The ancient Near East embraces a vast geographical area, from the borders of Iran and Afghanistan in the east to the Levant and Anatolia, and from the Black Sea in the north to Egypt in the south. In this authoritative study, Amelie Kuhrt examines its history from the earliest written documents to the conquest of Alexander the Great, c. 3000-330 B. C. It provides a lucid, up-to-date narrative which takes into account the latest archaeological and textual discoveries and deals with the complex problems of interpretation and methodology.