List of cities of the ancient Near East

(redirected from Cities of the Ancient Near East)

The earliest cities in history were in the ancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modern Middle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC or that by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC.

The largest cities of the Bronze Age Near East housed several tens of thousands of people. Memphis in the Early Bronze Age, with some 30,000 inhabitants, was the largest city of the time by far. Ur in the Middle Bronze Age is estimated to have had some 65,000 inhabitants; Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had a population of some 50,000–60,000. Niniveh had some 20,000–30,000, reaching 100,000 only in the Iron Age (ca. 700 BC).

The KI �� determinative was the Sumerian term for a city or city state.[1] In Akkadian and Hittite orthography, URU�� became a determinative sign denoting a city, or combined with KUR�� "land" the kingdom or territory controlled by a city, e.g. �������������� LUGAL KUR URUHa-at-ti "the king of the country of (the city of) Hatti".

Mesopotamia

Further information: Geography of Mesopotamia and Mesopotamia

Lower Mesopotamia

Meso2mil-English.JPG
NC Mesopotamia sites.jpg

(ordered from north to south)

  • Eshnunna (Tell Asmar)
  • Diniktum
  • Tutub (Khafajah)
  • Der (Tell Aqar, Durum?)
  • Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah)
  • Sippar-Amnanum (Tell ed-Der)
  • Urum (Tell Uqair)
  • Kutha (Tell Ibrahim)
  • Jemdet Nasr (NI.RU)
  • Kish (Tell Uheimir & Ingharra)
  • Lagaba (precise location unknown)
  • Babilim (Babylon)
  • Borsippa (Birs Nimrud)
  • Mashkan-shapir (Tell Abu Duwari)
  • Dilbat (Tell ed-Duleim)
  • Nippur (Afak)
  • Marad (Tell Wannat es-Sadum)
  • Adab (Tell Bismaya)
  • Isin (Ishan al-Bahriyat)
  • Kisurra (Tell Abu Hatab)
  • Shuruppak (Tell Fara)
  • Bad-tibira (Tell al-Madineh?)
  • Zabalam (Tell Ibzeikh)
  • Umma ("Umm al-Aqarib" and Tell Jokha)
  • Girsu (Tello or Telloh)
  • Lagash (Tell al-Hiba)
  • Uruk (Warka)
  • Larsa (Tell as-Senkereh)
  • Tell Khaiber
  • Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar)
  • Kuara (Tell al-Lahm)
  • Eridu (Tell Abu Shahrain)
  • Ubaid (Tell al-'Ubaid)
  • Akshak
  • Akkad

Upper Mesopotamia

Map of Syria in the second millennium BC

(ordered from north to south)

Iran

NC Iran sites.jpg

Anatolia

Settlements of Bronze Age Anatolia, based on Hittite records.

(ordered from north to south)

The Levant

In alphabetical order:

NC Egypt Levant sites.jpg

Arabian Peninsula

The Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, separated by just a few miles of the Red Sea, have a history of related settlements, especially near the coast

Nubia

Horn of Africa

Egypt

For a more comprehensive list, see List of ancient Egyptian towns and cities.

See also

References

  1. ^ Electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary (EPSD)

External links

This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia® - the free encyclopedia created and edited by its online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of Wikipedia® encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information, please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Wikipedia browser ?
Full browser ?