A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East

1. Introduction to Geography, Climate, Topography, and Hydrology
2. Antiquarianism, Copying, Collecting
3. Early Excavations (pre-1914)
4. The Foundations of Antiquities Departments
5. The Political Dimension of Archaeological Practices
6. The Antiquities Trade and the Destruction of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures
7. The Levant
8. Anatolia
9. The Beginnings of Cereal Cultivation and Domestication in Southwest Asia
10. Fruit-Growing
11. Animals in the Ancient World
12. Fish and Fishing
13. Lithic Industries During the Holocene Period
14. Irrigation
15. Ceramic Production
16. Metallurgy
17. Glass
18. Textiles
19. Watercraft
20. The Northern Levant
21. The Southern Levant
22. Northern Mesopotamia
23. The Late Epipaleolithic, Neolithic, and Chalcolithic of the Anatolian Plateau, 13,000–4000 BC
24. Southern Mesopotamia
25. The Arabian Peninsula
26. The Iranian Plateau
27. Southwestern Iran
28. The Anatolian Plateau
29. Iran
30. The Akkadian Period: Empire, Environment, and Imagination
31. The Caucasus and the Near East
32. Central Asia, the Steppe, and the Near East, 2500–1500 BC
33. The Ur III, Old Babylonian, and Kassite Empires
34. The Hittite Empire
35. Elam: Iran’s First Empire
36. India’s Relations with Western Empires, 2300–600 BC
37. Levantine Kingdoms of the Late Bronze Age
38. Neo-Hittite and Phrygian Kingdoms of North Syria and Anatolia
39. North Arabian Kingdoms
40. Egypt and the Near East
41. The Assyrian Heartland
42. The Assyrians Abroad
43. The Urartian Empire
44. Iron Age Western Anatolia: The Lydian Empire and Dynastic Lycia
45. The Neo-Babylonian Empire
46. The Achaemenid Heartland: An Archaeological-Historical Perspective
47. The Achaemenid Provinces in Archaeological Perspective
48. The Seleucid Kingdom
49. The Arsacid (Parthian) Empire
50. Roman Rule in the Near East
51. The Red Sea and Indian Ocean in the Age of the Great Empires
52. Byzantium in Asia Minor and the Levant
53. The Sasanian Empire: An Archaeological Survey, c.220–AD 640
54. Christianity in the Late Antique Near East

A COMPANION TO THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East is a comprehensive and authoritative overview of ancient material culture from the late Pleistocene to Late Antiquity. This expansive two-volume work includes 58 new essays from an international community of ancient Near East scholars. With coverage extending from Asia Minor, the eastern Mediterranean, and Egypt to the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Indo-Iranian borderlands, the book highlights the enormous variation in cultural developments across roughly 11,000 years of human endeavor. In addition to chapters devoted to specific regions and particular periods, many contributors concentrate on individual industries and major themes in ancient Near Eastern archaeology, ranging from metallurgy and agriculture to irrigation and fishing. Controversial issues, including the nature and significance of the antiquities market, ethical considerations in archaeological praxis, the history of the foundation of departments of antiquities, and ancient attitudes towards the past, make this a unique collection of studies that will be of interest to scholars, students, and interested readers alike.