Vero - Wikipedia:WikiProject Ancient Near East
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This WikiProject, WikiProject Ancient Near East, aims to organize an effort to expand and improve Wikipedia's coverage of the history of the ancient Near East and related topics. This page and its subpages contain suggestions and guidelines to help editors. If you would like to help, please inquire on the talk page. New members are always welcome; you can join at the recruitment page.
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Assessment and curation
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Participants
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Recognized content
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Popular pages
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Tasks and areas of attention
Topics and areas in need of improvement
Members of the project are welcome to add topics, articles or general areas relating to the ancient Near East to the list below if they consider them in need of more attention from the project at large. Please provide a motivation and the date in which you added a topic/article/area if you add to the list.
Chronology
- Note that the whole short/long/middle/etc chronology controversy only affects dates BEFORE the Fall of Babylon. The date of the fall is used to anchor the floating chronology that extends pretty solidly back to the Akkadian Empire. So if you see a Neo-Assyrian etc article listing Short or Middle chronology you can clean that up. I've been doing that when I edit one of those articles. Caveat - you can make a case for a few rulers/events right around the Fall being affected such as very early Kassite or 1st Sealand rulers. Use your judgment on those. The steam has pretty much come out of the whole ANE chronology battle, especially with the whole basis ie the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa etc now looking much softer. What I have been doing when I write or reboot an article is to set it solely in Middle Chronology (Babylon falls 1595 BC), not that I think it is correct but because it is important to have a common basis across ANE articles. I've been using the format "c. 1844-1831 BC (MC)" so if someone REALLY wants to read about the whole chronology battle there is a wikilink for them to follow.Ploversegg (talk) 20:59, 3 February 2025 (UTC)
- The chronology used in articles needs to be standardized to the middle chronology where applicable (or use the most commonly cited dates). Conflicting dates in other chronologies should also be provided, preferrably in a note or something to that effect to avoid clutter. Ichthyovenator (talk) 12:59, 13 August 2020 (UTC)
Tertiary Sources
- A number of the early/prominent ANE articles were largely cribbed from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. We have been weeding that out over the years but there are still a few articles that are heavily infested. To my knowledge the main offenders are Babylon, Ur, Nippur, and Lagash, though there may be non-site articles equally problematic that I am unaware of. If someone felt inspired a good task would be to rewrite/reref the bad parts of one.Ploversegg (talk) 12:51, 31 March 2023 (UTC)
- We are starting to see the overuse of Tertiary Sources like "World History Encyclopedia" and "Encyclopedia Iranica". Tertiary Sources should always be a last resort. They are third hand information. Always strive for primary or even secondary sources first.Ploversegg (talk) 12:51, 31 March 2023 (UTC)
Oriental Institute links
It appears that when the Oriental Institute recently changed its name (I know) their web site changeover broke some OI paper links. Some are ok, some are not. Oriental Institute Publication series appears to be all bad while Oriental Institute Communications work. I actually powered up and emailed them. Consider this a heads up about possible broken links and maybe having to do a ugly link fixing thing, hopefully not. Bonus - if you go to the new doc location [1] the download there just wedges.Ploversegg (talk) 17:59, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
Unlocated cities
It amused me to refresh all the notable "lost cities" articles I could remember so I did Akkad, Akshak, Kesh, Ekallatum, Irisaĝrig, Kazallu, Diniktum, Hamazi, Lagaba, Rapiqum, Dūr-Abī-ešuḫ, Tummal, Larak, Opis, Šimānum, Garšana, Tikunani, Urum, Awan, Karaḫar, Marhaši, Apiak, and Washukanni. And Simurrum which I'm not 100% sure was a site vs area but since it was destroyed at least 9 times seems notable. And I might as well mention Karkar and Enegi which I didn't work on. I feel like I've forgotten a couple though so if this comes to you let me known or feel free. Thanks.Ploversegg (talk) 19:45, 14 June 2023 (UTC)
Template:Collapse top NOTABLE SITES
- Cities of the ancient Near East
- Hattusa, Troy, Çatalhöyük, Sam'al, Kanesh
- Susa, Persepolis, Anshan, Godin Tepe
- Alalah, Ebla, Ugarit, Hazor, Megiddo
- Jemdet Nasr, Kish, Babylon, Nippur, Isin
- Lagash, Uruk, Larsa, Ur, Akkad
- Eridu, Urkesh, Nagar, Nineveh, Ashur, Mari,
HISTORY
- Sumer, Babylonia, History of Sumer
- Assyria, Neo-Assyrian Empire, Babylonia and Assyria
- Hittites, History of the Hittites, Syro-Hittite states
- Hattians, Elam, Hurrians, Mitanni
- History of Cyprus, History of Crete, Pre-Islamic Arabia
- History of the Levant, Canaan, Arzawa, Urartu
- Minoan civilization, Mycenaean civilization, Lydia
NOTABLE PEOPLE
- Sumerian king list, Short chronology timeline
- List of Assyrian kings, List of Kings of Babylon
- List of Hittite kings, List of rulers of Elam
- Lugal-zage-si, Sargon of Akkad, Naram-Sin of Akkad
- Gudea, Ur-Nammu, Shulgi, Hammurabi, Shutruk-Nakhunte
- Mursili I, Tushratta, Shalmaneser I, Hattusili III
- Nabonassar, Shalmaneser III, Sargon II
CHRONOLOGY
- Chronology of the ancient Near East, Short chronology
- Middle chronology, Short chronology timeline, Mursili's eclipse
- Assyrian eclipse, Babylonian Chronicles, Canon of Kings
- Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa, Minoan eruption, Amarna letters
LANGUAGE and WRITING
- Cuneiform script, Transliterating cuneiform languages
- Proto-Elamite, Akkadian language, Sumerian language
- Luwian language, Hittite language, Hittite cuneiform
- Lydian language, Ugaritic alphabet, Ugaritic language
- Elamite language, Linear Elamite, Elamite cuneiform
- Cuneiform Unicode block, List of cuneiform signs
RELIGION
- Religions of the Ancient Near East, Mesopotamian mythology
- Sumerian religion, Babylonian religion, Assyro-Babylonian religion
- Hittite mythology, Ancient Semitic religion
MISC
- Ancient Near East, Fertile Crescent, Assyriology
- Bronze Age collapse, Mesopotamia, Sea Peoples, Amorite, Semitic peoples
Article expansion
If you you are interested in getting an article off the starting blocks, here you can find all our "stub" articles:
Vandal fighting
As with all other projects, articles within the scope of Wikiproject:Ancient Near East experience problems with vandalism of articles (see vandalism and clean up for further information). Here is a quick guide for vandal fighters of this project:
- Revert edits.
- Leave a message on the user's talk page. See template messages and warning category for which templates to use.
- Report persistant vandals to administrator intervention against vandalism.
Templates and resources
Templates
WikiProject
- Template:Tl – project banner, to be placed on the talk pages of all relevant articles
- Template:Tl: – userbox for use on userpages
For use in articles
- Template:Tl – navbox template on topics relating to ancient Mesopotamia
- Template:Tl – navbox template for common Mesopotamian royal titles
- Template:Tl – timeline of the ancient Near East
- Template:Tl – chronology of empires and dynasties in ancient Syria and Mesopotamia
- Template:Tl – navbox template for the kings of Assyria
- Template:Tl – navbox template for the kings of Babylon
- Template:Tl – timeline of Anatolian history
- Template:Tl – navbox template for the kings of the Hittites
- Template:Tl – family tree of the Hittites during the New Kingdom
- Template:Tl – timeline of the Neolithic in the ancient Near East
- Template:Tl – chronology of empires and rulers in the ancient Near East
- Template:Tl – navbox template version of the Sumerian King List
Categories
- Category:Ancient Egypt --> Wikipedia:WikiProject Ancient Egypt
- Category:Mesopotamia
- Category:Levant
- Category:Anatolia
- Category:Crete
- Category:Cyprus
Related WikiProjects
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Archaeology
- Wikipedia:WikiProject History
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Ancient Egypt
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Middle Eastern military history task force
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Assyria
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Iraq
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Iran
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Pre Islamic Arabia
- Wikipedia:WikiProject_Writing_systems – collaborate for questions on cuneiform and hieroglyphic transliterations
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