| Portion of title |
Mediterranean and the Atlantic from prehistory to AD 1500 |
| Contents |
1. Those in peril on the sea -- 2. The combat that is called navigation -- 3. Taking to the sea -- 4. Two seas, many responses, 5300-1200 BC -- 5. The eastern Mediterranean cauldron, 5300-1200 BC -- 6. Exploring the ends of the world, 1200-600 BC -- 7. Of ships and sails: a technical interlude -- 8. Exploring the outer ocean, 600-100 BC -- 9. The Atlantic community, 100 BC -- AD 500 -- 10. An end and a beginning, 500-800 -- 11.The age of the Northmen, 780-1100 -- 12. The new European order, 1100-1400 -- 13. The ocean conquered, 1400-1510 -- 14. Reflections on the ocean -- Glossary of nautical terms. |
| Summary |
Barry 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 ranges, an ocean without end. We begin with the Middle Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers in the eastern Mediterranean building simple vessels to make their remarkable crossing to Crete and we end in the early years of the sixteenth century with sailors from Spain, Portugal and England establishing the limits of the ocean from Labrador to Patagonia. The message is that the contest between humans and the sea has been a driving force, perhaps the driving force, in human history. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 566-606) and index. |
| Genre/form | History. |
| ISBN | 9780198757894 |
| ISBN | 0198757891 |
