The Cambridge Ancient History The Middle East and the Aegean World, Tenth to Eighth Centuries B.C.

Volume III of The Cambridge Ancient History was first published in 1925 in one volume. The new edition has expanded to such an extent, owing to the immense amount of new information now available, that it has had to be divided into three parts. Volume III Part 1 opens with a survey of the Balkans north of Greece in the Prehistoric period. This is the first time such a survey has been published of this area which besides its intrinsic interest is important for its influence on the cultures of the Aegean and Anatolia. The rest of the book is devoted to the tenth to the eighth centuries B. C. In Greece and the Aegean the main theme is the gradual regeneration from the Dark Age and the emergence of a society in which can be seen the beginnings of the city-state. During the same period in Western Asia and the Middle East the Kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia rise to power, the Urartians appear, and in Palestine the kingdoms of Israel and Judah flourish. In Egypt the country's fortunes revive briefly under Shoshenq I. The final chapter in this part deals with the languages of Greece and the Balkans and with the invention and spread of alphabetic writing.

List of maps; List of text-figures; List of chronological tables; Preface; Part I. The Prehistory of the Balkans to 1000 BC: 1. The prehistory of Romania: from the earliest times to 1000 BC Vl. Dumitrescu; 2. The Stone Age in the Central Balkan Area M. Garasanin; 3. The Eneolithic period in the Central Balkan Area M. Garasanin; 4. The Bronze Age in the Central Balkan Area M. Garasanin; 5. The prehistory of Albania F. Prendi; Part II. The Middle East: 6. Assyria: Ashur-dan II to Ashur-Nirari V (934–745 BC) A. K. Gratson; 7. Babylonia c.1000–748 BC J. A. Brinkman; 8. Urartu R. D. Barnett; 9. The Neo-Hittite states in Syria and Anatolia J. D. Hawkins; 10. Israel and Judah until the revolt of Jehu (931–841 BC) T. C. Mitchell; 11. Israel and Judah from Jehu until the period of Assyrian domination (841–c. 750 BC) T. C. Mitchell; 12. Cyprus V. Karageorghis; 13. Egypt: from the twenty-second to the twenty-fourth dynasty I. E. S. Edwards; Part III. The Balkans and the Aegean: 14. The Early Iron Age in the Central Balkan Area, c.1000–750 BC M. Garasanin; 15. Illyris, Epirus and Macedonia in the Early Iron Age N. G. L. Hammond; 16. Central Greece and Thessaly A. M. Snodgrass; 17. The Peloponnese N. G. L. Hammond; 18a. East Greece J. M. Cook; 18b. The islands John Boardman; 19. The geometric culture of Greece John Boardman; 20a. The earliest alphabetic writing B. S. J. Isserlin; 20b. Greek alphabetic writing L. H. Jeffery; 20c. Linguistic problems of the Balkan area in the late prehistoric and early Classical periods R. A. Crossland; 20d. The Greek language and the historical dialects J. B. Hainsworth; 20e. The Balkan languages (Illyrian, Thracian and Daco-Moesian) E. C. Polome; Bibliography; Index.