Ancient Near East: Did you mean...?

The ancient Near East was home to a multitude of civilizations, across Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Levant, each with unique views on medicine, conception, and women’s role in society. Attitudes towards contraception and abortion varied according...

In this interview, World History Encyclopedia sits down with author and Assyriologist Amanda H. Podany to learn all about her new book Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East published by Oxford University Press...

In the ancient Near East, there was a social standard by which men were ideally expected to behave. In the 21st century CE, expectations still exist, albeit in different forms. Normative masculinity through ancient Mesopotamia typically concerned...

The Near East is a modern-age term for the region formerly known as the Middle East comprising Armenia, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and part of Turkey, corresponding to ancient Urartu, Mesopotamia...

Disease has been a part of the human condition since the beginning of recorded history – and no doubt earlier – decimating populations and causing widespread social upheaval. Among the worst infections recorded is the plague which is fairly...

A map illustrating the political situation in the Ancient Near East during the Old Assyrian period (around 1700 BCE) shortly before the rise of the Babylonian Empire of Hammurabi. It depicts the rise of Assur from an independent city-state...

A map illustrating the aftermath of the 15th century BCE ruinous campaigns by the Old Hittite Empire that led to the emergence of new powerful entities in the ancient Near East - the Middle Babylonian Kingdom of the Kassites, the Mitanni...

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East by Amanda H. Podany is a unique history of the ancient Near East that compellingly presents the life stories of kings, priestesses, merchants, bricklayers, and others. Rather...

A map illustrating the changing balance of power in the Ancient Near East in the 13th century BCE resulting from the expansion of the Hittite and Assyrian empires and the collapse of the Mittani kingdom.

A map illustrating the rise and expansion of the Median Empire in the wake of the Bronze Age Collapse and the disintegration of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (c. 609 BCE). While the Neo-Babylonian Empire engulfed the Fertile Crescent from the Levantine...