The Runciman Award is given annually to what the judges consider the best book to have been published in English the previous year, which advances a broader understanding and appreciation of Hellenic culture or history. The award is run by the Anglo-Hellenic League, which promotes cultural links and understanding between Britain and the Greek world.
Using an astonishing range of sources, The Maeander Valley, reveals the complex and fascinating interplay between the natural environment and human activities in the region.
Chairman of the judging panel, Dr John S. Taylor, Head of Classics at Tonbridge School called it, "a book to savour, a book to return to, and a worthy winner."
This year's shortlist was dominated by Cambridge University Press titles, with four out of the seven nominated titles published by Cambridge, including, The Greeks and The New by D'Angour Armand, The History Written on the Classical Greek Body by Robin Osbourne and Polis and Revolution by Julia L. Shear.
The Award was established in memory of Sir Steven Runciman, one of the most important historians of Byzantium and the Medieval Mediterranean and a long-time Cambridge author whose books have collectively sold hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide.
The Maeander Valley: A Historical Geography From Antiquity to Byzantium by Peter Thonemann is out now.
Reproduced courtesy of Cambridge University Press. For more news stories visit www.cambridge.org
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