It is a peninsula bound by the Black Sea to the north, Georgia to the north-east, the Armenian Highland to the east, Mesopotamia to the south-east, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Aegean Sea to the west.

Under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the East by the Armenian Highland, and the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia.

Eastern Anatolia, along side Mesopotamia and the Levant, is also a heart region for the Neolithic revolution, one of the earliest areas in which humans domesticated plants and animals.

Anatolia is known as the birthplace of minted coinage ( as opposed to unminted coinage, which first appears in Mesopotamia at a much earlier date ) as a medium of exchange, some time in the 7th century BC in Lydia.

One such site featured in her books is the temple site of Abu Simbel in her book Death on the Nile, as well as the great detail in which she describes life at the dig site in her book Murder in Mesopotamia.

: Christie ’ s Murder in Mesopotamia is the most archaeologically influenced of all her novels as it is set in the Middle East at an archaeological dig site and associated expedition house.

The oldest undisputed evidence of the use of astrology as an integrated system of knowledge is therefore attributed to the records of the first dynasty of Mesopotamia ( 1950 – 1651 BCE ).

Accounting is thousands of years old ; the earliest accounting records, which date back more than 7, 000 years, were found in Mesopotamia ( Assyrians ).

" Mount " Megiddo is a Tell on which ancient forts were built to guard the main highway, the Via Maris, which connected Ancient Egypt with Mesopotamia.

The oldest known canals were irrigation canals, built in Mesopotamia circa 4000 BC, in what is now modern day Iraq and Syria.

In the Hebrew Bible, the prophet Abraham is stated to have originally been from " Ur of the Chaldees " ( Ur Kasdim ); if this city is to be identified with the Sumerian Ur, it would be within the original Chaldean homeland south of the Euphrates, although Chaldeans were not extant in Mesopotamia at the time of Abraham.

Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia.

It is also believed that the region had early trade contacts with Mesopotamia.

* 244 – Emperor Gordian III is murdered by mutinous soldiers in Zaitha ( Mesopotamia ).

The most recent study on the ante-Aesopic fables or the fables in ancient Near Eastern languages by Akimoto discovers the rich fable traditions in ancient Mesopotamia and Anatolia ; for example, the Ninurta-uballitsu Assyrian fable collection which is the oldest known fable collection with the compiler's autograph and the completion date 883 BCE, the Hurrian-Hittite bilingual fable collections are embedded in a long myth and the storyteller tells after each fable his / her own moral.

On the death of Sarah, Abraham purchases Machpelah ( modern Hebron ) for a family tomb and sends his servant to Mesopotamia to find among his relations a wife for Isaac, and Rebekah is chosen.

It is in the agricultural world of ancient Mesopotamia, the Egyptian Nile, and in the earlier planting-culture systems that the Goddess is the dominant mythic form.

Notable among them are: ( 1 ) whether the word " eden " means a steppe or plain, or instead means " delight " or some similar term ; ( 2 ) whether the garden was in the east of Eden, or Eden itself was in the east, or whether " east " is not the correct word at all and the Hebrew means the garden was " of old "; ( 3 ) whether the river in Genesis 2: 10 " follows from " or " rises in " Eden, and the relationship, if any, of the four rivers to each other ; and ( 4 ) whether Cush, where one of the four rivers flows, means Ethiopia ( in Africa ) or Elam ( just east of Mesopotamia ).

The Southern Levant is the southern portion of the geographical region bordering the Mediterranean between Egypt and Mesopotamia ( the Levant ).

Beyond the plateau is the Syrian desert, separating the Levant from Mesopotamia.

To the southwest is Egypt, to the northeast Mesopotamia.

This primitive writing is placed slightly earlier than premitive writings of Sumerians of Mesopotamia, dated c. 3100 BCE.

Mesopotamia can claim the earliest cities, particularly Eridu, Uruk, and Ur.

The earliest known written magical incantations come from ancient Mesopotamia ( modern Iraq ), where they have been found inscribed on various cuneiform clay-tablets excavated by archaeologists from the city of Uruk, and dated to between the 5th and 4th centuries BC.

By then, the Sumerian Peoples of south Mesopotamia were all organized into a variety of independent City-states, such as Ur and Uruk, which by around 26th century BC had begun to coalesce into larger political units.

Mesopotamia housed historically important cities such as Uruk, Nippur, Nineveh, Assur and Babylon, as well as major territorial states such as the city of Ma-asesblu, the Akkadian kingdom, the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the various Assyrian empires.

The oldest pictorial record of the Oud dates back to the Uruk period in Southern Mesopotamia over 5000 years ago.

The most notable architectural remains from early Mesopotamia are the temple complexes at Uruk from the 4th millennium BC, temples and palaces from the Early Dynastic period sites in the Diyala River valley such as Khafajah and Tell Asmar, the Third Dynasty of Ur remains at Nippur ( Sanctuary of Enlil ) and Ur ( Sanctuary of Nanna ), Middle Bronze Age remains at Syrian-Turkish sites of Ebla, Mari, Alalakh, Aleppo and Kultepe, Late Bronze Age palaces at Bogazkoy ( Hattusha ), Ugarit, Ashur and Nuzi, Iron Age palaces and temples at Assyrian ( Kalhu / Nimrud, Khorsabad, Nineveh ), Babylonian ( Babylon ), Urartian ( Tushpa / Van Kalesi, Cavustepe, Ayanis, Armavir, Erebuni, Bastam ) and Neo-Hittite sites ( Karkamis, Tell Halaf, Karatepe ).

The armies of Babylonia under Hammurabi were well-disciplined, and conquered the city-states of Isin, Eshnunna, Uruk, Mari and eventually Assyria after a protracted struggle with the Assyrian king Ishme-Dagan for control of Mesopotamia.

Commonly thought of as a form of paganism, Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic, worshipping over 2100 different deities, many of which were associated with a specific city or state within Mesopotamia such as Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Assur, Nineveh, Ur, Uruk, Mari and Babylon.

The first people at Eridu brought with them the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia and are identified with the Ubaid period, but it is not known whether or not these were Sumerians ( associated later with the Uruk period ).

Hegemony, which came to be conferred by the Nippur priesthood, alternated among a number of competing dynasties, hailing from Sumerian city-states traditionally including Kish, Uruk, Ur, Adab and Akshak, as well as some from outside of southern Mesopotamia, such as Awan, Hamazi, and Mari, until the Akkadians, under Sargon of Akkad, overtook the area.

Following this period, the region of Mesopotamia seems to have come under the sway of a Sumerian conqueror from Adab, Lugal-Ane-mundu, ruling over Uruk, Ur, and Lagash.

The most notable architectural remains from early Mesopotamia are the temple complexes at Uruk from the 4th millennium BC, temples and palaces from the Early Dynastic period sites in the Diyala River valley such as Khafajah and Tell Asmar, the Third Dynasty of Ur remains at Nippur ( Sanctuary of Enlil ) and Ur ( Sanctuary of Nanna ), Middle Bronze Age remains at Syrian-Turkish sites of Ebla, Mari, Alalakh, Aleppo and Kultepe, Late Bronze Age palaces at Bogazkoy ( Hattusha ), Ugarit, Ashur and Nuzi, Iron Age palaces and temples at Assyrian ( Kalhu / Nimrud, Khorsabad, Nineveh ), Babylonian ( Babylon ), Urartian ( Tushpa / Van Kalesi, Cavustepe, Ayanis, Armavir, Erebuni, Bastam ) and Neo-Hittite sites ( Karkamis, Tell Halaf, Karatepe ).

Uruk gave its name to the Uruk period, the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia spanning c. 4000 to 3100 BC, succeeded by the Jemdet Nasr period of Sumer proper.

When the Seleucids lost Mesopotamia to the Parthians in 141 BC, Uruk again entered a period of decline from which it never recovered.

" In Uruk, in southern Mesopotamia, Sumerian civilization seems to have reached its creative peak.

Later, in the Late Uruk period, its sphere of influence extended over all Sumer and beyond to external colonies in upper Mesopotamia and Syria.

While earlier scholars such as Jerome ( 4th century ) had identified Erech with the Syrian city of Edessa ( now within Turkey ), the modern consensus is that it refers to the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, in south Mesopotamia.

The oldest pictorial record of a lute dates back to the Uruk period in Southern Mesopotamia ( modern Nasiriyah city ), over 5000 years ago on a cylinder seal acquired by Dr. Dominique Collon and currently housed at the British Museum.

Uruk in ancient Sumer ( Mesopotamia ) is one of the world's oldest known walled cities.

* c. 3100 BC: Anu Ziggurat and White Temple in Uruk, Mesopotamia ( modern Warka, Iraq ) are built.

* In the city of Uruk, southern Mesopotamia, groups of tokens representing commercial transactions begin to be enclosed in hollow clay balls and kept in archives.

Uruk in ancient Sumer ( Mesopotamia ) is one of the world's oldest known walled cities.

The earliest levels ( 22 – 17 in the excavations conducted by Le Brun, 1978 ) exhibit pottery that has no equivalent in Mesopotamia, but for the succeeding period, the excavated material allows identification with the culture of Sumer of the Uruk period.