Ancient Near East: Overview in 7 Minutes

This video is about the beginnings of Ancient History and provides an overview of the Ancient Near East, focusing on Mesopotamia. The overview goes over the Sumerians, Akkadian Empire, Neo-Sumerian Empire, the Old Babylonian Empire, the Bronze Age Collapse, the Phoenicians, and the Assyrian Empires, ending at around the 500s BCE.

The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran, northeastern Syria and Kuwait), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran (Elam, Media, Parthia and Persia), Anatolia/Asia Minor and the Armenian Highlands (Turkey's Eastern Anatolia Region, Armenia, northwestern Iran, southern Georgia, and western Azerbaijan), the Levant (modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan), Cyprus and the Arabian Peninsula. The ancient Near East is studied in the fields of Ancient Near East studies, Near Eastern archaeology and ancient history.

The history of the ancient Near East begins with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, though the date it ends varies. The term covers the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in the region, until either the conquest by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC, that by the Macedonian Empire in the 4th century BC, or the Muslim conquests in the 7th century AD.

The ancient Near East is considered one of the cradles of civilization. It was here that intensive year-round agriculture was first practiced, leading to the rise of the first dense urban settlements and the development of many familiar institutions of civilization, such as social stratification, centralized government and empires, organized religion and organized warfare. It also saw the creation of the first writing system, the first alphabet (abjad), the first currency in history, and law codes, early advances that laid the foundations of astronomy and mathematics, and the invention of the wheel.

During the period, states became increasingly large, until the region became controlled by militaristic empires that had conquered a number of different cultures.

Welcome to our Overview series! This series will provide brief overviews of broad topics. It's meant for a general audience and can be used as a stepping stone to any of our other series. They are organized in playlists and sections on our Homepage so take a look!

1. CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF OUR ANCIENT PERIOD OVERVIEWS:    • Ancient Near East: Overview in 7 Minutes  

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0:00 Intro
0:29 Sumerians (c.4500 - 1900 BCE)
1:33 Akkadian Empire (c.2334 - 2154 BCE)
2:15 Neo-Sumerian Empire (c.2112 - 2004 BCE)
2:48 Old Babylonian Empire (c.1894 - 1595 BCE)
3:40 Hittites (c.1650 - 1178 BCE)
4:28 Bronze Age Collapse (1200 - 1150 BCE)
5:16 Phoenicians (2500, but prominent from 900s BCE)
5:58 Assyrian Empires (2025 - 609 BCE)
7:16 Preview for series

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