Sasson Jack M. (ed.) Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. Vol. 1

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1995. — xxii, 648 p. — ISBN: 0-684-19279-9 (set); ISBN: 0-684-19720-0 (vol. 1).The aim of Civilizations of the Ancient Near East is to fill an important gap in reference works that focus on the Mediterranean world in antiquity. Whether you are satisfying a deep curiosity about the ancient world, teaching or learning at a secondary school, college, or university, or simply examining a specific problem, for the first time you have at your disposal a coherent, comprehensive, and imaginative treatment of the ancient Near East.
The civilizations of the ancient Near East are the world’s oldest, and they were uncommonly significant in human history. They were remarkably diverse and occupied a large region of the world, but grew from a core more compact than that of societies in the Greco-Roman cultural areas. While civilizations have arisen independently in several regions of the world—and, in the case of China, have exhibited a similar continuity—the range of material surviving from the Near East is incomparable. Here one discovers fuller visions of societies than are available for almost anywhere before the Middle Ages. The ancient Near East encompasses a great range of social forms, from the city-states of Mesopotamia, to the centralized monarchy of Egypt, to the empires of Assyria and Persia that flourished in the first millennium BCE.
In addition to their historical achievements, these societies have generated culturally vital traditions in art, architecture, literature, and all the other domains normally associated with the word “civilization.” Despite such monuments as the Great Pyramid, these traditions have only gradually come to be appreciated. The record of the adaptation of near eastern populations to their environments is similarly rich and diverse, ranging from complete dependence on irrigation, to upland agriculture, to nomadism. The vast expanses of desert in the region have preserved many ancient remains particularly well.
The civilizations that spanned the continents later called Africa and Asia were also open to other parts of the world. The influence of Egypt, for example, reached across the vast arid expanses of Northeast Africa, and was by no means as confined as its location within the Nile Valley might suggest. Another principal early center, Mesopotamia, was a vastly influential complex of peoples and polities with connections as far east as India and as far west as the Aegean. In the first millennium BCE, the Near East influenced the re-emergent civilization of Greece and briefly conquered parts of the Aegean in the time of the Persian Empire, but eventually fell before the Macedonian Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BCE. The constant interchange among the older cultures of the Near East and those of Greece and Rome during the following six hundred years nurtured the emergence of three of the world’s great religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—and played a role in shaping the Middle Ages.
Civilizations of the Ancient Near East presents this enormously rich world to you from as many perspectives as possible, while at the same time offering coherent expositions of all the major topics into which it is organized.The Ancient Near East in Western Thought.Egypt in Ancient Greek and Roman Thought (Laszlo Kakosy).
Egypt in European Thought (Helen Whitehouse).
Ancient Near Eastern Myths in Classical Greek Religious Thought (Martin L. West).
The Influence of Ancient Mesopotamia on Hellenistic Judaism (Markham J. Geller)
Ancient Mesopotamia in Classical Greek and Hellenistic Thought (Amelie Kuhrt).
Babylon in European Thought (John M. Lundquist).
The Decipherment of Ancient Near Eastern Scripts (Peter T. Daniels).
The “Babel/Bible” Controversy and Its Aftermath (Mogens Trolle Larsen).
The Ancient Near East in Modem Thought (John Maier).The Environment.Environmental Change in the Near East and Human Impact on the Land (Karl W. Butzer).
The Flora and Fauna of the Ancient Near East (Allan S. Gilbert).
The Agricultural Cycle, Farming, and Water Management in the Ancient Near East (Christopher J. Eyre).
Vegetables in the Ancient Near Eastern Diet (Jane Margaret Retifrew).
Animal Husbandry and Human Diet in the Ancient Near East (Brian Hesse).Population.Ethnic Diversity in Ancient Egypt (Anthony Leahy).
The Development of Cities in Ancient Mesopotamia (Elizabeth Stone).
Pastoral Nomadism in Ancient Western Asia (Glenn M. Schwartz).
Ethnic Diversity and Population Movement in Anatolia (Philo H. J. Houwink ten Cate).Social Institutions.Royal Ideology and State Administration in Pharaonic Egypt (Ronald J. Leprohon).
Military Organization in Pharaonic Egypt (Alan Schulman).
Palaces and Temples of Ancient Egypt (John Baines).
The Social and Economic Organization of Ancient Egyptian Temples (David O’Connor).
Artisans and Artists in Pharaonic Egypt (Rosemarie Drenkhahn).
Legal and Social Institutions of Pharaonic Egypt (David Lorton).
Private Life in Ancient Egypt (Geraldine Pinch).
Costume in New Kingdom Egypt (Rosalind Janssen).
Royal Ideology and State Administration in Sumer and Akkad (Nicholas Postgate).
Ancient Mesopotamian Military Organization (Stephanie Dailey).
Palaces and Temples in Ancient Mesopotamia (Michael Roaf).
The Social and Economic Organization of Ancient Mesopotamian Temples (John F. Robertson).
Artisans and Artists in Ancient Western Asia (Donald Matthews).
Legal and Social Institutions of Ancient Mesopotamia (Samuel Greengus).
Private Life in Ancient Mesopotamia (Marten Stol).
Clothing and Grooming in Ancient Western Asia (Dominique Collon).
Social and Legal Institutions in Achaemenid Iran (Pierre Briant).
Royal Ideology and State Administration in Hittite Anatolia (Gary Beckman).
Hittite Military Organization (Richard H. Beal).
Legal and Social Institutions of Hittite Anatolia (Harry A. Hoffner, Jr.).
Private Life Among the Hittites (Fiorella Imparati).
Administration of the State in Canaan and Ancient Israel (Gosta W. Ahlstrom).
Palaces and Temples in Canaan and Ancient Israel (William G. Dever).
Legal and Social Institutions in Canaan and Ancient Israel (Hector Avalos).
Private Life in Ancient Israel (Mayer I. Gruber).