| Translator's Preface | |
| Foreword | |
| Abbreviations | |
| The Term "Ancient Orient" and Its Demarcation | p. 1 |
| The Scene | p. 6 |
| Peoples and Cultures in the Ancient Orient | p. 12 |
| The Ancient Oriental Cultures before 3000: The Sumerians | p. 15 |
| The Semites in Western Asia | p. 18 |
| Hurrians and Urartians | p. 24 |
| Peoples and Cultures in Western Iran | p. 25 |
| Asia Minor: Proto-Hattians, Luwians, and Hittites | p. 28 |
| The Coalescence of Peoples | p. 29 |
| Writing and Systems of Writing | p. 31 |
| Sumerian Writing and Cuneiform | p. 31 |
| The Hittite Hieroglyphs (the Luwian Pictograms) | p. 37 |
| The Phoenician Alphabetic Script and Its Predecessors | p. 38 |
| Alphabetic Scripts in Cuneiform: Ugaritic and the Old Persian Script | p. 40 |
| The History of Ancient Western Asia: The Historical Sources | p. 42 |
| Chronology: King Lists, Date Lists, and Eponym Lists | p. 42 |
| Sources for Political History | p. 46 |
| The Early Sumerian Period and Early Dynastic Period | p. 47 |
| The Empire of Akkad and the Neo-Sumerian Period | p. 48 |
| The Beginnings of Assyria and Its Trade Colonies | p. 49 |
| The Old Babylonian Period | p. 50 |
| The Ancient Orient between 1530 and 1000 | p. 53 |
| Western Asia from 1000 to 750 and the Rise of the Assyrian Empire | p. 56 |
| The Neo-Assyrian Empire: Its Zenith and Decline: Tiglath-Pileser III and the Sargonids | p. 57 |
| The Neo-Babylonian Chaldean Empire (626-539) | p. 59 |
| Persians, Macedonians, Greeks, and Parthians in Western Asia | p. 60 |
| State and Society | p. 63 |
| The Monarchy | p. 63 |
| The Divinization of the Monarch | p. 67 |
| City, State, and Administration | p. 69 |
| Society and Social Groups | p. 71 |
| The Army and Warfare | p. 82 |
| Nutrition and Agriculture | p. 87 |
| Fishing and Fowling; Hunting | p. 89 |
| Animal Husbandry | p. 91 |
| Farming and Gardening | p. 97 |
| Artisanry | p. 104 |
| The Term; Organization and Instruction; The School | p. 104 |
| Spinning, Weaving, Sewing, and Embroidery | p. 106 |
| The Preparation of Hides: Leather | p. 107 |
| The Use of Reeds: Basketry | p. 109 |
| Woodwork: Carpentry, Joining, and Furniture Making | p. 110 |
| Mud and Clay: Bricks, Ceramics, and Miniature Sculpture | p. 112 |
| Stone for Devices, Monumental and Miniature Sculpture, and Buildings | p. 115 |
| The Smelting and Refining of Metals | p. 117 |
| Trade and Commerce | p. 119 |
| Roads and Highways | p. 119 |
| Water Routes | p. 120 |
| Basic Terms of Trade: Buying and Selling, Money | p. 123 |
| The Organization of Trade: The Merchant | p. 125 |
| The Merchandise | p. 128 |
| Law | p. 131 |
| Legal Prescriptions and Law Codes | p. 131 |
| Documents and Other Legal Sources: Legal Praxis | p. 138 |
| Judges and the Judiciary | p. 141 |
| Sumerian and Babylonian Science | p. 145 |
| The Sumerian Science of Lists as a Science of Order | p. 145 |
| Bilingual Lexical Lists in Ebla and Babylonia: Tri- and Quadrilingual Lists in Asia Minor and Syria | p. 148 |
| Further Functions of Babylonian Word and Name Lists: Inventory Rolls and Compilations of Various Sorts | p. 151 |
| Lists of Analogous Verbal Expressions | p. 153 |
| The Babylonian Science of Omens | p. 153 |
| Theology, Historiography, and Geography | p. 158 |
| The Beginnings of Natural Sciences | p. 160 |
| The Scientific Study of Humanity: Medicine and Pharmacology | p. 162 |
| Mathematics and Astronomy | p. 165 |
| Religion and Magic | p. 173 |
| Basic Problems | p. 173 |
| The Gods of the Sumerians | p. 175 |
| The Gods of the Babylonians and Assyrians | p. 177 |
| God and Mankind: Sin and Ethics, Theodicy, Life after Death | p. 184 |
| Cults and Offerings: Priests, Temple Servants, Prophets | p. 188 |
| Magic, Demons, Evil Powers, Sorcery | p. 198 |
| Death and Burial | p. 201 |
| Literature | p. 203 |
| Overview: Tablet Series: Prose and Poetry | p. 203 |
| Royal Inscriptions | p. 206 |
| Myths and Epics | p. 209 |
| Wisdom Literature and Humorous Poetry | p. 221 |
| Hymns, Prayers, Laments, and Incantations | p. 225 |
| Scientific Literature | p. 230 |
| Building, Art, and Music | p. 232 |
| Cultic Buildings and Palaces: Form and Decoration | p. 232 |
| Sculpture and Modeling, Inlaid Work, and Miniature | p. 238 |
| Music and Musical Instruments | p. 243 |
| Concluding Observations and Remarks | p. 247 |
| Selected Bibliography | p. 251 |
| Index | p. 255 |
| Map of the Near East up to the Persian Period | p. 263 |
| Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved. |
