AMANDA PODANY. THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION.

Abstract

Describes a momentous time in human history and explains why the ancient Near East is known as the ‘cradle of civilization’. Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia were home to an extraordinarily rich and successful culture. Indeed, it was a time and place of earth-shaking changes for humankind: the beginnings of writing and law, kingship and bureaucracy, diplomacy and state-sponsored warfare, mathematics and literature. The three thousand years of this era — from around 3500 bce, with the founding of the first Mesopotamian cities, to the conquest of the Near East by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 539 bce — represent a period of incredible innovation, from the invention of the wheel to early achievements in astronomy, law, and diplomacy.