The Ancient Near East has been described as the "cradle of civilization" because so many inventions which we now take for granted originated there, including writing, monumental sculpture, wheel-made pottery and probably glass. The British Museum has a superb collection of artefacts from this area, which ranges from Turkey in the west to Iran and Central Asia in the east, and from the Caucasus in the north to the borders of Egypt and the Persian Gulf in the South. This book presents a selection of these artefacts, dating from the 8th millennium BC to the advent of Hellenism under Alexander the Great in the west, and to the rise of Islam in the 7th century AD in the east, and views them against their historical and cultural background. They include painted pottery, figurines, cylinder seals and stone amulets from the earliest village cultures before 3000 BC; artefacts from graves at Alaca Huyuk in Turkey and the Royal Cemetery at Ur, including the famous royal standard; the sculpted reliefs from the Assyrian palaces of the 1st millennium BC, and the Sasanian metalwork of the early centuries AD.