Reddit reviews A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000 - 323 BC, 2nd Edition

A History of the Ancient Near East

I highly recommend reading up on ancient Mesopotamia. For example, I am reading this right now. I have been an atheist for most of my life, but feeling kinda under siege right now and this is so refreshing.

There are like thousands of years of various texts that sound just like The Bible regarding what the various kings and/or gods of the various cities did. It gets pretty hilarious, but it is all so boilerplate.

IMO picking various points inside the framework and arguing against them is a waste of time. Just put the whole thing where it belongs. Just a cult of one middle eastern god that got out of control. Just like every other middle eastern god. Nothing to see there. Not even the most interesting god.

After doing enough research of ancient civilizations and taking one class on all of them, these are the best books in my opinion that give a general overview to start with when researching, depending on the civilization you are researching. Then once you have these and look through them, you can make a good library of least 350 books about the ancient world like I have. I hope this helps and if you want help picking books, just ask. Also these books are written by the authorities in their subjects so they will be good research materials.

Ancient Rome: Christopher Mackay’s Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History

Ancient Greece: Sarah Pomeroy’s Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History

Ancient Mesopotamia: Marc Van De Mieroop’s A History of Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt: Marc Van De Mieroop’s A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000 - 323 BC

Ancient Phoenicia: Maria Aubet’s The Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies and Trade

Ancient Carthage: Dexter Hoyo’s The Carthaginians (Peoples of the Ancient World)

Ancient Hellenistic World: R. Malcom Errington’s A History of the Hellenistic World: 323 - 30 Bc

Ancient Silk Road Area: Xinru Liu’s The Silk Road in World History (The New Oxford World History)

Ancient Persia: Maria Brosius’ The Persians (Peoples of the Ancient World)

Ancient Hittites: O.R. Gurney’s The Hittites

If you are interested in warfare, this magazine can very helpful:

http://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/cms/karwansaray/ancient-warfare/about.html

For general history, these books could be of use:

A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000 - 323 BC: http://www.amazon.com/History-Ancient-Near-East-3000/dp/1405149116/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380612184&sr=1-1&keywords=ancient+middle+east

The Greeks in Bactria and India: http://www.amazon.com/Greeks-Bactria-Cambridge-Library-Collection/dp/1108009417/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380612297&sr=1-3&keywords=bactria

Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture: http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Near-Eastern-History-Culture/dp/032142297X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380612365&sr=1-3&keywords=Ancient+middle+east+history

Hope this is useful to you.

>I've googled that and came up with nothing reliable I'd definitely be very interested in your source

I'm always willing to bet my academic and personal integrity as an ANE historian.

>>From a past reply on the problems with the Exodus Narrative

>The Exodus and actual Egyptology.

>In Search of 'Ancient Israel': A Study in Biblical Origins

>Biblical History and Israel S Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History

>The Oxford History of the Biblical World


>The section in the third link just below where I've had it link too about difficulties placing Egypt within the Exodus narrative is also fun.

I would also recommend to you two of Marc Van De Mieroops works:

A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000 - 323 BC, 2nd Edition and A History of Ancient Egypt

Both are fairly accessible college entry level works on ANE and Egyptian history.

This is a good introduction for the entire region

http://www.amazon.com/History-Ancient-Near-East-3000/dp/1405149116/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346292906&sr=8-2&keywords=mesopotamian+history

How about this?

Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization

It covers from 4000 BCE to the conquest of Babylon by Cirus in 539 BCE.

Also:

The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures



A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000-323BC

I have all of them and I can't really recommend them because I haven't started them yet :P (they're still on my reading queue, tho)

EDIT: The last one seems pretty comprehensive. Just looked at its table of contents and remembered why I bought it.

EDIT 2: You could go to /r/AskHistorians and ask the same question.

Sure. In no specific order:

Book 1

Book 2

Book 3

Book 4


None of these are specifically Biblical history, as I'm sure you'll quickly gather. To fully grasp the Old Testament, however, there are a few important areas that one must be strong in (in my humble opinion, that is): Ancient Near East history, and the New Testament, and a general understanding of Judaism and its individual history.

What to read...

There's so much!

"The Ancient Near East" by Amelié Khurt is a great overall history.

Someone already mentioned History begins at Sumer and Ancient Iraq, they're a bit dated but still quite good. For a simple synchronic overview with nice maps look at Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia by Michael Roaf. Also another good history book A History of the Ancient Near East by Marc Van de Mieroop.

Regarding texts, there's a great book that does the history of Mesoptamia through primary sources The Ancient Near East: Historical Sources in Translation ed. Mark Chavalas.

That should get you started. Those book are all quite current or still very usable, let me know if you need anything else. As for later periods (i.e. post-Achaemenid) that's not my field... I read A History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani which was quite good and as far as I understand a well respected overview of later Mesopotamian history.

Are you referring to

The Ancient Near East by John McLaughlin

or

A History of the Ancient Near East ca 3000 - 323 BC by Marc Van De Mieroop

I recommend the book The Ancient History of the Near East.
https://www.amazon.com/History-Ancient-Near-East-3000/dp/1405149116

Many cultures have been wiped out or assimilated over the millennia.

As an example of modern assimilation, my family. My father moved here, to the US, following the Iran-Iraq War. He was Muslim (Shia), Persian-speaking, and traditional. Now? He's Christian, English-speaking (entirely, because Persian is rare), and liberal compared to his old, right-winged self. I was raised with English as my primary language, with American culture before Iranian culture, etc.

We are assimilated. My blood may be Iranian, but we are Americans.

Funny, I was looking for the same thing today. I didn't find one that covers the entire period you asked for (I think it's too large a period for just one book) but the one that I ended up considering was A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000 - 323 BC. Unfortunately it's a bit too expensive for me so I only saved it to my wish list but looking at the table of content it was exactly what I was looking for. I think this book together with another covering the history of Rome should be enough for a decent coverage of the entire period you're interested in.