This book is a general introduction to the history and culture of the Ancient Near East.

The Ancient Near East offers the right amount of detail for the course without being encyclopedic. Organized by the periods, kingdoms and empires generally used in Near Eastern political history, social and cultural history is balanced with the political narrative. This combination allows students to get a rounded introduction to the subject of Ancient Near Eastern history. An emphasis on problems and areas of uncertainty helps students understand how evidence is used to create interpretations and allows them to realize that several different interpretations of the same evidence are possible.