brought about this late third millennium interaction remain elusive. However, the
texts, supported by the archaeological record indicate that powerful centers of cultural
cohesion from Mesopotamia to the Indus and from Central Asia to the Arabian
Peninsula were characterized by economic and political alliances, gift exchange, and
even market economies. The collapse of this pioneering interregional interaction
brought prosperity, and what can be called the first classical age, to an end.
In discussing the enduring merits of “classicism,” Glen Bowersock ( 2010 : 135 )
observes, “if Plato and Cicero must stand alongside Confucius, Ammonites and Ibn
Khaldun that has to be judged an enhancement of us all.” As with individuals, so with
cultures and nations. When Mesopotamia, so used to its exceptional treatment, is
positioned alongside its interacting neighbors–Anatolia, the Caucasus, the Arabian
Peninsula, the Iranian Plateau, Central Asia and the Indus Civilization–it too offers
an enhancement to our understanding of the significance of remote antiquity.
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–– Iran and its neighbors ––