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Europe before History

Kristian Kristiansen author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:2nd Dec '99

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Europe before History cover

Examines paradox of politically and economically undiversified European Bronze Age society despite wide trading networks.

European Bronze Age societies produced elaborate artifacts and were drawn into a European-wide trade network, yet they were economically and politically undiversified. Kristian Kristiansen offers an interesting explanation of this paradox. The result is a coherent overview that addresses some of the larger questions raised about the period.The societies of the European Bronze Age produced elaborate artifacts and were drawn into a wide trade network extending over the whole of Europe, even though they were economically and politically undiversified. Kristian Kristansen attempts to explain this paradox using a world-systems analysis, and in particular tries to acount for the absence of state formation. He presents his case with a powerful marshalling of the evidence across the whole of Europe and over two millennia. The result is the most coherent overview of this period of European prehistory since the writings of Gordon Childe and Christopher Hawkes. A great strength of this book is the broad European perspective, which allows the author to address some of the larger questions that have been raised in the study of the Bronze Age. It captures the complexity of a prehistorical world at different levels of integration and interaction from local to global.

' … this book is a substantial advance in the quest for a socially informed history of the era before writing.' The Times Higher Supplement

ISBN: 9780521784368

Dimensions: 247mm x 175mm x 30mm

Weight: 957g

540 pages