The Ancient History of the Near East - From the Earliest Times to the Battle of Salamis

by Harry Reginald Hall

SOME thirty years after the defeat of Xerxes, Herodotus of Halicarnassus, who had travelled much in the lands of the barbarians as well as in Greece, set himself to write down for the men of his own time and for posterity the events of the great struggle and also to describe, as completely as he could, the long series of events, cause upon cause, effect after effect, which had led up to the final catastrophe. And he began from the beginning of ancient story, from the Trojan War and before that from the rape of Io. For he rightly saw that the Great Event had indeed had its ultimate origin in the furthest recesses of time, when the ancient civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean first evolved themselves out of chaos, and the peoples of the Nile-land, of Western Asia, and of the Aegean first came into contact with each other. So he told first all he knew of the peoples of Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, and also Scythia, and of their history, and intended, we know, to tell the story of Assyria also. Everywhere he tried to trace back the first contact of his own people with these barbarians, and to identify this or that element of culture which his Greeks, whom he knew to be far younger as a nation than the Orientals, owed to the East which they had defeated. And then he gathered all the threads of his various tales together, as Xerxes gathered the peoples themselves together, for the final story of the collision of East and West, and his history marches straight without digression now, to Salamis, Plataeae, and Mykale.
In dealing with the early history of Greece he groped darkly, because, though he had all the varied store of Hellenic legend to his hand, he had no knowledge of what we know now in some degree, the real story of the first development of Greek civilization. We know that Egyptian priests could tell him the history of Cheops and of Rhampsinitos, but that no Greek could tell him that of the strong men who lived before Agamemnon. Nor do we know the true facts of their history as we do that of Cheops or Rhampsinitos, but we may do so one day, when we read the Minoan writing as we can that of ancient Egypt. Till then, we also must grope, but not so darkly as Herodotus, for modern archaeological discovery has told us the development of the heroic culture of Greece, which we can now trace back to its origins, contemporary with those of Egypt itself. So much further beyond the Trojan War and the Phoenician rape of Io can the modern λόγιοι trace the causes of the quarrel of East and West. But until eighty years ago we were as ignorant as Herodotus, and he, with the Biblical history of the Jews beside him, was our sole good authority for the ancient history of the Near East: the Sacred Record and the "profane" ὶστορίης πρύτανις told us all that mattered of what we knew...

Genres: History, Ancient History

611 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 22, 2009

About the author

Harry Reginald Holland Hall, 1873-1930

Published under Harry Reginald Hall; archaeologist and historian; Assistant in, and later Keeper of the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum

Reviews

[ed · Rating 1 out of 5]

Racist victorian

I only got about 25 pages into this pap, and found that the Greeks are many times more intelligent than asiatics,but read on past a couple of inaccuracies and stopped at the phrase "gibbering blacks"

[Anthony · Rating 1 out of 5]

June 20, 2018

A Review by Anthony T. Riggio of the book "The Ancient History of the Near East" by Henry R. Hall

I purchased this book in the Kindle format at a very low price (Thank Goodness). I thought it would provide me with some good background information in understanding this often troubling area of the world based on it's early history. It is a tome of a book and again thankfully it was in the Kindle format and therefore not a strain in holding up the book. I should have gotten the message when the author initially described it as a summary of more extensive studies of this region. Also I should have checked the copyright date of this book not the publishing date. The copyright date is 1913 and the publishing (Kindle) date was 2018.


As I "muscled" my way through almost a third of the book, I kept asking myself why am I reading this book? Hall, the author (by now dead) explained that this was a "concise" review of both the prehistoric learning's from artifacts and art but not on the early writings which there are none known. It tried to make the reader understand from a pre historic names of people and places resulting from archeological findings some of the cultural aspects of life in Egypt and Mesopotamia. There must have been a ton of information not referenced or cited by the author, he drew upon to list name and families and locations no longer in existence. The flow of these names and places were both mind numbing and exhaustive.

When the author commented on the Mesopotamia area, It was a little bit better because I have some background based on reading other historical works including the Old Testament but again the flow of names and places no longer in existence was choking and nearly gagged me several times.

I complained to my wife that I am reading a book impossible to follow either chronologically or through a provided horizontal time line. She asked me why am I reading it. I said I am learning something about the bronze age and the evolution of metallurgical weapons, including the beginnings of the iron age. I learned that social and commercial interchange happened thousands of years before of recorded history and that there was even racial prejudices, e.g., the northern Egyptians looked down upon the southern Egyptians and they were the Nubian's.

I gave this book one star, even though I only accomplished 35% of the book because maybe someone a lot smarter than me, or perhaps schooled in pre-history of both the Egyptians or those people from the fertile triangle would find some enjoyment Also, the author (probably RIP) did demonstrate a great deal of scholarship as he tried to make some sense of man's development. I just was not for me and I would never recommend trying to read it. For those who gave this book five stars, God bless you and I admire your intelligence (way above mine).

A difficult read, You better have great background to enjoy 620+ pages of dry reading with names of people impossible to decipher. 200 pages was enough for this reviewer.

[Naga Sabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A complete and detailed description of the ancient cultures of the Near East. I really recommend this book. It is very entertaining and informative for anyone who is interested in cultures like Assyrian, Egyptian, Babylonian and many others, their relationship, influence and history.

[L.K.Mirza · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book for the writing, but kept getting distracted by how much we have learned since it was written.