This book explores the lands of the ancient Near East--Mesopotamia (with its variously named regions: Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia, and Assyria), Syria, Elam (later known as Persia), and Anatolia--from around 3200 BCE to 539 BCE. The earth-shaking changes that marked this era include such fundamental inventions as the wheel and the plow and intellectual feats such as the inventions of astronomy, law, and diplomacy.