Mikhail Ivanovich Rostovtzeff, or Rostovtsev (Russian: Михаи́л Ива́нович Росто́вцев; November 10 [O.S. October 29] 1870 – October 20, 1952), was a Russian historian whose career straddled the 19th and 20th centuries and who produced important works on ancient Roman and Greek history. He served as president of the American Historical Association in 1935. He was also a member of the Russian Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.
Atargatis (known as Derceto by the Greeks) was the chief goddess of northern Syria in Classical antiquity. Primarily she was a fertility goddess, but, as the baalat ("mistress") of her city and people she was also responsible for their protection and well-being. Her chief sanctuary was at Hierapolis, modern Manbij, northeast of Aleppo, Syria.
Michael Rostovtzeff called her "the great mistress of the North Syrian lands". Her consort is usually Hadad. As Ataratheh, doves and fish were considered sacred to her: doves as an emblem of the love goddess, and fish as symbolic of the fertility and life of the waters.
Parthian art was Iranian art made during the Parthian Empire from 247 BC to 224 AD, based in the Near East. It has a mixture of Persian and Hellenistic influences. For some time after the period of the Parthian Empire, art in its styles continued for some time. A typical feature of Parthian art is the frontality of the people shown. Even in narrative representations, the actors do not look at the object of their action, but at the viewer. These are features that anticipate the art of medieval Europe and Byzantium.
Parthian sites are often overlooked in excavations, thus the state of research knowledge in Parthian art is not complete. The excavations at Dura-Europos in the 20th century provided many new discoveries. The classical archaeologist and director of the excavations, Michael Rostovtzeff, realized that the art of the first centuries AD from Palmyra, Dura Europos, and also in Iran as far as the Greco-Buddhist art of north India followed the same principles. He called this art style Parthian art.
The Tsemes Bay (also Tsemess Bay and Novorossiysk Bay; Russian: Цемесская бухта, Tsemesskaya bukhta) is an ice-free bay located on the north-eastern coast of the Black Sea, in Krasnodar Krai of Russia. It takes its name from the Tsemes River which flows into the bay. The depth of the sea varies from 21 to 27 meters. The length of the bay is 15 kilometers; its maximum width is 9 kilometers. It is delimited by the Sudzhuk Spit and by Cape Doob.
Although navigation is affected by strong autumn and winter bora winds (up to 220 kilometers per hour), ancient Greek navigators frequented the bay and established the colony of Bata on the shore. Michael Rostovtzeff explained this by the lack of any other decent harbours along the coastline between the bay and Batumi to the south. During the Middle Ages the Ghisolfi merchant family of Genoa controlled the coast.
The Ancient Economy is an influential book about the economic system of classical antiquity written by the classicist Moses I. Finley. It was originally published in 1973 with new editions in 1985 and 1992. Finley interpreted the economy from 1000 BC to AD 500 sociologically rather than through use of economic models (as did Michael Rostovtzeff). Finley viewed the ancient economy as largely a by-product of status, with economic relations being embedded in ancient institutions that are very much unlike those present in modern times.
He viewed the ancient economy as largely stagnant since, among other things, the scope of economic action was not directed to economic or productive growth as is so often the case in modern times: technological innovations therefore went without adoption, large projects were executed for prestige rather than practical benefit, and economic development, or profit maximisation. Such views, and the uncritical acceptance of elite ancient writers' economic mentalités, have been challenged and overturned by archaeological discoveries through the late 20th century.
A caravan city is a city located on and deriving its prosperity from its location on a major trans-desert trade route. The term is believed to have been coined by the scholar of antiquity, Michael Rostovtzeff, for his work O Blijnem Vostoke, published in English as Caravan Cities in 1932. The English translation of the work dealt principally with Petra, Jerash, Palmyra and Dura in the Near East, after Rhodes, Cyprus and Mycenaean Greece were removed from the translation as not being caravan cities. Dura, too, has been later considered to be more than a caravan city.
Other caravan cities include Aroer in Jordan, Hatra in Iraq, Oualata in Mauritania, Damascus in Syria, and Samarkand in Uzbekistan.