This atlas is clearly a reference book and is part of a series. I was a bit surprised when I realised that the historical atlas of the ancient world stopped at about 500 BC and If I wanted more recent information then I needed the next volume in the series. Nevertheless, it is still quite a good overview of the complex history...with especial emphasis on the middle east area. There are various maps that look at the political movements and the agricultural changes and the spread of writing. I was looking for some detail on Troy but found it was extremely limited. But for some of the big picture movements of history...like the rise of the Persian empire or the transfer of power from the Shang to the Zhou in China in 1122 BC....it is really good. Nice maps and great use of colour. And the keys are well done also. And if it stopped a bit short of the period of ancient history that I was especially interested in...then it was certainly announced in large letters on the cover. So my fault for not reading it. I rate it at least four stars. It does what it sets out to do. ( )

4,000,000 - 500 BC

4,000,000 to 500 BC

Just bought this today -- $7.98 on remainder rack at Barnes & Noble

[Historical Atlas of the Ancient World] by John Haywood

I have lots of large format atlases but I must say this one is really outstanding, covering all of the ancient world to 500 BC with wonderful detailed maps and a well-constructed, functional timeline along the bottom of each page.

My biggest gripe in reading even the best history book is often a lack of functional maps. Even if you know the geography pretty well, easy-to-read large format maps are a real boom to your studies. Yet most books neglect them or entirely omit them. Cunliffe's [Europe Between the Oceans] had beautiful color maps that typically lacked many of the place names he referred to in his text. Kagan's volume one [The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War], which I'm currently reading, lacks even a single map. I mean I'm pretty familiar with the Aegean and Ionia and even Magna Graecia to some degree circa 450 BC, but there are hundreds of city states; I have a color map I downloaded off the net folded into the back of the book for reference.

I also have almost a full shelf of various kinds of atlases, including many from the "Cultural Atlas" series, but these generally get bogged down with a focus on encyclopedic information in very small print and often feature maps that contain so many details they are almost unreadable -- like some travel maps of major metro regions so criss-crossed with highways and interstates that they fail as instruments of navigation.

Haywood's [Historical Atlas of the Ancient World], on the other hand, is clear in its purpose and its presentation. I'm currently also reading [The Horse, the Wheel and Language] by Anthony about the proto-Indo-Europeans, as well as [The Ancient Near East: A History] by Hallo, and I am so impressed by the way the Heywood atlas illuminates both by actually capturing a wealth of place names referred to by modern archaeologists and historians that are often left off of other historical maps. I strongly recommend this atlas to everyone who craves maps as reference to their reading the way that I do.

http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Atlas-Ancient-World-Haywood/dp/1586632388/ref=s... ( )