Ancient Maps Of Middle East

ancient Middle East, history of the region from prehistoric times to the rise of civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and other areas.

Evolution of Middle Eastern civilizations

The high antiquity of culture in the Middle East is largely due to the beingness of user-friendly land bridges and piece of cake sea lanes passable in summer or wintertime, in dry or wet seasons. Motion of large numbers of people north of the Caspian Sea was virtually impossible in wintertime, because of the severity of the climate, and fundamental Eurasia was often besides dry out in summertime. Land passage between Asia and Africa was in early on times limited to narrow strips of land in the Isthmus of Suez. Large-scale desert travel was limited to special routes in Iran and in N Africa, both east and w of the Nile valley.

Some other reason for the early on significance of this area in globe history is the fact that the water supply and the climate were platonic for the introduction of agriculture. Several species of grains grew wild, and there were marshes and tributary streams that could easily exist drained or dammed in order to sow wild wheat and barley. The seed had just to be strewn over a sufficiently moist surface to ensure some kind of crop under normal weather condition. It is therefore non surprising that at that place is evidence of uncomplicated agriculture as far dorsum every bit the 8th or 9th millennium bce, especially in Palestine, where more excavating has been done in early on sites than in any other country of the Heart East. Many bone sickle handles and flintstone sickle edges dating from between circa 9000 and 7000 bce accept been establish in Palestinian sites.

In Mesopotamia and Iran, remains of this menstruum appear in caves on the lower slopes of the Zagros Mountains between western Iran and Republic of iraq. The date of the systematic introduction of irrigation on a big scale in Mesopotamia is somewhat doubtful because almost of the early on sites of irrigation culture were covered long ago past aggregating of alluvial soil brought downwardly by the spring floods of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Archaeologists one time thought that all irrigation originated in the foothills of the Zagros and that the earliest true farmers lived in the plains of Islamic republic of iran. But recent excavations and surface explorations have proved that irrigation around the upper Tigris and Euphrates, as well equally their tributaries, dates from the early 6th millennium bce (e.thousand., at Al-Kawm on the upper Euphrates). Small-scale irrigation was adept in Palestine (e.g., at Jericho) in the seventh millennium bce.

Close-up of terracotta Soldiers in trenches, Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China

Britannica Quiz

History: Fact or Fiction?

Get hooked on history as this quiz sorts out the past. Notice out who actually invented movable type, who Winston Churchill chosen "Mum," and when the first sonic boom was heard.

In northern and eastern Mesopotamia, master streams were presently partly diverted during moderate river floods into canals running more than or less parallel to the rivers, which could thus be used to gargle an extensive surface area. Such deflector dam irrigation avoided the self-destructive weaknesses of large storage dams, in item the danger of depositing great masses of refractory mud in the storage basin behind the dam. In the north and due east considerable urban installations developed at sites such as Nineveh no after than the fifth millennium bce, when southern Mesopotamia was notwithstanding mostly swampland like the early Egyptian delta. The Euphrates had a much smaller menstruation of water than the nearby Tigris. The latter was much swifter, however, so that it was potentially more important for irrigation, even though much harder to tame.

The Egyptian Nile had a much more predictable water flow than the Mesopotamian rivers because it flowed through hundreds of miles of swamps, where unusually high annual floods spread out, interfering with navigation but averting the danger of the occasional destructive inundations of Mesopotamia.

Become a Britannica Premium subscription and proceeds access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now

Mesopotamia and Egypt to c. 1600 bce

The oldest known urban and literate culture in the world was adult past the Sumerians in Mesopotamia beginning in the late quaternary millennium bce. About 2300 bce Sargon I, leader of a Semitic-speaking people, conquered all of Babylonia and founded the kickoff dynasty of Akkad (Akkadu), which held ability for most a century and a half. Sargon and his successors were the first known rulers in southwestern Asia to gain control of the Fertile Crescent besides as of next territories. They sent trading expeditions to central Anatolia and Islamic republic of iran and as far as Republic of india and Arab republic of egypt. Afterward the autumn of the dynasty of Akkad there was a Sumerian revival under the 3rd dynasty of Ur (Ur III [21st–20th century]), followed by some other influx of a Semitic-speaking people. These people founded the commencement dynasty of Babylon (19th–16th century), whose most important king was Hammurabi. In the 17th century new indigenous groups appeared in both Babylonia and Syria-Palestine: Kassites from the Zagros Mountains, Hurrians from what is now Armenia, and Indo-Europeans from Key Asia. This period marked the end of the formative phase of Mesopotamian civilization.

Before long after 3000 bce the numerous small states that had arisen in the Nile valley during the 4th millennium were united under the 1st dynasty of Egypt. At this time the Egyptians had already developed a organisation of writing. Betwixt about 2686 and near 2160 bce their country was united under a powerful monarchy (the Old Kingdom) served past a circuitous bureaucracy.

Toward the terminate of the 3rd millennium there was a catamenia of disunity, followed by reunification under the 12th dynasty (1991–1786).

During these two centuries Egyptian control was established over Nubia, Libya, Palestine, and southern Syrian arab republic. Soon after 1800 bce the Egyptian empire fell apart, and about 1700 Egypt was overwhelmed by the Asian "Hyksos," who ruled the land for a century and a half.

New states and peoples

Before the close of the 16th century bce the native 18th dynasty rose in Egypt. It expelled the Hyksos and founded the New Kingdom. The New Kingdom rulers moved dorsum into Syria-Palestine and came into conflict beginning with the Hurrian state of Mitanni and later with the Anatolian Hittites, who were expanding into Syrian arab republic from the northward in the 14th century bce. The Amarna Letters (diplomatic correspondence written in Babylonian script and linguistic communication and discovered in Egypt by archaeologists) are an important source of information on this menses. In Mesopotamia the dominant powers were Kassite Babylonia and Assyria (which emerged from subjection to Mitanni in the early 14th century bce). Relations between states were governed by elaborate treaties, which were constantly being broken. Afterwards the fall of Mitanni (c. 1350) the Hittites and Babylonians both directed their hostility against Assyria. Kassite Babylonia was subjugated by Assyria about 1230. This, followed by the autumn of the Hittite empire (c. 1200), ended what has been called the start "International Age" in the civilized world.

The latter part of the 13th century bce saw the irruption of new peoples into the Aegean Body of water region, Anatolia, and the Fertile Crescent; their appearance coincided with the Trojan War, the collapse of the Hittite empire, and the destruction of many coastal cities of Greece, Cyprus, and Syria-Palestine. Best known of the new settlers from the west are the Phrygians, who occupied most of the old Hittite heartland, and the Philistines, who moved into Palestine.

At the same time, in Transjordan and western Palestine, the Hebrews founded a tribal confederation that was changed into a monarchy by Saul and David (c. 1020–960 bce).

In the east the Iranian tribes, led by the Medes, were pouring into Iran from Turkistan. From the south and west came the Aramaeans. The Aramaeans and Medes were to transform the ancient Middle E.

The Assyrian state suffered an eclipse in the 11th century bce, when the Aramaeans and related tribes occupied almost of its territory. It was not until the tardily 10th century that the Assyrians began to recover, just by 850 they had conquered much of western Media and southern Armenia besides as Babylonia and Syria. In the following centuries, until simply before 630, the empire was greatly expanded. It was also highly organized administratively; its linguistic communication became Aramaic.

The Canaanite Phoenicians on the Syrian coast re-established their trading communities subsequently the Philistine and Aramaean invasions. In the tenth and ninth centuries they moved out into the Mediterranean, establishing colonies in North Africa and as far due west every bit Spain. Their influence in the western Mediterranean declined after the 6th century. Their Carthaginian colony then took over Phoenician trade in the western and central Mediterranean.

Farther eastward the Medes and Chaldeans destroyed the Assyrian empire at the cease of the 7th century. The Chaldean dynasty in Babylonia carried on Assyrian traditions of administration and encouraged commerce. Under Nebuchadrezzar II (c. 605–c. 561 bce) their Neo-Babylonian empire became the about powerful political entity of its fourth dimension. Its rule extended from the Taurus Mountains in Anatolia to eastern Arabia and deep into southern Iran. This short-lived country made a tremendous impression on contemporaries, especially on the Jews, whose state was destroyed and who were carried into the Babylonian Captivity, and on the Greeks, to whom the glory of Babylon became legendary.