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The term “historiography” has multiple definitions in the modern world. Quite simply, it refers to the study of history, but more specifically it relates to the study of history throughout history – how people from the past viewed their own and other peoples’ histories. Historiography therefore concerns the study of historical methods and philosophies as well as the examination of what are considered “historical” texts. The modern historiographical tradition is for the most part the direct ancestor of the tradition developed by the Greeks and Romans. The Greeks were the first people to write what is considered a “narrative” history, whereby events are considered either chronologically or topically with commentary and analysis. The fifth century BC Greek historian, Herodotus, is often referred to as the “father of history” because his monumental work The Histories is the oldest extant narrative history in the world. Other Greek writers followed Herodotus with a similar style and formula of writing history and eventually the Romans did so as well, adding biographies, which became the quintessential form of Roman historical studies. The Greeks and the Romans wrote their histories critically and saw history as something to learn from and therefore historical works should edify the readers, which is of course essentially the same way modern historians view their craft. Although the Greeks and Romans gave the modern world their historiographical tradition, the people of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia also wrote history.

====Ancient Egyptian Historiography====

In order to understand how the people of the ancient Near East recorded history, it is important to comprehend how they viewed the concept of history. The ancient Egyptians had no word that precisely corresponds to the modern word “history,” although they had different genres of what would today be considered historical writing. To the ancient Egyptians, record keeping of the near past was the way in which they demonstrated their idea of the continuum of history and was therefore a practical affair. <ref> Redford, Donald B. <i>Pharaonic King-Lists, Annals and Day-Books: A Contribution to the Study of the Egyptian Sense of History.</i> (Mississauga, Canada: Benben Publications, 1986), pgs. xiii-xvi</ref> Among the different ways in which the Egyptians demonstrated this concept, the king-lists best demonstrated a more complete knowledge of history that stretched back for several generations.

====Ancient Mesopotamian Historiography====

Ancient Mesopotamia developed contemporaneously with ancient Egypt and although there were many differences between the two civilizations – such as the fact that many different ethnic groups ruled over and influenced ancient Mesopotamia throughout its history as opposed to Egypt being fairly homogenous – both societies viewed and recorded history in a similar manner.