Includes bibliographical references (p. 355-356) and index.

Introducing the Middle East -- The Fertile Crescent: Birthplace of Agriculture -- Mesopotamia: The Cradle of Civilization -- Power Struggles: Kingdoms at War -- Masters of the Known World: The Age of Empires -- Under Occupation: Hellenistic and Roman Conquerors -- Search for Origins: The Rediscovery of the Middle East.

"Today, the politically volatile Middle East sits above two-thirds of the planet's oil reserves and holds our attention as never before. However, the ancient Middle East was just as important to the world of its day, for it was here that permanent settlement first took root, and the first complex societies emerged onto the world stage. These cultures produced the earliest agriculture, metalworking and writing systems, as well as the earliest centralized governments and legal systems, priesthoods and kings, and large-scale organized warfare." "The Middle East: The Cradle of Civilization Revealed synthesizes the latest research and information from a range of disciplines to tell the compelling story, from the Neolithic period through the Arab conquest, of how a group of linguistically disparate, nomadic tribes responded to specific social, economic and environmental factors to form the world's first complex societies."--BOOK JACKET.