ABSTRACT
The most useful general history of the ancient Near East which has appeared in recent years is that published in the series Fischer Welt-geschichte. Volumes 2-4 cover the ancient Orient. So far only the first, The Near East: the early civilizations, by A. Falkenstein and others has been published in English translation (Weidenfeld, 1967). For the period after 1600 b.c., H. R. Hall, The Ancient History of the Near East (Methuen, 11th edn 1952) is still the most useful for the general reader. The first two volumes of the Cambridge Ancient History are now being rewritten and expanded into four volumes, the first of which has appeared (Camb., 1970); the separate chapters are available as single fascicles. In a project of this kind, involving a large number of scholars, there are inevitably overlaps and a certain unevenness in the nature and quality of the contributions; but they are nevertheless indispensable by reason of their full bibliographies and because they embody the results of the most recent scholarship in all fields. Vols 3 and 4, dealing with the Assyrian Empire and Achaemenid Persia (Camb., 1925-6), still contain much of value.
