The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 3, Part 1: The Prehistory of the Balkans; the Middle East and the Aegean World, Tenth to Eighth Centuries B.C.

Volume III of Cambridge Ancient History series examines Greece, the Balkans, and the Near and Far East between the tenth and eight centuries B.C. The original edition was included within one book, however, due to the greatly expanded research over the past half century, the volume is now divided into three books.<br /><br />Volume III Part 1 opens with a survey of the Balkans north of Greece in the Prehistoric period. This is the first time such a survey has been published of this area, which besides its intrinsic interest, is important for its influence on the cultures of the Aegean and Anatolia. The remainder of the book is devoted to the tenth to the eighth centuries B.C. In Greece and the Aegean the main theme is the gradual regeneration from the Dark Age and the emergence of a society in which can be seen the beginnings of the city-state. During the same period in Western Asia and the Middle East the Kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia rise to power, the Urartians appear, and in Palestine the kingdoms of Israel and Judah flourish. In Egypt the country's fortunes revive briefly under Shoshenq I. The final chapter in this part deals with the languages of Greece and the Balkans and with the invention and spread of alphabetic writing.