Athens, Aden, Arikamedu (Essays on the Interrelations Between India, Arabia and the Eastern Mediterranean)

This book is a collection of essays by several contributors of international repute on the general topic of the interrelationship between India, Arabia, and the Eastern Mediterranean. Four papers refer to what can be called "Graeco-India", i.e. the relations between the Greek world itself and India, and the vision the Greeks had of India or borrowed from her, from the early classical period to the late Roman times, mainly seen from the literary sources. A major contribution on the Yavanas in India which provides another version of the Greek presence in India has also been included. Another essay helps us understand better the history and culture of the Indo-Greek kingdoms through numismatic data. Two papers deal with the archaeological as well as literary evidence on the trade between Rome and India, a subject recently revived both in India and European/American research. Maritime traditions which facilitate understanding of international trade have been studied from an Indian and ethnographical point of view. Finally, two contributions emphasize that the Arabian peninsula is the natural bridge between India and the Eastern Mediterranean-a fact so obvious that it is often ignored in archaeological and historical studies of the Indian Ocean in the pre-Islamic period.

M.-F. Boussac is a Professor in Greek History at Lille University and Deputy Director of the French Mission at Mahasthangarh in Bangladesh. She is currently in charge of excavations at Taposiris-a Graeco-Roman site in Egypt, near Alexandria. She continues to edit Topoi devoted to the Mediterranean world and its linkages with Asia.

J.-F. Salles is Research Director, French National Centre for Scientific Research, and is now in charge of the Jordan Branch of the French Institute for Near East (IFPO, Amman). He was Director of Maison de l'Orient Mediterranean, Lyon until 1999 and in-charge of the French Mission at Mahasthangarh in Bangladesh until December 2004.

He has specialized in the archaeology of the Gulf, especially from the mid-first millennium BC to the mid-first millennium AD. His publications include excavation reports on archaeological sites in the Gulf, as also contributions to major international journals.