Ancient Near East
The Ancient Near East is a term commonly used to describe the lands roughly corresponding to those described by the modern term Middle East, during the period from Prehistory until the Islamic conquest in the 7th century AD / CE. As such, it is a term widely employed in the fields of Middle-Eastern Archaeology, Ancient History and Egyptology.The Ancient Near East is generally understood as encompassing Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria), Persia (Iran), Egypt, the Levant (Israel, Jordan, Syria, Palestinian Authority), and the non-Greek areas of Anatolia (Turkey). Some users of the term would extend its application into the Caucasus region, into Afghanistan, Minoan and Mycenaean Greece and other peripheral areas. Still others would exclude Egypt from the Ancient Near East as a geographically and culturally distinct area - such distinction is extremely rare however, on the grounds of Egypt's intimate involvement in the affairs and cultural development of the region as a whole.
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