Alexander at the Caspian Gates

I uploaded another chapter of my unpublished book, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East". This extract is taken from Unit IV, Mapping Marvels and Monsters: In the Shadow of the Iron Gate. The unit treats the popular medieval myth of Alexander's Gate. This is a resume of the chapter:

The myth of the Caspian Gates was modeled on Alexander the Macedon's pursuit of his rival, the Persian emperor. Due to the patchy awareness of Asian geography, the initiators of the legend switched the locality from the Iranian Caspian Gates to the Caucasus. The Hellenistic ideal of the civilized world carved by a Macedonian military genius needed to be defended from barbarian incursions by an impenetrable barrier.

You can view this extract at 

https://www.academia.edu/43202485/Alexander_at_the_Caspian_Gates

as well as the previous chapter https://www.academia.edu/42876161/Meet_your_enemy

As far as my second book project, I have resumed searching for a literary agent who can represent my book before a traditional publisher. 

With my third project, the quest for the maritime route to India, I continue collecting material for a new chapter about the trans-Saharan trade. The Russian literary magazine has published my article titled (in English), Beyond the Pillars of Hercules. You can view it at

https://www.academia.edu/42166248/Beyond_the_Pillars_of_Hercules

This is the second article published in Russian after How Wide Spans the Ocean Sea.

https://www.academia.edu/41214506/How_Wide_Spans_the_Ocean_Sea

I am also reviewing my first project, "Dawn and Sunset: A Tale of the Oldest Cities in the Near East". I would like to glean from new sources that  were unavailable to me while writing my first book. Meanwhile, I am studying the Late Chalcolithic period in Greater Mesopotamia, the era of the emergence of social inequality and the rise of proto-states to the north of the alluvial plain. 

The Quest for the river of Gold (1)

As you understand, this is a bid for new research. This time, I will review the basics of the Trans-Saharan trade during the Little Age of Discovery (XIV century). This overland exchange was a highway for transporting wares, technologies, and ideas among vast expanses of West Africa, linking diverse cultures of the Mediterranean coast, the Sahara oases, the Sahel grasslands, and the forest belt on the way to the Guinea Bay.

 

An essential part of this commercial network was the gold trade. The 'yellow metal' was panned in the shallows of the rivers, in the knee-deep water, or mined in the shafts. 

At this stage, I have started collecting the material. Many years ago, I wrote an article by the same title. Nowadays, I will try to expand it. It will be the last chapter of Unit I of my new project. 

Unit I: The Little Age of Discovery:  European Maritime Adventures in the Fourteenth century

1: How Wide Spans the Ocean Sea

a)   The Heated Argument with Herodotus

b)   The Vigorous Controversy with Columbus

c)    Conclusion

2: Beyond the Pillars of Hercules

a)   The Evil Omen

b)   Passing through the Eye of the Needle

c)    Locking Horns in the Unceasing Crusade

d)   The Mediterranean Breakout 

3: The Rediscovered Islands

a)   The Priority of Discovery

b)   The People Behind the Scenes

c)    The Norman Conquest

d)   The Royal Conquest: All Walks of Death

e)   The Sugar Islands  

f)     Reassessment 

4: The Quest for the river of Gold

The first two chapters have been published on my page on Academia site:

https://www.academia.edu/41214506/How_Wide_Spans_the_Ocean_Sea

https://www.academia.edu/42166248/Beyond_the_Pillars_of_Hercules

My second research focuses on Gobekli Tepe, an ancient mount in Turkey which dates to the X-VIII

  millennium BCE. I denounce as ludicrous calling the site a temple. In my view, this is an early ritual site with a unique background that  is worthy to investigate. I would like to clarify my ideas on what is a temple, making comparisons with other prehistoric sites, and showing the origin of the sacred mound in Mesopotamia.

If I succeed, though I am just collecting the material, it might be my contribution to the reevaluation of my first project about the onset of the urban society in Mesopotamia. See my book, "Dawn and Sunset: A Tale of the Oldest Cities in the Near East". 

May 2020 Update

I hope you are feeling well and the days of the coronavirus will be over although this epidemic seems to stay with us for a while.

I spoke with an editor of the literary magazine about the possibility of publishing my latest research "The Rediscovered Islands" in Russian. As he was interested, I started to translate the article. Of course, there will be some minor corrections: it will be another version of the same text. I may add additional illustrations, especially the diagram that explains the clockwise movements of the ocean currents in the tropical belt of the Atlantic. 

I resolved to skip over the topic of the discovery of Madeira and the Azores since I still recount the events of the XIV century or the Little Age of Discovery, as I have dubbed it. The discussion of naval charts relating to these islands will be put off to later chapters. 

Meanwhile, I started collecting material about the quest for the Rio del Oro ('The Golden River') and the 'Golden Island". I wrote an article about this topic many years ago when I researched it for my second book. Nevertheless, as it was devoted to maritime exploration, I transferred it to my third project. I am going to focus on the Trans-Saharan trade and the opportunities for European merchants. An extra topic is a quest for Prester John on the African mainland. Here I will present only preliminary considerations. 

If you share my interest in maritime expeditions before and during the Age of Discovery, you may read two papers that are part of my third project. Both are uploaded on my research page at academia.edu: "How Wide Spans the Ocean Sea" and "Beyond the Pillars of Hercules".

https://www.academia.edu/41214506/How_Wide_Spans_the_Ocean_Sea

https://www.academia.edu/42166248/Beyond_the_Pillars_of_Hercules

I am looking for a new digital academic library to read history books in full since my previous one, Questia, is about to close in a few months. Any ideas?