Review by Choice Review
Between Sahara and Sea is a major contribution to the history of ancient North Africa and the Roman Empire. Drawing from his 2013 Thomas Spencer Jerome Lectures, Mattingly (Univ. of Leicester, UK) lucidly sums up the results of several decades of scholarship on the history and archaeology of North Africa in the first millennium BCE and the first millennium CE. The novelty of his approach is revealed in the subtitle: e.g., a focus on Africa in the Roman Empire instead of Roman Africa. He convincingly argues that archaeology has shown that the view of ancient North Africa being divided between pastoral nomads and immigrants, in which the latter were responsible for the introduction of agriculture, metallurgy, and urbanism, has to be replaced by reconstructions in which the latter were already in place during the early first millennium BCE. Mattingly lays out his argument in 13 chapters divided into six sections that cover historiography, cultural encounters during the Iron Age, Roman military communities, urban communities, rural communities, and final themes, emphasizing African agency. Particularly welcome is his positive discussion of ancient trans-Saharan trade. Between Sahara and Sea is where future scholarship on ancient North Africa should begin. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. --Stanley M. Burstein, emeritus, California State University, Los Angeles
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
