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 Middle East (Egypt, the Fertile Crescent, Anatolia), during the time roughly spanning the Bronze Age from the rise of Sumer and Gerzeh in the 4th millennium BCE to the expansion of the Persian Empire in the 6th century BCE. As such, it is a term widely employed in the fields of Near Eastern archaeology, ancient history and Egyptology.

Location
The Ancient Near East is generally understood as encompassing Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria), Persia (Iran), Egypt, the Levant (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine), and Anatolia (Turkey). Some users of the term would extend its application into the Caucasus region, into modern Afghanistan (see Bactria, Indus Valley Civilization), 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. However, because of Egypt's intimate involvement with the region, especially from the 2nd millennium BCE, this exclusion is rare.

5th millennium BCE

 * Gerzeh
 * Naqada
 * Predynastic Egypt, archaic period of Ancient Egypt

4th millennium BCE

 * Lagash
 * Sumer: Ur, Uruk, Kish, Susa

3rd millennium BCE

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

2nd millennium BCE

 * 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