Ancient Civilizations 

The beginnings of complex civilization emerged in the Ancient Near East, a large fertile region situated at the intersection of three continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe. The area includes the modern countries of Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.

Ten thousand years ago, people living in the Ancient Near East began the slow, but life-changing process of animal husbandry and agriculture. They let go of mobile hunting and gathering lifestyles, settled down and built more permanent villages and cities. This lifestyle shift, known as the Neolithic Revolution was a result of and led to changes in technology that still influence modern civilizations.

The domestication of plants and animals and sedentism created the pathway to the development of complex civilizations with the State as a centralized political system. Characteristics of more complex civilizations include control over a bounded area; social stratification and the division of labor; writing for record keeping and communicating laws and ideas; art associated with the state, religion and important offices, such as king, chief, priest, and noble; and a state religion with full-time religious specialists. See items from these civilizations in the Ancient Near East exhibit!