The Eastern Mediterranean in the Age of Ramesses II

The book consists of ten chapters examining the state level societies that interacted between 1500 and 1200 BC: New Kingdom Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Mittanni, Hatti, Elam, Syro-Palestine, and the Aegean. For those three centuries, these states of the Eastern Mediterranean traded and warred with one another, maintaining a fragile diplomatic correspondence, somehow managing to balance the needs of the various nation states with working version of detente with one another.

The book uses both history and archaeology to illustrate aspects of economics, political organizations, diplomacy, trade goods, and how the different actors dealt with communicating in different languages. Also, Van De Mieroop reveals the impact that communication had on the religions and social structures of the elites and the populace at large.

My favorite part of this book is the chapter called A Mediterranean System, which argues that by the mid-14th century, the states were involved in a Peer Polity Interaction, a complicated dance that allowed the interchange of ideas and goods while maintaining one another's status as a state. Fascinating.

Other chapters emphasize diplomacy and war, food and drink, political organization and social structure and the influence of minor players in the game. The final chapter discusses the likely causes of the breakup of the delicate dance: nature, social tensions, and invasions and migrations.

The photos are black and white--there's never enough photos for me--but the book includes a king list and ample maps of the region which as a generalist I found very useful.