'He treats geography as a kind of literature' Felipe Fernández-Armesto

The word 'antiquity' conjures up awe-inspiring Greek art, power-hungry Roman republics and glittering Byzantine empires. But the cultures that dominate our mental picture are just a tiny snapshot of a rich, complex and vast global network.

In this fascinating revisionist perspective, Raimund Schulz unspools three millennia of history to reveal how - just as much as the classical civilisations - it was the east that shaped the ancient world. From early nomadic forays across the southeastern foothills of the Ural Mountains, to the birth of organised religion in the citadels of the Kyzylkum Desert, Schulz shows how the roots of today's political and economic systems lie in civilisations that spanned the globe, not just the west.

Translated from the German by Marshall Yarbrough.