DS62.2.V34

- Includes bibliographical references and index - Includes black-and-white illustrations, maps, charts, listings and text-boxes

1. Introductory concerns 1.1 What is the ancient Near East? 1.2 The sources 1.3 Geography 1.4 Prehistoric developments Part I: City-States 2. Origins: The Uruk Phenomenon 2.1 The Origins of Cities 2.2 The Development of Writing and Administration 2.3 The "Uruk Expansion" 2.4 Uruk's Aftermath 3. Competing City-States: The Early Dynastic Period 3.1 The Written Sources and their Historical Uses 3.2 Political Developments in Southern Mesopotamia 3.3 The Wider Near East 3.4 Early Dynastic Society 3.5 Scribal Culture 4. Political Centralization in the Late Third Millennium 4.1 The Kings of Akkad 4.2 The Third Dynasty of Ur 5. The Near East in the Early Second Millennium 5.1 Nomads and Sedentary People 5.2 Babylonia 5.3 Assyria and the East 5.4 Mari and the West 6. The Growth of Territorial States in the Early Second Millennium 6.1 Shamshi-Adad and the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia 6.2 Hammurabi’s Babylon 6.3 The Old Hittite Kingdom 6.4 The "Dark Age" Part II: Territorial States 7. The Club of the Great Powers 7.1 The Political System 7.2 Political Interactions: Diplomacy and Trade 7.3 Regional Competition: Warfare 7.4 Shared Ideologies and Social Organizations 8. The Western States of the Late Second Millennium 8.1 Mittani 8.2 The Hittite New Kingdom 8.3 Syria-Palestine 9. Kassites, Assyrians, and Elamites 9.1 Babylonia 9.2 Assyria 9.3 The Middle Elamite Kingdom 10. The Collapse of the Regional System and its Aftermath 10.1 The Events 10.2 Interpretation 10.3 The Aftermath Part III: Empires 11. The Near East at the Start of the First Millennium 11.1 The Eastern States 11.2 The West 12. The Rise of Assyria 12.1 Patterns of Assyrian Imperialism 12.2 The Historical Record 12.3 Ninth-Century Expansion 12.4 Internal Assyrian Decline 13. Assyria's World Domination 13.1 The Creation of an Imperial Structure 13.2 The Defeat of the Great Rivals 13.3 The Administration and Ideology of the Empire 13.4 Assyrian Culture 13.5 Assyria's Fall 14. The Medes and Babylonians 14.1 The Medes and the Anatolian States 14.2 The Neo-Babylonian Dynasty 15. The Persian Empire 15.1 The Rise of Persia and its Expansion 15.2 Political Developments 15.3 Organization of the Empire 15.4 Alexander of Macedon King Lists Guide to Further Reading Index

his book presents a clear, concise history of the extraordinary multicultural civilizations of the ancient Near East. Bestselling narrative of the complex history of the ancient Near East. Addresses political, social, and cultural developments. Contains in-depth discussion of key texts and sources, including the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh. Includes numerous maps, illustrations, and a selection of Near Eastern texts in translation. Integrates new research, and greatly expands the guides to further reading for this second edition. - http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405149116,descCd-description.html