The Centre of Excellence in “Ancient Near Eastern Empires” (ANEE) at the University of Helsinki will run from 2018-2025 and is directed by Dr. Saana Svärd. ANEE asks: How do changing imperial dynamics impact social group identities and lifeways over a millennium? ANEE covers the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic, and early Roman / Parthian Empires. ANEE engages with methodologically varied yet integrated research on the long-term processes by which social group identities and lifeways were negotiated.