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Topic · Archeology

Ancient Near East History

Ancient Near East History is a research topic within Archeology. Science Explorer counts 11k research works in it since 1950. 10.5% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers covers a wide range of topics related to the ancient Near East, including Mesopotamian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Sumerian, and Hittite civilizations. It encompasses studies on ancient law, scribal traditions, cuneiform writing, economic activities, religious practices, royal libraries, diplomatic relations, and cultural interactions in the region.

  • Mesopotamia
  • Babylonian
  • Assyrian
  • Sumerian
  • Hittite
  • Akkadian
  • Near East
  • Ancient Law
  • Scribal Traditions
  • Cuneiform Writing
Research works
11k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.5%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+9%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Türkiye
20% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Ancient Near East History

Which countries lead Ancient Near East History research?

By volume, Türkiye and the United States publish the most (342 and 326 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Türkiye 342 works
  2. 2 United States 326 works
  3. 3 France 201 works
  4. 4 Germany 161 works
  5. 5 Israel 157 works
  6. 6 Italy 137 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 128 works
  8. 8 Russia 99 works
  9. 9 Spain 71 works
  10. 10 Poland 52 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

Türkiye: 20.4%United States: 19.4%France: 12.0%Germany: 9.6%6 others listed: 38.5%20%largest
Türkiye342 · 20.4%United States326 · 19.4%France201 · 12.0%Germany161 · 9.6%6 others listed644 · 38.5%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Ancient Near East History research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Ancient Near East History research, followed by Israel Antiquities Authority and Russian Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 102 works
  2. 2 Israel Antiquities AuthorityIsrael 77 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 44 works
  4. 4 Ca' Foscari University of VeniceItaly 29 works
  5. 5 Tel Aviv UniversityIsrael 20 works
  6. 6 Ankara UniversityTürkiye 20 works
  7. 7 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 19 works
  8. 8 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 19 works
  9. 9 Hebrew University of JerusalemIsrael 18 works
  10. 10 Sapienza University of RomeItaly 18 works

Who are the leading researchers in Ancient Near East History?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Ancient Near East History include George Davey Smith, Sidney C. Smith and Jean Bousquet.

  1. 1 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  2. 2 Sidney C. Smith United States 136k citations
  3. 3 Jean Bousquet France 119k citations
  4. 4 Christopher T. Russell United States 117k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Ancient Near East History?

The most cited paper in Ancient Near East History is "Ancient Admixture in Human History" (Nick Patterson, Priya Moorjani, Yontao Luo et al., 2012), with 3,251 citations. Next come "Domestication and early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin: Origins, diffusion, and impact" (1,186) and "Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin" (1,116).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Ancient Admixture in Human History Nick Patterson, Priya Moorjani, Yontao Luo et al. · Genetics Open access 8 Sep 2012 3,251
2 Domestication and early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin: Origins, diffusion, and impact Melinda A. Zeder · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Open access 12 Aug 2008 1,186
3 Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin Russell David Gray, Quentin Douglas Atkinson · Nature Nov 2003 1,116
4 Earliest date for milk use in the Near East and southeastern Europe linked to cattle herding Richard P. Evershed et al. · Nature Open access 6 Aug 2008 676
5 The Cradle of Agriculture Simcha Lev‐Yadun, Avi Gopher, Shahal Abbo · Science 2 Jun 2000 608
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Ancient Near East History research done?

The largest centres of Ancient Near East History research in 2022-now are Jerusalem (Israel), Paris (France), Ankara (Türkiye) and Moscow (Russia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Jerusalem, Venice and Yerevan.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 JerusalemIsrael 99 works
  2. 2 ParisFrance 74 works
  3. 3 AnkaraTürkiye 65 works
  4. 4 MoscowRussia 49 works
  5. 5 IstanbulTürkiye 33 works
  6. 6 VeniceItaly 30 works
  7. 7 ViennaAustria 29 works
  8. 8 YerevanArmenia 27 works
  9. 9 RomeItaly 26 works
  10. 10 BerlinGermany 25 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. JerusalemIL · 98.6 works58×
  2. VeniceIT · 29.8 works39×
  3. YerevanAM · 26.9 works25×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Ancient Near East History than the world average.

See Ancient Near East History on the map

Where is the best place to study Ancient Near East History?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Haifa, Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 17.72%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of HaifaHebrew University of…Tel Aviv UniversityLudwig-Maximilians-U…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of HaifaIsrael 80.831.3%33.6×16 +130.8%
2Tel Aviv UniversityIsrael 76.417.3%12.3×20 +17.7%
3Hebrew University of JerusalemIsrael 73.621.9%16.7×18 +16.2%
4Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 64.910.8%10.3×19 +45.7%
5Istanbul UniversityTürkiye 64.623.9%16.5×13 +98.0%
6Ca' Foscari University of VeniceItaly 59.13.7%58.6×29 +598.5%
7Sapienza University of RomeItaly 57.911.5%7.3×18 +36.7%
8University of TorontoCanada 57.820.8%3.0×13 +54.7%
9University of HelsinkiFinland 57.720.0%6.7×10 +20.7%
10University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 57.516.0%6.4×19 -18.5%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Ancient Near East History, country by country

Is Ancient Near East History research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 9% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Ancient Near East History.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Ancient Near East History as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.010% in 2024.

still counting0.0050%0.010%0.015%Ancient Near East History0.0099% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Ancient Near East History over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Ancient Near East History9.7% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

Discussion

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