Bottero Jean, Cassin Elena, Vercoutter Jean (eds). The Near East: the Early Civilizations

Translated by R. F. Tannenbaum. — New York: Delacorte Press, 1967. — (Delacorte World History; Vol. II).Translation of Die Altorientalischen Reiche, Bd. 1: Vom Paläolithikum bis zur Mitte des 2. Jahrtausends.The Near East: The Early Civilizations is the first of three volumes on the ancient Near East scheduled to appear in the multivolumed Delacorte World History. Written by eminent scholars from France and Germany, The Near East: The Early Civilizations examines in depth that crucial period in the history of mankind that saw the first emergence of civilization in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Covering a period from about 10,000 B.С. to 1,500 B.C., the volume reviews the prehistory of the Near East, then traces the rise of the Sumerian, Akkadian and Babylonian states in Mesopotamia as well as their relations with the neighboring peoples. Succeeding chapters examine the prehistory and history of ancient Egypt through the Old and Middle Kingdoms to the expulsion of the Hyksos invaders.
As in all the volumes of the Delacorte World History, in The Near East: The Early Civilizations, the full resources of modern historical scholarship are brought to bear upon the ancient world in order to create a fully balanced, authoritative, up-to-date picture of mankind's earliest history. Political events, the social and economic background and religious and intellectual trends all receive full consideration in this wide-ranging volume, which also makes extensive use of the latest findings in archaeology, linguistics and other sciences.
The three editors who are responsible for The Near East: The Early Civilizations, as well as their two collaborators, are all wellknown specialists in their fields. Of the editors, Jean Bottero is Professor of the History of the Ancient Near East at the École Pratique des Hautes-Études (Sorbonne) in Paris, and is currently one of a group deciphering the Royal archives of Mari. Elena Cassin, of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique of Paris, is an authority on the legal and economic history of Babylonia with special reference to Nuzi. Jean Vercoutter is a professor at the University of Lille. As Director of the Mission Archeologique Franсaise au Soudan, he conducted the excavations at Mirgissa (Sudan). The late Adam Falkenstein was a professor of Semitic languages at the University of Heidelberg and was the author, among other publications, of Das Sumerische (1959). An orientalist at the University of Munich since 1963, Dietz Otto Edzard was a guest lecturer at Harvard University during 1961-1962.The Prehistory and Protohistory of Western Asia (Adam Falkenstein).
The Early Dynastic Period (Dietz Otto Edzard).
The First Semitic Empire (Jean Bottéro).
The Third Dynasty of Ur - Its Empire and Its Successor States (Dietz Otto Edzard).
The Old Babylonian Period (Dietz Otto Edzard).
The Origins of Egypt (Jean Vercoutter).
Archaic Egypt (Jean Vercoutter).
Egypt Under the Old Kingdom (Jean Vercoutter).
The Fall of the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period (Jean Vercoutter).
Egypt in the Middle Kingdom (Jean Vercoutter).
The Second Intermediate Period and the Hyksos Invasion of Egypt (Jean Vercoutter).