yes. the reason why southern europe was more advanced than central/north before the modern age (the renaissance in late middle ages also came from the east, specifically byzantium) is because of its proximity to the middle east.   > yamnaya culture (origin of indo europeans) was a mix between european-middle eastern people > european cultures between 7000 to 1500 b.c were done by levantine neolitic farmers > middle eastern civilizations (mesopotamia, egypt and anatolia) invented for the mediterranean: writing system, alphabet, numbers, mathematic, medicine, agriculture, geometry, laws, city-states, empires, currency, centralized government, astronomy, sociology, wheel, calendar system, organized religions, division labor universities, glass, copper,... > early greek civilizations (like minoan/pelasgian) were done by people of levantine and anatolian origins, later greek civilizations were influenced by the middle eastern one > the word europe came from europa, a phoenician princess and a lot of european gods have pelasgian/middle eastern origin or were influenced by mena mythologies (aphrodite comes from astarte, apollo comes from aplu enlil/nergal, hercules comes from ninurta,...) > the world dominant religions (islam, christianity, and judaism) are middle eastern > roman and byzantine empires had more emperors from mena than any non-southern european region (they were also the ones who gave citizenship/civil rights to the non-italian inhabitants of the empire, such as the celts and germans): septimius severus, caracalla, marrinus, elegabalus, severus alexander, philip the arab, aemilianus, gordian 1. gordian ii, marenties isaurian (syrian) dynasty, mhephurlan dynasty, the amorian dynasty, leontios (twenty years anarchy),...
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