Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World
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The ancient world saw the birth and collapse of great civilizations. In mainstream history the Classical world is dominated by Greece and Rome, and the Biblical world is centred on the Hebrews. Yet the roughly four-and-a-half thousand years (4000 bcad 550) covered in this book saw many peoples come and go within the brawling, multi-cultural mass of humanity that occupied the ancient Middle East, Mediterranean and beyond. While a handful of ancient cultures have garnered much of the credit, these forgotten peoples also helped to lay the foundations of our modern world. This guide brings these lost peoples out of the shadows to highlight their influence and achievements. Forty-five entries span the birth of civilization in Mesopotamia to the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, offering an alternative history focusing on the names we arent familiar with, from the Hurrians to the Hephthalites, as well as the peoples whose names we know, such as the Philistines and the Vandals, but whose real significance has been obscured. Each entry charts the rise and fall of a lost people, and how their culture echoes through history into the present. Important ancient artefacts are illustrated throughout and fifty specially drawn maps help orientate the reader within this tumultuous period of history. Philip Matyszak brings to life the rich diversity of the peoples founding cities, inventing alphabets and battling each other in the ancient world, and explores how and why they came to be forgotten.
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This book was a delight. If you've ever wondered about an ancient civilization scarcely mentioned while reading about the Greeks or Romans, this is the book you've been looking for. It's arranged in chronological order from ancient history past the fall of Rome. I loved the tie-ins with art history and the modern echos as well. It's also a great source for the myriad civilizations mentioned in the Bible who aren't the Israelites, such as the Philistines, Samaritans, etc.
Forgotten People of the Ancient World by Phillip Matyszak
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This is a fun book. It is not a particularly deep book, but it's not intended to be deep. Instead, the author, Phillip Matyszak, seems to be going for a popular appeal by making it succinct, light, occasionally humorous, and broad.
The book covers four broad sweeps of time: (a) the First Civilizations, (b) from Akkad to Alexander; (c) the peoples wiped out by Rome, and (d) the people who brought down Rome. So, with that inventory, the book starts in the Mid-East and gradually makes it way west until the final entry returns us to the Persian-Indian border with the White Huns, aka the Hephthalites.
As a history lover, I've often read these names in passing without giving them more thought than I would a background character in Shakespeare. This was an interesting “backgrounder” to situate these people in their historical context as individuals.
