Near Eastern Historycenturies are almost totally obscure. When the darkness lifts,
we find imperial kingships in Haiti and in Mitanni, and new-
comers (many of them descended from Hurrian or Aryan
speakers) in control of various city-states in the Fertile Cres-
cent. From ca. 1500 B.C. until the end of the Bronze Age three
centuries later, the entire Near East enjoyed relative stability,
as Great Kingships ensured security for the lands under their
control. But the second quarter of the second millennium was
a time of unparalleled upheaval.
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