From Dark Age to Empire in the Near East, 1000–500 B.C.E.

The widespread violence in 1200–1000 B.C.E. had damaged many communities and populations in the eastern Mediterranean. Historians have traditionally used the term Dark Age to refer to the times following the period of violence, both because economic conditions were so gloomy for so many people and because the surviving evidence is so limited.

By 900 B.C.E., the Neo-Assyrian Empire had emerged in Mesopotamia. It inspired first the Babylonians and then the Persians to form empires after Assyrian power collapsed. By comparison, the Israelites had little military power, but they established a new path for civilization during this period by changing their religion. They developed monotheism and produced the Hebrew Bible (as it is known today), later called the Old Testament by Christians.