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

Geographic and Environmental Context

The Near East includes Egypt, Sudan, Israel, most of Jordan, western Saudi Arabia, western Yemen, southwestern Cyprus, and western Turkey (Aeolis, Ionia, Doris, Lydia, Caria, Lycia, Troas) plus Tyre (extreme SW Lebanon).

• 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.

Lydia had arisen as a Neo-Hittite kingdom following the collapse of the Hittite Empire in the twelfth century BCE.

In Hittite times, the name for the region had been Arzawa, a Luwian-speaking area.

According to Greek source, the original name of the Lydian kingdom was Maionia, or Maeonia: Homer (Iliad ii.

865; v. 43, xi.

431) refers to the inhabitants of Lydia as Maiones.

Homer describes their capital not as Sardis but as Hyde (Iliad xx.

385); Hyde may have been the name of the district where Sardis stood.

Later, Herodotus (Histories i.7) adds that the "Meiones" were renamed Lydians after their king, Lydus, son of Attis, in the mythical epoch that preceded the rise of the Heracleid dynasty.

According to Herodotus (writing in the fifth century BCE at the height of Etruscan power), a great famine struck the kingdom of Lydia in the twelfth century.

Refugees from the famine "coast … along among many nations," migrate to northwest Italy, and become the (presumed) ancestors of the Etruscans; recent DNA studies indicate a link to the proto-Villanovan culture.

This famine may be associated with the arrested global tree growth from 1158 to 1140 BCE, a probably result of the explosive eruption of the Hekla stratovolcano in Iceland.

Herodotus wrote: This is their story: [...] their king divided the people into two groups, and made them draw lots, so that the one group should remain and the other leave the country; he himself was to be the head of those who drew the lot to remain there, and his son, whose name was Tyrrhenus, of those who departed.

[...] they came to the Ombrici [Umbria], where they founded cities and have lived ever since.

They no longer called themselves Lydians, but Tyrrhenians, after the name of the king's son who had led them there.

(Histories 1.94).

Near East (909–766 BCE): Consolidation, Conflict, and Cultural Flourishing

Nubian Expansion and Egyptian Shifts

During the late ninth and early eighth centuries BCE, Egypt experiences significant geopolitical transformations. Kashta, a Kushite king based in Napata, expands his influence northward into Upper Egypt, notably installing his daughter Amenirdis I as the prospective God's Wife of Amun in Thebes. This effectively legitimizes Nubian dominance, paving the way for his son Piye to consolidate Kushite power across Egypt around 747 BCE. Under Piye's rule, Egyptian cultural and religious traditions experience revitalization, with an increasing adoption of Nubian elements.

Israel, Judah, and Regional Rivalries

This period sees Israel and Judah embroiled in frequent conflicts, both internally and with neighboring states. Notably, the Mesha Stele, or Moabite Stone, crafted by King Mesha of Moab around 850 BCE, provides critical historical insights. This stele details Mesha’s rebellion against Israelite domination under the "House of Omri," referencing the Israelite god Yahweh and potentially the earliest extrabiblical mention of the "House of David." The kingdoms of Edom and Moab also rise prominently, intensifying regional dynamics, with Edom gaining significance through increased trade and mining activities.

Israel under Omri (c. 876–869 BCE) and his son Ahab (c. 869–850 BCE) emerges as a significant regional power, marked by extensive military campaigns, construction projects, and an influential Phoenician alliance forged through Ahab’s marriage to Jezebel, daughter of Ithbaal of Tyre and Sidon. The internal religious turmoil intensifies with the clash between Phoenician Baal worship and Hebrew monotheism, particularly under the prophets Elijah and Elisha.

Assyrian Dominance and Local Autonomy

The Assyrian Empire, under rulers such as Shalmaneser III and later Tiglath-Pileser III, exerts considerable influence over the Near East, frequently subduing and extracting tribute from kingdoms such as Israel and the city-states of Phoenicia. Despite periodic revolts by city-states like Tyre and regional leaders, Assyria largely maintains its dominance through military might and political coercion, reshaping the political landscape significantly.

Sabaean Ascendancy and Arabian Trade

To the south, the Sabaean Kingdom in southern Arabia (biblical Sheba), beginning around the tenth century BCE, becomes a vital trade nexus connecting Arabia, Syria, and Mesopotamia. Controlling major caravan routes and flourishing economically, the Sabaeans significantly influence commerce and cultural exchanges across the Near East.

Greek Expansion in Anatolia and Cyprus

The collapse of Mycenaean civilization and the subsequent Dorian invasion in mainland Greece prompt waves of Ionian and Dorian refugees to establish new settlements in Asia Minor. The Ionian coast flourishes culturally and commercially with prominent cities such as Phocaea, Ephesus, and Miletus. Concurrently, the Dorians establish influential cities like Halicarnassus and Knidos, integrating into regional power dynamics through leagues like the Dorian Hexapolis. Cyprus also emerges as a significant cultural and commercial hub, with a Phoenician colony established at Citium around 800 BCE, contributing to the island's complex demographic and cultural landscape.

Cultural and Linguistic Developments

The Hebrew alphabet, evolving from Phoenician script, is reflected in early texts like the Gezer Calendar (tenth century BCE), demonstrating early literacy and agricultural traditions among the Israelites. Concurrently, the Elohist (E) textual source emerges, emphasizing Israel's northern kingdom perspectives, portraying a less anthropomorphic deity, Elohim, and competing religious practices.

Legacy of the Age

This age marks a profound consolidation and conflict across the Near East, with regional powers negotiating their positions amidst shifting alliances and rivalries. The cultural and political developments—ranging from Nubian expansion in Egypt, Hebrew religious struggles, Assyrian dominance, Greek colonization in Anatolia, to burgeoning Arabian trade—lay essential foundations for the complex historical trajectories that continue to shape the region's future.

The Aegean coast of Anatolia had been an integral part of a Minoan-Mycenean civilization (circa 2600-1200 BCE) that had drawn its cultural impulses from Crete.

Ionian Greek refugees during the Aegean region's so-called Dark Age (ca. 1050-800 BCE) flee across the sea to western Anatolia, at this time under Lydian rule, to escape the onslaught of the Dorians.

Many more cities are founded along the Anatolian coast during the great period of Greek expansion after the eighth century BCE.

One among them is Byzantium, a distant colony established on the Bosporus by the city-state of Megara.

The state of Phrygia had arisen from tribal and village beginnings in the eighth century BCE with its capital at Gordium, where the ancient road between Lydia and Assyria/Babylonia crosses the Sangarius River in west central Anatolia.

During this period, the Phrygians had extended eastward and encroached upon the kingdom of Urartu, the descendants of the Hurrians, a former rival of the Hittites.

The Phrygian Kingdom is meanwhile overwhelmed by Cimmerian invaders around 690 BCE, then briefly conquered by its neighbor Lydia.

Minor Phrygian kingdoms continue to exist after the end of the Phrygian empire, and the Phrygian art and culture continue to flourish.

Cimmerian people remain in Anatolia but do not appear to have created a kingdom of their own.

True coinage, the first in the Western world, comes into being in Lydia around 700 to deal with the extensive and complex trading culture in the Mediterranean and Middle East; the Greeks quickly adopt the concept.

Measured quantities of gold, silver, or copper, melted and cast into regular shapes, are then stamped with marks representing their value and the name or image of the ruler or state as a guarantee of value.

Herodotus states (I, 94) that the Lydians 'were the first to coin in gold and silver'.

Aristotle states that the first coins were struck by Demodike of Kyme, who had married Midas, king of Pessinus, and had by him a son named Agamemnon.

Some archaeological and literary evidences suggest that the Indians invented coinage, somewhere between the sixth and fifth centuries BCE.

However, some numismatists consider coins to have originated around 600-550 BCE in Anatolia, which corresponds to modern-day Turkey, in particular in the Anatolian kingdom of Lydia.

Opponents of the Lydia scenario point to the fact that coins of that era have been totally absent from archaeological finds in Sardis, capital of Lydia.

A coin, by definition, is an object used to facilitate commerce and exchanges.

The proponents of the Lydian Greek coins scenario admit the fact that they were likely not used in commerce or industry.

Electrum coins were not standardized in weight and are considered by opponents as badges, medals or ceremonial objects issued by priests, rather than coins (actually the oldest of them have been discovered not in Lydia, but in an ancient Greek temple of Ephesus in what is now Turkey).

The oldest coins are considered by other numismatists to be the Aegina Chelone coins which were minted around 700-550 BCE, either by the local Aegina people or by Pheidon, king of Argos (who first set the standards of weights and measures).

There is a unique electrum stater of Aegina in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

The date of this coin can hardly be much later than about 700 BCE.

The oldest Aegina Chelone coins depict sea turtles.

The Mysians, an aboriginal people of the valley of the Bakir (Caïcus) River and the mountains to the north, receive mention in an eighth-century Carchemish inscription.

Mysia, their homeland district in northwest Anatolia, adjoins the Sea of Marmara on the north and the Aegean Sea on the west.

Homer mentions the Mysians (for whom the region is named) as primitive allies of the Trojans, but historically there is no record of their action as an independent nation.

Herodotus recorded the tradition that Mysians (along with Teucrians) invaded Europe, conquering "all of Thrace" and invading Greece as far as Elis in early times (7.20).

He also wrote that they were brethren of the Carians and Lydians (Herod. 1.171), and that the Mysians were "Lydian colonists" (7.74).

This identification may be supported by the fact that only Mysians, Carians, and Lydians were allowed to worship at the temple of Carian Zeus in the country of the Mylasians (1.171), based on the tradition that the eponymous figures Car (Carians), Lydus (Lydians), and Mysus (Mysians) were brothers (1.171).

Little is known about the Mysian language.

A short inscription which may be in Mysian and which dates from between the fifth and third centuries BCE will be found in Uyuçik, near Kütahya; it seems to include Indo-European words, but it has not been deciphered.

If Herodotus was right, the Mysian language would be a language of the Anatolian group, akin to Carian and Lydian.

A passage in Athenaeus, however, suggests that Mysian was akin to the barely attested Paionian language of Paionia, north of Macedon.

Near East (765–622 BCE): Rise, Reform, and Regional Shifts

Egypt and the Nubian Dynasty

During this era, Egypt is characterized by the rule of both native Egyptians and foreign Nubian kings, notably from the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Dynasties. Nubian influence peaks with the reign of Kashta (ca. 750–740 BCE), who takes control of Upper Egypt and Thebes, laying the groundwork for the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. His successor, Piye, successfully reunifies Egypt, extending Nubian dominance from Nubia to the Nile Delta.

The Nubian dynasty, ardent worshippers of Amun, views Egyptian traditions reverently, revitalizing temples and religious practices. However, their expansion into Syria-Palestine provokes conflict with Assyria. The Assyrian king Esarhaddon ultimately invades Egypt in 671 BCE, displacing the Nubian rulers and reinstating local rulers at Sais. The Nubians retreat to Napata, from where they continue to govern Kush.

Judah: Religious Revival and Reformation

Following Israel’s collapse to Assyria in 722 BCE, the Kingdom of Judah emerges as the sole representative of Hebrew sovereignty, preserving its independence as an Assyrian vassal state. Judah experiences considerable prosperity and religious shifts under kings like Uzziah and Hezekiah. However, true transformation comes under King Josiah (641–609 BCE), whose reforms dramatically reshape Judah’s religious identity.

Josiah's campaign, beginning around 626 BCE, is bolstered by the discovery of an early form of Deuteronomy in 622 BCE. Josiah centralizes worship in Jerusalem, eliminating pagan altars and foreign deities, including the cult of Asherah, and renews the covenant between Yahweh and the nation. This religious reform, supported by prophets such as Zephaniah, lays foundational elements of monotheistic Judaism, profoundly influencing Judah’s future cultural and spiritual trajectory.

Assyrian Dominance and Decline

The powerful Assyrian Empire dominates much of the Near East through military conquest and political pressure, successfully subduing kingdoms like Israel and city-states across Phoenicia and Philistia. Yet, after the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BCE, Assyria’s power wanes rapidly, plunging the region into uncertainty and allowing former vassal states like Judah to assert greater autonomy.

Philistia, Phoenicia, and Regional Instability

Philistine and Phoenician cities, including Tyre and Ashkelon, become Assyrian vassals but repeatedly rebel against their overlords. These revolts are brutally suppressed, notably by Sargon II and Sennacherib, leaving these coastal kingdoms weakened yet culturally resilient. By the late seventh century BCE, Egypt under Psamtik I exerts significant influence over Philistia, notably besieging Ashdod and making it a vassal state.

Emergence of Greek Influence: Ionia and Cyprus

Greek settlement intensifies in the coastal regions of Asia Minor and the island of Cyprus, where Ionian cities such as Miletus and Ephesus and Cypriot kingdoms flourish culturally and commercially. Assyrian dominance briefly extends over Cyprus around 708 BCE, but local autonomy largely persists, allowing continued Greek cultural and economic prosperity.

Edom, Moab, and the Kingdom of Kush

In Edom, settlement and economic activity intensify in the late eighth century BCE, as indicated by archaeological records. Moab, linguistically and culturally close to Judah, nonetheless becomes an Assyrian tributary state. Meanwhile, the Nubian Kingdom of Kush, having retreated from Egypt, maintains an influential presence, ruling from Napata and then moving its capital to Meroe, strategically situated along vital trade routes.

Legacy of the Age

The period from 765 to 622 BCE is a transformative era marked by significant political shifts, religious reforms, and regional reconfigurations. Judah’s move toward religious centralization under Josiah shapes the future of Hebrew religious identity, laying critical groundwork for monotheistic Judaism. Simultaneously, the weakening of Assyria creates a power vacuum filled by emergent regional powers such as Egypt, Lydia, and the reassertion of local autonomy throughout the Near East. These transformations set the stage for profound historical developments in subsequent centuries.

The cities founded by the Ionians and subsequent Greek settlers, despite endemic political unrest, prosper from commerce with Phrygia and Lydia, grow in size and number, and generate a renaissance that puts Ionia in the cultural vanguard of the Hellenic world.