# Go the Near East!



## Blue Mythril (Aug 3, 2004)

I have only recently started studying the archaeology and history of the Near east, (or western Asia depending on your perspective) and was curious to know if there were any others who also find this area fascinating? Any favourite time slots? Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Iran or the Levant? I'm still not sure where my interests specifically lie, I'm just trying to absorb it all!
 I've studied the Levant the most, but I like Mesopotomia, very interesting eith lots to study.
 Anatolia though is probably my favourite, most likely because it seems to be a converging point or cross roads for various civilisations and cultures.


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## Brian G Turner (Aug 3, 2004)

Anything around the Mediterranean Basin catches my interest - though Mesopotamia itself is so mysterious and enticing - Sumerians and Akkadians, savage hill tribes surrounding - the majesty of Babylon, and those amazing Ziggurats...


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (Aug 4, 2004)

As I understand (and feel free to strike me down with arrogant mockery if I err) some of the earliest civilized settlements on record are in this region. I've always thought that West Asia was a sort of seed-bed for much later culture and civilisation. My current spot of historical interest goes further east, though, I'm very fascinated with China right now.


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## littlemissattitude (Aug 4, 2004)

I don't know.  I've always been much more interested in Egypt than in Mesopotamia and that area.  Call it fallout from seeing the original "The Mummy" when I was five years old.  Except that Mesopotamia is, as knivesout mentions, probably (but, then again, I'm not up on the latest scholarship right now) the place where settlements first turned into cities, and that sort of thing - beginnings - have always fascinated me.


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## Brian G Turner (Aug 4, 2004)

The Near East is indeed the seed of civilisation as we know it - places such as Gobekli Tepe and Catal Hyuk in turkey, plus Jericho in Palestine - all dating to around 10,000, 8,000, and 7,000 BC respectively. The first human cities.

 Mesopotamia is where the city didn't simply appear and disappear as like the historical precedents - but instead remained and flourished, around 4,000 to 3,000 BC. The line of Ziggurat city-states along the Tigris and Euphrates was of course the birth of modern "civilisation" as we know it. I simply hope that Iraq is more settled by the time I get around to visiting the archaeology of the place.


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## Esioul (Aug 4, 2004)

Don't mention Catal Hoyuk to me.... that reminds me of that Hodder article.

I'm obsessed with the Near East, I've been begging my teachers all year to let us study it for a case study. I'm most keen on Mesopotamia I think, although I'm also interested in the beginning of agriculture. Thre's a book about that called 'Seed to Civilisation' by Charles B Heiser, quite an enjoyable read. We did Tell Abu Hureya and Catal Hoyuk. I've been to Jericho, but all I remember was a busy cafe (called Temptation Cafe) and that a cable car was going to be built up the side of the mountain, called 'Temptation Cablecar'. 

Did anyone see that progamme when Dan Cruickshank went to Iraq?


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