Product Description

Seton Lloyd's lively account of Turkey's early history is for the ever-increasing number of people visiting the ancient sites of this fabled land. Written by an archaeologist who has spent much of his life in the Near East, the book is not a conventional "guide" to the antiquities of Anatolia, nor is it a textbook. It is instead Lloyd's attempt to share his profound interest in an antique land, its inhabitants, and the surviving monuments that link the present to the past.
Lloyd traces the many different cultures that have been a part of Turkey from prehistoric times to the Christian era. He recounts the exploits of the Hittite kings, the confrontation of Croesus and the Persian king Cyrus, the conquests of Alexander the Great, and Mithridates' epic resistance against Rome. Archaeological landmarks discussed include the discovery of the Alaca Hüyük tombs, the attempts to establish the location of Troy, and the opening of the Tomb of Midas. Lloyd shows how each successive culture has left its mark on an astonishing variety of sites, from the shrines of Çatal Hüyük to the temples of Ephesus and the churches founded by St. Paul.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #106541 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-28
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

British Archaeological News
"An elegantly written account of Turkey's history by one of the greatest living authorities on the subject. . . The historically minded visitor would be well advised to pack this beguiling book."

From the Inside Flap
"Very well written and very readable, presented with the mastery and wisdom of long and intimate experience. . . . It will awaken and stimulate the interest of lay readers, provide a welcome historical frame that is lacking in most accounts of Anatolian archaeology, and be an instructive and delightful companion for professional scholars."--Crawford H. Greenewalt, Jr., University of California, Berkeley

About the Author
Seton Lloyd was the first Director of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, and subsequently Professor of Western Asiatic Archaeology at the University of London. His many books include Foundations in the Dust, Early Anatolia, and The Art of the Ancient Near East.

Customer Reviews

Writing could be better
I picked up this book in preparation for a class trip to Turkey to look at architecture and landscape. I have found it to be exhaustive in details pertaining to archeological discoveries and sequence. I wish that it would leave off some of these details, and spend a little more time painting the bigger picture. The book reads as if you are listening to a one-sided conversation with a very specialized and opinionated professor. It is almost casual in tone, and spends too much time and emotion on issues that don't really aid understanding of the history of Turkey. Having said that, if you can struggle through the dense parts, and keep refering back to the maps, you can get a pretty good idea of the progression and significance of events.

Good source on ancient history in Asia Minor
I bought this book as background reading for an upcoming trip to Turkey. It is a comprehensive and well-written overview of ancient history, from the Hittites up through the beginnings of Christianity in what is now Turkey, with context relating to the influence of adjacent areas as needed. It puts things in context and provides maps to help locate cultures and events geographically. I would recommend it for anyone interested in the subject, or reading up for a visit.

Interesting, but not exhaustive
The book gives a good introduction to the history of Anatolia up to the time of the early Christian Church. It can seem at times to be a little dry or shallow in its coverage. While it is on some sense a historical account, the author is an archeologist, and the narrative heavily leans on this direction. This is not necesarily bad since I read the book as a prelude to my trip to Turkey, but one should be aware of it before buying the book. All in all, I would recommend buying it.