The Archaeology of Imperial Landscapes
A Comparative Study of Empires in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean World

This book examines the poorly understood transformations in rural landscapes and societies that formed the backbone of ancient empires.

Bleda S. Düring (Edited by), Tesse D. Stek (Edited by)

9781316639245, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 May 2020

386 pages, 46 b/w illus. 35 maps 6 tables
25.5 x 18 x 2 cm, 0.73 kg

The Archaeology of Imperial Landscapes examines the transformation of rural landscapes and societies that formed the backbone of ancient empires in the Near East and Mediterranean. Through a comparative approach to archaeological data, it analyses the patterns of transformation in widely differing imperial contexts in the ancient world. Bringing together a range of studies by an international team of scholars, the volume shows that empires were dynamic, diverse, and experimental polities, and that their success or failure was determined by a combination of forceful interventions, as well as the new possibilities for those dominated by empires to collaborate and profit from doing so. By highlighting the processes that occur in rural and peripheral landscapes, the volume demonstrates that the archaeology of these non-urban and literally eccentric spheres can provide an important contribution to our understanding of ancient empires. The 'bottom up' approach to the study of ancient empires is crucial to understanding how these remarkable socio-political organisms could exist and persist.

1. Ancient empires on the ground: provincial and peripheral perspectives Bleda S. Düring and Tesse Stek
Part I. The Transformation of Rural Societies and Landscapes: 2. Engineering empire: a provincial perspective on the Middle Assyrian empire Bleda S. Düring
3. The creation of the Assyrian heartland: new data from the 'land behind Nineveh' Daniele Morandi Bonacossi
4. Pioneers of the Western Desert: the Kharga Oasis in the Achaemenid Empire Henry Colburn
5. Power at a distance: the Hellenistic rural exploitation of the 'farther' chora of Chersonesos (Crimea, Ukraïne) from the perspective of the Džarylgaè survey project Peter Attema
6. Early Roman colonization beyond the Romanizing agro-town: village patterns of settlement and highland exploitation in the Abruzzo, Central Italy Tesse D. Stek
Part II. The Transformation of Peripheral Societies and Landscapes: 7. Negotiation, violence, and resistance: Urartu's frontiers in the Iron Age Caucasus Lauren Ristvet
8. The archaeology of imperial borderlands: a view from Roman Egypt and Sudan Anna Lucille Boozer
9. Living on the edge: the Roman Empire in the North Mesopotamian Steppe Lidewijde de Jong and Rocco Palermo
10. On the edge: Butrint on the western frontier of the Byzantine Empire Joanita Vroom
Part III. Comparing Repertoires of Rule in Rural and Peripheral Regions: 11. Strategies of empire expansion J. Daniel Rogers
12. What's the big picture? Comparative perspectives on the archaeology of empire Bradley J. Parker
13. Towards a patchwork perspective of ancient empires Tesse D. Stek and Bleda S. Düring
Index.

Subject Areas: Environmental archaeology [HDP], Landscape archaeology [HDL], Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Egyptian archaeology / Egyptology [HDDG], Archaeology by period / region [HDD], Archaeological theory [HDA], Archaeology [HD], General & world history [HBG]