Eivind Heldaas Seland is Professor of Ancient History and Premodern Global History at the University of Bergen, Norway. He is the author of Ships of the Desert and Ships of the Sea: Palmyra in the World Trade of the First Three Centuries CE (2016).

"It is rare indeed that so much information is packaged so neatly between two covers. The book would serve well as a basic textbook in an introductory survey on ancient Eurasia and will also be useful for scholars of ancient Greece and Rome who are looking for an up-to-date overview that puts the ancient Mediterranean in a wider context, both geographically and chronologically." - The Classical Review

• Introduction: Ancient history and global history 1. Great changes: Until c. 4000 BCE 2. Making sense of past societies 3. Metals and the first complex societies: Until c. 1200 BCE 4. Early Iron Age crisis and recovery: C. 1200–800 BCE 5. City-states and empires in the Iron Age: C. 800–335 BCE 6. City-states and collective government 7. The empires strike back: 335 BCE–200 CE 8. Crisis, consolidation and collapse: 200–651 CE Conclusion: A global history of the ancient world

Eivind Heldaas Seland is Professor of Ancient History and Premodern Global History at the University of Bergen, Norway. He is the author of Ships of the Desert and Ships of the Sea: Palmyra in the World Trade of the First Three Centuries CE (2016).

"It is rare indeed that so much information is packaged so neatly between two covers. The book would serve well as a basic textbook in an introductory survey on ancient Eurasia and will also be useful for scholars of ancient Greece and Rome who are looking for an up-to-date overview that puts the ancient Mediterranean in a wider context, both geographically and chronologically." - The Classical Review

• Introduction: Ancient history and global history 1. Great changes: Until c. 4000 BCE 2. Making sense of past societies 3. Metals and the first complex societies: Until c. 1200 BCE 4. Early Iron Age crisis and recovery: C. 1200–800 BCE 5. City-states and empires in the Iron Age: C. 800–335 BCE 6. City-states and collective government 7. The empires strike back: 335 BCE–200 CE 8. Crisis, consolidation and collapse: 200–651 CE Conclusion: A global history of the ancient world