Ranging from prehistory to the 21st century the great sea is above all a history of human interaction interweaving major political and naval developments with the ebb and flow of trade abulafia explores how commercial competition in the mediterranean created both rivalries and partnerships with merchants acting as intermediaries between cultures trading goods that were as exotic on one side of the sea as they were commonplace on the other he stresses the remarkable ability of . For over three thousand years the mediterranean sea has been one of the great centres of world civilisation from the time of historical troy until the middle of the nineteenth century human activity here decisively shaped much of the course of world history david abulafias the great sea is the first complete history of the mediterranean from the erection of the mysterious temples on malta around 3500 bc to the recent reinvention of the mediterraneans shores as a tourist destinationthe . The great sea a human history of the mediterranean by david abulafia is a fascinating book if it was a work of fiction or if it was more mythically inclined i would even venture to call it an epic instead the book tells us a story based on documented deeds and occurrences which makes it all the more interesting da weaves this epoch spanning tale in a confident and interesting manner i. The great sea a human history of the mediterranean is an award winning book by the british historian david abulafia first published in 2011 it is a history of the mediterranean sea from 22000 bc to the present time and provides one of the most comprehensive treatments of the subject since the works of fernand braudel