochs fascinating urban transformations from classical to medieval to modern city and the processes behind these transformations. By combining a comprehensive blend of textual sources and new archaeological data reanalyzed from Princeton's 1930s excavations and recent discoveries, this book provides unparalleled insights into the complete history of Antioch, recreating the lives of the people who lived in it and focusing on the factors that shaped their experiences during the evolution of its remarkable cityscape.

While Antioch's built environment is central to the narrative, the book also utilizes landscape archaeological work to consider the city in relation to its hinterland, and numismatic evidence to explore its economics. The outdated portrayal of Antioch as a sadly perished classical city par excellence gives way.

In conclusion, Antioch: A History offers a new gateway to researching this long-lasting city and is suitable for a wide variety of teaching needs, both undergraduate and graduate. Its comprehensive approach, rich in textual sources, archaeological data, and interdisciplinary analysis, provides a fresh perspective on Antioch's history and contributes to our understanding of the complex and multifaceted nature of ancient cities in the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean.

Weight: 1020g
Dimension: 235 x 155 x 40 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367633042