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The Oxford History of Ancient Near East, Volume 2 covers broadly the first half of the second millennium BC or in archaeological terms, the Middle Bronze Age. Eleven chapters present the history of the Near East, from the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom of Egypt to Hammurabi's Babylon.
List of contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Time Chart
- The Contributors
- 11: Establishing an absolute chronology of the Middle Bronze Age (Felix Höflmayer)
- 12: Egypt in the First Intermediate Period (Juan Carlos Moreno García)
- 13: The kingdom of Ur (Steven J. Garfinkle)
- 14: The Middle East after the fall of Ur: Isin and Larsa (Klaus Wagensonner)
- 15: The Middle East after the fall of Ur: from Assur to the Levant (Ilya Arkhipov)
- 16: The Middle East after the Fall of Ur: from Ešnunna and the Zagros to Susa (Katrien De Graef)
- 17: Before the kingdom of the Hittites: Anatolia in the Middle Bronze Age (Gojko Barjamovic)
- 18: The kingdom of Babylon and the kingdom of the Sealand (Odette Boivin)
- 19: Egypt's Middle Kingdom: a view from within (Harco Willems)
- 20: Middle Kingdom Egypt and Africa (Kathryn A. Bard)
- 21: Middle Kingdom Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean (Ezra S. Marcus)
- 22: Egypt's Middle Kingdom: perspectives on culture and society (Wolfram Grajetzki)
- Index
About the author
Karen Radner is Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
Nadine Moeller is Professor of Egyptian Archaeology at Yale University.
D. T. Potts is Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and History at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University.
Summary
This groundbreaking, five-volume series offers a comprehensive, fully illustrated history of Egypt and Western Asia (the Levant, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Iran), from the emergence of complex states to the conquest of Alexander the Great. Written by a diverse, international team of leading scholars whose expertise brings to life the people, places, and times of the remote past, the volumes in this series focus firmly on the political and social histories of the states and communities of the ancient Near East. Individual chapters present the key textual and material sources underpinning the historical reconstruction, paying particular attention to the most recent archaeological finds and their impact on our historical understanding of the periods surveyed.
The second volume covers broadly the first half of the second millennium BC or in archaeological terms, the Middle Bronze Age. Eleven chapters present the history of the Near East, beginning with the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom Egypt and the Mesopotamian kingdoms of Ur (Third Dynasty), Isin and Larsa. The complex mosaic of competing states that arose between the Eastern Mediterranean, the Anatolian highlands and the Zagros mountains of Iran are all treated, culminating in an examination of the kingdom of Babylon founded by Hammurabi and maintained by his successors. Beyond the narrative history of each region considered, the volume treats a wide range of critical topics, including the absolute chronology; state formation and disintegration; the role of kingship, cult practice and material culture in the creation and maintenance of social hierarchies; and long-distance trade-both terrestrial and maritime-as a vital factor in the creation of social, political and economic networks that bridged deserts, oceans, and mountain ranges, binding together the extraordinarily diverse peoples and polities of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Near East, and Central Asia.
Additional text
My brief survey should show how systematic this narrative of ancient Near Eastern history is and how all the authors present the most up-to-date accounts possible. The editors' aim to replace the CAH seems within reach and serious students will benefit much from consulting these chapters. I look forward to reading the next volumes.
