Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T05:32:25.140Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Western and Central Eurasia

from Part II - Trans-regional and regional perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

By
Touraj Daryaee
Edited by
Craig Benjamin
Craig Benjamin
Affiliation:
Grand Valley State University, Michigan
Get access

Summary

Around 1200 BCE, changes began to occur in the Afro-Eurasian world that can be attributed to both technological innovation and the coming of invaders, commonly called the Sea People. In Assyria, the rule of the Middle Assyrian Empire, which rose out of the ashes of the Mitanni Empire, continued throughout the twelfth century. The period after 1050 BCE is often called the Dark Ages in Near Eastern history, mainly because the dearth of records leaves the period rather dark for historians. Urartu was a largely highland kingdom that controlled the mountain passes and trade routes on the eastern Taurus region. In the late eighth century, however, a series of conqueror-builder kings took Assyria to the height of its power and ushered in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Nebuchadnezzar II was the longest ruling and strongest of Chaldean rulers of Babylonia. Nebuchadnezzar's reign, in short, constitutes the brief glorious period of the already brief Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Keywords

Global economic historyglobal exchangeagricultural productionurban developmentPersian empiremonetizationTaxation
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History , pp. 271 - 299
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Further Reading

Anthony, David W., The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, Princeton University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Ascherson, Neal, Black Sea, New York: Hill and Wang, 1995.Google Scholar
Bowersock, Glen W., Empires in Collision in Late Antiquity, Waltham, ma: Brandeis, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briant, Pierre, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire, Winona Lake, in: Eisenbrauns, 2002.Google Scholar
Bulliet, Richard W., Cotton, Climate, and Camels in Early Islamic Iran: A Moment in World History, New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Burroughs, William James, Climate Change: A Multidisciplinary Approach, Cambridge University Press, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canepa, Matthew P., The Two Eyes of the Earth: Art and Ritual of Kingship between Rome and Sasanian Iran, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Chamoux, François, Hellenistic Civilization, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2003.Google Scholar
Charpin, Dominique, “The History of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Overview,” in Sasson, Jack M. (ed.), Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Peabody, ma: Hendrickson Publishers, 2000, vol. i, pp. 807–29.Google Scholar
Cline, Eric H., and Graham, Mark W., Ancient Empires: From Mesopotamia to the Rise of Islam, Cambridge University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Dandamaev, Muhammad A., and Lukonin, Vladimir G., The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran, Cambridge University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Daryaee, Touraj, Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire, London: I. B. Tauris, 2013.Google Scholar
Donner, Fred M., The Early Islamic Conquests, Princeton University Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Drews, Robert, The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophic CA. 1200 BC, Princeton University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Errington, Elizabeth, and Curtis, Vesta Sarkhosh (eds.), From Persepolis to Punjab: Exploring Ancient Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, London: The British Museum Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Fisher, Greg, Between Empires: Arabs, Romans, and Sasanians in Late Antiquity, Oxford University Press, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foltz, Richard, Religions of Iran: From Prehistory to the Present, London: One World, 2013.Google Scholar
Green, Peter, The Hellenistic Age: A Short History, New York: Modern Library Edition, 2007.Google Scholar
Henkelman, Wouter, The Other Gods Who Are: Studies in Elamite-Iranian Acculturation Based on the Persepolis Fortification Texts, Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 2008.Google Scholar
Hodgson, Marshall G. S., “The Role of Islam in World History,” in Hodgson, Marshall G. S., Rethinking World History: Essays on Europe, Islam, and World History, ed. Burke, Edmund III, Cambridge University Press, 1993, pp. 97–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard-Johnston, James, “State and Society in Late Antique Iran,” in Sarkhosh Curtis, Vesta and Stewart, Sarah (eds.), The Idea of Iran: The Sasanian Era, London: I. B. Tauris, 2008, vol. iii, pp. 118–31.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Hugh, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam’s Greatest Dynasty, Cambridge, ma: Da Capo Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Kuhrt, Amélie, The Ancient Near East c. 3000–330 bc, 2 vols., London: Routledge, 1995.Google Scholar
Kuz’mina, Elena E., The Origin of the Indo-Iranians, Leiden: Brill, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lincoln, Bruce, Religion, Empire & Torture: The Case of Achaemenian Persia, with a Postscript on Abu Ghraib, University of Chicago Press, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ma, John, Antiochos III and the Cities of Western Asia Minor, Oxford University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Mallory, J. P., In Search of the Indo-Europea: Language, Archaeology and Myth, London: Thames and Hudson, 1989.Google Scholar
Ostrogorsky, George, History of the Byzantine State, New Brunswick, nj: Rutgers University Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Potts, D. T., The Archaeology of Elam, Cambridge University Press, 1999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenfield, John M., The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967.Google Scholar
Shayegan, M. Rahim, Arsacids and Sasanians: Political Ideology in Post-Hellenistic and Late Antique Persia, Cambridge University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Sherwin-White, Susan, and Kuhrt, Amélie, From Samarkand to Sardis: A New Approach to the Seleucid Empire, London: Duckworth, 1993.Google Scholar
Tignor, Robert, Adelman, Jeremy, Aron, Stephen, Brown, Peter, Elman, Benjamin, Kotkin, Stephen, et al., Worlds Together Worlds Apart: A History of the World, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011.Google Scholar
la Vaissière, Étienne, Sogdian Traders: A History, Leiden: Brill, 2005.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
Van de Mieroop, Marc, A History of the Ancient Near East: ca. 3000–323 bc., Hoboken, nj: Blackwell Publishing, 2004, vol. i.Google Scholar
Wiesehofer, Josef, Ancient Persia: From 550 bc to 650 ad, London: I. B. Tauris, 2001.Google Scholar
Wolski, J., L’Empire des Arsacids, Louven: Peeters, 1993.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×