The Mediterranean has a history spanning millennia and a sea that borders three continents. It has long been a diverse melting-pot of cultures and one of the global cockpits of human endeavour. Yet in contrast to several outstanding interpretations of its Classical and subsequent history, there has been remarkably little holistic exploration of how its societies, culture and economies first came into being, despite the fact that almost all the fundamental developments that shaped these originated well before 500 BC.This book offers an interpretive exploration into the rise of the Mediterranean world from its beginnings, before the emergence of our own species, up to the threshold of Classical times. Mediterranean archaeology is one of the world’s richest sources for the reconstruction of ancient societies, yet this book draws in equal measure on ideas and information from the European, western Asian and African flanks, as well as the islands at the Mediterranean’s heart, to achieve a truly innovative focus on the varied trajectories and interactions that created this maritime world. Extensively illustrated, this book is a masterpiece of archaeological and historical writing that ranges across evidence from ancient texts to the cutting-edge science of climate change and genetics. It embraces a timespan from early humans and the origins of farming and metallurgy to the rise and interconnections of the first Mediterranean civilizations, shedding new light on such traditional foci as ancient Egypt, the early Levant, the Minoan and Mycenaean Aegean, Phoenicians, Greeks and Etruscans, while reconfiguring all these within a broader Mediterranean framework.Now featuring a significant new preface that highlights the latest game-changing research, The Making of the Middle Sea offers a comprehensive and compelling narrative that illuminates the dynamics of ancient Mediterranean life and their enduring impact on later history, our present, and our future.