ANCIENT
NEAR EAST
The ancient
Near East
The
ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region
roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern
Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran, northeastern Syria and Kuwait),
ancient Egypt, ancient Iran (Elam, Media, Parthia and Persia), Anatolia/Asia
Minor and the Armenian Highlands (Turkey's Eastern Anatolia Region,
Armenia, northwestern Iran, southern Georgia, and western Azerbaijan),
the Levant (modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Jordan),
Cyprus and the Arabian Peninsula. The ancient Near East is studied
in the fields of Ancient Near East studies, Near Eastern archaeology
and ancient history.
The
history of the ancient Near East begins with the rise of Sumer in
the 4th millennium BC, though the date it ends varies. The term
covers the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in the region, until either
the conquest by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC, that
by the Macedonian Empire in the 4th century BC, or the Muslim conquests
in the 7th century AD.
The
ancient Near East is considered one of the cradles of civilization.
It was here that intensive year-round agriculture was first practiced,
leading to the rise of the first dense urban settlements and the
development of many familiar institutions of civilization, such
as social stratification, centralized government and empires, organized
religion and organized warfare. It also saw the creation of the
first writing system, the first alphabet (abjad), the first currency
in history, and law codes, early advances that laid the foundations
of astronomy and mathematics, and the invention of the wheel.
During
the period, states became increasingly large, until the region became
controlled by militaristic empires that had conquered a number of
different cultures.
The
concept of the Near East :
Overview
map of the ancient Near East
The phrase "ancient Near East" denotes the 19th-century
distinction between Near East 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 Middle East, which 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.
Periodization
:
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 of time with relatively stable characteristics.
Period
|
Particulars |
Copper
Age |
Chalcolithic
(4500 - 3300 BC)
Early
Chalcolithic : 4500 - 4000 BC
Ubaid
period in Mesopotamia
Late
Chalcolithic : 4000 - 3300 BC
Ghassulian, Sumerian Uruk
period in Mesopotamia, Gerzeh, Predynastic
Egypt, Proto-Elamite |
Bronze
Age
(3300 - 1200 BC)
|
Early
Bronze Age (3300 - 2100 BC)
Early
Bronze Age I : 3300 - 3000 BC
Protodynastic to Early
Dynastic Period of Egypt, settlement of Phoenicians
Early
Bronze Age II : 3000 - 2700 BC
Early
Dynastic Period of Sumer
Early
Bronze Age III : 2700 - 2200 BC
Old
Kingdom of Egypt, Akkadian Empire, early Assyria, Old
Elamite period, Sumero-Akkadian states
Early
Bronze Age IV : 2200 - 2100 BC
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
(1200 - 539 BC)
|
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
(post-ANE)
(539 BC - 634 AD)
|
Achaemenid
539 - 330 BC
Persian Achaemenid
Empire
Hellenistic &
Parthian 330 - 31 BC
Macedonian
Empire, Seleucid Empire, Kingdom of Pergamon, Ptolemaic Kingdom,
Parthian Empire
Roman
& Persian 31
BC - 634 AD
Roman,
Persian Wars, Roman Empire, Parthian Empire, Sassanid
Empire, Byzantine Empire, Muslim conquests |
History
:
Prehistory
• Paleolithic
• Epipaleolithic and Mesolithic
• Kebaran culture
• Natufian culture (founding of Göbekli
Tepe ceremonial site)
• Pre-pottery Neolithic A
• Pre-pottery Neolithic B
• Pre-pottery Neolithic C
• Pottery Neolithic
Chalcolithic :
Early Mesopotamia
The Uruk period (c. 4000 to 3100 BC) existed from the protohistoric
Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia,
following the Ubaid period. Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk,
this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia. It was
followed by the Sumerian civilization. The late Uruk period (34–32
centuries) saw the gradual emergence of the cuneiform script and
corresponds to the Early Bronze Age.
Bronze
Age :
Bronze
Age |
Africa,
Near East (c. 3300 - 1200 BC) :
Egypt,
Anatolia, Caucasus, Elam, Levant, Mesopotamia, Sistan, Canaan
Late Bronze Age collapse
Indian
subcontinent (c. 3300 - 1200 BC) :
Indus
Valley Civilisation Bronze Age India Ochre Coloured Pottery
Cemetery H
Europe
(c. 3200 - 600 BC) :
Aegean
(Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean), Caucasus, Catacomb culture,
Srubnaya culture, Beaker culture, Apennine culture, Terramare
culture, Unetice culture, Tumulus culture, Urnfield culture,
Proto-Villanovan culture, Hallstatt culture, Canegrate culture,
Golasecca culture, Atlantic Bronze Age, Bronze Age Britain,
Nordic Bronze Age
East
Asia (c. 3100 - 300 BC) :
Erlitou,
Erligang, Gojoseon, Jomon, Majiayao, Mumun, Qijia, Siwa,
Wucheng, Xindian, Yueshi, Xia dynasty, Shang dynasty, Zhou
dynasty
|
•
arsenical bronze
•
writing
•
literature
•
sword
•
chariot |
Early
Bronze Age :
Sumer and Akkad
Sumer, located in southern Mesopotamia, is the earliest known civilization
in the world. It lasted from the first settlement of Eridu in the
Ubaid period (late 6th millennium BC) through the Uruk period (4th
millennium BC) and the Dynastic periods (3rd millennium BC) until
the rise of Assyria and Babylon in the late 3rd millennium BC and
early 2nd millennium BC respectively. The Akkadian Empire, founded
by Sargon the Great, lasted from the 24th to the 21st century BC,
and was regarded by many as the world's first empire. The Akkadians
eventually fragmented into Assyria and Babylonia.
Elam
:
Ancient Elam lay to the east of Sumer and Akkad, in the far west
and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of
Khuzestan and Ilam Province. In the Old Elamite period, c. 3200
BC, it consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered on
Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered on Susa
in the Khuzestan lowlands. Elam was absorbed into the Assyrian Empire
in the 9th to 7th centuries BC; however, the civilization endured
up until 539 BC when it was finally overrun by the Iranian Persians.
The Proto-Elamite civilization existed from c. 3200 BC to 2700 BC,
when Susa, the later capital of the Elamites, began to receive influence
from the cultures of the Iranian plateau. In archaeological terms,
this corresponds to the late Banesh period. This civilization is
recognized as the oldest in Iran and was largely contemporary with
its neighbour, the Sumerian civilization. The Proto-Elamite script
is an Early Bronze Age writing system briefly in use for the ancient
Elamite language (which was a Language isolate) before the introduction
of Elamite Cuneiform.
The
Amorites :
The Amorites were a nomadic Semitic people who occupied the country
west of the Euphrates from the second half of the 3rd millennium
BC. In the earliest Sumerian sources, beginning about 2400 BC, the
land of the Amorites ("the Mar.tu land") is associated
with the West, including Syria and Canaan, although their ultimate
origin may have been Arabia. They ultimately settled in Mesopotamia,
ruling Isin, Larsa, and later Babylon.
Middle
Bronze Age :
• Assyria, after enduring a short period
of Mitanni domination, emerged as a great power from the accession
of Ashur-uballit I in 1365 BC to the death of Tiglath-Pileser I
in 1076 BC. Assyria rivaled Egypt during this period, and dominated
much of the near east.
• Babylonia, founded as a state by Amorite
tribes, found itself under the rule of Kassites for 435 years. The
nation stagnated during the Kassite period, and Babylonia often
found itself under Assyrian or Elamite domination.
• Canaan: Ugarit, Kadesh, Megiddo
• The Hittite Empire was founded some time
after 2000 BC, and existed as a major power, dominating Asia Minor
and the Levant until 1200 BC, when it was first overrun by the Phrygians,
and then appropriated by Assyria.
Late Bronze Age :
The Hurrians lived in northern Mesopotamia and areas to the immediate
east and west, beginning approximately 2500 BC. They probably originated
in the Caucasus and entered from the north, but this is not certain.
Their known homeland was centred on Subartu, the Khabur River valley,
and later they established themselves as rulers of small kingdoms
throughout northern Mesopotamia and Syria. The largest and most
influential Hurrian nation was the kingdom of Mitanni. The Hurrians
played a substantial part in the history of the Hittites.
Ishuwa
was an ancient kingdom in Anatolia. The name is first attested in
the second millennium BC, and is also spelled Išuwa. In the
classical period, the land was a part of Armenia. Ishuwa was one
of the places where agriculture developed very early on in the Neolithic.
Urban centres emerged in the upper Euphrates river valley around
3500 BC. The first states followed in the third millennium BC. The
name Ishuwa is not known until the literate period of the second
millennium BC. Few literate sources from within Ishuwa have been
discovered and the primary source material comes from Hittite texts.
To the west of Ishuwa lay the kingdom of the Hittites, and this
nation was an untrustworthy neighbour. The Hittite king Hattusili
I (c. 1600 BC) is reported to have marched his army across the Euphrates
river and destroyed the cities there. This corresponds well with
burnt destruction layers discovered by archaeologists at town sites
in Ishuwa of roughly the same date. After the end of the Hittite
empire in the early 12th century BC a new state emerged in Ishuwa.
The city of Malatya became the centre of one of the so-called Neo-Hittite
kingdom. The movement of nomadic people may have weakened the kingdom
of Malatya before the final Assyrian invasion. The decline of the
settlements and culture in Ishuwa from the 7th century BC until
the Roman period was probably caused by this movement of people.
The Armenians later settled in the area since they were natives
of the Armenian Plateau and related to the earlier inhabitants of
Ishuwa.
Kizzuwatna
is the name of an ancient kingdom of the second millennium BC. It
was situated in the highlands of southeastern Anatolia, near the
Gulf of Iskenderun in modern-day Turkey. It encircled the Taurus
Mountains and the Ceyhan river. The centre of the kingdom was the
city of Kummanni, situated in the highlands. In a later era, the
same region was known as Cilicia.
Luwian
is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European
language family. Luwian speakers gradually spread through Anatolia
and became a contributing factor to the downfall, after c. 1180
BC, of the Hittite Empire, where it was already widely spoken. Luwian
was also the language spoken in the Neo-Hittite states of Syria,
such as Melid and Carchemish, as well as in the central Anatolian
kingdom of Tabal that flourished around 900 BC. Luwian has been
preserved in two forms, named after the writing systems used to
represent them: Cuneiform Luwian, and Hieroglyphic Luwian.
Mari
was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city, located 11 kilometres
north-west of the modern town of Abu Kamal on the western bank of
Euphrates river, some 120 km southeast of Deir ez-Zor, Syria. It
is thought to have been inhabited since the 5th millennium BC, although
it flourished from 2900 BC until 1759 BC, when it was sacked by
Hammurabi.
Mitanni
was a Hurrian kingdom in northern Mesopotamia from c. 1500 BC, at
the height of its power, during the 14th century BC, encompassing
what is today southeastern Turkey, northern Syria and northern Iraq
(roughly corresponding to Kurdistan), centred on the capital Washukanni
whose precise location has not yet been determined by archaeologists.
The Mitanni kingdom is thought to have been a feudal state led by
a warrior nobility of Indo-Aryan descent, who invaded the Levant
region at some point during the 17th century BC, their influence
apparent in a linguistic superstratum in Mitanni records. The spread
to Syria of a distinct pottery type associated with the Kura-Araxes
culture has been connected with this movement, although its date
is somewhat too early. Yamhad was an ancient Amorite kingdom. A
substantial Hurrian population also settled in the kingdom, and
the Hurrian culture influenced the area. The kingdom was powerful
during the Middle Bronze Age, c. 1800–1600 BC. Its biggest
rival was Qatna further south. Yamhad was finally destroyed by the
Hittites in the 16th century BC.
The
Aramaeans were a Semitic (West Semitic language group), semi-nomadic
and pastoralist people who had lived in upper Mesopotamia and Syria.
Aramaeans have never had a unified empire; they were divided into
independent kingdoms all across the Near East. Yet to these Aramaeans
befell the privilege of imposing their language and culture upon
the entire Near East and beyond, fostered in part by the mass relocations
enacted by successive empires, including the Assyrians and Babylonians.
Scholars even have used the term 'Aramaization' for the Assyro-Babylonian
peoples' languages and cultures, that have become Aramaic-speaking.
The
Sea peoples is the term used for a confederacy of seafaring raiders
of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern shores of
the Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter
or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty, and
especially during Year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty. The
Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah explicitly refers to them by the term
"the foreign-countries (or 'peoples') of the sea" in his
Great Karnak Inscription. Although some scholars believe that they
"invaded" Cyprus, Hatti and the Levant, this hypothesis
is disputed.
Bronze
Age collapse :
The Bronze Age collapse is the name given by those historians who
see the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age
as violent, sudden and culturally disruptive, expressed by the collapse
of palace economies of the Aegean and Anatolia, which were replaced
after a hiatus by the isolated village cultures of the Dark Age
period in history of the ancient Middle East. Some have gone so
far as to call the catalyst that ended the Bronze Age a "catastrophe".
The Bronze Age collapse may be seen in the context of a technological
history that saw the slow, comparatively continuous spread of iron-working
technology in the region, beginning with precocious iron-working
in what is now Romania in the 13th and 12th centuries. The cultural
collapse of the Mycenaean kingdoms, the Hittite Empire in Anatolia
and Syria, and the Egyptian Empire in Syria and Palestine, the scission
of long-distance trade contacts and sudden eclipse of literacy occurred
between 1206 and 1150 BC. In the first phase of this period, almost
every city between Troy and Gaza was violently destroyed, and often
left unoccupied thereafter (for example, Hattusas, Mycenae, Ugarit).
The gradual end of the Dark Age that ensued saw the rise of settled
Neo-Hittite and Aramaean kingdoms of the mid-10th century BC, and
the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
Iron
Age :
Iron
Age |
Ancient
Near East (1200 - 550 BC) :
Bronze
Age collapse (1200 - 1150 BC)
Anatolia, Caucasus, Levant
Europe
:
Aegean (1190
- 700 BC)
Italy (1100 - 700 BC)
Balkans (1100 BC - 150 AD)
Eastern Europe (900 - 650 BC)
Central Europe (800 - 50 BC)
Great Britain (800 BC - 100 AD)
Northern
Europe (500 BC - 800 AD)
South
Asia (1200 - 200 BC)
East
Asia (500 BC - 300 AD)
Iron
metallurgy in Africa |
Iron
Age metallurgy
Ancient iron production |
Ancient
history :
Mediterranean, Greater
Persia, South Asia, China |
Historiography
:
Greek, Roman, Chinese, Medieval
|
During
the Early Iron Age, from 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire arose,
vying with Babylonia and other lesser powers for dominance of the
region, though not until the reforms of Tiglath-Pileser III in the
8th century BC, did it become a powerful and vast empire. In the
Middle Assyrian period of the Late Bronze Age, Assyria had been
a kingdom of northern Mesopotamia (modern-day northern Iraq), competing
for dominance with its southern Mesopotamian rival Babylonia. From
1365–1076 it had been a major imperial power, rivaling Egypt
and the Hittite Empire. Beginning with the campaign of Adad-nirari
II, it became a vast empire, overthrowing 25th dynasty Egypt and
conquering Egypt, the Middle East, and large swaths of Asia Minor,
ancient Iran, the Caucasus and east Mediterranean. The Neo-Assyrian
Empire succeeded the Middle Assyrian period (14th to 10th century
BC). Some scholars, such as Richard Nelson Frye, regard the Neo-Assyrian
Empire to be the first real empire in human history. During this
period, Aramaic was also made an official language of the empire,
alongside the Akkadian language.
The
states of the Neo-Hittite kingdoms were Luwian, Aramaic and Phoenician-speaking
political entities of Iron Age northern Syria and southern Anatolia
that arose following the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180
BC and lasted until roughly 700 BC. The term "Neo-Hittite"
is sometimes reserved specifically for the Luwian-speaking principalities
like Melid (Malatya) and Karkamish (Carchemish), although in a wider
sense the broader cultural term "Syro-Hittite" is now
applied to all the entities that arose in south-central Anatolia
following the Hittite collapse
– such as Tabal and Quwê – as well as those of
northern and coastal Syria.
Urartu
was an ancient kingdom of Armenia and North Mesopotamia which existed
from c. 860 BC, emerging from the Late Bronze Age until 585 BC.
The Kingdom of Urartu was located in the mountainous plateau between
Asia Minor, the Iranian Plateau, Mesopotamia, and the Caucasus mountains,
later known as the Armenian Highland, and it centered on Lake Van
(present-day eastern Turkey). The name corresponds to the Biblical
Ararat.
The
term Neo-Babylonian Empire refers to Babylonia under the rule of
the 11th ("Chaldean") dynasty, from the revolt of Nabopolassar
in 623 BC until the invasion of Cyrus the Great in 539 BC (Although
the last ruler of Babylonia (Nabonidus) was in fact from the Assyrian
city of Harran and not Chaldean), notably including the reign of
Nebuchadrezzar II. Through the centuries of Assyrian domination,
Babylonia enjoyed a prominent status, and revolted at the slightest
indication that it did not. However, the Assyrians always managed
to restore Babylonian loyalty, whether through the granting of increased
privileges, or militarily. That finally changed in 627 BC with the
death of the last strong Assyrian ruler, Ashurbanipal, and Babylonia
rebelled under Nabopolassar the Chaldean a few years later. In
alliance with the Medes and Scythians, Nineveh was sacked in 612
and Harran in 608 BC, and the seat of empire was again transferred
to Babylonia. Subsequently, the Medes controlled much of the
ancient Near East from their base in Ecbatana (modern-day Hamadan,
Iran), most notably most of what is now Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and
the South Caucasus.
Following
the fall of the Medes, the Achaemenid Empire was the first of the
Persian Empires to rule over most of the Near East and far beyond,
and the second great Iranian empire (after the Median Empire). At
the height of its power, encompassing approximately 7.5 million
square kilometers, the Achaemenid Empire was territorially the largest
empire of classical antiquity, and the first world empire. It spanned
three continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa), including apart from
its core in modern-day Iran, the territories of modern Iraq, the
Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Dagestan, Abkhazia), Asia
Minor (Turkey), Thrace, Bulgaria, Greece, many of the Black Sea
coastal regions, northern Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon,
Syria, Afghanistan, Central Asia, parts of Pakistan, and all significant
population centers of ancient Egypt as far west as Libya.[citation
needed] It is noted in western history as the foe of the Greek city
states in the Greco-Persian Wars, for freeing the Israelites from
their Babylonian captivity, and for instituting Aramaic as the empire's
official language.
Religions
:
Ancient civilizations in the Near East were deeply influenced by
their spiritual beliefs, which generally did not distinguish between
heaven and Earth. They believed that divine action influenced all
mundane matters, and also believed in divination (ability to predict
the future). Omens were often inscribed in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia,
as were records of major events.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Ancient_Near_East