The Levant is the area in Southwest Asia, south of the Taurus Mountains, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Arabian Desert in the south, and Mesopotamia in the east. It stretches roughly north to south, from the Taurus Mountains to the Sinai Peninsula and Syrian Desert,A History of Ancient Israel and Judah by Miller, James Maxwell, and Hayes, John Haralson (Westminster John Knox, 1986) . p.36 and east to west between the Mediterranean Sea and the Khabur river. The term is often used to refer to the following regions or modern states: Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Hatay Province in Turkey. More broadly it also includes: Sinai (Egypt), Cilicia (Turkey) and Cyprus.

The Levant is one of the earliest centers of sedentism and agriculture in history, and some of the earliest agrarian cultures, Pre-Pottery Neolithic, developed in the region. Material was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Previously regarded as a peripheral region in the ancient Near East, modern academia largely considers the Levant as a center of civilization on its own, independent of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Throughout the Bronze and Iron ages, the Levant was home to many ancient Semitic-speaking peoples and kingdoms, and is considered by many to be the urheimat of Semitic languages.

Stone Age

Paleolithic Anatomically modern Homo sapiens are demonstrated at the area of Mount Carmel in Canaan during the Middle Paleolithic dating from . These migrants out of Africa seem to have been unsuccessful, and by in the Levant, Neanderthal groups seem to have benefited from the worsening climate and replaced Homo sapiens, who were possibly confined once more to Africa.

A second move out of Africa is demonstrated by the Boker Tachtit Upper Paleolithic culture, from 52,000 to 50,000 BC, with humans at Ksar Akil XXV level being modern humans.Marks, Anthony (1983)"Prehistory and Paleoenvironments in the Central Negev, Israel" (Institute for the Study of Earth and Man, Dallas) This culture bears close resemblance to the Badoshan Aurignacian culture of Iran, and the later Sebilian I Egyptian culture of . Stephen OppenheimerOppemheiomer, Stephen (2004), "Out of Eden", (Constable and Robinson) suggests that this reflects a movement of modern human groups back into North Africa, at this time.

It would appear this sets the date by which Homo sapiens Upper Paleolithic cultures begin replacing Neanderthal Levalo-Mousterian, and by the region was occupied by the Levanto-Aurignacian Ahmarian culture, lasting from 39,000 to 24,000 BC.Gladfelter, Bruce G. (1997) "The Ahmarian tradition of the Levantine Upper Paleolithic: the environment of the archaeology" (Vol 12, 4 Geoarchaeology) This culture was quite successful spreading as the Antelian culture (late Aurignacian), as far as Southern Anatolia, with the Atlitan culture.

Epi-Palaeolithic After the Late Glacial Maxima, a new Epipaleolithic culture appears. The appearance of the Kebaran culture, of microlithic type implies a significant rupture in the cultural continuity of Levantine Upper Paleolithic. The Kebaran culture, with its use of microliths, is associated with the use of the bow and arrow and the domestication of the dog.Dayan, Tamar (1994), "Early Domesticated Dogs of the Near East" (Journal of Archaeological Science Volume 21, Issue 5, September 1994, Pages 633–640) Extending from 18,000 to 10,500 BC, the Kebaran cultureRonen, Avram, "Climate, sea level, and culture in the Eastern Mediterranean 20 ky to the present" in Valentina Yanko-Hombach, Allan S. Gilbert, Nicolae Panin and Pavel M. Dolukhanov (2007), The Black Sea Flood Question: Changes in Coastline, Climate, and Human Settlement (Springer) shows clear connections to the earlier microlithic cultures using the bow and arrow, and using grinding stones to harvest wild grains, that developed from the Halfan culture of Egypt, that came from the still earlier Aterian tradition of the Sahara. Some linguists see this as the earliest arrival of Nostratic languages in the Middle East.

Kebaran culture was quite successful, and was ancestral to the later Natufian culture (12,500–9,500 BC), which extended throughout the whole of the Levantine region. These people pioneered the first sedentary settlements, and may have supported themselves from fishing and the harvest of wild grains plentiful in the region at that time. the oldest remains of bread were discovered at the archaeological site of Shubayqa 1, once home of the Natufian hunter-gatherers, roughly 4,000 years before the advent of agriculture.

Natufian culture also demonstrates the earliest domestication of the dog, and the assistance of this animal in hunting and guarding human settlements may have contributed to the successful spread of this culture. In the northern Syrian, eastern Anatolian region of the Levant, Natufian culture at Cayonu and Mureybet developed the first fully agricultural culture with the addition of wild grains, later being supplemented with domesticated sheep and goats, which were probably domesticated first by the Zarzian culture of Northern Iraq and Iran (which like the Natufian culture may have also developed from Kebaran).

Neolithic and Chalcolithic

By 8500–7500 BC, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) culture developed out of the earlier local tradition of Natufian, dwelling in round houses, and building the first defensive site at Tell es-Sultan (ancient Jericho) (guarding a valuable fresh water spring). This was replaced in 7500 BC by Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), dwelling in square houses, coming from Northern Syria and the Euphrates bend.

During the period of 8500–7500 BC, another hunter-gatherer group, showing clear affinities with the cultures of Egypt (particularly the Outacha retouch technique for working stone) was in Sinai. This Harifian cultureBelfer-Cohen, Anna and Bar-Yosef, Ofer "Early Sedentism in the Near East: A Bumpy Ride to Village Life" (Fundamental Issues in Archaeology, 2002, Part II, 19–38) may have adopted the use of pottery from the Isnan culture and Helwan culture of Egypt (which lasted from 9000 to 4500 BC), and subsequently fused with elements from the PPNB culture during the climatic crisis of 6000 BC to form what Juris Zarins calls the Syro-Arabian pastoral technocomplex,Zarins, Yuris "Early Pastoral Nomadiism and the Settlement of Lower Mesopotamia" (# Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research No. 280, November, 1990) which saw the spread of the first Nomadic pastoralists in the Ancient Near East. These extended southwards along the Red Sea coast and penetrating the Arabian bifacial cultures, which became progressively more Neolithic and pastoral, and extending north and eastwards, to lay the foundations for the tent-dwelling Martu and Akkadian peoples of Mesopotamia.

In the Amuq valley of Syria, PPNB culture seems to have survived, influencing further cultural developments further south. Nomadic elements fused with PPNB to form the Minhata Culture and Yarmukian Culture, which were to spread southwards, beginning the development of the classic mixed farming Mediterranean culture, and from 5600 BC were associated with the Ghassulian culture of the region, the first Chalcolithic culture of the Levant. This period also witnessed the development of megalithic structures, which continued into the Bronze Age.Scheltema, H.G. (2008). Megalithic Jordan: An Introduction and Field Guide. Amman, Jordan: The American Center of Oriental Research. No Google Books access.

Historically, the Bedouin engaged in nomadic herding, agriculture and sometimes fishing in the Syrian steppe since 6000 BC. By about 850 BC, a complex network of settlements and camps were established. The earliest Arab tribes emerged from Bedouins.

Copper Age

Kish civilization

The Kish civilization or Kish tradition is a concept created by Ignace Gelb and discarded by more recent scholarship, which Gelb placed in what he called the early East Semitic era in Mesopotamia and the Levant, starting in the early 4th millennium BC. The concept encompassed the sites of Ebla and Mari in the Levant, Nagar in the north, and the proto-Akkadian sites of Abu Salabikh and Kish in central Mesopotamia, which constituted the Uri region as it was known to the Sumerians. The Kish civilisation was considered to end with the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 24th century BC.

Bronze Age

Early and middle Bronze Age Some recent scholars dealing with the Syrian part of the Levant during the Bronze Age use Syria-specific subdivision: "Early/Proto Syrian" for the Early Bronze Age (3300–2000 BC); "Old Syrian" for the Middle Bronze Age (2000–1550 BC); and "Middle Syrian" for the Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 BC). "Neo-Syrian" corresponds to the Early Iron Age. The Early Syrian period was dominated by the East Semitic-speaking kingdoms of Ebla, Nagar and the Mari. At its greatest extent, Ebla controlled an area roughly half the size of modern Syria, from Ursa'um in the north, to the area around Damascus in the south, and from Phoenicia and the coastal mountains in the west, to Haddu in the east, with more than sixty vassal kingdoms and city-states. Mobile nomadic tribal confederations such as Mardu, Dadanu and Ib'al lived in the steppes to the south of Ebla.

Ebla and Mari were incorporated into the Akkadian Empire by Sargon of Akkad and his successors, until the empire collapsed due to a major climatic event around 2200 BC. This event prompted the influx of nomadic Amorites into Sumer, and correlates with a subsequent influx and settlement expansion in many regions of Syria as well. In the later periods of the Third Dynasty of Ur, immigrating Amorites had become such a force that the king of Ur, Shu-Sin, constructed a wall dubbed "Repeller of the Amorites", extending in between the Tigris and Euphrates, to hold them off.Lieberman, Stephen J., "An Ur III Text from Drēhem Recording 'Booty from the Land of Mardu.'", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 22, no. 3/4, pp. 53–62, 1968Buccellati, G., "The Amorites of the Ur III Period", Naples: Istituto Orientale di Napoli. Pubblicazioni del Semionario di Semitistica, Richerche 1, 1966 The Amorites are depicted in contemporary records as nomadic tribes under chiefs, who forced themselves into lands they needed to graze their herds. Some of the Akkadian literature of this era speaks disparagingly of the Amorites and implies that the urbanized people of Mesopotamia viewed their nomadic and primitive way of life with disgust and contempt. In the Sumerian myth "Marriage of Martu", written early in the 2nd millennium BC, a goddess considering marriage to the god of the Amorites is warned:

The Amorites came to politically and culturally dominate much of the ancient Near East for centuries, and founded multiple kingdoms throughout the region including the Old Babylonian Empire. Famed Amorites included Babylonian king Hammurabi and warlord Shamshi-Adad I. After the decline of the Third dynasty of Ur, Amorite rulers gained power in a number of Mesopotamian city-states beginning in the Isin-Larsa period and peaking in the Old Babylonian period.