ABSTRACT
As the ancient history of the Near East is still little known to the general reader, who usually associates only classical Greece (fifth century BC) with ‘ancient history’, it might be useful to touch upon some of the most important events which together developed, in the course of some 3000 years (from the first literate societies), into the complex historical tapestry within which the history of the Kingdom of Ararat (Hebrew) or Urartu (Assyrian) unfolded. That kingdom had collapsed by the sixth century BC, 150 years before the golden age of Athens.
