Near East (2,637 – 910 BCE) Bronze and Early Iron — Delta Kingdoms, Aegean City-Coasts, Arabian Caravan Seeds

Geographic and Environmental Context

• Anchors: the Nile Valley and Delta; Sinai–Negev–Arabah; the southern Levant (with Tyre as the sole Levantine node in this subregion); Hejaz–Asir–Tihāma on the Red Sea; Yemen’s western uplands/coast; southwestern Cyprus; western Anatolian littoral (Smyrna–Ephesus–Miletus–Halicarnassus–Xanthos; Troad).

Climate & Environment

• Nile floods oscillated; Aegean coastal plains fertile; Arabian west slope aridity increased, highland terraces scaled slowly.

Societies & Settlement

• Lower/Upper Egypt (full Pharaonic cores just south but contiguous influence); Aegean Anatolia (Minoan/Mycenaean interactions; later Aeolian/Ionian/Dorian successors).

• Levantine Tyre (within this subregion) arose as Phoenician node; Arabian west oases supported caravan precursors; Yemen west highlands nurtured terrace farming and incense beginnings.

Technology

• Bronze widespread; early iron in Anatolia/Levant; sail-powered shipping matured; terracing and cisterns in Hejaz–Yemen highlands.

Corridors

• Nile–Delta–Aegean maritime bridge; Tyre connected to Cyprus/Anatolia; Red Sea coastal cabotage began; Incense path seeds in Yemen–Hejaz.

Symbolism

• Egyptian temple cosmology radiated north; Aegean cults at capes; Tyrian Melqart/Asherah; Arabian highland local cults.

Adaptation

• Floodplain–coastal–terrace redundancy stabilized economies; incense gardens hedged aridity.

Mari becomes an important independent state by the early second millennium BCE, when the status of the city is revived again under an Amorite dynasty.

The city’s second golden age commences around 1825 BCE.

The warring Hurrian tribes and city states are believed to have become united under one dynasty after the collapse of Babylon following its sack by the Hittite king Mursili I and the Kassite invasion.

The Hittite conquest of Aleppo (Yamhad), the weak middle Assyrian kings, and the internal strife of the Hittites had created a power vacuum in upper Mesopotamia, leading to the formation of the kingdom of Mitanni.

Hittite king Mursili I is possibly the grandson of Hattusili.

While few details of his reign are known, he is credited with a campaign in northern Syria which involved the overthrow of the Amorite dynasty of the once-powerful kingdom of Yamhad (Aleppo) and the city’s destruction in about 1600 BCE and the sack of Babylon around 1595.

The latter act ends the rule of the descendants of Hammurabi in this city.

When Mursili returns to his kingdom, he is assassinated by his brother-in-law, who succeeds him as king Hantili I.

The Hittites lose control of much of their previously acquired territory in Anatolia and Syria following the assassination of Mursili and the attendant problems of succession.

The Hittite conquest of Aleppo, the weak middle Assyrian kings, and the internal strife of the Hittites has created a power vacuum in upper Mesopotamia.

Assyria has been ruled for a century by vassal kings dependent on the Babylonians.

Babylon having fallen to the Kassites, the Hurrians dominate the northern region, including Assur.

The northern Mesopotamian city of Assur, near the modern city of Mosul, had been subjugated by the kingdom of Mitanni but regains its independence in the fourteenth century BCE, when its rulers begin raiding into the south and west and begin to establish their power in the region.

Assyrian and Babylonian kings regularly have their deeds recorded and celebrated in highly selective biographies aiming for glorification, rather than truth or candor.

The Assyrians, along with the Kassites, maintain correspondence with the kings of Egypt’s Nineteenth dynasty, whose interests lie in maintaining stability in Syria and Canaan.

The Assyrians build botanical gardens in the form of formal parks in their towns and cities.

The Assyrians adopt attire similar to the Babylonian costume but more elaborate, including tasseled robes embroidered with small, repeated patterns or rosettes.

Men wear their hair shoulder length and curl both their hair and beards; they also wear fez-like hats, decorated to indicate rank.

Women's attire is similar, being differentiated by headbands made of wool or of stonework and gold.