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How can a nation's archaeological treasures help explain its history, especially one as richly complex as Syria's? Ross Burns chooses 40 among Syria's outstanding range of sites, accompanied by over 200 colour illustrations, to take the reader through the tangled paths of this crossroads of the eastern Mediterranean where numerous world cultures intersected.
Given the last 12 years of savage conflict, the author reports too on the plight of many of these monuments, addressing the common but unhelpful assumption that much of the country's archaeological treasures have been 'destroyed'. A better approach is to recognise that Syria's heritage can play a role in the country's recovery and cannot simply be declared a write-off.
This is a history which tells us much about how Syria's mixture of traditions defy simplistic categorisation through modern definitions of cultures and identities.
By:
Ross Burns
Imprint: Bloomsbury
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 246mm,
Width: 189mm,
ISBN: 9780755645282
ISBN 10: 0755645286
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 22 August 2024
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of illustrations Author’s preface Map of Syria 1. Bronze Age palace cultures c3000–1100 BC 2. Iron Age, a new melting pot 1000-800 BC 3. Between Persians and Phoenicians c1000–333 BC 4. After Alexander 333–64 BC 5. Pax Romana 64 BC–AD 117 6. Hadrian and the High Empire 117–313 7. Christianity Triumphant 313–636 8. Umayyads and ‘Abbasids 661–950 9. Arabs and Turks 950-1100 10. Pushing back the Crusaders 1100–1260 11. Mamluks 1260-1516 12. Early Ottoman centuries 1516-1800 13. Late Ottoman centuries 1800–1918 14. Afterword Reading List and Quotation Sources Glossary, Abbreviations, Map Conventions Index
Ross Burns is the author of Monuments of Syria (I.B.Tauris, 1992, 1999 and 2009). He has also published histories of Aleppo and Damascus as well as a study of how colonnaded axes transformed the structure of the cities of the Roman East. He continues to work actively on the archaeology of the region including to collaborate on international projects to assess the extent of damage to Syria's monuments and is currently heading an Oxford-based project on the fate of Roman temples in later periods, notably Byzantine. His website is at: www.monumentsofsyria.com.
