thod is still in the process of being refined, but it produces information about objects over a long period of time so long as it is possible to determine the relative levels of the radioactive particles in the atmosphere over spans of time.
Literary evidence presents a different set of problems. Once the difficulties of dating via the comparison of various texts have been resolved, historians have to make crucial decisions about the purpose and meaning of the works they use. Tomb inscriptions, commemorative monuments, and political speeches, among many other types of evidence, engage in deliberate distortions of the record that can be even more misleading than old dendrochronologically-dated timbers or thermoluminescently-dated bricks that are re-used in new buildings.
2. The geography, topography and climate of the ancient Near East was instrumental in the development of different kinds of civilizations in the two principal regions--Egypt and Mesopotamia. In Egypt the Nile was the sole means by which life was made possible in a land that would otherwise have been desert. The outlying desert also rendered Egypt relatively safe from many types of invasion throughout ancient history. The regular flooding of the Nile rendered the vast plain on either side of the river fertile ground and the Egyptians managed the availability of water through careful regulation with dams and canals. In addition the navigable river provided a central means of transport that united the region with a facility that was uncommon in most parts of the ancient world.
Mesopotamia was the 'land between two rivers,' the Tigris and the Euphrates. But there was none of the natural protection in Mesopotamia that was found in Egypt, especially on the vast scale provided by the Egyptian deserts. In Mesopotamia the fertile region between the rivers was a wide, shallow valley lacking natural defenses, subdivided by the two rivers and their tributaries, a...