Mesopotamia and the World: Interregional Interaction. Introduction

The article aims at shortly presenting the main methodological problems arising from the study of the reciprocal influences between the ancient Mesopotamian and the Greek (and Roman) worlds and the most recent trends in the scholarly research. It is stressed that the old-fashioned concepts of the total originality of the Greek culture and the commonly assumed opposition between the "Oriental" and the "Western" worlds and cultures should be abandoned in favour of an overall, longue-duree concept of continuity in the basic framework of the development of a unitary political system embracing the regions of the Eastern mediterranean.