Ancient Near East

Categories: Middle East | Ancient history | Ancient Near East | Eurasia

Overview map of the 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 BC to the expansion of the Persian Empire in the 6th century BC. As such, it is a term widely employed in the fields of Near Eastern archaeology, Ancient History and Egyptology.

The Ancient Near East is generally understood as encompassing Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria), Persia (Iran), Egypt, the Levant (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestinian Authority), 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 BC, this exclusion is rare.