Facing the Ocean The Atlantic and Its Peoples 8000 BC-AD 1500

by Cunliffe, Barry

• ISBN13: 9780199240197
• ISBN10: 0199240191
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-06-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Bretons are not French, the Celts are not English, and the Galicians are not Spanish, writes Barry Cunliffe. These maritime communities have long looked north and south along the coast, not inland, to claim a common bond. Even today, the Bretons see themselves as distinct from the French, but refer to the Irish, Welsh, and Galicians as their brothers and cousins. In Facing the Ocean , Barry Cunliffe, one of the world's most highly regarded authorities on prehistoric Europe, offers an utterly original way of looking at that continent. He argues that the peoples of the Atlantic rim--of Iceland, Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, Spain, Portugal, and Gibraltar--all share a cultural identity shaped by the Atlantic Ocean, an identity which stretches back almost ten thousand years. These peoples lived at the edge of the world, in places called Land's End, Finistere, and Finisterra, and looked out on a bountiful but terrifying expanse of ocean, a roiling, merciless infinity beyond which there was nothing. Their profound relationship with the ocean set these communities apart from their inland countryman, creating a distinct Atlantic culture. Cunliffe culls the archaeological evidence to illuminate the bonds that developed and intensified between these isolated communities and helped to maintain a shared and distinctive Atlantic identity. Attractively designed and vibrantly written, Facing the Ocean offers a striking reassessment of a people who have usually been regarded as peripheral to European history. It will send shock waves through the history world and will radically change our view of the European past.

Author Biography

Barry Cunliffe is Professor of European Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford University. He is the author of numerous books on prehistory, including The Ancient Celts and The Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Perceptions of the Ocean	1	(18)
Between Land and Sea	19	(45)
Ships and Sailors	64	(45)
The Emergence of and Atlantic Identity: 8000-4000 BC	109	(50)
Ancestors and Ritual Landscapes: 4000-2700 BC	159	(54)
Expanding Networks and the Rise of the Individual: 2700-1200 BC	213	(48)
Sailors on the Two Oceans: 1200-200 BC	261	(50)
Restating Identity: 1200-200 BC	311	(54)
The Impact of Rome: 200 BC-AD200	365	(57)
Migrants and Settlers in the Early Middle Ages: AD 200-800	422	(60)
The Coming of the Northmen	482	(35)
New Centres, New Peripheries: AD 1000-1500	517	(37)
The Longue Duree	554	(15)
A Guide to Further Reading	569	(12)
Illustration Sources	581	(4)
Index	585