Understanding Syria through 40 Monuments

Ross Burns
Paperback, 280 pages
9780755645282

A Story of Survival

How can a nation's archaeological treasures help explain its history, especially one as richly complex as Syria's? Ross Burns chooses 40 among Syria's outstanding range of sites, accompanied by over 200 colour illustrations, to take the reader through the tangled paths of this crossroads of the eastern Mediterranean where numerous world cultures intersected.

Given the last 12 years of savage conflict, the author reports too on the plight of many of these monuments, addressing the common but unhelpful assumption that much of the country's archaeological treasures have been 'destroyed'. A better approach is to recognise that Syria's heritage can play a role in the country's
recovery and cannot simply be declared a write-off.

This is a history which tells us much about how Syria's mixture of traditions defy simplistic categorisation through modern definitions of cultures and identities.

Contents
1. Bronze Age palace cultures c3000–1100 BC
2. Iron Age, a new melting pot 1000-800 BC
3. Between Persians and Phoenicians c1000–333 BC
4. After Alexander 333–64 BC
5. Pax Romana 64 BC–AD 117
6. Hadrian and the High Empire 117–313
7. Christianity Triumphant 313–636
8. Umayyads and 'Abbasids 661–950
9. Arabs and Turks 950-1100
10. Pushing back the Crusaders 1100–1260
11. Mamluks 1260-1516
12. Early Ottoman centuries 1516-1800
13. Late Ottoman centuries 1800–1918