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| Historians' term for the period during which iron was the primary metal for tools and weapons. The advent of iron technology began at different times in different parts of the world. |
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| A people from central Anatolia who established an empire in Anatolia and Syria in the Late Bronze Age. With wealth from the trade in metals and military power based on chariot forces, the Hittites vied with New Kingdom Egypt for control of Syria-Palestine before falling to unidentified attackers in 1200 BCE. |
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| Queen of Egypt (1473-1458 BCE). She dispatched a naval expedition down the Red Sea to Punt (northwest Sudan or Eretria), the faraway source of myrrh. There is evidence of opposition to a woman as a ruler, and after her death her name and image were frequently defaced. |
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| Egyptian pharaoh (1353-1335 BCE). He built a new capital of Amarna, fostered a new style of naturalistic art, and created a religious revolution by imposing worship of the sun-disk. The Amarna letters, largely from his reign, preserve official correspondence with subjects and neighbors. |
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| A long-lived ruler of New Kingdom Egypt (1290-1224 BCE). He reached an accomodation with the Hittites of Anatolia after a standoff in the battle of Kadesh in Syria. He built on a grand scale throughout Egypt. |
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| Prosperous civilization on the Aegean island of Crete in the 2nd millennium BCE. The Minoans engaged in a far-flung commerce around the Mediterrenean and exerted powerful cultural influences on the early Greeks. |
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| Site of a fortified palace complex in south Greece that controlled in the Late Bronze Age Kingdom. In Homer's epic poems Mycenae ws the base of King Agamemnon, who commanded the Greeks besieging Troy. Contemporary archareologists call the complex Greek society of the 2nd millennium BCE, "Mycenaen." |
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| A term used for the burial sites of elite members of Mycenean Greek society in the mid-second millennium BCE. At the bottom of deep shafts lined with stone slabs, the bodies were laid out along with gold and bronze jewelry, implements, weapons, and masks. |
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| Set of syllabic symbols, derived from the writing system of Minoan Crete, used in the Mycenean palaces of the Late Bronze Age to write an early form of Greek. It was used primarily for palace records, and the surviving Linear B tablets providing substantial information about the economic organization of Mycenean society and tantalizing clues about political, social, and religious institutions. |
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| An empire extending from western Iran to Syria-Palestine, conquered by the Assyrians of north Mesopotamia between the 10th and 7th centuries BCE. They used force and terror and exploited the wealth and labor of their subjects. They also preserved and continued the cultural and scientific developments of Mesopotamian civilization. |
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| The forcibal removal and relocation of large numbers of people or entire populations. The mass deportations practiced by the Assyrian and Persian Empires were meant as a terrifying warning of the consequences of rebellion. They also brought skilled and unskilled labor to the imperial center. |
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| A large collection of writings drawn from the ancient literary, religious, and scientific traditions of Mesopotamia. It was associated by the 6th century BCE. Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal. The many tablets unearthed by archaeologists constitute one of the most important sources of present-day knowledge of the long literary tradition of Mesopotamia. |
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| In antiquity, the land between the eastern shore of the Mediterrenean and the Jordan River, occupied by the Israelites from the early second millennium BCE. The modern state of Israel was founded iin 1948. |
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| A collection of sacred books containing diverse materials concerning the origins, experiences, beliefs, and practices for the Israelites. Most of the extant text was complied by members of the priestly calss in the 5th century BCE and reflects the concerns and views of this group. |
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| Monumental sanctuary built in Jerusalem by King Soloman in 10th century BCE to be the religious center for the Israelite god, Yahweh. The temple performs sacrifices, receives tithe or the percentage of agricultural revenues, and become economically and politically powerful. Destroyed by Babylonians, 587 BCE; rebuilt in the late 6th century BCE; replaced by King Herod's Second Temple in late 1st century BCE. (Destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE). |
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| Belief in the existance of a single divine entity. Some scholars cite the devotion of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten to Aten (sun-disk) and his suppression of traditional gods as the earliest instance. The Israelite worship of Yahweh developed into an exclusive belief in one god, and this concept passed into christianity and Islam. |
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| A Greek word meaning "dispersal," used to describe the communities of a given ethnic group living outside their homeland. Jews, for example, spread from Israel to western Asia and Mediterrenean lands in antiquity and today can be found throughout the world. |
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| Semitic-speaking Canaanites living on the coast of modern Lebanon and Syria in the 1st millennium BCE. From major cities such as Tyre and Sidon, Phoenician merchants and sailors explored the Mediterrenean, engaged in widespread commerce, and founded carthage and other colonies in the western Mediterrenean. |
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| City located in present-day Tunisia, founded by Phoenicians (800 BCE). It became a major commercial center and naval power in the western Mediterrenean until defeated by Rome in the 3rd century BCE. |
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| Under the Chaldaeans (nomadic kinship group in south Mesopotamia early 1st millennium BCE), Babylon again became a major political and cultural center in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE. After participating in the destruction of Assyrian power, the monarchs Nabopolassar and Nebachanezzar took over the southern portion of the Assyrian domains. By destroying the First Temple in Jerusalem and deporting part of the population, they initiated the Diaspora of the Jews. |
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