Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps
- List of Tables
- List of Text-figures
- Preface
- CHAPTER XI THE EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD IN EGYPT
- CHAPTER XII THE LAST PREDYNASTIC PERIOD IN BABYLONIA
- CHAPTER XIII THE CITIES OF BABYLONIA
- CHAPTER XIV THE OLD KINGDOM IN EGYPT AND THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRST INTERMEDIATE PERIOD
- CHAPTER XV PALESTINE IN THE EARLY BRONZE AGE
- CHAPTER XVI THE EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD IN MESOPOTAMIA
- CHAPTER XVII SYRIA BEFORE 2200 B.C.
- CHAPTER XVIII ANATOLIA, c. 4000–2300 b.c.
- CHAPTER XIX THE DYNASTY OF AGADE AND THE GUTIAN INVASION
- CHAPTER XX THE MIDDLE KINGDOM IN EGYPT: INTERNAL HISTORY FROM THE RISE OF THE HERACLEOPOLITANS TO THE DEATH OF AMMENEMES III
- CHAPTER XXI SYRIA AND PALESTINE c. 2160–1780 b.c.
- CHAPTER XXII BABYLONIA, c. 2120–1800 B.C.
- CHAPTER XXIII PERSIA, c. 2400–1800 B.C.
- CHAPTER XXIV (a) ANATOLIA, c. 2300–1750 B.C.
- CHAPTER XXIV(b) ANATOLIA IN THE OLD ASSYRIAN PERIOD
- CHAPTER XXV ASSYRIA, c. 2600–1816 B.C.
- CHAPTER XXVI(a) GREECE, CRETE, AND THE AEGEAN ISLANDS IN THE EARLY BRONZE AGE
- CHAPTER XXVI(b) CYPRUS IN THE EARLY BRONZE AGE
- CHAPTER XXVII IMMIGRANTS FROM THE NORTH
- BIBLIOGRAPHIES
- Chronological Tables
- Index to Maps
- General Index
- Map 6. Babylonia and Western Persia.
- Map 12. Early Bronze Age sites in Greece and the Aegean Islands.
- Map 16. Map to illustrate movements of northern peoples in the third to first millennia B.C.
- References
CHAPTER XVII - SYRIA BEFORE 2200 B.C.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps
- List of Tables
- List of Text-figures
- Preface
- CHAPTER XI THE EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD IN EGYPT
- CHAPTER XII THE LAST PREDYNASTIC PERIOD IN BABYLONIA
- CHAPTER XIII THE CITIES OF BABYLONIA
- CHAPTER XIV THE OLD KINGDOM IN EGYPT AND THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRST INTERMEDIATE PERIOD
- CHAPTER XV PALESTINE IN THE EARLY BRONZE AGE
- CHAPTER XVI THE EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD IN MESOPOTAMIA
- CHAPTER XVII SYRIA BEFORE 2200 B.C.
- CHAPTER XVIII ANATOLIA, c. 4000–2300 b.c.
- CHAPTER XIX THE DYNASTY OF AGADE AND THE GUTIAN INVASION
- CHAPTER XX THE MIDDLE KINGDOM IN EGYPT: INTERNAL HISTORY FROM THE RISE OF THE HERACLEOPOLITANS TO THE DEATH OF AMMENEMES III
- CHAPTER XXI SYRIA AND PALESTINE c. 2160–1780 b.c.
- CHAPTER XXII BABYLONIA, c. 2120–1800 B.C.
- CHAPTER XXIII PERSIA, c. 2400–1800 B.C.
- CHAPTER XXIV (a) ANATOLIA, c. 2300–1750 B.C.
- CHAPTER XXIV(b) ANATOLIA IN THE OLD ASSYRIAN PERIOD
- CHAPTER XXV ASSYRIA, c. 2600–1816 B.C.
- CHAPTER XXVI(a) GREECE, CRETE, AND THE AEGEAN ISLANDS IN THE EARLY BRONZE AGE
- CHAPTER XXVI(b) CYPRUS IN THE EARLY BRONZE AGE
- CHAPTER XXVII IMMIGRANTS FROM THE NORTH
- BIBLIOGRAPHIES
- Chronological Tables
- Index to Maps
- General Index
- Map 6. Babylonia and Western Persia.
- Map 12. Early Bronze Age sites in Greece and the Aegean Islands.
- Map 16. Map to illustrate movements of northern peoples in the third to first millennia B.C.
- References
Summary
THE BACKGROUND
It is necessary at the beginning of this chapter to define what we mean by the geographical term ‘Syria’, which includes in a single area regions which were seldom in ancient times united under one rule, and were already inhabited, it seems, during the third millennium b.c. by peoples of greatly differing ways of life, of different racial affinities and separate tongues. Yet in spite of the diversity of its peoples through the ages and the varied climatic zones into which it can be divided, the region known today as Syria and the Lebanon may be said to form a geographical entity with natural boundaries. On the north and north-west it is hedged about by the Amanus and Antitaurus mountains of Anatolia and by the Upper Euphrates bend; on the west it is bounded by the Mediterranean, and on the east by the Syrian desert, the northward extension of the great Nefūd, the arid desert of Arabia. To the south it merges with Palestine, and the natural boundary of both is the Wilderness of Sin, the desert stretch which separates Egypt from Palestine, Africa from Asia. We shall see that there were close cultural links between Syria and Palestine, though the archaeology of the latter is somewhat apart and has been treated for this period in an earlier chapter.
In the simplest analysis, the land of Syria falls into three distinct zones: the coastal fringe, later called Phoenicia, with its temperate climate, fertile soil and heavy winter rains; the steppeland, separated from the coast by a high, double mountain chain which cleaves it from north to south, and experiencing a wide seasonal variation of temperature and consequently a specialized vegetation to which the name Irano-Turanian has been given.
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- Information
- The Cambridge Ancient History , pp. 315 - 362Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1971
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