Page 11 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

CONTENTS

BOOK I: BRONZE AND STONE

i The cities 3
Egypt . . . temples and palaces of Memphis . . . capital city
of Thebes . . . Mesopotamia . . . Ur . . . city-states . . . a
“capitalist revolution”. . . Sumerians and Semites . . . Indus
valley river system . . . Mohenjo-Daro . . . Harappa

2 The backwoods 19

Forest settlements of Scandinavia . . . wattle villages of south­
ern England . . . stone-built hilltop towns of Spain . . . forest
farmers of the Danube . . . agricultural peoples of Africa ...
rice growers of eastern India . . . Hsia Dynasty villagers of
northern China . . . gardener-fishermen of coastal Peru

3 The outback 32
Bushmen of South African veldt . . . reindeer hunters of the
polar seas . . . buffalo hunters of the Great Plains of America
. . . European shell-heap dwellers . . . herdsmen of the Asian
steppes

4 The sea 42
Merchant shipping . . . voyages from Ur to Dilmun . . . the
sailors of the Indian Ocean . . . the Red Sea route to Punt
. . . the merchants of Crete sail west . . . the seaboard frontiers

BOOK II: THE CHARIOTS

5 The horsemen of the steppes 2000-1930 b.c. 61
Spread of the battle-ax people . . . the horse-drawn chariot
. . . no written records . . . from Russia to the Rhine . . .
the charioteers look south