Volume I of The Oxford History of Historical Writing offers essays by leading scholars on the development and history of the major traditions of historical writing, including the ancient Near East, Classical Greece and Rome, and East and South Asia from their origins until ca. AD 600. It aims at once to provide an authoritative survey of the field and to provoke cross-cultural comparisons. This is the first of five volumes in a series that will explore representations of the past from the beginning of writing to the present day, and from all over the world.