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.

The Near East (1197–910 BCE): Collapse, Realignment, and New Beginnings

Decline of Egyptian Influence

By the eleventh century BCE, the authority of Egypt's New Kingdom dynasties significantly diminishes, resulting in the fragmentation of Egypt itself and the loss of Egyptian control over Kush. Little information is available about Kush's subsequent three centuries, marking a gap in historical records.

During this period, Egypt enters the Third Intermediate Period, characterized by a fractured kingship. The pharaohs of the Twenty-first Dynasty rule from Tanis (San al Hajar al Qibliyah), while an autonomous theocracy emerges in Thebes. Eventually, Libyan-descended rulers dominate the Twenty-second and Twenty-third dynasties, reflecting Egypt's shifting political landscape.

Rise of the Israelites and Philistines

Between 1220 and 1190 BCE, the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes concludes, with tribes settling lands both west and east of the Jordan River. Around this period, the Philistines, originating from Mycenaean Greece as part of the Sea Peoples, invade coastal Canaan, establishing dominance particularly in Gaza—from which "Palestine" eventually derives its name.

Philistine settlements such as Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath reveal clear Mycenaean influences, notably in their distinctive bichrome pottery. Architectural and cultic remnants at Ekron further highlight their Aegean origins and cultural traditions.

Within a century and a half, the Philistines leverage superior iron weaponry and military organization to control southern coastal Palestine and parts of the Judaean hill country. This prompts the Israelites to seek a centralized monarchy under Saul ben Kish, the first king of Israel, around the mid-eleventh century BCE.

Cypriot Cultural Synthesis

Cyprus experiences significant cultural changes, transitioning from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age, influenced by mainland settlers and the widespread introduction of iron technology. Foundation myths documented by classical authors attribute the establishment of numerous Cypriot towns, including Salamis and Paphos, to Greek heroes following the Trojan War. Greek settlements continue to grow, with significant archaeological evidence pointing toward their increasing dominance.

Greek Expansion in Western Anatolia

The west coast of Anatolia sees a major Greek migration during this "Dark Age," resulting in settlements such as Aeolis and the foundation of notable cities including Ephesus and Priene. These settlements mark the transition from sporadic Mycenaean colonization to more extensive and permanent Greek settlement, significantly influencing regional culture and politics.

South Arabian Prosperity

Around 1000 BCE, generous rainfall in southern Arabia fosters agricultural prosperity, complemented by the lucrative trade of frankincense and myrrh. This economic wealth supports the development of city-states and small kingdoms, notably Saba (Sheba). This prosperity later leads Romans to call the region Arabia Felix ("happy Arabia").

Nubian Independence and Cultural Flourishing

Following Egypt’s decline around 1070 BCE, Nubia (Kush) reemerges as an independent kingdom centered at Napata. Nubian society thrives, adopting elements of Egyptian culture including gods such as Ammon and Isis. Kushite burial practices become distinctive, featuring burial mounds and pyramids, marking the emergence of a culturally distinct Nubian civilization.

Israelite Monarchy and Regional Realignment

The political landscape of Canaan shifts significantly after Solomon's reign. The biblical narrative describes a split in the United Monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, initiating a period marked by internal conflict, external threats, and shifting alliances. Historical evidence independent of biblical accounts remains scarce, and ongoing archaeological research continues to explore these complex developments.

Alphabetic Writing and Linguistic Evolution

During this period, the Proto-Sinaitic script evolves into the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, laying foundations for future writing systems, including Phoenician. Around the tenth century BCE, archaic Biblical Hebrew emerges, as evidenced by inscriptions like the Gezer calendar, marking the beginning of Hebrew's written tradition.

Rise of Phoenician Trade and Diplomacy

Independent Phoenician cities, notably Tyre, develop robust trade networks across the Mediterranean. Tyre surpasses Sidon as the dominant Phoenician city, fostering diplomatic and commercial ties with kingdoms such as Israel. This period sees collaborative ventures, exemplified by the partnership between King Solomon of Israel and King Hiram of Tyre, who jointly develop trade routes and undertake significant building projects, including Jerusalem's First Temple.

Conclusion

Between 1197 and 910 BCE, the Near East experiences profound transformations: the fragmentation of Egyptian power, the rise of independent kingdoms, cultural synthesis in Cyprus and Anatolia, the flourishing of Nubian civilization, and significant technological and linguistic advancements. These developments profoundly shape the region’s history, setting the stage for subsequent geopolitical and cultural dynamics.

Phrygia forms the western part of a loose confederation of peoples (identified as “Mushki” in Assyrian records) that dominates the entire Anatolian peninsula between the twelfth and ninth centuries BCE.

This early civilization borrows heavily from the Hittites, whom they had replaced around 1200, and establishes a system of roads that the Persians will later utilized.

The Phrygians excel in metalwork and woodcarving and are said to have originated the art of embroidery.

Phrygian carpets are famous.

Among the various Phrygian religious practices, the cult of the Great Mother (Cybele) predominates and is passed on to the Greeks.

Little else is known of Phrygian society.

The great shrines such as Pessinus own vast lands, the high priests being virtually autonomous rulers.

Society is probably feudal.

An intelligent and evidently cultivated elite (they are able to read and write) exists at Gordium and the important religious center at “Midas City” (modern Yazilikaya, Turkey), together with an important nucleus of craftsmen and merchants, some doubtless being foreigners—Greeks, Phoenicians, Syrians, and Urartaeans.

A staple industry is sheep rearing, which provides a fine wool much in demand in Miletus and other Greek centers of industry.

The neighborhood of Midas City harbors considerable forestland, and timber is clearly an important economic factor.

Another specialty is horse rearing, the Phrygians probably being, like many of the Indo-Europeans, an equestrian aristocracy ruling over other native peoples.

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 Greek colonizers of Phocaea (modern Foça), an Ionian city on the northern promontory of the Gulf of Smyrna, Anatolia (now the Gulf of Izmir, Turkey), arrive in Anatolia perhaps as late as the tenth century BCE.

The ancient Greek geographer Pausanias says that Phocaea was founded by Phocians under Athenian leadership, on land given to them by the Aeolian Cymaeans, and that they were admitted into the Ionian League after accepting as kings the line of Codrus.

Pottery remains indicate Aeolian presence as late as the ninth century BCE, and Ionian presence as early as the end of the ninth century BCE.

From this an approximate date of settlement for Phocaea can be inferred.

Ionia, a region of southwestern coastal Anatolia (in present-day Turkey, the region nearest Izmir, which was historically Smyrna), on the Aegean Sea, is eponymously named after the Greek Ionian tribe, who in earliest times occupied mainly the Aegean islands in between mainland Greece and the peninsula of Anatolia, but whose peoples migrated and founded settlements in both Attica (most significantly, Athens) and the region named after them in today's Turkey.

Comprising the central sector of the western coast of Anatolia, Ionia is bounded by the regions of Aeolis on the north and Caria on the south and includes the adjacent islands.

Ionia proper comprises a narrow coastal strip about twenty-five miles (forty kilometers) wide that extends from Phocaea in the north near the mouth of the river Hermus (now the Gediz), to …

…Miletus in the south near the mouth of the river Maeander, and includes the islands of Chios and Samos.

Ionia thus extends for a north-south distance of about one hundred miles (one hundred and sixty kilometers).

Its habitable area consists principally of three flat river valleys, the Hermus (modern Gediz), Cayster (Küçük Menderes), and Maeander (Büyük Menderes), that lead down between mountain ranges of five thousand to six thousand (fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred meters) to empty into deeply recessed gulfs of the Aegean coast.

The region bordered on the Hittite empire before 1200 BCE.

The early Greeks know this particular stretch of coast as Asia.

The name Ionia, however, does not appear in any records of this time, and Homer does not recognize any Ionic settlement of the Asiatic coast in Achaean times.

The name Ionia must therefore have been first applied to this coast subsequent to the collapse of the Achaean kingdoms in Greece in the face of the supposed Dorian invasion, when Ionic Greek refugees migrated eastward across the Aegean to Anatolia about 1000-900 BCE.

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 Ionian cities, together with the capital cities of the islands of Chios and Samos, include Phocaea, Erythrae, Clazomenae, Teos, Lebedus, Colophon, Ephesus, Priene, Myus, and Miletus on the mainland.

It is probable that the original number of towns of the tenth and ninth centuries was far larger.

There may be much truth in the tradition that identifies Athens as the departure point of the Ionians.

The Ionians receive only passing mention in Homer's epics but in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, roughly corresponding in time to the first certain written reference to the Ionians by the Assyrian king Sennacherib (reigned 704-681 BCE), they are noted as the great and wealthy people who frequent the festival of Apollo at Delos.

These Greek Ionian cities form an exclusive religious league, the Panionion, …

…whose central shrine lies within the territory of Priene.

The cities of Ionia are pioneers of Greek civic (and probably constitutional) development in the eighth and seventh centuries.

They seem to have played little part in Greek maritime enterprise of the eighth century in the Mediterranean, but after 700 BCE, …

…Ionic seamen of Phocaea and …