Near East

The ancient Near East, a region extending from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea to present-day Afghanistan centered around the Fertile Crescent, was home to several of the world's oldest civilizations, spanning more than two millennia, from the Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. Favored with an abundance of natural resources, the people of this region developed metalworking and pottery-making to a level of sophistication unknown elsewhere at the time.

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Bronze Age
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Byzantine
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Cypriot
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Holyland
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Indus Valley
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Iron Age
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Luristan
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Mesopotamian

Featured Products

Indus Valley Cup Bi-Chrome
Neo-Assyrian Cylinder Seal
Ancient Persian Bronze Bowl
Ancient Bronze Sassanian Mirror
Near-Eastern Banded Agate Gaming Piece

Did you know?

Considered the cradle of civilization, the Ancient Near East was the first to practice intensive year-round agriculture, gave us the first writing system, invented the potter's wheel and then the vehicular- and mill wheel, created the first centralized governments, law codes and empires, as well as introducing social stratification, slavery and organized warfare, and it laid the foundation for the fields of astronomy and mathematics.