Thanks, Cheerful Charlie! I'll definitely look into your recommendations. 
Minimalist sent me the ebook for The Bible Unearthed and I'm reading it now and it's been a great and very interesting look into the archeological history of the Near East. (Thanks again, Min!)
I'm also listening to a series called The Great Courses on the Early Middle Ages which has touched briefly on the emergence of the Byzantine Empire and the socio-economic developments in that area of the world, as well as a little bit about the spread of Christianity and Islam across Europe. So far it's been an interesting overview of the time period but I definitely want to delve deeper into the rise of the Byzantine Empire and the history of Persia.
My lunchtime book, The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond, is also touching upon the prehistoric and ancient Middle East a bit - it's currently talking about the development and spread of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) and where it might have originated and how it spread, and also talking about the development and spread of agriculture.
Minimalist sent me the ebook for The Bible Unearthed and I'm reading it now and it's been a great and very interesting look into the archeological history of the Near East. (Thanks again, Min!)
I'm also listening to a series called The Great Courses on the Early Middle Ages which has touched briefly on the emergence of the Byzantine Empire and the socio-economic developments in that area of the world, as well as a little bit about the spread of Christianity and Islam across Europe. So far it's been an interesting overview of the time period but I definitely want to delve deeper into the rise of the Byzantine Empire and the history of Persia.
My lunchtime book, The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond, is also touching upon the prehistoric and ancient Middle East a bit - it's currently talking about the development and spread of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) and where it might have originated and how it spread, and also talking about the development and spread of agriculture.
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
