Ancient Middle East , history of the region from prehistory to the rise of civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt and other areas.
Britannica Quiz The Middle East:Fact or Fiction? Is the literacy rate very high in Afghanistan? Does Yemen take its name from the Arabic word "northern"? Sort the facts in this quiz about Syria, Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries.Development of Middle Eastern civilizations
The high antiquity of civilization in Middle East is largely due to the existence of suitable land bridges and easy sea routes, accessible in summer or winter, in the dry or rainy season are passable. The movement of large numbers of people north of the Caspian Sea was practically impossible in winter due to the harsh climate. Central Eurasia was often too dry in summer. The land passage between Asia and Africa used to be limited to narrow strips of land in the Suez Isthmus. Great desert voyages were limited to specific routes in Iran and North Africa , both east and west of the Nile Valley.
Another reason for the early importance of this area in world history is the fact that the Water Supply and the climate ideal for the introduction of goods Agriculture . Multiple types of grain grew wild, and there were swamps and tributaries that could easily be drained or dammed for sowing wild wheat and barley . The seed only needed to be strewn over a sufficiently moist surface to ensure a harvest under normal conditions. It is therefore not surprising that as early as the 8th or 9th millennium v . Ch. indicates simple farming , especially in Palestine , where more excavations have been carried out at early sites than any other Middle Eastern country. Many bone crescent hilts and flint crescent edges from the period between c. 9000 and 7000 v . Chr . Were found in Palestinian territories.
In Mesopotamia and Iranian Remains of this period appear in caves on the lower slopes of the Zagros Mountains between western Iran and Iraq . The systematic introduction date of Irrigation on a large scale in Mesopotamia is somewhat doubtful, because the most of the early sites Irrigation culture with the Collections of alluvial land long ago covered by the floods in Spring brought Tigris and Euphrates rivers . Archaeologists once thought that all irrigation came from the Zagros foothills and that the earliest true farmers lived on the plains of Iran. However, recent excavations and surface exploration have shown that the irrigation of the upper Tigris and Euphrates and their tributaries dates from the early 6th millennium v . Chr . Inherits ( z . B. um al-Kawm on the upper Euphrates). Small-scale irrigation was practiced in Palestine ( eg at Jericho ) in the 7th millennium v .
In northern and eastern Mesopotamia, with moderate river floods, the main streams were soon partially diverted into channels more or less parallel to the Rivers ran and could therefore be used to irrigate an extensive area. Such irrigation of the deflector dam avoided the self-destructive weaknesses of large dams, particularly the risk of large amounts of refractory mud being deposited in the storage basin behind the dam. To the north and east, places like z developed Nineveh no later than the 5th millennium v . Ch. , when southern Mesopotamia was still mostly marshland like the early Egyptian delta. The Euphrates had a much lower flow of water than the nearby Tigris. The latter, however, was much faster, so it may have been more important for irrigation, although it was much harder to tame.
The Egyptian The Nile had a much more predictable flow of water than the Mesopotamian rivers, flowing through hundreds of kilometers of swamp where unusually high annual floods that disrupted navigation but averted the threat of occasional devastating floods in Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamia and Egypt to c. 1600 v
The oldest known The urban and the world's literary culture was influenced by Sumerians in Mesopotamia from the late 4th millennium v . Around 2300 v. A Semitic Guide, Sargon I conquered all Babylonia and established the first Dynasty from Akkad (Ackadu), who held power for about a century and a half. Sargon and his successors were the first known rulers in Southwest Asia to take control of the Fertile Crescent and via adjacent Territories gained. They sent trade expeditions to Central Anatolia and the Iran and as far as India and Egypt. After the fall of the Akkadian dynasty, there was a Sumerian revival under the 3rd dynasty of Ur (Ur III [21st - 20th centuries]), followed by a further influx of Semites . These people founded the first dynasty Babylon (19th - 16th centuries), whose most important king was Hammurabi . New ethnic groups emerged in both Babylonia and Syria-Palestine in the 17th century: cassites from the Zagros Mountains, Hurrians from today Armenia and Indo-European from Central Asia . This period marked the end of the emergent phase of Mesopotamian civilization.
Just after 3000 v . Chr . Were the numerous small states that arose in the Nile valley in the 4th millennium united under the 1st dynasty of Egypt . By this time the Egyptians had already developed a writing system. Between c. 2686 and c. 2160 v. Was their lands united under a powerful monarchy Old Kingdom ) from a complex Bureaucracy served .
Towards the end of the 3rd millennium there was a period of disunity, followed by reunification under the 12th dynasty (1991 –1786).
During these two centuries, Egyptian control of Nubia, Libya , Palestine and the South Syria . Soon after 1800 v. Decayed the Egyptian Empire and c. 1700 Egypt was conquered by the Asiatics "Hyksos" who ruled the country for a century and a half.
New states and peoples
Before the close of the 16th century bc the native 18th dynasty rose in Egypt; it expelled the Hyksos and founded the New Kingdom. The New Kingdom rulers moved back into Syria-Palestine and came into conflict first with the Hurrian state of Mitanni and later with the Anatolian Hittites, who were expanding into Syria from the north in the 14th century bc. The Amarna Letters (diplomatic correspondence written in Babylonian script and language and discovered in Egypt by archaeologists) are an important source of information on this period. In Mesopotamia the dominant powers were Kassite Babylonia and Assyria (which emerged from subjection to Mitanni in the early 14th century bc). Relations between states were governed by elaborate treaties, which were constantly being broken. After the fall of Mitanni (c. 1350) the Hittites and Babylonians both directed their hostility against Assyria. Kassite Babylonia was subjugated by Assyria c. 1230. This, followed by the fall of the Hittite Empire (c. 1200), ended what has been called the first “International Age” in the civilized world.
The latter part of the 13th century bc saw the irruption of new peoples into the Aegean, 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 BC).
In the east the Iranian tribes, led by the Medes, were pouring into Iran from Turkistan. From the south and west came the Semitic Aramaeans. The Aramaeans and Medes were to transform the ancient Middle East.
The Assyrian state suffered an eclipse in the 11th century BC, when the Aramaeans and related tribes occupied most of its territory. It was not until the late 10th century that the Assyrians began to recover, but by 850 they had conquered much of western Media and southern Armenia as well as Babylonia and Syria. In the following centuries, until just before 630, the empire was greatly expanded. It was also highly organized administratively; its language became Aramaic.
The Canaanite Phoenicians on the Syrian coast re-established their trading communities after the Philistine and Aramaean invasions; in the 10th and 9th centuries they moved out into the Mediterranean, establishing colonies in North Africa and as far west as 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 east the Medes and Chaldeans destroyed the Assyrian Empire at the end of the 7th century. The Chaldean dynasty in Babylonia carried on Assyrian traditions of administration and encouraged commerce; under Nebuchadnezzar II ( c. 605- c. 561 bc ) their Neo-Babylonian Empire became the strongest political entity of its time. His reign extended from the Taurus Mountains in Anatolia to Eastern Arabia and deep into southern Iran. This short-lived state impressed contemporaries, especially the Jews, whose state was destroyed and Babylonian captivity , and the Greeks, of whom the glory of Babylon became legendary.