Charles Gates is senior lecturer of archaeology and art history at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. While the title of his book Ancient Cities is broad and general, the subtitle is more specific:
The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece, and Rome
When we see the subtitle, we understand that the focus is on three parts of the ancient world:
(1) The Near East and Egypt
(2) The Greek world
(3) The Roman world
The topic of this volume is the classical world also known as the Mediterranean world. The ancient history of the Far East is not included in this book. Nor is there anything about the ancient history of the American continent.
The first edition of the book was published in 2003. The second (revised) version appeared in 2011. If you were waiting for the second edition, you made a good choice, because it is better than the first.
The text of the old chapters has been revised and a new chapter on Phoenician and Punic cities has been added.
Moreover, several sections have been added to some of the old chapters.
Finally, it is important to mention that this product has something which most books do not have:
A companion website with chapter summaries, study questions and illustrations.
The companion website includes a section where you can post your feedback. This is, in my opinion, a wonderful feature.
I hope this means the publisher and the author really want to know what the readers think about the book, whether the feedback is positive or negative, whether the readers wish to talk about the book in general or to focus on a specific detail.
As indicated by the subtitle, the book is divided into three parts. Here is the table of contents (some headings have been slightly modified):
PART ONE:
THE NEAR EAST AND EGYPT
Chapter 01 – Neolithic towns and villages in the Near East
Chapter 02 – Early Sumerian cities
Chapter 03 – Mesopotamian cities in the late third and second millennia BC
Chapter 04 – Cities of the Indus Valley
Chapter 05 – Egypt of the pyramids
Chapter 06 – Egyptian cities, temples, and tombs of the second millennium BC
Chapter 07 – Aegean Bronze Age towns and cities
Chapter 08 – Anatolian Bronze Age cities: Troy and Hattusa
Chapter 09 – Cypriotes, Canaanites, and Levantine trading cities of the late Bronze Age
Chapter 10 – Near Eastern cities in the Iron Age
Chapter 11 - Phoenician and Punic cities
PART TWO:
GREEK CITIES
Chapter 12 – Early Greek city-states of the Iron Age
Chapter 13 – Archaic Greek cities, part I
Chapter 14 – Archaic Greek cities, part II
Chapter 15 – Greek Sanctuaries: Delphi and Olympia
Chapter 16 – Athens in the fifth century BC
Chapter 17 – Greek cities and sanctuaries in the late classical period
Chapter 18 – Hellenistic cities
PART THREE:
CITIES OF ANCIENT ITALY AND
THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Chapter 19 – Greek and Etruscan cities in Italy
Chapter 20 – Rome from its origins to the end of the Republic
Chapter 21 – Rome in the age of Augustus
Chapter 22 – Italy outside the capital: Pompeii and Ostia
Chapter 23 – Rome from Nero to Hadrian
Chapter 24 – Roman provincial cities
Chapter 25 – Late antique transformations: Rome, Jerusalem, and Constantinople in the age of Constantine
Each chapter opens with a brief timeline, which sets the chronological frame for the chapter in question. Each chapter is divided into several shorter sections by subheadings. Both elements are very reader-friendly.
At the end of the book, we find a glossary; further reading, arranged by chapter and by topic; a complete bibliography; illustration credits; and a comprehensive index.
The text is illustrated with numerous black-and-white maps, drawings, and photos. Most of them are created by Neslihan Yilmaz, who worked with the author on both editions of the book.
Each illustration is placed where you need it, this is next to the relevant text, which is very reader-friendly. The illustrations are helpful. They raise the overall quality of the book. It is good to see that the author and the publisher have paid so much attention to the visual aspect of the book.
Ancient Cities is a handbook. This means you do not have to read it from the first to the last page. Each part is a self-contained unit which can stand alone.
You can start anywhere you want. Use the table of contents (or the index) to find what you need and read the relevant chapter or section.
Some sections
provide general background information, such as the following:
“The Neolithic Revolution” in chapter 1
“The Sumerians” in chapter 2
“The Akkadians” in chapter 3
“Agriculture, technology, crafts, and arts” in chapter 4
“Egyptian Writing” in chapter 5
“The Middle Kingdom” in chapter 6
By now I think you get the idea, so there is no need to provide examples from the remaining 19 chapters.
Other sections focus on one ancient city or site, describing its history, architecture, monuments, and (in some cases) archaeological excavations conducted in modern times.
More than fifty ancient cities or sites are presented in this book. I have read about all of them and I am fortunate enough to have visited about half of them. To be more precise I can say I have visited:
** 11 of 31 locations covered in the first part, namely Saqqara, Giza, Thebes, Luxor, Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, Abu Simbel, Knossos, Mycenae, Troy, and Carthage.
** 11 of 21 locations covered in the second part, namely Athens, Corinth, Sparta, Olympia, Delphi, Epidauros, Miletus, Priene, Didyma, Pergamon, and Ephesus.
** 13 of 17 locations covered in the third part, namely Rome, Ostia, Paestum, Pompeii, Syracuse, Piazza Armerina, Palmyra in Syria, Jerash in Jordan, Leptis Magna in Libya, Nîmes, Trier, London, and Constantinople.
Using my personal experience as a yardstick, I feel that all locations get a fair presentation, although some of them are rather brief.
With so many sites in one book, we cannot expect every detail of every site to be discussed, not even for a site where many monuments have been preserved. For every site, the author is bound to give a brief summary of the most important facts and refer the reader to the bibliography for further studies.
Two sites get ample space: a whole chapter is devoted to Athens in the fifth century BC (16); and three chapters are devoted to the city of Rome during three different periods (20, 21, and 23). Other sites get less.
Here are a few examples:
** Ugarit = 7 pages = 157-164
** Babylon = 6 pages = 180-185
** Ur = 5 pages = 46-50
** Nimrud = 3 pages = 170-173
** Nineveh = 3 pages = 174-176
** Jericho = 2 pages = 17-19
** Sinope = 2 pages = 304-305
In the preface to the second edition, Gates says he wants to remember
“Toni M. Cross (1945-2002), long-time director of the Ankara branch of the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT), colleague at the Kinet Höyük excavations, and friend.”
During the many years he worked on the book, she would tell him,
“Just write it. Don’t worry about catching every last mistake; there will always be people [who are] delighted to point out what you have done wrong.”
I guess I must be one of the people Toni Cross was talking about, because I do have some critical remarks. I like this book, but I have to mention a few things which bother me:
(1) There is a conflict between a chronological approach and a geographical approach. I think the author should pick one or the other. But it seems he cannot make up his mind. He wants to do a little bit of both, which is unfortunate.
As stated above, chapter 16 is devoted to Athens in the fifth century BC, but this location also pops up in chapters 12, 14, and 24, which cover different periods.
Pergamon appears in chapter 18, but this location also pops up in chapter 24, which covers another period.
Olympia appears in chapter 15, but this location also pops up in chapter 13, which covers another period.
If you ask me, a geographical approach makes more sense for this topic. All the author wants to say about Athens should be said in one place, not in four different places.
Likewise, information about Pergamon should not be split up and placed in two different chapters.
(2) Hippodamus of Miletus, the famous city planner who lived 498-408 BC, is mentioned three times (pages 265, 275, and 305). Obviously, it is relevant to mention this person in this book. What about the city where he was born?
Miletus is mentioned briefly at the end of chapter 13, in the section about the Ionian revolt. On page 227 we are told:
“Among her citizens were Thales, Anaximenes, and Anaximander, important pioneers in philosophy and science.”
But Hippodamus is not mentioned among the famous citizens of Miletus.
Why not?
More importantly, there is no section about Miletus as an ancient city.
Why not?
The city gate of Miletus is famous, because it has been preserved until our time. It is on display in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. But it is not shown in this book about ancient cities. Why not?
A book about Miletus is listed in the bibliography: Miletos: A History by Alan M. Greaves (2002) (2011).
But that is all. I think it is a shame this interesting site is ignored in this way.
(3) Aphrodisias is mentioned two times: on page 399, in the section about Perge, and on page 408, in the section about Leptis Magna. But it is not listed in the index, and there is no section devoted to this ancient site.
Why not?
(4) Towards the end of chapter 24, in the section about London, the author mentions “an amphitheater, near the fort” (page 410). That is all. But there is more to say about this monument, which was discovered in 1988.
Once excavations were completed, an underground area was opened to the public in 2002. Access is via the basement of the Guildhall Museum of Art.
Nick Bateman, leader of the archaeological team, has written a book about it.
The first edition of his book Gladiators at the Guildhall was published in 2000.
The second edition London’s Roman Amphitheatre appeared in 2011.
For more information about this topic, see The Roman Amphitheatre in Britain by Tony Wilmott (2007).
(5) Thamugadi (today Timgad) in present-day Algeria is not covered in this book. This is surprising, because this town is a famous example of Roman town planning. It would be obvious to include it in a book about ancient cities.
For more information about Timgad, see the following items:
** The North African Stones Speak by Paul MacKendrick (1980) pp. 232-240
** Sites et monuments antiques de l’Algérie by Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès & Claude Sintes (2003) pp. 148-177. This volume offers a detailed description of 50 monuments and the local museum (in French).
** An English version of this book is now available: Classical Antiquities of Algeria: A Selective Guide translated into English and revised by Philip Kenrick (Silphium Press, 2019). Timgad is covered in section 3 about Numidia.
The flaws I have documented here are unfortunate and real, but for an overall rating they may be considered minor. Perhaps they will be corrected in a future edition?
Ancient Cities is a great book about an interesting topic. It is well written. The author uses clear and easy language. He does not assume the reader has a lot of background knowledge about ancient history. The numerous illustrations are helpful, and the companion website is an extra asset.
It is highly recommended.
PS. Ancient Cities can be compared with two volumes published by White Star:
** Lost Cities from the Ancient World (2006)
** Hidden Treasures of Antiquity (2006)
The two volumes published by White Star are illustrated by fabulous colour pictures. They can be described as coffee table books (in the best meaning of this term), while Ancient Cities can be described as a more academic volume (again, in the best meaning of this term).
*****
Ancient Cities:
The Archaeology of Urban Life in the
Ancient Near East and
Egypt, Greece and Rome
By Charles Gates
(504 pages)
(First edition 2003)
(Second edition 2011)
A paperback version of the second edition
was published in 2021
*****
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