Near East
In the Near Eastern Room, objects are assembled from several cultures in the region between Turkey and Iran. Early civilizations arose out of this region about 3500 B.C. Due mainly to natural circumstances. The two rivers that cross the present-day Iraq, the Euphrates and the Tigris, had to be used for irrigating the arid soil; central organization was necessary to accomplish this colossal task. A monarchy was formed with an elaborate bureaucracy, and cuneiform writing was developed.

Cuneiform writing
Cuneiform writing appeared around 3300 B.C. and continued in use until the beginning of our era. The name refers to the wedge-shaped markings of the characters (cuneus is Latin for 'wedge'). These were pressed into the clay with a reed stylus which made a triangular imprint; their long, tapering form was made by moving the stylus as if to draw a line. Cuneiform was adopted over the entire Near East to write very dissimilar languages. Even the Egyptian pharaohs used it to correspond with Near Eastern kings. The script found acceptance for administration and contracts as well as for religious and literary writings.

Mesopotamia
The Sumerians were a people who penetrated Mesopotamia from the South. Their culture strongly influenced all later civilizations in this region: Many invaders were expelled or were assimilated in the original population. The several city-states that ruled subsequently were strikingly uniform in culture. Assyria derived from Assur and Babylonia from Babylon, are well-known examples of such cities.

The power of Assur and Babylon slowly declined after the 17th century B.C., when a relatively new people, the Hittites, expanded their territory from Anatolia into Mesopotamia. The Hittites were mainly influenced by the Assyrians. Extending into the west their territory served as an intermediary for Mesopotamian cultural influence in , for example, Greece. When the Hittite Empire was weakened by the influx of a somewhat obscure population, the so-called Peoples of the Sea, the Assyrians took the opportunity to re-establish their power. In the ninth and eighth centuries they conquered all of Syria. In 689 B.C. they destroyed Babylon, and in 671 their hegemony extended even into Egypt. In 614 B.C. the Medes and the Babylonians joined forces and overran Assur. In 612 B.C. Nineveh fell and the Assyrian empire came to a definitive end. The Babylonians were then the new rulers of Mesopotamia. King Nebuchadnezzar II took Syria, and in 597 and 586 B.C. Jerusalem, which marked the start of the Babylonian exile of the Jews. In 539 B.C. the Persian king Cyrus II annexed Mesopotamia to his empire and put a permanent end to the region's autonomy.

Iran
In the territory of present Iran, Elam was dominant for most of the fourth millennium. About 2000 B.C. Indo-European tribes lived in northeastern Iran. The extent of their settlements can be traced by the geographical dispersion of their characteristic polished pottery. By roughly 1300 B.C. they reached Amlash, whereas in Luristan, renowned for its bronze weapons and decorative bronze fittings for horse harnesses, the earliest polished pottery is found not until the eighth century.
Subsequently, power was in the hands of the Medes who were in 559 B.C. defeated by the Persian king Cyrus II. The great flowering of the Achaemenian empire then began, which lasted until the invasion of Alexander the Great in 333-332 B.C. After the collapse of Alexander's empire, the Parthians ruled Persia. For many years they resisted the Romans, who never succeeded in bringing Persia under their authority. A new dynasty emerged in the third century A.D., the Sassanids. The last Sassanid king was assassinated in A.D. 651, marking the end of antiquity in the region.

Syria
In Syria, too, settlements emerged before 3000 B.C. which eventually grew into city-states. About 1500 B.C. the Mitanni and the Hurrians formed a state which the Hittites annexed around 1355 B.C. In the twelfth century B.C. many different peoples in the eastern Mediterranean began to migrate. These so-called Sea Peoples ravaged the coasts of Syria and Palestine, and possibly contributed to the downfall of the Hittites. Afterwards, the coastal towns flourished anew and became the home base of the Phoenicians. Syria was under Assyrian rule in the ninth century B.C. and, after Assyria's fall, became part of the Persian empire and, then, Alexander the Great's.

Selenkahiye
Selenkahiye was a settlement on the Euphrates in Syria, which a team from the University of Amsterdam excavated in 1972-1975, under the direction of Professor M.N. van Loon. They established that the settlement lasted only from 2400 to 1900 B.C. and had five settlement phases. The excavation was a rescue operation as the area was destined to become submerged under an artificial reservoir. As a rule, unearthed ancient objects remain in the country of discovery, but in the case of a rescue excavation by foreigners it is customary to give part of the finds to their country. Thus a few hundred artefacts from Selenkahiye are now kept in the Allard Pierson Museum.

Anatolia
In Anatolia, the central region of modern Turkey, walled towns appeared as early as the fifth millennium B.C. Later they became actual citadels, a good example of which is the earliest phase of Troy (2920-2350 B.C).. During the eighteenth century B.C. the Indo-European Hittites steadily became more powerful and succeeded in ruling over Anatolia until 1180 B.C. Their authority sometimes even stretched to Syria and Babylon. In 1286 B.C. they and their allies fought the battle of Qadesh, in Syria, against the Egyptians and their confederates. The clash ended undecided and peace was made.
Because of the incursions of the Sea Peoples, among other events, the Hittite empire fell. Other peoples like the Phrygians, Lydians and Carians filled the vacuum. Greek colonists settled on the western coast of modern Turkey. The last king of Lydia, the legendarily wealthy Croesus, was defeated by the Persian king Cyrus II in 547 B.C., and Anatolia was added to the Persian empire. Afterwards Anatolia was conquered by Alexander the Great and, in turn, the Romans.