Facing the Ocean: The Atlantic and Its Peoples, 8000 BC-AD 1500
- ISBN-10
- 0192853554
- ISBN-13
- 9780192853554
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 600
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2004
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press, USA
- Author
- Barry Cunliffe
Description
In this highly illustrated book Barry Cunliffe focuses on the western rim of Europe--the Atlantic facade--an area stretching from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Isles of Shetland.We are shown how original and inventive the communities were, and how they maintained their own distinctive identities often over long spans of time. Covering the period from the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, c. 8000 BC, to the voyages of discovery c. AD 1500, he uses this last half millennium more as a well-studied test case to help the reader better understand what went before. The beautiful illustrations show how this picturesque part of Europe has many striking physical similarities. Old hard rocks confront the ocean creating promontories and capes familiar to sailors throughout the millennia. Land's End, Finistere, Finisterra--until the end of the fifteenth century this was where the world ended in a turmoil of ocean beyond which there was nothing. To the people who lived in these remote placesthe sea was their means of communication and those occupying similar locations were their neighbours. The communities frequently developed distinctive characteristics intensifying aspects of their culture the more clearly to distinguish themselves from their in-land neighbours. But there is an added level of interest here in that the sea provided a vital link with neighbouring remote-place communities encouraging a commonality of interest and allegiances. Even today the Bretons see themselvesas distinct from the French but refer to the Irish, Welsh, and Galicians as their brothers and cousins. Archaeological evidence from the prehistoric period amply demonstrates the bonds which developed and intensified between these isolated communities and helped to maintain a shared but distinctive Atlantic identity.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2001
- 600 pages
- Paperback
- Oxford University Press
Similar books
-
Facing the Ocean: The Atlantic and Its Peoples, 8000 BC-AD 1500
By Barry W. CunliffeThis work focuses on the western rim of Europe - the Atlantic facade - an area stretching from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Isles of Shetland.
-
Ocean Outbreak: Confronting the Rising Tide of Marine Disease
By Drew HarvellI am grateful to the team at the University of California Press: Kate Marshall, for supporting the concept and the book from the beginning; Dore Brown, for shepherding the book through the production process; and Jan Spauschus, ...
-
Facing the Frozen Ocean: One Man's Dream to Lead a Team Across the Treacherous North Atlantic
By Bear Grylls' Daily Telegraph Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, this is the compelling account of the most recent adventure of the bestselling author of Facing Up. It started out as a carefully calculated attempt to ...
-
The Ocean's Daughter
By Corinne Beenfield“It's not just six men—it's their mothers and wives and sons and daughters. Fathers, brothers, and sisters. ... Lyric was a sea maiden—Helen knew without a doubt now. Gazing up at the sailors, Helen's thoughts went to Stuart.
-
The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea
By Callum RobertsLike Four Fish and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, The Ocean of Life takes a long view to tell a story in which each one of us has a role to play.
-
On the Ocean: The Mediterranean and the Atlantic from prehistory to AD 1500
By Sir Barry CunliffeBarry Cunliffe looks at the development of seafaring on the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, two contrasting seas — the Mediterranean without a significant tide, enclosed and soon to become familiar, the Atlantic with its frightening tidal ...
-
Future Of Marine Life In A Changing Ocean, The: The Fate Of Marine Organisms And Processes Under Climate Change And...
By M Debora Iglesias-rodriguezThis book brings together the state of our knowledge on the interactions between climate change and marine biota.
-
Facing up and Facing the frozen ocean
By Bear GryllsFacing up and Facing the frozen ocean
-
Heal the Ocean: Solutions for Saving Our Seas
By Rodney M. FujitaDescribes ocean environments, current ecological threats, and how human impacts to the ocean are being reduced.
-
Ocean Soul
By Brian SkerryRemainingstassed stance seas not to do the momeno.icomposed the scene in my viewfinder and began making goes was poleged to watchthsdeocatey choreographed dance of two species. another do sound me perched atop the ousting oo engine of a ...