Reddit mentions of The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures

Unfortunately, a lot of the readings on the topic are not widely available to the public, since they are in Archaeology and History journal articles. I read a lot of this stuff in university.

However, if you want to get into the Late Bronze Age in general, there are a few really good resources available to the general public.

1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed is a great survey of the collapse of the Bronze Age civilizations in the Near East. It's great for understanding just how complex and interconnected the world of the 12th century B.C. and earlier was.

A History of the Ancient Near East by van de Mieroop, and

The Ancient Near East by James Pritcherd both present an overview of the Ancient Near East, though both go into what is considered 'Classical' Near East as well.

Also, anything by Trevor Bryce, is worth a read, especially his work on the Hittites.

Well, if you're looking for just general history books on the ANE, then Pritchard's 2010 The Ancient Near East is top-notch. http://www.amazon.com/The-Ancient-Near-East-Anthology/dp/0691147264/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y

Otherwise, Van De Mieroop's History of the Ancient Near East (2006) and Kuhrt's The Ancient Near East are still very highly regarded.

Things have changed in the past few decades, but no one has really synthesized it all into a large, general book. The most recent developments in archaeology, assyriology, art history, etc., has mainly been published in articles and more specialized monographs.

How about this?

Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization

It covers from 4000 BCE to the conquest of Babylon by Cirus in 539 BCE.

Also:

The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures



A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000-323BC

I have all of them and I can't really recommend them because I haven't started them yet :P (they're still on my reading queue, tho)

EDIT: The last one seems pretty comprehensive. Just looked at its table of contents and remembered why I bought it.

EDIT 2: You could go to /r/AskHistorians and ask the same question.

If you are interested on looking deeper than youtube videos:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Ancient-Near-East-Anthology/dp/0691147264/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=08QQXXP0M033R7J6KZ5J

Sure. In no specific order:

Book 1

Book 2

Book 3

Book 4


None of these are specifically Biblical history, as I'm sure you'll quickly gather. To fully grasp the Old Testament, however, there are a few important areas that one must be strong in (in my humble opinion, that is): Ancient Near East history, and the New Testament, and a general understanding of Judaism and its individual history.