On the Ocean
The Mediterranean and the Atlantic from prehistory to AD 1500
- Publisher's listprice GBP 25.00
-
12 337 Ft (11 750 Ft + 5% VAT)
The price is estimated because at the time of ordering we do not know what conversion rates will apply to HUF / product currency when the book arrives. In case HUF is weaker, the price increases slightly, in case HUF is stronger, the price goes lower slightly.
- Discount 10% (cc. 1 234 Ft off)
- Discounted price 11 104 Ft (10 575 Ft + 5% VAT)
Subcribe now and take benefit of a favourable price.
Subscribe
12 337 Ft
Availability
Not yet published.
Why don't you give exact delivery time?
Delivery time is estimated on our previous experiences. We give estimations only, because we order from outside Hungary, and the delivery time mainly depends on how quickly the publisher supplies the book. Faster or slower deliveries both happen, but we do our best to supply as quickly as possible.
Product details:
- Publisher OUP Oxford
- Date of Publication 9 October 2025
- ISBN 9780198960416
- Binding Paperback
- No. of pages648 pages
- Size 245x189x30 mm
- Weight 1390 g
- Language English
- Illustrations 220 illustrations, 114 Maps 700
Categories
Short description:
The story of the contest between humans and the sea, played out in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic from early prehistory until AD 1500.
MoreLong description:
For humans the sea is, and always has been, an alien environment. Ever moving and ever changing in mood, it is a place without time, in contrast to the land which is fixed and scarred by human activity giving it a visible history. While the land is familiar, even reassuring, the sea is unknown and threatening. By taking to the sea humans put themselves at its mercy. It has often been perceived to be an alien power teasing and cajoling. The sea may give but it takes.
Why, then, did humans become seafarers? Part of the answer is that we are conditioned by our genetics to be acquisitive animals: we like to acquire rare materials and we are eager for esoteric knowledge, and society rewards us well for both. Looking out to sea most will be curious as to what is out there - a mysterious island perhaps but what lies beyond? Our innate inquisitiveness drives us to explore.
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.
This beguiling, thought-provoking, sumptuously illustrated, and engaging book is essential reading.
Table of Contents:
Those in Peril on the Sea
The Combat that is called Navigation
Taking to the Sea
Two Seas, Many Responses, 5300-1200 BC
The Eastern Mediterranean Cauldron, 5300-1200 BC
Exploring the Ends of the World, 1200-600 BC
Of Ships and Sails: a Technical Interlude
Exploring the Outer Ocean, 600-100 BC
The Atlantic Community, 100 B.C.-A.D. 500
An End and a Beginning, A.D. 350-800
The Age of the Northmen, A.D. 780-1100
The New European Order, A.D. 1100-1400
The Ocean Conquered, 1400-1510
Reflections on the Ocean
Glossary of Nautical Terms
A Guide to Further Reading
Illustration Sources
Index
