Fernández-Götz Manuel, Krausse Dirk (eds.) Eurasia at the Dawn of History. Urbanization and Social Change

Cambridge University Press, 2017. — xviii + 420 p. — ISBN 978-1-107-14740-9.Our current world is characterized by life in cities, the existence of social inequalities, and increasing individualization. When and how did these phenomena arise? What was the social and economic background for the development of hierarchies and the first cities? The authors of this volume analyze the processes of centralization, cultural interaction, and social differentiation that led to the development of the first urban centres and early state formations of ancient Eurasia, from the Atlantic coasts to China. The chronological framework spans a period from the Neolithic to the Late Iron Age, with a special focus on the early first millennium BC.
By adopting an interdisciplinary approach structured around the concepts of identity and materiality, this book addresses the appearance of a range of key phenomena that continue to shape our world.Materialities of Complexity in Ancient Eurasia (Manuel Fernández-Götz and Dirk Krausse).
Between Myth and Logos.
Materialities of complexity in ancient Eurasia (Manuel Fernández-Götz and Dirk Krausse).
Cognitive archaeology and the making of the human mind (Colin Renfrew).
History of writing, history of rationality (David Olson).
The impact of social differentiation on identity: lights and shadows of the individualization process (Almudena Hernando).
The Development of Social Differentiation.
The Neolithic conquest of the Mediterranean (Jean Guilaine).
Low-density urbanism: the case of the Trypillia group of Ukraine (John Chapman and Bisserka Gaydarska).
From the Neolithic to the Iron Age – demography and social agglomeration: the development of centralized control? (Johannes Müller).
Approaching Social Complexity.
Early state formation from a big history point of view (Fred Spier).
Reframing ancient economies: new models, new questions (Gary Feinman).
Urbanism through the ages: concepts, models and definitions.
How can archaeologists identify early cities? Definitions, types, and attributes (Michael E. Smith).
Towns between de-territorialisation and networking: on the dynamics of urbanization in the global context (Hans-Peter Hahn).
Ancient Civilizations at the Turn of the Axis.
Egypt in the ‘axial age’ (Jan Assmann).
Conservative vs innovative cultural areas in the Near East (Mario Liverani).
Elite burials in first-millennium BC China: towards individualization (Alain Thote).
Giant tumuli of the Iron Age: tradition – monumentality – knowledge transfer (Svend Hansen).
Times of Connectivity: The Mediterranean on the Move.
Agency, structure, and the unconscious in the longue durée (John Bintliff).
Phoenicians abroad: from merchant venturers to colonists (María Eugenia Aubet).
Spheres of interaction: temperate Europe and the Mediterranean world in the Iron Age (John E. Collis).
Early Urban Cultures from South to North.
The determinacy of space and state formation in archaic Greece (Jonathan M. Hall).
Intercultural networks and urbanization in Southern Italy in the early Iron Age (Massimo Osanna).
Power and place in Etruria (Simon Stoddart).
Urbanization processes and cultural change in the early Iron Age of Central Europe (Manuel Fernández-Götz and Dirk Krausse).
Founding rituals and myths in the Keltiké (Martín Almagro-Gorbea).
Changing Symbols, Changing Minds?
Phase transition, axial age, and axis displacement: from the Hallstatt to the La Tène culture (Rudolf Echt).
Early Celtic art in context (Otto-Herman Frey).
Images, ornament, and cognition in early La Tène Europe: a new style for a changing world (Peter S. Wells).
The network genesis of the La Tène cultures: a western point of view (Pierre-Yves Milcent).