ABSTRACT
We have now seen the progressive growth of Near Eastern states and their history in the course of three millennia (3500-500 bc), from the Urban Revolution to the Achaemenid empire. In this long process, individual villages and transhumant groups gradually became part of larger local systems (or city-states) featuring one city as the main centre of a mainly agro-pastoral hinterland. With time, states turned into regional entities, ruling over several areas and cities. Sometimes, they even became ‘nation’ states, namely, states where political and ethnical identities coincided. Finally, towards the end of this long process, some states grew even larger, becoming the centres of ‘universal’ empires.
