Table of Contents:
  • An archaeology of place: People and water ; Region, frontier, nation ; Beginnings ; Geography and ecology
  • Pontus Euxinus, 700BC-AD500: The edge of the world ; "Frogs around a pond" ; "A community of race" ; How a Scythian saved civilization ; The voyage of Argo ; "More barbarous than ourselves" ; Pontus and Rome ; Dacia Traiana ; The expedition of Flavius Arrianus ; The Prophet of Abonoteichus
  • Mare Maggiore, 500-1500: "The Scythian nations are one" ; Sea-fire ; Khazars, Rhos, Bulgars, and Turks ; Business in Gazaria ; Pax Mongolica ; The ship from Caffa ; Empire of the Comneni ; Turchia ; An ambassador from the east
  • Kara Deniz, 1500-1700" "The source of all the seas" ; "To Constantinople, to be sold!" ; Domn, Khan, and Derebey ; Sailors' graffiti ; A navy of seagulls
  • Chernoe More, 1700-1860: Sea and steppe ; A flotilla on Azov ; Cleopatra processes south ; The flight of the Kalmoucks ; A season in the Kherson ; Rear admiral Dzhons ; New Russia ; Fever, ague, and Lazaretto ; A consul in Trabzon ; Crimea
  • Black Sea, 1860-1990: Empires, states, and treaties ; Steam, wheat, rail, and oil ; "An ignoble army of scribbling visitors" ; Trouble on the Köstence Line ; The unpeopling ; "The division of the waters" ; Knowing the sea ; The Prometheans ; Development and decline
  • Facing the water.