History Central Asia Steppe Warriors Mede Scythian Macedonian Bactrian Sarmatian For Sale

The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors by Christoph Baumer.

NOTE: We have 75,000 books in our library, almost 10,000 different titles. Odds are we have other copies of this same title in varying conditions, some less expensive, some better condition. We might also have different editions as well (some paperback, some hardcover, oftentimes international editions). If you don’t see what you want, please contact us and ask. We’re happy to send you a summary of the differing conditions and prices we may have for the same title.

DESCRIPTION: Hardcover with Dustjacket. Publisher: I.B.Tauris (2012). Pages: 372. Size: 12 x 9½ x 1¼ inches; 5+ pounds. The epic plains and arid deserts of Central Asia have witnessed some of the greatest migrations, as well as many of the most transformative developments, in the history of civilization. Christoph Baumer s ambitious four-volume treatment of the region charts the 3000-year drama of Scythians and Sarmatians; Soviets and transcontinental Silk Roads; trade routes and the transmission of ideas across the steppes; and the breathless and brutal conquests of Alexander the Great and Chinghiz Khan. Masterfully interweaving the stories of individuals and peoples, the author s engaging prose is richly augmented throughout by colour photographs taken on his own travels. For all the complexity of the history, Dr Baumer, a noted authority on Central Asia, never loses sight of the sweeping grandeur of its overall setting. Volume 1 focuses on the geography of the area now occupied by present-day Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, northern Afghanistan, western and central Mongolia and parts of southern Russia and northern China. Discussing the changing climates of the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Ages, the author explores subjects as diverse as glacial retreat; the invention of the wheel; the legendary Cimmerians and Amazons; Hellenism and Zoroastrianism; and the Oxus Treasure. Future volumes will explore the later historical periods of the region.

CONDITION: NEW. MASSIVE new hardcover with dustjacket. I.B.Tauris (2012) 372 pages. Unblemished and pristine in every respect. Pages are clean, crisp,unmarked, unmutilated, tightly bound, unambiguously unread. Satisfactionunconditionally guaranteed. In stock, ready to ship. No disappointments,no excuses. PROMPT SHIPPING! HEAVILY PADDED, DAMAGE-FREE PACKAGING!Meticulous and accurate descriptions! Selling rare and out-of-printancient history books on-line since 1997. We accept returns for anyreason within 14 days! #8246a.

PLEASE SEE DESCRIPTIONS AND IMAGES BELOW FOR DETAILED REVIEWS AND FOR PAGES OF PICTURES FROM INSIDE OF BOOK.

PLEASE SEE PUBLISHER, PROFESSIONAL, AND READER REVIEWS BELOW.

PUBLISHER REVIEWS:

REVIEW: This is a sumptuously illustrated history of one of the most compelling and mysterious regions on earth. It is a unique travelogue and resource by a latter-day Richard Burton: required reading for years to come. It is a crossover sale to scholars and students of antiquity, history, archaeology and religious studies. The epic plains and arid deserts of Central Asia have witnessed some of the greatest migrations, as well as many of the most transformative developments, in the history of civilization. Christoph Baumer\'s ambitious four-volume treatment of the region charts the 3000-year drama of Scythians and Sarmatians; Soviets and transcontinental Silk Roads; trade routes and the transmission of ideas across the steppes; and, the breathless and brutal conquests of Alexander the Great and Chinghiz Khan. Masterfully interweaving the stories of individuals and people, the author\'s engaging prose is richly augmented throughout by color photographs taken on his own travels. For all the complexity of the history, Dr Baumer, a noted authority on Central Asia, never loses sight of the sweeping grandeur of its overall setting. Volume 1 focuses on the geography of the area now occupied by present-day Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, northern Afghanistan, western and central Mongolia and parts of southern Russia and northern China. Discussing the changing climates of the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Ages, the author explores subjects as diverse as glacial retreat; the invention of the wheel; the legendary Cimmerians and Amazons; Hellenism and Zoroastrianism; and, the Oxus Treasure. Future volumes will explore the later historical periods of the region.

REVIEW: Christoph Baumer(born June 23, 1952 inZurich) is a Swiss scholar and explorer. From 1984 onwards, he has conducted explorations in Central Asia, China and Tibet, the results of which have been published in numerous books, scholarly publications and radio programs.

REVIEW: Christoph Baumer - a leading explorer and historian of Central Asia, Tibet and China - has written several well-received books in the fields of history, religion, archaeology and travel. These include “The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity” (2006), “Traces in the Desert: Journeys of Discovery across Central Asia” (2008) and “China\'s Holy Mountain: An Illustrated Journey into the Heart of Buddhism” (2011), all published by I.B.Tauris. Dr. Baumer is President of the Society for the Exploration of EurAsia and a member of the Explorer’s Club, New York, and the Royal Asiatic Society and the Royal Geographical Society, London.

REVIEW:

Table of Climate and Prehuman History of Central Asia.

On the definition of Central Asia.

The interdependence of geography, climate and history.

The Settlement of Central Asia in the Palaeolithic.

\'Out-of-Africa\' or \'Out-of-Asia\'?

The earliest settlements of Central Asia.

The birth of art.

The bow, an almost 20,000-year success story.

A Global Climatic Warming Ushers in the Mesolithic.

The retreat of the glaciers.

Petroglyphs as information sources.

Microliths.

The Economic Revolution of the Neolithic.

The primary and secondary Neolithic revolutions.

Hunters and gatherers in the mountains and on the waterways of inner Central Asia.

Agriculture and early settlements in southern Central Asia.

The northern steppes of Central Asia - meeting point of hunters and herders with farmers.

The Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age.

The division of early history and the beginnings of metallurgy.

The first cities of Central Asia in southern Turkmenistan.

Agrarian and stockbreeding cultures in northern Central Asia.

Sun deities and horse sacrifices.

The Middle and Late Bronze Age.

The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex BMAC.

Indo-European mummies in north-western China.

The steppes of Central Asia: \'origin\' of the Indo-European languages?.

Mysterious stone steles of the Okunev Culture in Khakassia.

From the Volga to the Yenisei: homeland of the Indo-Iranians?

Karasuk and the cultures of khirigsuurs and slab graves during the transition to the Iron Age.

The Iron Age.

Nomadic horsemen in north-eastern Central Asia.

Nomadic riding peoples on the north-western periphery of Central Asia.

Greeks in Central Asia.

The campaign of Alexander the Great.

The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom.

Bactrian art of the steppe, Hellenism and most important prehistoric and early historic cultures of Central Asia.

Bibliography.

Photo credits.

List of REVIEWS:

REVIEW: Central Asia today rarely seems central to much of anything aside from geography. Its vast steppes, deserts and mountains are places usually passed over, often from 10,000 meters up.

But it was not always so as Christoph Baumer makes clear in the extravagantly-produced The Age of the Steppe Warriors, the first volume of a planned four-volume series on The History of Central Asia.The evidence points to Central Asia being the source of much of what we might consider the earliest foundations of our modern world: not agriculture—that developed elsewhere—but rather \"technology\", i.e. the casting of metals (bronze and later iron), the domestication of the horse and the development of wheeled transportation.

Central Asia also seems to be the source of the Indo-European languages—the family that includes English, Greek, Farsi and Hindi, and spoken by almost three billion people. We know this in part because these are the languages in which the words for these technologies first appear; the linguistic evidence corresponds with the archaeology. They also form the basis of much shared philosophy: the Rig Veda and other epics apparently date from that period of early Indo-European Bronze Age people on the steppe.

Indo-Europeans settled in what is now Xinjiang and the Taklamakan Desert and brought these technologies—metalworking, the horse, the chariot—to China. Largely lost to history until only a century ago and now known as Tocharians: the famous Xinjiang mummies are theirs. The more Western Indo-European Central Asians became the Persians and the Greeks, Germans, Celts and other peoples of Europe. Some of those that stayed in Central Asian figure in Western histories—those of Herodotus and Pliny, for example—as Scythians.

How could a book on \"The History of Central Asia\" fail, therefore, to be fascinating? But \"The Age of the Steppe Warriors\" is as magnificent as it is magisterial. This is a coffee-table format book both in its size and its wealth of photographs, with some magnificent double-page spreads. And what photographs! From landscapes and ancient stelae to artifacts of gold, bronze, wood and even textile, the book is filled with images that are in turn fascinating, mysterious and dazzling. For the most part, the photos are of places that are inaccessible to most of us or of artifacts from museums in Russia and Central Asia that few readers will have ever visited.

The most evocative of these are the various stylized anthropomorphic statues, some of which look like they belong in a museum of modern art, rather than dating from the mists of prehistory. The most evocative of all are the wooden grave statues—preserved for millennia—staring eyelessly out over the desert in Ayala Mazar in the Taklamakan. Others are of “deer stones”—carved stone stelae featuring a stylized deer motif—which appear throughout the region, polychromatic textiles (carpets and wall hangings) and articles of gold and other materials that show the people and animals of the steppe.

The images reach out across the centuries—no, millennia, for they are thousands of years old—like old family photographs of forgotten great-aunts and uncles, except many times more removed, dusty, strange, yet somehow recognizable.

The text amounts to no more than 50% of the book by area. It is erudite if not always easy going. This period is pre-history; insofar as there are written records, they came late in the period, and generally from the neighbours rather than the Central Asians themselves. The story is one of cultures with unfamiliar names, often with a surfeit of umlauts and other diacritical marks, long distances and long periods of time, with a great deal of inference and technical detail. It takes some work. Speculation would leaven the narrative, but Baumer (wisely) restrains himself. It is only toward the end of volume, when the story gets to Alexander, that it begins to resemble a history with named people and exact dates.

The relative dryness of the prose is compensated for not just by the marvelous illustrations but also by an array of fascinating tidbits. These include such nuggets as the apparent independent development of silk by the Indus Valley civilization, so that the presence of silk cannot be taken, as it once was, as an indication of contact with China; the similarities between the Rig Veda of the Hindus and the Avesta of the Zoroastrians, both of which “present a rural world of primarily stockbreeders and secondarily farmers, not an urban world” and the discoveries that bear out many passages in Herodotus.

The Age of the Steppe Warriors is a beautiful, evocative and thought-provoking book. The other volumes have much to live up to.

REVIEW: This, in my judgment, is a most impressive book. Dr. Baumer has a wide-ranging knowledge of his subject, an extensive on-the-ground acquaintance with Central Asia itself, and an ability to convey that knowledge in a most interesting and comprehensible way. He has a gift for the striking observation. For example, he remarks on a curious parallel between a Central Asian story about a hero\'s sword having to be thrown into the sea and the rather similar tale about Excalibur, commenting that this is perhaps not merely coincidence: might it have something to do with the Sarmatian soldiers sent by Marcus Aurelius to guard Hadrian\'s Wall? Another excellent idea is the periodic insertion of \'excursuses,\' on such topics as Roy Chapman Andrews the \'dinosaur hunter,\' the Siberian collections of Peter the Great, and the Amazons. No history of Central Asia, or indeed of anywhere else, can ultimately claim to be \'complete.\' But this one is certainly very comprehensive indeed, far more so than any other recent work of which I am aware. The publication of this volume, and of its successors too, seems to me to be a very valuable enterprise indeed. [David Morgan, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and author of The Mongols].

REVIEW: Explorer Baumer, author of 14 books on Asian topics, has written the first of a projected comprehensive four-volume series on Central Asian prehistory and history. This volume covers the earliest times through Greek incursions (50,000 to ca. 200 BC). In nine chapters, he briefly covers the geology, geography, and regional climatic change, then focuses on the archaeology of the earliest cultures from the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic periods, but provides in-depth treatments of Bronze and Iron Age cultures, ending with Alexander the Great and the Greco-Bactrian Empire. The narrative is accompanied by 262 magnificent illustrations (most in color), 12 maps, a chronological chart (Neolithic-Iron Age, 7000 BC-AD 100), scholarly endnotes, and 915-item bibliography. This well-bound volume is a welcome addition to a slender regional literature and is a financial bargain for any library.

REVIEW: The epic plains and arid deserts of Central Asia have witnessed some of the greatest migrations. This work charts the 3000-year drama of Scythians and Sarmatians; Soviets and transcontinental Silk Roads; trade routes and the transmission of ideas across the steppes; and, the breathless and brutal conquests of Alexander the Great and Chinghiz Khan.

REVIEW: Lavishly illustrated essays present discrete topics with clarity and erudition... [an] enthralling and detailed study of Central Asia [which] opens readers\' eyes to previously remote and inaccessible cultures and histories... highly recommended.

READER REVIEWS:

REVIEW: Yes, you want to read this book. Its a big beautiful coffee table book loaded with fantastic pictures. Like if you wanted to draw a map of a bronze age city...hey, here\'s an aerial photograph of a fully excavated one for inspiration...hint...it don\'t look like most city maps. The regional maps are actual satellite images with the locations added in so you get a real feel for why one big desert area is labeled as 4 separate deserts...because they\'re radically different terrain, and you can actually see that in the satellite imagery.

But its the sweep of history that makes this a must buy. The book literally begins with Pangea and the formation of the continents, so it covers Central Asia as far back as our current knowledge will take us. It introduced me to dozens of distinct cultures that I never knew existed, known to us only by their Archaelogical name...no one has any idea what they called themselves.

But here\'s what really blew my mind. We all know that Central Asia is the home of the steppe nomads, right. Mighty horse archers like the Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns, Turks, Mongels...the very first people in Central Asia must have been nomads right from the beginning, right.

Nope. Central Asia (particularly what is today Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) had some of the earliest and largest urban centers in the world. There were cities and urban culture in Turkmenistan to rival anything in Mesopotamia. And the book I just finished about how global the bronze age was...completely missed these cultures and how essential they were. The Turkmenistan cities were some of the largest trade centers of their day, linking the Indus Valley with Mesopotamia. Long before the \"Silk Road\" was the \"Tin Road\" and very sophisticated trade networks.

It was climate change that put an end to Central Asia\'s early urbanization. Early in the process cities were abandoned and new ones built from scratch following rivers that repeatedly changed their course. Then finally the region got too dry to sustain concentrated populations built on intensive agriculture and the people shifted to a more pastoral semi to fully nomadic society. Interestingly, this process seems to be entirely peaceful. Forget about the nasty horse nomads raiding the poor city people. There\'s no evidence of that here, and alot of evidence of \"hey...that\'s a really good idea you\'ve got there, we\'re going to try that too\".

And while I knew that Central Asia gave us the domesticated horse (first as food source, then as draft animal, and finally for riding) and all of the accoutrements of bridles, and saddles and eventually stirrups and such; and of course the composite bow and other cool things, I never knew how much ELSE started there. How about the wheel? Yep. The oldest known chariots in the world...not Mesopotamia...Central Asia. How about bronze working? Yep...Mesopotamia developed a more advanced metalurgy, but the earliest examples of copper and bronze working...Central Asia. And China...pretty much got everything from Central Asia. Current archaeology suggests that nearly ALL of the technology we\'d think of as being foundational to civilization (metal working, grain based agriculture, the wheel) was adopted whole cloth in China from their contact with Central Asian steppe nomads.

Pretty sweet, and I\'m only up to the Middle Bronze Age.

This is the first volume of a 4 volume series. The second: Age of the Silk Roads, takes the history through 900AD.

REVIEW: The book is a good reference and source book for non specialists (like myself). One of its virtues is the emphasis on geography and climatology as determinants of events in the prehistory and history of Central Asia. The seemingly never to end discussions of burial practices and grave goods can seem tiresome, but if you don\'t resist them and go with the flow, the reward will be enhanced skill for dealing with this kind of material and development of a base in common sense for these methods of reconstructing history. Shaky as it is, its all there is for times, places and people. I credit the author with pausing from time to time to sum up. The Macedonian \'s penetration to the edge of Central Asia by sticking their toes in the Syr Darya got a lot of coverage.

REVIEW: This is one of those books that fits into several categories, and I think suffers a little because of this. It is the size of a coffee table book, is beautifully presented and full of fabulous photographs and other images. If you are after such a book for your coffee table - this one is a 5 star beauty.

I got it to read, rather than simply to skim through. As a book to read it is less successful. It falls into that difficult category in that it is not an academic book, but it is not an easy read for the non-specialist either. The author is obviously hugely knowledgeable about his subject, but sometimes the writing is pretty dry. To be fair, the first 3 quarters of this book relate to pre-history and it’s hard then to make it exciting and interesting without making things up. So the first 3/4 are essentially archaeology and interpretation of archaeology. This is dry. The book becomes more interesting in the last section about the Greeks in Central Asia for which there are historical records. I am hopeful the next volume will be more stimulating.

Another issue for the reader - one I was willing to accept but may be a pain for some, is simply the practical difficulty of reading and carrying around such a large book. I read it slowly, dipping into it from time to time when I am at home in my living room.

Overall: beautiful, interesting, a little dry and not always the most stimulating read, but hopefully a great basis for a second volume.

REVIEW: One of the very best books ever written about Central Asia. Christoph Baumer has an extraordinary ability to bring the history of this part of the world alive in a fascinating and original way. I highly recommend it to anyone students and general readers interested in the history of Central Asia. And the photographs are beautiful, absolutely stunning.

REVIEW: Excellent story of the lives of ancient civilizations and people in parts of the world that are seldom covered for readers limited to the English language like me. Hundreds of beautiful colored pictures of ruins, artifacts and maps to liven up the text and add context. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the earliest centuries of the buffer zone between East and West. Volume II (“The Age of the Silk Roads”) is equally good.

REVIEW: Superbly illustrated and eruditely written. The wide open steppe beckons again.

REVIEW: A fantastic book on an incredible topic. Highly recommend. Beautifully published.

REVIEW: The most complete and cultural attractive history of proto Indo-Europeans. Baumer doesn\'t forget to penetrate religion and values. His quotations are especially wide and clear. The text is fascinating, the images are wonderful.

REVIEW: This history is beautifully illustrated. It\'s a book I open often and pour over. It covers an area about which I knew very little. It\'s a beguiling introduction to Central Asia, inviting more perusal and deeper study.

REVIEW: The research that produced this valuable encyclopedic work on the steppe nomads known to the Greeks as Scythians in antiquity is deeply impressive and far-ranging. The maps and illustrations are splendid.

REVIEW: Well written and illustrated, this gave a good sense of the prehistory as much as the history of the Scythians and other nomads.

REVIEW: This is the first book in a new limited history of the Asian steppes and its people. I like it and look forward to the rest of the series of books.

REVIEW: Good solid introductory material, great pictures which help bring the content to life.

SHIPPING & RETURNS/REFUNDS: We always ship books domestically (within the USA) via USPS INSURED media mail (“book rate”). Most international orders cost an additional $9.99 to $37.99 for an insured shipment in a heavily padded mailer. However this book is quite heavy, and it is too large to fit into a flat rate mailer. Therefore the shipping costs are somewhat higher than what is otherwise ordinary. There is also a discount program which can cut postage costs by 50% to 75% if you’re buying about half-a-dozen books or more (5 kilos+). Our postage charges are as reasonable as USPS rates allow. ADDITIONAL PURCHASES do receive a VERY LARGE discount, typically about $5 per book (for each additional book after the first) so as to reward you for the economies of combined shipping/insurance costs.

Your purchase will ordinarily be shipped within 48 hours of payment. We package as well as anyone in the business, with lots of protective padding and containers. All of our shipments are fully insured against loss, and our shipping rates include the cost of this coverage (through stamps.com, Shipsaver.com, the USPS, UPS, or Fed-Ex). International tracking is provided free by the USPS for certain countries, other countries are at additional cost. We do offer U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail, Registered Mail, and Express Mail for both international and domestic shipments, as well United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (Fed-Ex). Please ask for a rate quotation. We will accept whatever payment method you are most comfortable with.

If upon receipt of the item you are disappointed for any reason whatever, I offer a no questions asked 30-day return policy. Send it back, I will give you a complete refund of the purchase price; 1) less our original shipping/insurance costs, 2) less non-refundable PayPal/ payment processing fees. Please note that PayPal does NOT refund fees. Even if you “accidentally” purchase something and then cancel the purchase before it is shipped, PayPal will not refund their fees. So all refunds for any reason, without exception, do not include PayPal/ payment processing fees (typically between 3% and 5%) and shipping/insurance costs (if any). If you’re unhappy with PayPal and ’s “no fee refund” policy, and we are EXTREMELY unhappy, please voice your displeasure by contacting PayPal and/or . We have no ability to influence, modify or waive PayPal or policies.

ABOUT US: Most of the items I offer come from the collection of a family friend who was active in the field of Archaeology for over forty years. However many of the items also come from purchases I make in Eastern Europe, India, and from the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean/Near East) from various institutions and dealers. Though I have always had an interest in archaeology, my own academic background was in sociology and cultural anthropology. After my retirement however, I found myself drawn to archaeology as well. Aside from my own personal collection, I have made extensive and frequent additions of my own via purchases on (of course), as well as many purchases from both dealers and institutions throughout the world - but especially in the Near East and in Eastern Europe. I spend over half of my year out of the United States, and have spent much of my life either in India or Eastern Europe. In fact much of what we generate on Yahoo, Amazon and goes to support The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, as well as some other worthy institutions in Europe connected with Anthropology and Archaeology.

I acquire some small but interesting collections overseas from time-to-time, and have as well some duplicate items within my own collection which I occasionally decide to part with. Though I have a collection of ancient coins numbering in the tens of thousands, my primary interest is in ancient jewelry. My wife also is an active participant in the \"business\" of antique and ancient jewelry, and is from Russia. I would be happy to provide you with a certificate/guarantee of authenticity for any item you purchase from me. There is a $2 fee for mailing under separate cover. Whenever I am overseas I have made arrangements for purchases to be shipped out via domestic mail. If I am in the field, you may have to wait for a week or two for a COA to arrive via international air mail. But you can be sure your purchase will arrive properly packaged and promptly - even if I am absent. And when I am in a remote field location with merely a notebook computer, at times I am not able to access my email for a day or two, so be patient, I will always respond to every email. Please see our \"ADDITIONAL TERMS OF SALE.\"