ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Ancient Near East studies

Hi there! Do you know what the "ancient near east" is? That's a fancy way of talking about a really, really old part of the world. We're talking about places like Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq, and Egypt. These places were really important a very, very long time ago, even before your grandparents and their grandparents were alive.

People who study the ancient near east are called "ancient near east scholars". They want to learn everything they can about what life was like back then. They read really, really old texts and look at really, really old artifacts (like pictures and pottery) to try to figure out what people believed, how they lived, and what was important to them.

Ancient near east studies is like being a detective, but instead of solving a mystery, you're trying to understand what happened a long, long time ago. It's really cool because you get to learn about different cultures and different ways of living that are very different from what we know today.