This is a project to better organize information in articles related to the Ancient Near East. This page and its subpages contain suggestions. If you would like to help, please inquire on the talk page.

Contents 1 Scope/Goals 2 Related WikiProjects 3 Participants 4 Key articles 5 Maps 6 Categories 7 Templates 8 "Near East"/"Middle East"/"Orient"= 9 Orthography 10 Chronology 11 ANE pages needing cleanup etc

[edit] Scope/Goals

• standardize chronology (short chronology)
• standardize spellings (Transliterating cuneiform languages))
• unify scattered articles (many {{1911}} articles remain that should be updated and wikified.)
• assign Categories consistently

[edit] Related WikiProjects

• Wikipedia:WikiProject History
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Ancient Egypt
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Middle Eastern military history task force
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Assyria
• Wikipedia:WikiProject_Writing_systems: collaborate for questions of cuneiform /hieroglyphic transliteration

[edit] Participants

[edit] Key articles

• Assyriology
  • Chronology of the Ancient Near East
  • Cuneiform (script)
  • Transliterating cuneiform languages
  • see also Wikipedia:WikiProject_Writing_systems, Wikipedia:WikiProject_Linguistics

• Ancient Near East
  • Near Eastern archaeology
• Fertile Crescent
• History of the Middle East
  • Ancient Egypt (go to Wikipedia:WikiProject Ancient Egypt)
  • Levant, Canaan, Southern Levant
    • Ugarit, Kanesh, Aleppo, Gaza, Kingdom of Israel, Philistines
  • Ancient Mesopotamia
    • Sumer, Akkadian Empire, Babylonia, Assyrian Empire, Elam, Amorite, Mitanni
  • Ancient Anatolia
    • Hattians, Hittites, Hurrian, Arzawa, Troy, Luwian, Lydian, Urartu, Mysia, Phrygia
  • Minoan civilization, Mycenaean civilization, History of Crete, History of Cyprus, Sea Peoples
• Pre-Islamic Arabia

• Religions of the Ancient Near East
  • Ancient Semitic religion

• Ancient Civilizations (A list of Civilization Worldwide)

v • d • e Timeline of the Ancient Near East

[edit] Maps

• Image:Ancient Orient.png
• Image:Ancient Egypt.png
• Image:Nomes of Ancient Egypt.png
• Image:Mesopotamia.jpg (ugly)
• Image:Elam Map.jpg
• Image:Anatolia composite NASA.png (unlabelled satellite image)
• Image:Hitt Egypt Perseus.png (unfinished)
• Image:CanaanMap.jpg (ugly)
• Image:Map Land of Israel.jpg
• Image:Ancient Egypt.png
• Image:Troas.png

[edit] Categories

Category:Ancient Near East

• Category:Ancient Egypt --> Wikipedia:WikiProject Ancient Egypt
  • Category:Dynasties of Ancient Egypt
  • Category:Egyptian mythology
  • Category:Ancient Egyptians
• Category:Mesopotamia
  • Category:Sumer
  • Category:Sumerian mythology
  • Category:Babylonia
  • Category:Assyria
• Category:Levant
• Category:Anatolia
  • Category:Hittite Empire
  • Category:Hittite kings
• Category:Crete
• Category:Cyprus
• Category:Ancient peoples
• Category:Ancient history

[edit] Templates

• {{WikiProject Ancient Near East}}: The project banner, to be placed on the talk pages of all relevant articles.
• {{Ancient Mesopotamia}}
• {{Ancient Near East}} (timeline)
• {{History of Anatolia}} (timeline)

[edit] "Near East"/"Middle East"/"Orient"=

It seems that "Near East" is the preferred name now (googlehits "Ancient NE/ME/Orient": ca. 25:5:1).

The standard should be to use "Near East" in article titles and to create redirects for "Middle East" and "Orient".

[edit] Orthography

Further information: Hittite cuneiform, Unicode cuneiform, and List of cuneiform signs

• Spelling of royal names in king lists (and on articles on individual kings)?
  • Sumerian king list
  • Kings of Assyria
  • Kings of Babylonia
  • Hittite kings: use the stem form, not the nominative singular, i.e. Hattusili, not Hattusilis.

other articles that include king lists (excluding Egypt): Lagash, Mitanni, Kingdom of Israel

[edit] Chronology

Note: the most important thing is that you don't simply copy dates from some book or off the web. pre-1000 BC dating is very complicated, and you should at the very least be aware whether your dates are middle chronology or short chronology. Even then dates should be attributed (where were they taken from), and possibly given together with a justification what evidence they are based on.

• the traditional standard is middle chronology, and most sources except for the most recent ones will likely have this.
• you are encouraged to convert middle chronology to short chronology dates (today considered more likely correct). The most important thing, however, is to make clear which standard you are using.

[edit] ANE pages needing cleanup etc

• See Wikipedia:WikiProject Ancient Near East/Cleanup listing