The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East: Volume II: From the End of the Third Millennium BC to the Fall of Babylon

This groundbreaking, five-volume series offers a comprehensive, fully illustrated history of Egypt and Western Asia (the Levant, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Iran), from the emergence of complex states to the conquest of Alexander the Great. Written by a highly diverse, international team of leading scholars, the volumes in this series focus firmly on the political and social histories of the states and communities of the ancient Near East. The second volume covers broadly the first half of the second millennium bc or, in archaeological terms, the Middle Bronze Age. Eleven chapters present the history of the Near East from the end of the third millennium bc to the fall of Babylon and discuss the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom Egypt, the Mesopotamian kingdom of Ur under the rule of the so-called Third Dynasty of Ur and its successor states centered on the cities of Isin and Larsa. Also included are the subsequent mosaic of states of various sizes and complexity attested from the Eastern Mediterranean shore and the Anatolian highlands to the mountains of Iran, and finally the kingdom of Babylon. Key topics include the absolute chronology of the Middle Bronze Age, the formation, consolidation, and disintegration of complex states, the role of kingship, cult, and material culture in creating and managing social hierarchies, and the overland and maritime trade networks, and the political interactions that bridged deserts, oceans, and mountain ranges to bring together diverse people and polities in the vast area between Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia.… (more)