A "Companion to the Ancient Near East" offers students and general readers a comprehensive overview of Near Eastern civilization from the Bronze Age to the conquests of Alexander the Great.
Covers the civilizations of the Sumerians, Hittites, Babylonians, Assyrians, Israelites and Persians
Places particular emphasis on social and cultural history
Covers the legacy of the Ancient Near East in the medieval and modern worlds
Provides a useful bibliographical guide to this field of study

Ancient Near East: The Basics surveys the history of the ancient Middle East from the invention of writing to Alexander the Great’s conquest. The book introduces both the physical and intellectual environment of those times, the struggles of state-building and empire construction, and the dissent from those efforts. Topics covered include:

What do we mean when we talk about the Ancient Near East?

The rise and fall of powerful states and monarchs

Daily life both in the cities and out in the fields

The legacy of the Ancient Near East: religion, science and writing systems.

Featuring a glossary, chronology and suggestions for further reading, this book has all the tools the reader needs to understand the history and study of the Ancient Near East.

Table of Contents



1. What We Mean When We Talk About the Ancient Near East 2. The Early Millennia 3. The Second Millennium 4. The First Millennium 5. Legacies 6. The Rediscovery of the Ancient Near East 7. Limits of the Future

Ancient Near East: The Basics surveys the history of the ancient Middle East from the invention of writing to Alexander the Great's conquest. The book introduces both the physical and intellectual environment of those times, the struggles of state-building and empire construction, and the dissent from those efforts. Topics covered include: What do we mean when we talk about the Ancient Near East? The rise and fall of powerful states and monarchs Daily life both in the cities and out in the fields The legacy of the Ancient Near East: religion, science and writing systems. Featuring a glossary, chronology and suggestions for further reading, this book has all the tools the reader needs to understand the history and study of the Ancient Near East.

This cuneifrom workbook gives a course of programmed instruction teaching the 110 most frequently used signs. It teaches the standard Neo-Assyrian sign forms and gives the student practice both in passive and active recognition of the signs. The signs are divided into eight sections, and each section ends with a quiz reviewing all signs presented. The book is designed for home study by students in beginning Akkadian classes and provides a practical introduction to the cuneiform writing system.

This 2011 book is a history of religious life in the Ancient Near East from the beginnings of agriculture to Alexander the Great's invasion in the 300s BCE. Daniel C. Snell traces key developments in the history, daily life and religious beliefs of the people of Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel and Iran. His research investigates the influence of those ideas on the West, with particular emphasis on how religious ideas from this historical and cultural milieu still influence the way modern cultures and religions view the world. Designed to be accessible to students and readers with no prior knowledge of the period, the book uses fictional vignettes to add interest to its material, which is based on careful study of archaeological remains and preserved texts. The book will provide a thoughtful summary of the Ancient Near East and includes a comprehensive bibliography to guide readers in further study of related topics.

This 2011 book is a history of religious life in the Ancient Near East from the beginnings of agriculture to Alexander the Great's invasion in the 300s BCE. Daniel C. Snell traces key developments in the history, daily life and religious beliefs of the people of Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel and Iran. His research investigates the influence of those ideas on the West, with particular emphasis on how religious ideas from this historical and cultural milieu still influence the way modern cultures and religions view the world. Designed to be accessible to students and readers with no prior knowledge of the period, the book uses fictional vignettes to add interest to its material, which is based on careful study of archaeological remains and preserved texts. The book will provide a thoughtful summary of the Ancient Near East and includes a comprehensive bibliography to guide readers in further study of related topics.

Based on Daniel C. Snell's original workbook and informed by his decades of teaching, this new and improved textbook provides an introductory course in basic cuneiform signs. Using a method of repetition that asks the student to actively produce the signs as well as passively read them, it efficiently teaches more than one hundred basic signs in their Neo-Assyrian forms, all of which have been chosen for their recurrence and usefulness to the student. The workbook includes instructions and drills, frequent quizzes to reinforce retention, and notes that both provide context about the ancient cultures that used cuneiform and introduce modern scholarly conventions. Designed for beginning students of cuneiform languages and cultures, A New Workbook of Cuneiform Signs is an easy and intuitive way to learn cuneiform. It is a valuable resource for students and teachers alike.

The Book of Proverbs is permeated with patterns of repetition, yet to date no major work on Proverbs has dealt adequately with this phenomenon. Snell catalogs and analyzes repetitive words and verses and uses the data to draw conclusions about the composition of the book. He sees four stages in the composition of the book, with the earliest section dated no later than Hezekiah's reign. This book provides a wealth of information, including indexes of repetitive words and verses and an English translation of J. M. Grintz's major essay on the composition of Proverbs, which has previously been available only in Hebrew. The basic work done here will need to be considered in any future work on the Book of Proverbs and wisdom literature in general.

Trade and economic life of the Ur III period (2112-2004 B.C.E.) is here revealed through a study of documents in cuneiform, the remains of a complex Mesopotamian bureaucracy that meticulously recorded many of its activities.

This book is a history of religious life in the Ancient Near East from the beginnings of agriculture to Alexander the Great s invasion in the 300s BCE. Daniel C. Snell traces key developments in the history, daily life, and religious beliefs of the people of Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, and Iran. His research investigates the influence of those ideas on the West, with particular emphasis on how religious ideas from this historical and cultural milieu persist to influence the way modern cultures and religions view the world. Designed to be accessible to students and readers with no prior knowledge of the period, the book uses fictional vignettes to add interest to its material, which is based on careful study of archeological remains and preserved texts. The book will provide a thoughtful summary of the Ancient Near East and includes a comprehensive bibliography to guide readers in further study of related topics.