Editing Mesopotamia (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Mesopotamia|Prehistory of Mesopotamia}}
{{Further|History of Iraq|History of the Middle East|Chronology of the ancient Near East}}
[[File:Statue Gudea Met 59.2.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|One of 27 [[Statues of Gudea]], a ruler around 2090 BC]]

The prehistory of the [[Ancient Near East]] begins in the [[Lower Paleolithic]] period. Therein, writing emerged with a pictographic script, [[Proto-cuneiform]], in the Uruk IV period ({{circa|late 4th millennium BC}}). The documented record of actual historical events—and the ancient history of lower Mesopotamia—commenced in the early-third millennium BC with cuneiform records of early dynastic kings. This entire history ends with either the arrival of the [[Achaemenid Empire]] in the late 6th century BC or with the Muslim conquest and the establishment of the [[Caliphate]] in the late 7th century AD, from which point the region came to be known as [[History of Iraq|Iraq]]. In the long span of this period, Mesopotamia housed some of the world's most ancient highly developed, and socially complex states.

The region was one of the [[River valley civilization|four riverine civilizations]] where [[writing]] was invented, along with the [[Nile]] valley in [[Ancient Egypt]], the [[Indus Valley civilization]] in the [[Indian subcontinent]], and the [[Yellow River]] in [[Ancient China]]. Mesopotamia housed historically important cities such as [[Uruk]], [[Nippur]], [[Nineveh]], [[Assur]] and [[Babylon]], as well as major territorial states such as the city of [[Eridu]], the Akkadian kingdoms, the [[Third Dynasty of Ur]], and the various [[Assyria]]n empires. Some of the important historical Mesopotamian leaders were [[Ur-Nammu]] (king of Ur), [[Sargon of Akkad]] (who established the Akkadian Empire), [[Hammurabi]] (who established the Old Babylonian state), [[Ashur-uballit I]] and [[Tiglath-Pileser I]] (who established the Assyrian Empire).

Scientists analysed [[DNA]] from the 8,000-year-old remains of early farmers found at an ancient graveyard in [[Germany]]. They compared the genetic signatures to those of modern populations and found similarities with the DNA of people living in today's [[Turkey]] and [[Iraq]].<ref name=BBC1>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11729813|title=Migrants from the Near East 'brought farming to Europe'|access-date=10 December 2010|publisher=BBC|date=10 November 2010|archive-date=13 December 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213144452/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11729813|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Periodization===
[[File:Jarmo to Ubaid 7000-4500.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|After early starts in [[Jarmo]] (red dot, {{circa|7500 BC}}), the civilization of Mesopotamia in the 7th–5th millennium BC was centered around the [[Hassuna culture]] in the north, the [[Halaf culture]] in the northwest, the [[Samarra culture]] in central Mesopotamia and the [[Ubaid culture]] in the southeast, which later expanded to encompass the whole region.]]
[[File:Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia c. 1450 BC.png|thumb|A map of 15th century BC, showing the core territory of [[Assyria]] with its two major cities [[Assur]] and [[Nineveh]] wedged between [[Babylonia]] downstream. The states of [[Mitanni]] and [[Hittite Empire|Hatti]] are upstream.]]
* Pre- and protohistory
** [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic A]] (10,000–8700 BC)
** [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] (8700–6800 BC)
** [[Jarmo]] (7500–5000 BC)
** [[Hassuna culture|Hassuna]] (~6000 BC)
** [[Samarra culture|Samarra]] (~5700–4900 BC)
** [[Halaf culture]]s (~6000–5300 BC)
** [[Ubaid period]] (~6500–4000 BC)
** [[Uruk period]] (~4000–3100 BC)
** [[Jemdet Nasr period]] (~3100–2900 BC)<ref>{{citation |last=Pollock |first=Susan |title=Ancient Mesopotamia. The Eden that never was |page=2 |year=1999 |series=Case Studies in Early Societies |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-57568-3}}.</ref>
* Early Bronze Age
** [[Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)|Early Dynastic period]] (~2900–2350 BC)
** [[Akkadian Empire]] (~2350–2100 BC)
** [[Third Dynasty of Ur]] (2112–2004 BC)
* Middle Bronze Age
** [[Isin-Larsa period]] (19th to 18th century BC)
** [[First Babylonian dynasty]] (18th to 17th century BC)
** [[Minoan eruption]] ({{circa|1620 BC}})
* Late Bronze Age
** [[Old Assyrian Empire|Old Assyrian period]] (16th to 11th century BC)
** [[Middle Assyrian Empire|Middle Assyrian period]] ({{circa|1365–1076 BC}})
** [[Kassites]] in [[Babylon]], ({{circa|1595–1155 BC}})
** [[Late Bronze Age collapse]] (12th to 11th century BC)
* [[Iron Age]]
** [[Syro-Hittite states]] (11th to 7th century BC)
** [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] (911 BC – 612 BC)
** [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]] (626 BC – 539 BC)
* [[Classical antiquity]]
** [[Fall of Babylon]] (539 BC)
** [[Persian Babylonia|Achaemenid Babylonia]], [[Persian Assyria|Achaemenid Assyria]] (539 BC – 331 BC)
** [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid]] Mesopotamia (4th to 3rd century BC)
** [[Parthian Empire|Parthian Babylonia]] (141 BC – 226 AD)
** [[Osroene]] (2nd century BC to 3rd century AD)
** [[Adiabene]] (1st to 2nd century AD)
** [[Hatra]] (1st to 2nd century AD)
** [[Mesopotamia (Roman province)|Roman Mesopotamia]] (2nd to 7th century AD), [[Assyria (Roman province)|Roman Assyria]] (2nd century AD)
* [[Late Antiquity]]
** [[Asōristān]] (3rd to 7th century AD)
** [[Muslim conquest of Persia|Muslim conquest]] (mid-7th century AD)