Ancient History/Ancient Near East

	Introduction - The Ancient Near East The ancient Near East refers to early civilizations in a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria), Persia (modern Iran), Anatolia (modern Turkey), the Levant (modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan), as well as Ancient Egypt, from the beginnings of Sumer in the 6th millennium BC until the region's conquest by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. The ancient Near East is considered the cradle of civilization. It was the first to practice intensive year-round agriculture; it produced the first writing system, invented the potter's wheel and then the vehicular- and mill wheels, created the first centralized governments, law codes and empires, as well as introducing social stratification, slavery and organized warfare, and it laid the foundation for the fields of astronomy and mathematics.
	Section 1 - Mesopotamia Mesopotamia, the "land between the rivers" lies in modern-day Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Jordan. Here the first cities and the first civilizations began to emerge between four thousand and six thousand years before the present. Sumer, Akkad and the First Civilizations Babylon Upper Mesopotamia The Neo-Assyrian Empire The Neo-Babylonian Empire
	Section 2 - Persia insert summary here Elam The Medes The Achaemenid Empire
	Section 3 - Anatolia insert summary here The Hatti The Hittites Syro-Hittite states Urartu Phrygia Lydia
	Section 4 - The Levant insert summary here Early Levantine City-States Canaan Phoenicia The Arameans Ancient Israel and Judah

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