Bronze Age |
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↑ Chalcolithic |
Near East (c. 3300–1200 BC) South Asia (c. 3000– 1200 BC) Europe (c. 3200–600 BC)
China (c. 2000–700 BC) |
↓Iron Age |
Iron Age |
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↑ Bronze Age |
Ancient Near East (1200 BC – 500 BC) India (1200 BC – 200 BC) Europe (1200 BC – 1 BC)
China (600 BC – 200 BC) Korea (400 BC – 400 AD) Japan (100 BC – 300 AD) Philippines (1000 BC – 200 AD) Vietnam (1000 BC – 630 AD) Sub-Saharan Africa (1000 BC – 800 AD) |
Axial Age |
↓ Ancient history |
Historiography |
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran, northeastern Syria and Kuwait),ancient Egypt, ancient Iran (Elam, Media, Parthia and Persia), Anatolia/Asia Minor and Armenian Highlands (Turkey's Eastern Anatolia Region, Armenia, northwestern Iran, southern Georgia, and western Azerbaijan), the Levant (modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Jordan), Cyprus and the Arabian Peninsula. The ancient Near East is studied in the fields of Near Eastern archaeology and ancient history.
The history of the ancient Near East begins with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC though the date it ends varies: the term covers the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in the region until either the conquest by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC or that by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC.