Smarthistory – Ancient Near East

Sumerian

c. 4000–2339 B.C.E.

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Sumer was located in southern Mesopotamia, and it is here that we find some of the oldest known cities, including Ur and Uruk.

White Temple and ziggurat, Uruk

Archaeological reconstructions

Standing Male Worshipper (Tell Asmar)

Akkadian

c. 2334–2193 B.C.E.

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The Akkadian Empire was begun by Sargon, a man from a lowly family who rose to power and founded the royal city of Akkad (Akkad has not yet been located, though one theory puts it under modern Baghdad).

Art of Akkad, an introduction

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin

Cylinder seal with a modern impression

Neo-Sumerian / Ur III

c. 2112–2004 B.C.E.

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The Third Dynasty of Ur arose some time after the fall of the Akkad Dynasty.

Seated Gudea holding temple plan

Ziggurat of Ur

Canaanite

c. 4500 B.C.E.–c. 1150 B.C.E.

Canaanites, an introduction

Hittite

1400–1200 B.C.E.

Hittites, an introduction

Babylonian

c. 1850–539 B.C.E.

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For two thousand years the myth of Babylon has haunted the European imagination. The Tower of Babel and the Hanging Gardens, Belshazzar’s Feast and the Fall of Babylon have inspired artists, writers, poets, philosophers and filmmakers.

Babylonia, an introduction

Visiting Babylon

Law Code Stele of King Hammurabi

The Ishtar Gate and Neo-Babylonian art and architecture

Top level with Mesopotamian Gods in symbolic form, second level with animals and deities playing musical instruments from

Kassite art: Unfinished Kudurru

Amorite

c. 2400 B.C.E.–1500 B.C.E.

Amorites, an introduction

Assyrian

c. 1365–609 B.C.E.

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The Assyrian empire dominated Mesopotamia and all of the Near East for the first half of the first millennium, led by a series of highly ambitious and aggressive warrior kings. Assyrian society was entirely military, with men obliged to fight in the army at any time. State offices were also under the purview of the military.

Persian

c. 550–330 B.C.E.

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The ancient Persians (also called the Achaemenids) created an enormous empire reaching from the Indus Valley to Northern Greece and from Central Asia to Egypt.