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A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000 - 323 BC
Marc Van De Mieroop (Author)
9781394210220, Wiley
Paperback / softback, published 7 October 2024
400 pages
25.2 x 17.5 x 2.3 cm, 0.567 kg
"This marvelous book is a classic, and deservedly so. In his clear and fascinating narrative, Van De Mieroop lays out the political history of the ancient Near East, while also including extensive quotes from ancient sources, overviews of important scholarly debates, and well-chosen illustrations, charts, tables, and maps. This new edition brings the history up to date with revelations from newly published cuneiform tablets and recent archaeological excavations. My students always find much to discuss in the pages of this book, and it also receives high praise from general readers interested in the deep and influential past of the Middle East." "An outstanding resource for studying the history of the ANE... It is remarkable to find a volume with this subject matter that is as clear and as engaging as what Van De Mieroop has offered here."
—Amanda H. Podany, Professor of History, Cal Poly Pomona
—Kurtis Peters, RBECS
BLACKWELL HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD “This marvelous book is a classic, and deservedly so. This new edition brings the history up to date with revelations from newly published cuneiform tablets and recent archaeological excavations.” “An outstanding resource for studying the history of the ANE... It is remarkable to find a volume with this subject matter that is as clear and as engaging as what Van De Mieroop has offered here." Now in its fourth edition, A History of the Ancient Near East remains one of the most accessible introductions to the rich and complex history of the region available. Integrating original sources, up-to-date scholarship, and extensive supplementary materials, this popular textbook provides student-friendly coverage of the origins of the first cities in Mesopotamia, the growth of the Babylonian and Hittite kingdoms, and the rise of the Assyrian and Persian empires. With an easy-to-understand narrative style, noted historian and lecturer Marc Van De Mieroop guides students through the extraordinary multicultural civilizations of the ancient Near Eastern world. Clear and straightforward chapters describe a wide variety of political, social, and cultural developments, beginning from the invention of writing circa 3000 BC and ending with the conquests of Alexander the Great. This new edition is fully revised to reflect the latest developments in the field, including entirely new sections on recent archaeological discoveries and textual findings. Streamlined and improved chapters are complemented with detailed maps, historical timelines, images and illustrations, and an extensive and up-to-date bibliography. A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000–323 BC, Fourth Edition, is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and introductory graduate courses on archaeology or ancient Near Eastern history, as well as a valuable resource for general readers with an interest in the ancient world and the Bible.
A History of the Ancient Near East
ca. 3000–323 BC
Fourth Edition
—Amanda H. Podany, Professor of History, Cal Poly Pomona
—Kurtis Peters, RBECS
List of Illustrations x List of Charts xiii List of Maps xiv List of Debates xv List of Boxes xvi List of Documents xvii Preface xix Author’s Note xxii 1 Introductory Concerns 1 1.1 What Is the Ancient Near East? 1 1.2 The Sources 4 1.3 Geography 5 1.4 Prehistoric Developments 9 Part I City-States 19 2 Origins: The Uruk Phenomenon 21 2.1 The Origins of Cities 22 2.2 The Development of Writing and Administration 29 2.3 The “Uruk Expansion” 37 2.4 Uruk’s Aftermath 39 3 Competing City-States: The Early Dynastic Period 41 3.1 The Written Sources and Their Historical Uses 42 3.2 Political Developments in Southern Mesopotamia 45 3.3 Warfare and Political Centralization 48 3.4 The Wider Near East 52 3.5 Early Dynastic Society 55 3.6 Scribal Culture 58 4 Political Centralization in the Late Third Millennium 63 4.1 The Kings of Akkad 64 4.2 The Third Dynasty of Ur 74 5 The Near East in the Early Second Millennium 85 5.1 Nomads and Sedentary People 86 5.2 Babylonia 90 5.3 Assyria and the East 94 5.4 Mari and the West 100 6 The Growth of Territorial States in the Early Second Millennium 106 6.1 Shamshi-Adad and the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia 108 6.2 Hammurabi’s Babylon 111 6.3 The Old Hittite Kingdom 120 6.4 The “Dark Age” 123 Part II Territorial States 127 7 The Club of the Great Powers 129 7.1 The Political System 131 7.2 Political Interactions: Diplomacy and Trade 134 7.3 Regional Competition: Warfare 141 7.4 Shared Ideologies and Social Organizations 143 8 The Western States of the Late Second Millennium 149 8.1 Mittani 150 8.2 The Hittite New Kingdom 155 8.3 Syria-Palestine 163 9 Kassites, Assyrians, and Elamites 171 9.1 Babylonia 172 9.2 Assyria 178 9.3 The Middle Elamite Kingdom 184 10 The Collapse of the Regional System and Its Aftermath 189 10.1 The Events 190 10.2 Interpretation 196 10.3 The Aftermath 198 Part III Empires 207 11 The Near East at the Start of the First Millennium 209 11.1 The Eastern States 210 11.2 The West 218 12 The Rise of Assyria 230 12.1 Patterns of Assyrian Imperialism 231 12.2 The Historical Record 238 12.3 Ninth-Century Expansion 240 12.4 Internal Assyrian Decline 244 13 Assyria’s World Domination 248 13.1 The Creation of an Imperial Structure 249 13.2 The Defeat of the Great Rivals 252 13.3 The Administration and Ideology of the Empire 259 13.4 Assyrian Culture 260 13.5 Assyria’s Fall 265 14 The Medes and Babylonians 270 14.1 The Medes and the Anatolian States 271 14.2 The Neo-Babylonian Dynasty 275 15 The Creation of a World Empire: Persia 288 15.1 The Sources and Their Challenges 289 15.2 The Rise of Persia and Its Expansion 290 15.3 Governance of the Subject States 295 15.4 The Creation of an Imperial Structure 298 16 Governing a World Empire: Persia 306 16.1 Political Developments 306 16.2 Administration of the Empire 310 16.3 Local Forms of Persian Administration 313 16.4 The End of the Empire 319 Epilogue 323 King Lists 324 Guide to Further Reading 339 Bibliography 345 Comprehensive Time Line 359 Index 363
Subject Areas: History [HB]
