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This is a Barnes & Noble reprint of a major work on the pre-classical history of the Greeks.  Originally published in the UK by Phoenix Press, a division of Orion Books, in 1987, this is an extensive and detailed work written in Grant's usual clear, readable style.

By taking a geographical and ethnic approach, Grant gives overlapping views of the people we now know as the Greeks, from their various cultural aspects.  Grant covers the interaction of the tribes of the Greeks, from the earliest writings, in interaction with the others they interacted with.

Grant covers the political, military, religious, linguistic artistic and social spheres in each of the regions and major city-states in each era.  It was especially helpful to get the information on the formative states of the Greek sub-groups and the other ethnicities they lived with, intermarried with, fought and absorbed.

Grant probes the known facts and likely clues to draw a picture of the ethnic and political landscape of the period 1000-500 BC.  Grant provides the derivations and possible meanings of early names for peoples and places.

Grant paints an ethnic tapestry of the whole world of the Middle East, Northern Africa and the Mediterranean.  He relates known information about the Greeks in their pre-history and early classical foundations to the writings of the Middle Eastern cultures and literature, including the Hebrew writings in the Bible.

He deals with details of culture worldview in the mythological and early philosophical, or scientific, writings of ancient authors.  He analyzes influences of the ancient Sumerian and Semitic, as well as Hurrian-Hittite creation myths on the early Greek mythological writings.

See related reviews and articles on this site:
Christians Started with a Greek Old Testament
Cyprus:  Notes and Perceptions
Eastern Orthodoxy
Greek Egypt
Reclaiming the Greek Heritage:  A Modern Mathematical Philosophy
Side Trip through the Roman Empire
Thessalonica, Qumran and the Cult of the Emperor

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OBJ

First reading notes written 26 July 2006
Finalized as an article for OJTR 30 November 2007
Reviewed on Amazon and Barnes and Noble 28 February 2009

Copyright © 2007 Orville Boyd Jenkins
Permission granted for free download and transmission for personal or educational use.  Other rights reserved.

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