This book contains a comprehensive history of the multicultural civilizations of the Ancient Near East, their political and military events, and their cultures and societies. Beginning with the emergence of writing around 3000 B.C., the narrative ranges from the origins of the first cities in Mesopotamia, through the growth of the Babylonian and Hittite kingdoms, to the Assyrian and Persian empires. It ends with the transformation of the ancient Near East by the conquests of Alexander the Great. The text contains a selection of Near Eastern texts in translation, as well as passages on the use of the Bible as a historical source, and excerpts from the Epic of Gilgamesh, or the Assyrian royal annals. The second edition integrates new research from the rapidly developing field of ancient Near Eastern history.