Incorporating the latest scholarly research, the third edition ofA History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000-323 BCpresents a comprehensive overview of the multiculturalcivilizations of the ancient Near East. Incorporating the latest scholarly research, the third edition of A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000 323 BC presents a comprehensive overview of the multicultural civilizations of the ancient Near East. List of Illustrations viii List of Charts xi List of Maps xii List of Debates xiv List of Boxes xv List of Documents xvi Preface xviii Author s Note xxi 1 Introductory Concerns 1 1.1 What Is the Ancient Near East? 1 1.2 The Sources 3 1.3 Geography 6 1.4 Prehistoric Developments 10 Part I City-States 19 2 Origins: The Uruk Phenomenon 21 2.1 The Origins of Cities 23 2.2 The Development of Writing and Administration 30 2.3 The Uruk Expansion 37 2.4 Uruk s Aftermath 41 3 Competing City-States: The Early Dynastic Period 44 3.1 The Written Sources and Their Historical Uses 45 3.2 Political Developments in Southern Mesopotamia 48 3.3 The Wider Near East 56 3.4 Early Dynastic Society 60 3.5 Scribal Culture 63 4 Political Centralization in the Late Third Millennium 67 4.1 The Kings of Akkad 68 4.2 The Third Dynasty of Ur 79 5 The Near East in the Early Second Millennium 90 5.1 Nomads and Sedentary People 92 5.2 Babylonia 95 5.3 Assyria and the East 100 5.4 Mari and the West 107 6 The Growth of Territorial States in the Early Second Millennium 113 6.1 Shamshi-Adad and the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia 115 6.2 Hammurabi s Babylon 118 6.3 The Old Hittite Kingdom 127 6.4 The Dark Age 131 Part II Territorial States 135 7 The Club of the Great Powers 137 7.1 The Political System 138 7.2 Political Interactions: Diplomacy and Trade 142 7.3 Regional Competition: Warfare 151 7.4 Shared Ideologies and Social Organizations 153 8 The Western States of the Late Second Millennium 159 8.1 Mittani 160 8.2 The Hittite New Kingdom 165 8.3 Syria-Palestine 174 9 Kassites, Assyrians, and Elamites 182 9.1 Babylonia 183 9.2 Assyria 190 9.3 The Middle Elamite Kingdom 195 10 The Collapse of the Regional System and Its Aftermath 202 10.1 The Events 203 10.2 Interpretation 210 10.3 The Aftermath 213 Part III Empires 221 11 The Near East at the Start of the First Millennium 223 11.1 The Eastern States 224 11.2 The West 232 12 The Rise of Assyria 246 12.1 Patterns of Assyrian Imperialism 247 12.2 The Historical Record 253 12.3 Ninth-Century Expansion 255 12.4 Internal Assyrian Decline 261 13 Assyria s World Domination 265 13.1 The Creation of an Imperial Structure 266 13.2 The Defeat of the Great Rivals 270 13.3 The Administration and Ideology of the Empire 277 13.4 Assyrian Culture 279 13.5 Assyria s Fall 284 14 The Medes and Babylonians 289 14.1 The Medes and the Anatolian States 290 14.2 The Neo-Babylonian Dynasty 294 15 The Creation of a World Empire: Persia 308 15.1 The Sources and Their Challenges 309 15.2 The Rise of Persia and Its Expansion 310 15.3 Governance of the Subject States 315 15.4 The Creation of an Imperial Structure 319 16 Governing a World Empire: Persia 327 16.1 Political Developments 327 16.2 Administration of the Empire 331 16.3 Local Forms of Persian Administration 335 16.4 The End of the Empire 342 Epilogue 346 King Lists 348 Guide to Further Reading 364 Bibliography 370 Comprehensive Time Line 385 Index 389