Overview map of the Ancient Near East

The term Ancient Near East or Ancient Orient encompasses the early civilizations predating Classical Antiquity in the region roughly corresponding to that described by the modern term Egypt, the Fertile Crescent, Anatolia), during the time roughly spanning the Bronze Age from the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC to the expansion of the Persian Empire in the 6th century BC. As such, it is a term widely employed in the fields of Near Eastern archaeology, Ancient History and Egyptology.

The Ancient Near East is generally understood as encompassing Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria), Persia (Iran), Egypt, the Levant (Israel, Syria, Palestinian Authority), and Anatolia (Turkey). Some users of the term would extend its application into the Caucasus region, into Afghanistan, Minoan and Mycenaean Greece and other peripheral areas. Still others would exclude Egypt from the Ancient Near East as a geographically and culturally distinct area - this exclusion is rare however, on the grounds of Egypt's intimate involvement with the region from the 2nd millennium BC.

4th millennium BC

• Lagash
• Sumer: Ur, Uruk, Kish, Susa
• Archaic Period of Ancient Egypt

3rd millennium BC

• Old Kingdom of Egypt
• Akkad: Agade, Isin, Babylon, Larsa
• Mari
• Amorite
• Troy I-V

2nd millennium BC

• Middle Kingdom of Egypt
• New Kingdom of Egypt
• Babylonia
• Assyria
• Aleppo
• Hittites
• Mitanni
• Hurrians
• Luwians
• Canaan: Ugarit, Kadesh, Megiddo, Kingdom of Israel
• Arzawa, Troy VI-VII

External links

• Ancient Near East .net (http://www.ancientneareast.net/) - an information and content portal for the archaeology, ancient history and culture of the Ancient Near East and Egypt

• ETANA (http://www.etana.org) - website hosted by a consortium of universities in the interests of providing digitized resources and relevant web links

• The History of the Ancient Near East Electronic Compendium (http://www.ancientneareast.tripod.com/index.html)
• Resources on Biblical Archaeology (http://www.BiblicalArcheology.Net)