ABSTRACT

The Ancient Near East reveals three millennia of history (c. 3500–500 bc) in a single work. Liverani draws upon over 25 years’ worth of experience and this personal odyssey has enabled him to retrace the history of the peoples of the Ancient Near East. The history of the Sumerians, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians and more is meticulously detailed by one of the leading scholars of Assyriology.

Utilizing research derived from the most recent archaeological finds, the text has been fully revised for this English edition and explores Liverani’s current thinking on the history of the Ancient Near East. The rich and varied illustrations for each historical period, augmented by new images for this edition, provide insights into the material and textual sources for the Ancient Near East. Many highlight the ingenuity and technological prowess of the peoples in the Ancient East. Never before available in English, The Ancient Near East represents one of the greatest books ever written on the subject and is a must read for students who will not have had the chance to explore the depth of Liverani’s scholarship.

part |2 pages

PART I Introduction

chapter 2|17 pages

The geography of the Ancient Near East

chapter 3|25 pages

The Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods

part |2 pages

PART II The Early Bronze Age

chapter 4|20 pages

The Urban Revolution

chapter 6|22 pages

Mesopotamia in the Early Dynastic period

chapter 7|18 pages

The rise of Ebla

chapter 8|22 pages

The Akkadian empire

chapter 9|16 pages

The Third Dynasty of Ur

part |2 pages

PART III The Middle Bronze Age

chapter 10|13 pages

The crisis of the second urbanisation

chapter 12|14 pages

The Old Assyrian period

chapter 13|19 pages

The Mari Age

chapter 14|16 pages

Hammurabi of Babylon

chapter 15|13 pages

Anatolia in the Old Hittite period

part |2 pages

PART IV The Late Bronze Age

chapter 17|13 pages

The rise of Mitanni

chapter 18|22 pages

The Hittite empire

chapter 19|22 pages

Syria and the Levant in the Late Bronze Age

chapter 20|17 pages

The Middle Assyrian kingdom

chapter 21|15 pages

Kassite Babylonia

part |2 pages

PART V The Early Iron Age

chapter 22|20 pages

Crisis and reorganisation

chapter 23|19 pages

Israel

chapter 24|14 pages

The Phoenicians

chapter 25|14 pages

The Arameans in Syria and Mesopotamia

chapter 26|10 pages

The Neo-Hittite states

part |2 pages

PART VI Empires and Unification

chapter 28|22 pages

The rise of the Neo-Assyrian empire

chapter 29|21 pages

The structure of the Neo-Assyrian empire

chapter 30|19 pages

The periphery of the Neo-Assyrian empire

chapter 32|17 pages

The Medes and the rise of the Persians

chapter 33|9 pages

Conclusion