Geography of Mesopotamia,

The Geography of Mesopotamia, encompassing its ethnology and history, centred around the two great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. While the southern is flat and marshy; the near approach of the two rivers to one another, at a spot where the undulating plateau of the north sinks suddenly into the Babylonian alluvium, tends to separate them still more completely. In the earliest recorded times, the northern portion was included in Mesopotamia; it was marked off as Assyria after the rise of the Assyrian monarchy. Apart from Assur, the original capital, the chief cities of the country, Nineveh, Calah and Arbela, were all on the east bank of the Tigris. The reason was its abundant supply of water, whereas the great Mesopotamian plain on the western side had to depend on streams flowing into the Euphrates.

Defining Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia literally means "(Land) between rivers" in ancient Greek. The oldest known occurrence of the name Mesopotamia dates to the 4th century BCE, when it was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria.  In modern times it has been more generally applied to all the lands between the Euphrates and the Tigris,  thereby incorporating not only parts of Syria but also almost all of Iraq and southeastern Turkey.  The neighbouring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the western part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia.  A further distinction is usually made between Upper or Northern Mesopotamia and Lower or Southern Mesopotamia.  Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jezirah, is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghdad.  Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf.  In modern scientific usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation. In modern Western historiography of the region, the termMesopotamia is usually used to designate the area from the beginning of time, until the Muslim conquest in the 630s,  with the endonymic names Iraq and Jezirah being used to describe the region after that event. This practise has been criticized as illogical, and is resented by Iraqis (modern-day Mesopotamians).

Upper Mesopotamia
Lower Mesopotamia

This vast flat, the modern El-Jezireh, is about 250 miles (400 km) in length, interrupted only by a single limestone range rising abruptly out of the plain, and branching off from the Zagros mountains under the names of Sarazur, Hainrinand Sinjar. The numerous remains of old habitations show how thickly this level tract must once have been peopled, though now mostly a wilderness. North of the plateau rises a well-watered and undulating belt of country, into which run low ranges of limestone hills, sometimes arid, sometimes covered with dwarf oak, and often shutting in, between their northern and northeastern flank and the main mountain line from which they detach themselves, rich plains and fertile valleys. Behind them tower the massive ridges of the Euphrates and Zagros ranges, where the Tigris and Euphrates take their rise, and which cut off Assyria from Armenia and Kurdistan. The name Assyria itself was derived from that of the city of Assur or Asur, now Qal'at Sherqat (Kaleh Shergat), on the right bank of the Tigris, midway between the Greater and the Lesser Zab. It remained the capital long after the Assyrians had become the dominant power in western Asia, but was finally supplanted by Calah (Nimrud), Nineveh (Nebi Vunus and Kuyunjik), and Dur-Sargina (Khorsabad), some 60 miles (97 km) farther north.

In contrast with the arid plateau of Mesopotamia stretched the rich alluvial plain of Chaldea, formed by the deposits of the two great rivers that encircled it. The soil was extremely fertile, and teemed with an industrious population. Eastward rose the mountains of Elam, southward were the sea-marshes and the Kaldy or Chaldeans and other Aramaic tribes, while on the west the civilization of Babylonia encroached beyond the banks of the Euphrates, upon the territory of theSemitic nomads (or Suti). Here stood Ur (Mugheir, more correctly Muqayyar) the earliest capital of the country; and Babylon, with its suburb, Borsippa (Birs Nimrud), as well as the two Sippars (the Sepharvaim of Scripture, now Abu Habba), occupied both the Arabian and Chaldaean sides of the river. The Arakhtu, or "river of Babylon," flowed past the southern side of the city, and to the southwest of it on the Arabian bank lay the great inland freshwater sea of Najaf, surrounded by red sandstone cliffs of considerable height, 40 miles (64 km) in length and 35 in breadth in the widest part. Above and below this sea, from Borsippa to Kufa, extend the famous Chaldaean marshes, where Alexander the Great was nearly lost (Arrian, Eup. Al. vii. 22; Strabo xvi. I, § 12); but these depend upon the state of the Hindiya canal, disappearing altogether when it is closed.

Eastward of the Euphrates and southward of Sippara, Kutha and Babylon were Kish (Ultaimir, 9 miles (14 km) E. of Hillah), Nippur (Niffer)-where stood the great sanctuary of El-lu, the older Bel-Uruk or Erech (Warka) and Larsa (Senkera) with its temple of the sun-god, while eastward of the Shatt el-Hai, probably the ancient channel of the Tigris, was Lagash (Tello), which played an important part in early Babylonian history.

The primitive seaport of the country, Eridu, the seat of the worship of Ea the culture-god, was a little south of Ur (at Abu Shahrain or Nowäwis on the west side of the Euphrates). It is now about 130 miles (210 km) from the sea; as about 46 inches of land have been formed by the silting up of the shore since the foundation of Spasinus Charax (Mu/-zamrah) in the time of Alexander the Great, or some 115 feet (35 m) a year, the city would have existed perhaps 6000 years ago. The marshes in the south, like the adjoining desert, were frequented by Aramaic tribes; of these, the most famous were the Kaldä or Chaldaeans who underMerodach-baladan made themselves masters of Babylon and gave their name in later days to the whole population of the country. The combined stream of the Euphrates and Tigris as it flowed through the marshes was known to the Babylonians as the ndr marrati, "the salt river" (cp. Jeremiah 1:21), a name originally applied to the Persian Gulf.

The alluvial plain of Babylonia was called Edin, though the name was properly restricted to "the plain" on the western bank of the river where the Bedouins pastured the flocks of their Babylonian masters. This "bank" or kisad, together with the corresponding western bank of the Tigris (according to Fritz Hommel the modern Shatt el-Uai), gave its name to the land of Chesed, whence the Kasdim/Kasdin of the Old Testament. In the early inscriptions of Lagash, the whole district is known as Gu-Edinna, the Sumerian equivalent of the Semitic Kisad Edini. The coastland was similarly known as Gu-gbba (Semitic Kisad tamtim), the "bank of the sea."

A more comprehensive name of southern Mesopotamia was Kengi, "the land," or Kengi Sumer, "the land of Sumer". Sumer has been supposed to be the original of the Biblical Shinar and the Sankhar of the Amarna letters. Opposed to Kengi and Sumer were Urra (Un) and Akkad or northern Babylonia. The original meaning of Urra was perhaps "clayey soil," but it came to signify "the upper country" or "highlands," kengi being "the lowlands." In Semitic times, Urra was pronounced Un and confounded with uru, "city" as a geographical term, however, it was replaced by Akkadu (Akkad), the Semitic form of Agade - written Akkattim in the Elamiteinscriptions - the name of the elder Sargon's capital. The rise of Sargon's empire was the probable cause of this extension of the name of Akkad; henceforward in the imperial title, "Sumer and Akkad" denoted the whole of Babylonia. After the Kassite conquest of the country, northern Babylonia came to be known as Kar-Duniyash, "the wall of the god Duniyask," from a line of forts similar to that built by Nebuchadrezzar between Sippara and Opis, to defend his kingdom from attacks from the north. As this last was "the Wall of Semiramis" mentioned by Strabo (xi. 14. 8), Kar-Duniyash may have represented the Median Wall ofXenophon (Anab. ii. 4. 12), traces of which were found by F.R. Chesney extending from Fallujah to Jibbar.

Perennial irrigation

The dense population arose from the elaborate irrigation of the Babylonian plain, which had originally reclaimed it from a pestiferous and uninhabitable swamp, and had made it the most fertile country in the world. The science of irrigation and engineering seems to have been first developed in Babylonia, which was covered by a network of canals, all skillfully planned and regulated. The three chief of them carried off the waters of the Euphrates to the Tigris above Babylon: theZabzallat canal (or Nahr Sarsar) running from Faluja to Ctesiphon, the Kutha canal from Sippara to Madam, passing Tell Ibrahim or Kuth'a on the way, and the King's canal or Ar-Malcha between the other two. This last, which perhaps owed its name to Hammurabi, was conducted from the Euphrates towards Upi or Opis, which has been shown by H. Winckler (Altorientalische Forschungen, ii. pp. 509 seq.) to have been close to Seleucia on the western side of the Tigris. ThePallacopas, called Pallukkatu in the Neo-Babylonian texts, started from Pallukkatu or Falluja, and running parallel to the western bank of the Euphrates as far asIddaratu or Teredon, (?) watered an immense tract of land and supplied a large lake near Borsippa. B. Meissner may be right in identifying it with "the Canal of the Sun-god" of the early texts.

Thanks to this system of irrigation, the cultivation of the soil was highly advanced in Babylonia. According to Herodotus (1.193), wheat commonly returned two hundredfold to the sower, and occasionally three hundredfold. Pliny the Elder (H. N. xviii. 11) states that it was cut twice, and afterwards was good keep for sheep, and Berossus remarked that wheat, sesame, barley, ochrys, palms, apples and many kinds of shelled fruit grew wild, as wheat still does in the neighbourhood of Anah. A Persian poem celebrated the 360 uses of the palm (Strabo xvi. I. 14), and Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiv. 3) says that from the point reached by Julian's army to the shores of the Persian Gulf was one continuous forest of verdure.

Ancient canals

The location of most of the major cities such as Kish, Uruk, Lagash etc. is known with certainty, while the location of minor settlements, situated along a network of canals, is more difficult to reconstruct. An important source of Mesopotamian toponymy is the great Babylonian encyclopedia Harra-hubullu and its commentaries. These texts contain lists of toponyms, but circumstantial evidence is required to correlate these with their geographical location. The most useful category of texts for this purpose are itineraries, which list settlements in the sequence they are passed by a traveller.

Important canals of Sumer included

• the Zubi canal (Izubi, Akkadian Izubitum), a short-cut of the Tigris river between the locations of modern Samarra and Baghdad. Settlements along this canal included Hibaritum and Push.
• the Irnina canal, joined the Zubi canal above Push. Settlements along this canal included Hiritum, Hursitum, Sarru-Laba, Namzium
• the Gibil canal ran southwest from the Tigris to a point south of the frontier city of Kesh, past a branch which went north to that city. The Gibil continued on to Apisala where it intersected with the Ninagina Canal which flowed southeast from Zabalam. From Apisala, the Gibil went on to Umma, where it joined the Iturungal Canal.
• The Issinnitum canal left the right bank of the Euphrates river above Nippur to run by the city of Isin, and thence to rejoin the Euphrates at Kisurra.
• The Iturungal canal left the Euphrates below Nippur running past Adab, Dabrum, Zabalam, Umma, Nagsu, Bad-tibira and Larsa and between Uruk and Enegi before rejoining the Euphrates.
• The Nanagugal canal departed from the left bank of the Iturungal canal downstream of Bad-tibira. It marked the eastern boundary of Ur and the western boundary of Lagash.
• The Ninagina canal ran from Iturungal at Zabalam southeast passing Girsu, Lagash and Nina. It intersected with the Gibil canal at Apisala
• The Susuka canal ran southeast from Ur to Eridu.

chronology of the Ancient Near East

The chronology of the Ancient Near East provides a framework of dates for various events, rulers and dynasties. Individual inscriptions and texts customarily record events in terms of a succession of officials or rulers, taking forms like "in the year X of king Y". Thus by piecing together many records a relative chronology is arrived at, relating dates in cities over a wide area. For the first millennium BC, the relative chronology can be tied to actual calendar years by identifying significant astronomical events. An inscription from the tenth year of Assyrian king Ashur-Dan III refers to an eclipse of the sun, and astronomical calculations among the range of possible date identify the eclipse as having occurred 15 June 763 BCE. The date can be corroborated with other mentions of astronomical events and a secure absolute chronology established, that ties the relative chronologies into our calendar.

For the third and second millennia, the correlation is not so fixed. A key document is the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa, preserving record of astronomical observations of Venus, as preserved in numerous cuneiform tablets during the reign of the Babylonian king Ammisaduqa, known to be the fourth ruler after Hammurabi in the relative calendar. In the series, the conjunction of the rise of Venus with the new moon provides a fixed point, or rather three fixed points, for the conjunction is aperiodic occurrence. By astronomic calculation, the first dates, for example, of Hammurabi can be fixed in this manner either as 1848, 1792 or 1736, depending on whether the "High Chronology" the "Middle chronology" or the "Low Chronology" is followed.

First of all, for the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC the following periods need to be distinguished:

1. Early Bronze Age: A series of rulers and dynasties whose existence is based mostly on the Sumerian King List besides some that are attested epigraphically (e.g. En-me-barage-si). No absolute dates within a certainty better than a century can be assigned to this period.
2. Middle to Late Bronze Age: Beginning with the Akkadian Empire around 2300 BC, the chronological evidence becomes internally more consistent. Essentially, for this period, a good picture can be drawn of who succeeded whom, and synchronisms between Mesopotamia, the Levant and the more robust chronology of Ancient Egypt can be established. The assignment of absolute dates is a matter of dispute; the conventional middle chronology fixes the sack of Babylonat 1595 BC while the short chronology fixes it at 1531 BC.
3. The Bronze Age collapse: a "Dark Age" begins with the fall of Babylonian Dynasty III (Kassite) around 1200 BC, the invasions of the Sea Peoples and the collapse of the Hittite Empire.
4. Early Iron Age: around 900 BC, historical data, written records become more numerous once more, with the rise of theNeo-Assyrian Empire, enabling the certain assignment of absolute dates. Classical sources such as the Canon of Ptolemy, the works of Berossus and the Hebrew Bible provide chronological support and synchronisms. An eclipse in 763 BC anchors the Assyrian list of imperial officials.

Variant Bronze Age chronologies

The major schools of thought on the length of the Dark Age are separated by 56 or 64 years. This is because the key source for their dates is the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa and the visibility of Venus has a 56/64  year cycle. More recent work has suggested that the fundamental 8 year cycle of Venus is a better metric.,  (see update in.  There have been other attempts to anchor the chronology using records of eclipses and other methods, but they are not yet widely supported. The alternative major chronologies are defined by the date of the 8th year of the reign ofAmmisaduqa, king of Babylon. This choice then defines the reign of Hammurabi.

Due to the sparsity of sources throughout the "Dark Age", the history of the Near Eastern Bronze Age down to the end of the Third Babylonian Dynasty is a "floating chronology". In other words, it fits together internally as a "relative chronology" but not as an "absolute chronology".

Many recent textbooks on the archaeology and history of the ancient Near East use the Middle Chronology. There are also some scholars who discount the validity of the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa entirely.

The following table gives an overview of the competing proposals, listing some key dates and the deviation relative to the short chronology:

Chronology	Ammisaduqa Year 8	Reign of Hammurabi	Fall of Babylon I	±
Ultra-Low	1542 BC	1696 BC – 1654 BC	1499 BC	+32 a
Short or Low	1574 BC	1728 BC – 1686 BC	1531 BC	±0 a
Middle	1638 BC	1792 BC – 1750 BC	1595 BC	−64 a
Long or High	1694 BC	1848 BC – 1806 BC	1651 BC	−120 a

The chronologies of Mesopotamia, the Levant and Anatolia depend significantly on the chronology of Ancient Egypt. To the extent that there are problems in the Egyptian chronology, these issues will be inherited in chronologies based on synchronisms with Ancient Egypt.

Sources of chronological data

Inscriptional

Thousands of cuneiform tablets have been found in an area running from Anatolia to Egypt. While many are the ancient equivalent of modern grocery receipts, these tablets, along with inscriptions on buildings and public monuments, provide the major source of chronological information for the ancient Middle East. 

Underlying issues

• State of materials

While there are some relatively pristine objects, such as you might see in the Louvre or the British Museum, the vast majority of recovered tables and inscriptions are in much worse condition. They have been broken with only portions found, intentionally defaced, and damaged by weather or the effects of being buried underground. Many tablets were not even baked in antiquity and have to be carefully handled until they are heated properly.  

• Provenance

The site of an item's recovery is an important piece of information for archaeologists. Unfortunately, two factors impinge on this. First, in ancient times old materials were often reused either as building material or fill, sometimes at a great distance from the original location. Secondly, looting has been a fact of life for archaeological sites, dating at least back to Roman times. The provenance of a looted object is difficult or impossible to determine.

• Multiple Versions

Over time, key documents like the Sumerian King List were repeatedly copied across the generations. As a result, there are sometimes multiple versions of a chronological source that differ from each other. It can be very hard to determine which version is correct. 

• Translation

The translation of cuneiform documents is quite difficult, especially given the damaged nature of much source material. Additionally, our knowledge of the underlying languages, like Akkadian and Sumerian, have evolved over time, so a translation done now may be quite different than one done in AD 1900. The result of all this is that there can be honest disagreement what the document really says. Worse yet, many archaeological finds have not yet been published, much less translated. Those held in private collections may never be.

• Slant

Many of our important source documents, such as the Assyrian King List, are the products of government and religious establishments. They often have a built-in slant in favor of the king or god in charge. A king may even take credit for a battle or construction project of an earlier ruler. The Assyrians in particular have a literary tradition of always putting the best possible face on history. The tablets or inscriptions in question still have value, though one does have to keep the slant in mind.

King Lists

Keeping historical lists of rulers was traditional in the ancient Near East.

• Sumerian King List

Covers rulers of Mesopotamia from a time "before the flood" up to the fall of the Isin Dynasty. For many early city/states it is the only source of chronological data. A major problem is that many early rulers are listed with fantastically long reigns. There has been some speculation that this stems from an error transcribing from the base 60 arithmetic of the Sumerians to the decimal based system of the later Akkadians. 

• Babylonian King List

This list deals only with the rulers of Babylon. It has been found in two versions Babylonian King List A and Babylonian King List B. The later dynasties in the list reflect the Kassite and Sealand periods of Babylon. There is also a Babylonian King List of the Hellenistic Period which covers the later part of the 1st millennium. 

• Assyrian King List

When combined with the various Assyrian chronicles, the assyrian King List anchor the chronology of the 1 st millennium 

Found in multiple differing copies, this tablet lists all the kings of Assyria and their regnal lengths back into the mists of time, with the portions with reasonable data beginning at around the 14th century BC. 

  

• Indus Valley King List

A list of Indus Valley Civilization Kings was compiled by Laurence Waddell but it is not generally accepted or well regarded by mainstream academia. 

Chronicles

Many chronicles have been recovered in the ancient Near East. Most are partial or fragmentary, but when combined with other sources, they provide a rich source of chronological data. 

• Synchronistic Chronicle

Found in the library of Assurbanipal in Nineveh, it records the interaction of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires, from the Assyrian point of view. While useful, the consensus is that this chronicle should not be considered reliable.^[16]

• Chronicle P

While quite incomplete, this tablet provides the same type of information as the Assyrian Synchronistic Chronicle, but from the Babylonian point of view.

• Royal Chronicle of Lagash

The Sumerian King List omits any mention of Lagash, even though it was clearly a major power during the period covered by the list. The Royal Chronicle of Lagash appears to be an attempt to remedy that omission, listing the kings of Lagash in the form of a chronicle. Some scholars believe the chronicle to be either a parody of the Sumerian King List or a complete fabrication. 

Royal inscriptions

In general, political figures in the ancient Near East liked to take credit for public works. Temples, buildings and statues built by a ruler are likely to have some sort of inscription mentioning his name. The kings also were sure to record major deeds like battles won, titles acquired, or gods appeased in some form of public inscription. These are very useful in tracking the reign of a ruler.

Year lists

Unlike current calendars, most ancient calendars were based on how long the current ruler had been in power. A year might be "the 5th year in the reign of Hammurabi". As part of this, each royal year was given a title, like "the year Ur was defeated". Most often this reflected a deed of the ruler. The compilation of these years are called date lists.  

Eponym (limmu) lists

In Assyria, a royal official, or Limmu was selected every year of a king's reign. Many copies of these lists have been found. Naturally, details are not always clear cut. There are sometimes too many or few limmu for the length of a king's reign and sometimes the different versions of the Eponym List disagree on a limmu.

Trade, diplomatic, and disbursement records

As is often the case in archaeology, it is everyday records that give the best picture of a civilization. Cuneiform tablets were constantly moving around the ancient Near East, offering alliances (sometimes including daughters for marriage), threatening war, acting as shipping documents for mundane supplies or settling accounts receivable. Most were tossed away after use the way that we would discard unwanted receipts. Fortunately for us, tablets are durable and many are well-preserved even when used as material for wall filler in new construction.

• Amarna Letters

The classic example. A number of cuneiform tablets were found at Amarna in Egypt, the city of the pharaoh Akhenaten. They were written mostly in Akkadian, the diplomatic language of the time. Several named rulers in the region including the kings of Assyria and Babylon. Assuming that the correct kings have been identified, it locks the chronology of the ancient Near East to that of Egypt, at least from the middle of the 2nd Millennium.

Classical

Some data sources are available to us from the classical period

• Berossus

Berossus was a Babylonian astronomer living during the Hellenistic period. He wrote a history of Babylon which has not survived to modern times. Luckily, portions of this work were preserved by other classical writers.

• Canon of Ptolemy or Canon of Kings

This book provides a list of kings starting at around 750 BC in Babylon and forward through the Persian and Roman periods, in an astronomical context. It is used to help define the chronology of the 1st millennium.

• Hebrew Bible

Not having the benefit of being written into clay and buried, the records of the Hebrews have an additional layer of time to work through in being used as a source for chronology. On the other hand, the Hebrews did live pretty much in a territory directly in the crosshairs of Babylon, Assyria, Egypt and the Hittites, giving them a front row seat to actions in the area. Mainly of use in the 1st millennium and with the Assyrian New Kingdom.

Astronomical

• Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa

A record of the movements of Venus during the reign of a king of the First Babylonian Dynasty. Using it, various scholars have proposed dates for the fall of Babylon based on the 56/64 year cycle of Venus. The mentioned recent work suggesting that the fundamental 8 year cycle of Venus is a better metric, lead to the proposal of an "ultra-low" chronology.^[23]

• Eclipses

A number of lunar and solar eclipses have been suggested for use in dating the ancient Near East. Many suffer from the vagueness of the original tablets in showing that an actual eclipse occurred. At that point, it becomes a question of using computer models to show when a given eclipse would have been visible at a site, complicated by difficulties in modeling the slowing rotation of the earth, Delta T. One important event is the Ninevah Eclipse, found in an Assyrian limmu list q.e. "Bur-Sagale of Guzana, revolt in the city of Ashur. In the month Simanu an eclipse of the sun took place." This eclipse is considered to be solidly dated to 15 June 763 BC. Another important event is the Ur III Lunar/Solar Eclipse pair in the reign of Shulgi. Most calculations for dating using eclipses have assumed that the Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa is a legitimate source.

Dendrochronology

Dendrochronology attempts to use the variable growth pattern of trees, expressed in their rings, to build up a chronological timeline. At present, there are no continuous chronologies for the Near East. A floating chronology has been developed using trees in Anatolia for the Bronze and Iron Ages. Until a continuous sequence is developed, the usefulness for improving the chronology of the Ancient Near East is limited. The difficulty in tying the chronology to the modern day lies primarily in the Roman period, for which few good wood samples have been found, and many of those turn out to be imported from outside the Near East.

Radiocarbon dating

As in Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean, radiocarbon dates run one or two centuries earlier than the dates proposed by archaeologists. It is not at all clear which group is right, if either. Mechanisms have been proposed for explaining why radiocarbon dates in the region might be skewed. Equally logical arguments have been made suggesting that the archaeological dates are too late. Time will tell.  The spread of accelerator based carbon dating techniques may help clear up the issue. Another promising front is the dating of lime plaster from structures.  Recently, radiocarbon dates from the final destruction of Ebla have been shown to definitely favour the Middle Chronology (with the fall of Babylon and Aleppo at c. 1595 BCE), and do not seem to fall with the Ultra-Low Chronology (same event at c. 1499 BCE), although it is emphasized not to be seen as a decisive argument. 

Synchronisms                                                                                                                                     Egypt (Africa)

At least as far back as the reign of Thutmose I, Egypt took a strong interest in the ancient Near East. At times they occupied portions of the region, a favor returned in later days by the Assyrians. Some key synchronisms:

• Battle of Kadesh, involving Ramses II of Egypt (in his 5th year of reign) and Muwatalli II of the Hittite empire. Recorded by both Egyptian and Hittite records. 

• Peace treaty between Ramses II of Egypt (in his 21st year of reign) and Hattusili III of the Hittites. Recorded by both Egyptian and Hittite records. 

• Amenhotep III (Amenophis III) marries the daughter of Shuttarna II of Mitanni. There is also a record of messages from the pharaoh to Kadashman-Enlil I of Babylon in the Amarna Letter (EA1-5). Other Amarna letters link Amenhotep III to Burnaburiash II of Babylon (EA6) and Tushratta of Mitanni (EA17-29) as well.

• Akhenaten (aka Amenhotep IV) married the daughter of Tushratta of Mitanni (as did his father Amenhotep III), leaving a number of records on the matter. He also corresponded with Burna-Buriash II of Babylon (EA7-11,15), and Ashuruballit I of Assyria (EA15-16)

Indus Valley

There is much evidence that the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley traded with the region. This is demonstrated by clay seals found at Ur III and in the Persian Gulf.  In addition, if the land of Meluhha does indeed refer to the Indus Valley, then there are extensive trade records ranging from the Akkadian Empire until the Babylonian Dynasty I.

Thera and Eastern Mediterranean

Goods from Greece made their way into the ancient Near East, directly in Anatolia and via the island of Cyprus in the rest of the region and Egypt. A Hittite king, Tudhaliya IV, even captured Cyprus as part of an attempt to enforce a blockade of the Assyrians. 

The eruption of the Thera volcano provides a possible time marker for the region. A large eruption, it would have sent a plume of ash directly over Anatolia and filled the sea in the area with floating pumice. This pumice appeared in Egypt, apparently via trade. Current excavations in the Levant may also add to the timeline. Unfortunately, the exact date of the volcanic eruption is the subject of strong debate between the radiocarbon experts, who place it at latest in 1610 BC and archaeologists, who support a date around 1470 BC.