Ancient Near East History (Introduction)

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The ancient Near East was home to many cradles of civilization, spanning Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran (or Persia), Anatolia and the Armenian highlands, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. As such, the fields of ancient Near East studies and Near Eastern archaeology are some of the most prominent research in the realm of ancient history. Historically, the Near East denoted an area roughly encompassing the center of West Asia, having been focused on the lands between Greece and Egypt in the west and Iran in the east. It therefore largely corresponds with the modern-day geopolitical concept of the Middle East.

The history of the ancient Near East begins with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, though the date that it ends is a subject of debate among scholars; the term covers the region’s developments in the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, and is variously considered to end with either the establishment of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC, the establishment of the Macedonian Empire in the 4th century BC, or the beginning of the early Muslim conquests in the 7th century AD.

It was within the ancient Near East that humans first practiced intensive year-round agriculture, which led to the rise of the earliest dense urban settlements and the development of many now-familiar institutions of civilization, such as social stratification, centralized government and empires, and organized religion (see: ancient Near Eastern religions) and organized warfare. It also saw the creation of the first writing system, the first alphabet (i.e., abjad), the first currency, and the first legal codes, all of which were monumental advances that laid the foundations of astronomy and mathematics, and the invention of the wheel.

During this period, the region’s previously stateless societies largely transitioned to building states, many of which gradually came to annex the territories of their neighboring civilizations. This process continued until the entire ancient Near East was enveloped by militaristic empires that had emerged from their lands to conquer and absorb a variety of cultures under the rule of a top-level government.

The phrase “ancient Near East” denotes the 19th-century distinction between the Near and Far East as global regions of interest to the British Empire. The distinction began during the Crimean War. The last major exclusive partition of the east between these two terms was current in diplomacy in the late 19th century, with the Hamidian massacres of the Armenians and Assyrians by the Ottoman Empire in 1894–1896 and the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. The two theatres were described by the statesmen and advisors of the British Empire as “the Near East” and “the Far East”. Shortly after, they were to share the stage with the ”Middle East”, a term that came to prevail in the 20th century and continues in modern times.

As Near East had meant the lands of the Ottoman Empire at roughly its maximum extent, on the fall of that empire, the use of Near East in diplomacy was reduced significantly in favor of the Middle East. Meanwhile, the ancient Near East had become distinct. The Ottoman rule over the Near East ranged from Vienna (to the north) to the tip of the Arabian Peninsula (to the south), from Egypt (in the west) to the borders of Iraq (in the east). The 19th-century archaeologists added Iran to their definition, which was never under the Ottomans, but they excluded all of Europe and, generally, Egypt, which had parts in the empire.

Ancient Near East periodization is the attempt to categorize or divide time into discrete named blocks, or eras, of the Near East. The result is a descriptive abstraction that provides a useful handle on Near East periods with relatively stable characteristics.

Copper Age	Chalcolithic (5000–3300 BC)	Early Chalcolithic	5000–4500 BC	Ubaid period in Mesopotamia
		Late Chalcolithic	4500–3300 BC	Uruk period of Sumer, Predynastic Period of ancient Egypt, Proto-Elamite period in Iran, Ghassulian, Gerzeh
Bronze Age	Early Bronze Age (3300–2100 BC)	Early Bronze Age I	3300–3000 BC	Jemdet Nasr period in Mesopotamia, Protodynastic to Early Dynastic Period of Egypt, settlement of Phoenicians
		Early Bronze Age II	3000–2700 BC	Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia
		Early Bronze Age III	2700–2200 BC	Old Kingdom of Egypt, Akkadian Empire, early Assyria, Old Elamite period, Sumero-Akkadian states, Marhasi Jiroft
		Early Bronze Age IV	2200–2100 BC	Second half of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, First Intermediate Period of Egypt
	Middle Bronze Age (2100–1550 BC)	Middle Bronze Age I	2100–2000 BC	Third Dynasty of Ur
		Middle Bronze Age II A	2000–1750 BC	Minoan civilization, early Babylonia, Egyptian Middle Kingdom
		Middle Bronze Age II B	1750–1650 BC	Second Intermediate Period of Egypt
		Middle Bronze Age II C	1650–1550 BC	Hittite Old Kingdom, Minoan eruption
	Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 BC)	Late Bronze Age I	1550–1400 BC	Hittite Middle Kingdom, Hayasa-Azzi, Middle Elamite period, New Kingdom of Egypt
		Late Bronze Age II A	1400–1300 BC	Hittite New Kingdom, Mitanni, Hayasa-Azzi, Ugarit, Mycenaean Greece
		Late Bronze Age II B	1300–1200 BC	Middle Assyrian Empire, beginning of the high point of Phoenicians
Iron Age	Iron Age I (1200–1000 BC)	Iron Age I A	1200–1150 BC	Troy VII, Hekla 3 eruption, Bronze Age collapse, Sea Peoples
		Iron Age I B	1150–1000 BC	Neo-Hittite states, Neo Elamite period, Aramean states
	Iron Age II (1000–539 BC)	Iron Age II A	1000–900 BC	Greek Dark Ages, traditional date of the United Monarchy of Israel
		Iron Age II B	900–700 BC	Kingdom of Israel, Urartu, Phrygia, Neo-Assyrian Empire, Kingdom of Judah, first settlement of Carthage
		Iron Age II C	700–539 BC	Neo-Babylonian Empire, Median Empire, fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Phoenicia, Archaic Greece, rise of Achaemenid Persia
Classical antiquity		Achaemenid	539–330 BC	Persian Achaemenid Empire, Classical Greece
		Hellenistic & Parthian	330–31 BC	Macedonian Empire, Seleucid Empire, Kingdom of Armenia, Kingdom of Pergamon, Ptolemaic Kingdom, Parthian Empire
		Roman & Persian	31 BC – 634 AD	Roman–Persian Wars, Roman Empire, Parthian Empire, Kingdom of Armenia, Sassanid Empire, Byzantine Empire, Muslim conquests

References

Books on the Ancient Near East

1. Marc Van De Mieroop – A History of the Ancient Near East, ca. 3000-323 BC

   • A detailed and scholarly yet accessible overview of Mesopotamian and Near Eastern civilizations.

2. Amanda H. Podany – The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction

   • A concise and engaging introduction to the region’s history, politics, and culture.

3. Georges Roux – Ancient Iraq

   • A classic, readable history of Mesopotamian civilization from Sumer to the fall of Babylon.

4. Paul Kriwaczek – Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization

   • Covers Mesopotamian history with a storytelling approach, making it engaging.

5. Karen Radner & Eleanor Robson (Eds.) – The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture

   • A scholarly yet accessible look into Mesopotamian writing, administration, and daily life.

General Books on Ancient History

1. Susan Wise Bauer – The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome

   • A broad yet detailed narrative of ancient civilizations around the world.

2. Barry Cunliffe – By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia

   • Covers the connections between early civilizations across Eurasia.

3. Tom Holland – Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West

   • A gripping narrative of the Persian Empire and its conflicts with Greece.

4. John Boardman et al. (Eds.) – The Oxford History of the Classical World

   • A scholarly but readable reference on Greece and Rome.

5. Chris Scarre & Brian Fagan – Ancient Civilizations

   • A textbook covering a broad range of early civilizations, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China.

Online Resources 

• Internet History Sourcebooks Project – A collection of primary historical texts.
• Ancient History Encyclopedia – An online resource with well-written and well-researched historical articles.
• Perseus Digital Library – A vast collection of ancient texts, translations, and commentaries.
• Project Gutenberg – Free access to many historical books, including classics on ancient history.
• Loeb Classical Library – Bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin texts (subscription required).