Ancient Near East

The ancient Near East
Regions and states Fertile Crescent Mesopotamia Sumer Hamazi Subartu Suhum Uruk Akkadian Empire Armani Gutian Dynasty Simurrum Sumerian Empire Assyria Babylonia Tukri Kassites Chaldea Assyrian Empire Babylonian Empire Adiabene Egypt Early Dynastic Period Old Kingdom Middle Kingdom New Kingdom Ptolemaic Kingdom Roman Egypt Iran Elam Lullubi Medes Achaemenid Empire Parthian Empire Sasanian Empire Anatolia Hattians Hurrians Hittites Carchemish Arzawa Assuwa Luwians Kaskians Hayasa-Azzi Shupria Colchis Neo-Hittite States Lydia Phrygians Diauehi Urartu Bithynia Pontus Commagene The Levant Kish Civilization Ebla Armi Mari Nagar Amorites Qatna Mukish Amurru Yamhad Ugarit Hurrians Urkesh Urshu Mitanni Canaan Ancient Israel and Judah Ancient Palestine Phoenicia Alashiya Aram Neo-Hittite states Nabatea Iturea Seleucid Empire Coele-Syria Roman Syria Arabia Dilmun Magan Gerrha Awal Tylos Saba Qedar Qatabān Ḥaḍramawt Awsān Thamud Maʿīn Lihyan Nabataea Himyar Hatra Tanukh Ghassanids Salīḥids Lakhmid Kinda
Archaeological periods Chronology Copper Age Bronze Age Bronze Age Collapse Iron Age
Languages Akkadian Amorite Arabic Old Arabic Nabataean Arabic Nabataean Script Ancient North Arabian Dadanitic Hismaic Safaitic Taymanitic Thamudic Aramaic Armazic Eastern Aramaic Western Aramaic Imperial Aramaic Old Aramaic Aramaic Script Avestan Avestan Script Canaanite Ammonite Edomite Hebrew Moabite Phoenician Phoenician Alphabet Proto-Sinaitic Script Paleo-Hebrew Script Eblaite Egyptian Egyptian Hieroglyphs Elamite Linear Elamite Elamite Cuneiform Eteocypriot Cypriot Syllabary Gutian Hattic Hittite Hittite Cuneiform Hurrian Kaskian Kassite Luwic Carian Carian Script Kalasmaic Luwian Anatolian Hieroglyphs Lycian Lycian Script Milyan Pisidian Sidetic Lydian Lydian Script Median Mysian Palaic Parthian Inscriptional Parthian Manichaean Script Old Persian Old Persian Cuneiform Middle Persian Manichaean Script Pazend Script Philistine Phrygian Phrygian Script Samalian South Arabian South Arabian Script Sumerian Cuneiform Script Sutean Taymanitic Ugaritic Ugaritic Script Urartian
Literature Akkadian Egyptian Hittite Persian Sumerian Syriac Ugaritic
Religion and mythology Religion and mythology Mesopotamian Babylonian Sumerian Egyptian Semitic Arabian Nabataean Canaanite Hebrew Punic Armenian Hurrian Anatolian Hittite Luwian Lydian Iranian Persian Scythian Ossetian Cosmology Ancient near eastern cosmology Flat earth Firmament Cosmic ocean Abzu Ancient Mesopotamian underworld Mashu
Other topics Archaeology Genetic History Cradle of Civilization Ancient Near East Conflicts Egypt Egyptology Mathematics Technology Medicine Assyria Assyriology Law Babylonia Astronomy Law Mathematics Hittites Hittitology Law Cuneiform Law Early Alphabet History of the Ancient Levant History of the Middle East Timeline List of Cities
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The ancient Near East was home to many cradles of civilization, spanning Mesopotamia,^[1][a] Egypt, Iran (or Persia),^[b] Anatolia and the Armenian highlands,^[2][c] the Levant,^[d] and the Arabian Peninsula.^[e] As such, the fields of ancient Near East studies and Near Eastern archaeology are one of the most prominent with regard to research in the realm of ancient history. Historically, the Near East denoted an area roughly encompassing the centre 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 neighbouring civilizations. This process continued until the entire ancient Near East was enveloped by militaristic empires that had emerged from their own lands to conquer and absorb a variety of cultures under the rule of a top-level government.

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