The Ancient Near Eastern collection in the Library supports the teaching and research interests of the faculty and students in Department of Near Eastern Studies (NES) and the Ancient History and Mediterranean Archeology program.
Areas of interest include: archeology, art, history, languages, and cultures of Ancient Egypt, Levant, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Ancient Iran.
Berkeley's Near Eastern Studies Department, founded in 1894, is one of the oldest and most distinguished such departments in the country. The Department offers both general instruction and specialized training in Archaeology, Art History, Assyriology, Egyptology, Iranian Studies, Judaic and Islamic Studies, Comparative Semitics, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish.