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Map of Mesopotamia
Many aspects of our modern enterprise economy have their roots in the early civilizations of Mesopotamia.
We present here evidence of some of the oldest yet sophisticated
economic activity documented by written records.
Since the dawn of civilization near the end of the 4th millennium BCE many cultures have occupied the Near East. A chronology of the "first half of history" (ca. 3000-500 BCE) is given to provide context.
| Mesopotamia | Egypt | Israel/ Palestine |
Anatolia | |
| 3500-3100 BC | Uruk | |||
| 3100-2900 BC | Jemdet-Nasr | 3100-2686 Early Dynastic | 3150-2200 Early Bronze | |
| 2900-2700 BC | Early Dynastic I | |||
| 2700-2500 BC | Early Dynastic II | |||
| 2500-2300 BC | Early Dynastic III | 2686-2200 Old Kingdom | ||
| 2300-2150 BC | Sardonic/ Akkadian |
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| 2150-2100 BC | Guti | 2200-2040 1st Intermediate | ||
| 2100-2000 BC | Ur III | 2040-1786 Middle Kingdom | ||
| 2000-1600 BC 2000-1700 BC |
Old Babylonian Old Assyrian |
2000-1200 Middle Bronze II | ||
| 1600-1500 BC | Dark Age | 1786-1558 2nd Intermediate | 1700-1595 Hittite Old Kingdom | |
| 1600-1050 BC | Kassite/Middle Babylonian | 1558-1085 New Kingdom | 1100"Conquest" | 1375-1200 Hittite New Kingdom/ Empire |
| 1400-1000 BC | Middle Assyrian | |||
| 1000-626 BC | Neo-Assyrian | 1050-925 United Kingdom | ||
| 625-539 BC | Neo-Babylonian | 586 Exile | ||
| 539-330 BC | Persian/ Achaemenid |
539 Return | ||
| 330-65 BC | Alexander and Seleucid successors |
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| 250 BC-230AD | Parthians (Arsacid) |
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| 230-650 AD | Sassanian | |||
| 650 AD-present | Arab |