The Ancient Shore
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Harvard University Press
Published:25th Oct '24
Should be back in stock very soon
Winner of the AHA Prize in History prior to CE 1000
An esteemed historian explores the natural and social dynamics of the ancient coastline, demonstrating for the first time its integral place in the world of Mediterranean antiquity.
As we learn from The Odyssey and the Argonauts, Greek dramas frequently played out on a watery stage. In particular, antiquity’s key events and exchanges often occurred on coastlines. Yet the shore was not just a site of conquest and trade, ire and yearning. The seacoast was a singular kind of space and was integral to the cosmology of the Greeks and their neighbors. In The Ancient Shore, award-winning historian Paul Kosmin reveals the influence of the coast on the inner lives of the ancients: their political thought, scientific notions, artistic endeavors, and myths; their sense of wonder and of self.
The Ancient Shore transports readers to a time when the coast was an unpredictable, formidable site of infinite and humbling possibility. Shorelines served as points of connection and competition that fostered distinctive political identities. It was at the coast—ever violent, ever permeable to predation—that state power ended, and so the coast was fundamental to theories of sovereignty. Then too, the boundary of land and sea symbolized human limitation, making it the subject of elaborate and continuous philosophical, scientific, and religious attention.
Kosmin’s ancient world is expansive, connecting the Atlantic to the Straits of Malacca, the Black Sea to the Indian Ocean. And his methods are similarly far-ranging, integrating accounts of statecraft and commerce with intellectual, literary, religious, and environmental history. The Ancient Shore is a radically new encounter with people, places, objects, and ideas we thought we knew.
An exemplary instance of an underserved genre: the beach book for academics…[Kosmin] moves well beyond studies of the state. He also bypasses the current fad for global antiquity, with its focus on human history, to engage directly with the ‘planetary’: ‘vast, untameable and heedless geological, climatic and astronomical processes’. -- Josephine Quinn * London Review of Books *
Drawing from the late Bronze Age to the Roman Imperial period, the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, the work highlights the Hellenistic period with a truly innovative focus. Couched within Kosmin’s lyric, densely evocative voice, The Ancient Shore ambitiously seeks to situate the coast itself, rather than a specific, geographically discrete space, as a key locus for ancient history. -- Deirdre Klokow * American Historical Review *
Offers a fresh appreciation of the coast as a ‘type’ of place (instead of simply a line between water and land): one where history begins and cedes to nature…A sophisticated book, which is a delight to read, it should have a broad appeal to experts, students, and educated lay readers alike. -- Georgia L. Irby * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
Insightful…Kosmin illuminates the ways in which ancient coasts influenced highly significant trends in terms of human connection, domination and understanding…[he] has made an important contribution to the field of maritime scholarship, one that is notable not only for its fresh approach and perspective, but also for its meticulous analysis of sundry sources and persuasive discussion. -- Don Swanbeck * International Journal of Maritime History *
Innovative…the first study of coasts as distinct transitional zones between land and sea, with particular
emphasis on their significance in politics and culture during the Hellenistic Period….Highly recommended.
In this exceptional book, which is both an erudite work of history and a very personal work by an immensely learned scholar, Kosmin has revealed an ancient shore that is real and imaginary, created by the discovery of new spaces, lands, and people. This is a refreshing and most welcome book for both historians of the Hellenistic world and anyone interested in antiquity. -- Alain Bresson, author of The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy
A stimulating, innovative, and impressive work that will surely find an avid readership among both scholars and a wider public. -- Sitta von Reden, author of Money in Classical Antiquity
- Winner of AHA Prize in History prior to CE 1000 2025 (United States)
- Long-listed for Runciman Award 2025 (United States)
ISBN: 9780674296244
Dimensions: 210mm x 140mm x 30mm
Weight: 646g
416 pages