Ancient Near East (PROA)

The ancient civilizations of Egypt and Syro-Mesopotamia are the foundations of our modern world. To discover and understand these unique cultures constitute an intellectual challenge. It was more than five thousand years ago in the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates where humanity learned to live in cities, invented writing, and where the first civilizations developed. In earlier times the origins of the intellectual and spiritual adventure of man were sought in the Bible or in Classical Antiquity, but the fascinating archaeological discoveries in the Middle East during the past 150 years have revealed the crucial role that these ancient civilizations had in the formation of our common heritage.

The Group “Ancient Near East” is dedicated to the study of the languages, culture and history of the great civilizations that inhabited the regions of the Fertile Crescent from the third millennium BC to the Hellenistic period.