ABSTRACT
Before a discussion of the contacts between Europe and Asia can be undertaken, some caveats must be offered. Although Herodotus made a clear distinction between Europe and Asia, the boundaries between these two continents are not strict, and they do not always separate into two distinct cultural areas. This is especially true for the areas bordering on the Aegean Sea which are connected by the Greek islands. The west coast of Anatolia therefore often belonged in antiquity to the cultural sphere of Greece, and many scholars would regard the entirety of western Asiatic history before Islam as part of European history. As this volume treats Asia in its modern geographic definition, I will consider Mesopotamian and eastern Mediterranean history as part of western Asian history.
