The Cambridge Urban History of Europe: Volume 1, Ancient Europe

Examines urban culture in the ancient world, identifying key issues and offering strategies for understanding urbanisation in ancient Europe.

Volume I explores urban culture in the ancient world, positioning Europe within its wider global context. Written accessibly and with short-form essays, it will interest students, teachers, experts, and general readers with a keen interest in ancient Europe and urbanisation.Volume I offers a broad perspective on urban culture in the ancient European world. It begins with chronological overviews which paint in broad brushstrokes a picture that serves as a frame for the thematic chapters in the rest of the volume. Positioning ancient Europe within its wider context, it touches on Asia and Africa as regions that informed and were later influenced by urban development in Europe, with particular emphasis on the Mediterranean basin. Topics range from formal characteristics (including public space), water provision, waste disposal, urban maintenance, spaces for the dead, and border spaces; to ways of thinking about, visualising, and remembering cities in antiquity; to conflict within and between cities, economics, mobility and globalisation, intersectional urban experiences, slavery, political participation, and religion.