Ancient Near East Facts for Kids

Seating diorite statue of Gudea, Prince of Lagash - neo-Sumerian period

The Ancient Near East is considered one of the cradles of civilization. It was here that intensive year-round agriculture was first practiced, leading to the rise of the first dense urban settlements and the development of many familiar institutions of civilization, such as social stratification, centralized government and empires, organized religion and organized warfare.

It also saw the creation of the first writing system, the first alphabet (abjad), the first currency in history, and law codes, early advances that laid the foundations of astronomy and mathematics, and the invention of the wheel.

Early Copper Age pottery

During the period, states became increasingly large, until the region became controlled by militaristic empires that had conquered a number of different cultures.

Ancient civilizations in the Near East were deeply influenced by their spiritual beliefs, which generally did not distinguish between heaven and Earth. They believed that divine action influenced all matters, and also believed in divination (ability to predict the future). Omens were often inscribed in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, as were records of major events.

It was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran, northeastern Syria and Kuwait), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran (Elam, Media, Parthia and Persia)

Also, Anatolia/Asia Minor and Armenian Highlands (Turkey's Eastern Anatolia Region, Armenia, northwestern Iran, southern Georgia, and western Azerbaijan), the Levant (modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Jordan), Cyprus and the Arabian Peninsula.

The history of the ancient Near East begins with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, though the date it ends varies. The term covers the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in the region, until either the conquest by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC, that by the Macedonian Empire in the 4th century BC, or the Muslim conquests in the 7th century AD.

The phrase "ancient Near East" indicates the 19th-century difference between Near East and Far East as global regions of interest to the British Empire. The distinction began during the Crimean War.

Periodization

Ancient Near East periodization is the attempt to categorize or divide time into named blocks, or eras, of the Near East.

Copper Age	Chalcolithic (4500 – 3300 BC)	Early Chalcolithic	4500 – 4000 BC	Ubaid period in Mesopotamia
Copper Age	Chalcolithic (4500 – 3300 BC)	Late Chalcolithic	4000 – 3300 BC	Ghassulian, Sumerian Uruk period in Mesopotamia, Gerzeh, Predynastic Egypt, Proto-Elamite
Bronze Age (3300 – 1200 BC)	Early Bronze Age (3300 – 2100 BC)	Early Bronze Age I	3300 – 3000 BC	Protodynastic to Early Dynastic Period of Egypt, settlement of Phoenicians
		Early Bronze Age II	3000 – 2700 BC	Early Dynastic Period of Sumer
		Early Bronze Age III	2700 – 2200 BC	Old Kingdom of Egypt, Akkadian Empire, early Assyria, Old Elamite period, Sumero-Akkadian states
		Early Bronze Age IV	2200 – 2100 BC	First Intermediate Period of Egypt
	Middle Bronze Age (2100 – 1550 BC)	Middle Bronze Age I	2100 – 2000 BC	Third Dynasty of Ur
		Middle Bronze Age II A	2000 – 1750 BC	Minoan civilization, early Babylonia, Egyptian Middle Kingdom
		Middle Bronze Age II B	1750 – 1650 BC	Second Intermediate Period of Egypt
		Middle Bronze Age II C	1650 – 1550 BC	Hittite Old Kingdom, Minoan eruption
	Late Bronze Age (1550 – 1200 BC)	Late Bronze Age I	1550 – 1400 BC	Hittite Middle Kingdom, Hayasa-Azzi, Middle Elamite period, New Kingdom of Egypt
		Late Bronze Age II A	1400 – 1300 BC	Hittite New Kingdom, Mitanni, Hayasa-Azzi, Ugarit, Mycenaean Greece
		Late Bronze Age II B	1300 – 1200 BC	Middle Assyrian Empire, beginning of the high point of Phoenicians
Iron Age (1200 – 539 BC)	Iron Age I (1200 – 1000 BC)	Iron Age I A	1200 – 1150 BC	Troy VII, Hekla 3 eruption, Bronze Age collapse, Sea Peoples
	Iron Age I (1200 – 1000 BC)	Iron Age I B	1150 – 1000 BC	Neo-Hittite states, Neo Elamite period, Aramean states
	Iron Age II (1000 – 539 BC)	Iron Age II A	1000 – 900 BC	Greek Dark Ages, traditional date of the United Monarchy of Israel
		Iron Age II B	900 – 700 BC	Kingdom of Israel, Urartu, Phrygia, Neo-Assyrian Empire, Kingdom of Judah, first settlement of Carthage
		Iron Age II C	700 – 539 BC	Neo-Babylonian Empire, Median Empire, fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Phoenicia, Archaic Greece, rise of Achaemenid Persia
Classical antiquity (post-ANE) (539 BC – 634 AD)		Achaemenid	539 – 330 BC	Persian Achaemenid Empire
		Hellenistic & Parthian	330 – 31 BC	Macedonian Empire, Seleucid Empire, Kingdom of Pergamon, Ptolemaic Kingdom, Parthian Empire
		Roman & Persian	31 BC – 634 AD	Roman–Persian Wars, Roman Empire, Parthian Empire, Sassanid Empire, Byzantine Empire, Muslim conquests

Images for kids

Overview map of the ancient Near East

Ancient Near East facts for kids

Periodization

Images for kids

See also