AP/HIST 2110 6.00

ANCIENT NEAR EAST

Civilization began in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and then Egypt. Shortly thereafter, civilizations developed all over the Near East (modern Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and Iran). This course surveys major developments in the political, social, and cultural history of the peoples and states of this region. In broad terms, the area covered by this course extends from the eastern Mediterranean to the Iranian plateau, and the time span ranges from about 3000 B.C. to the invasion of Alexander, some 2700 years later.
Major peoples and states studied include Sumer, Akkad, Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, the Hittites, Israel, and Persia, but not all these groups and not all their history will receive equal emphasis. History 2110 also investigates how we determine historical facts, especially the facts of ancient history. In this connection, we discuss problems and possibilities in the fields of archaeology, text interpretation, and historical geography, to name but three.