During the Ur III period in southern Mesopotamia, artisans were engaged in the production of crafts that required enormous technical skill and yet craft production appears not to have been an avenue to prestige and power. This paper draws on archival records from artisan workshops and literary sources to demonstrate the intricate fusion of a powerful political ideology and a rigidly controlled economy in which rulers legitimated their authority at the same time that they suppressed the mobility of craft producers. The establishment of a wide range of economic, social and legal differentiation was based on a state strategy designed to promote efficiency and to achieve control of artisan production. Craft producers during this period negotiated their social identity in a variety of domains that were legal, kinship, ethnic and gender based.

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2020

This article analyzes the role of the popular production and use of decorated ceramics in apparent episodes of resistance to and the ultimate collapse of central authority over the course of the seventh to fourth millennium BCE in northern Mesopotamia. In order to accomplish this goal, criteria for identifying and evaluating episodes of large-scale resistance in the archaeological record are presented. This presentation is followed by a description of three possible episodes of this nature, sensitive to the production, use, and discard of decorated ceramics within these episodes. These episodes are set within the context of broader regional trends concerning aesthetic elaboration in multiple media and contemporaneous techniques of production, administration, and control. The evidence presented supports the conclusion that independent small-scale production and consumption of decorated ceramics enabled the creation of coalitions of commoners that ultimately had the power to destabilize centralized coercive administrative regimes.

In M. Hilgert (ed.) Understanding Material Text Cultures. A Multidisciplinary View, Materiale Textkulturen 9, De Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 5-30., 2016

In this paper I intend to show that a careful study of the sources can alert us to the presence of collectives that are larger than the nuclear family and are not based solely on biological ties. In order to do this, I concentrate on a sample of texts dealing with textile production, one of the industries that flourished in southern Mesopotamia at the threshold of the third and second millennia BCE. The paper is organised in four sections, plus some concluding remarks. First, I offer a short introduction to the context and sources of the Mesopotamian Third Dynasty of Ur. Second, I briefly present the theoretical framework used—that is, gender studies and, more specifically, feminist epistemologies and postfeminism. Third, I discuss how different premises have been used to analyse groups of both males and females, and how these analyses have led to different results, despite the fact that the evidence from the texts from different periods and the evidence we can deduce from archaeological records do not vary greatly. Fourth, I propose a new way of reading work groups as they are registered in Ur III texts, paying attention to their similarities and differences and focusing less on biological or sexual ties.

Urartu became a powerful state in the Near East during the fi rst millennium BC. In spite of geographic impediments such as high mountains and strong streams, and a severe climate, the Urartians developed a high level of production in every area of craftsmanship. We encounter in Urartian written sources professions indicating craftsmen and manufacturers who constituted the base of this production. Iconographical and archaeological fi ndings prove the existence of further types of handicrafts not mentioned in written sources. In our study, some questions regarding gender and social status related to Urartian craftsmen and manufacturers are clarifi ed. Additionally, places where production took place are identifi ed. The study gives an overview of the world of arts and crafts in Urartu, and the people behind it.

Working at Home in the Ancient Near Eas, 2020

The activities of merchants were especially significant as managers of exchange on behalf of the large institutions of southern Mesopotamia. Some debate continues as to whether the merchants were under the direct control of the institutions or whether they were engaged in entrepreneurial activities on behalf of their own households. This paper focuses on the evidence for one very active family of merchants at Ĝirsu/ Lagaš in order to reinforce my conclusion that the merchants worked independently of institutional authority. Using comparative evidence from other late 3rd and early 2nd millennia sites, I will establish the ways in which the families of merchants often served the interests of the crown while benefiting their own households. I will also highlight the ways in which this work was centered on families and on the homes in which they lived.

Altorientalische Forschungen, 1996

2021

In this paper we investigate the scale and extent of the political institutions of Ur during the beginning of the Early Dynastic period (28 th century BC), a historical juncture that saw the rise of city-states in southern Mesopotamia. We provide a fresh analysis of a group of administrative texts related to field management, originating from the temple household of Nanna, in order to identify patterns of institutional land use, the organizational hierarchy of institutional farming, and the resources at the disposal of the temple. We also combine archaeological, textual and survey data to estimate demographics and agricultural production in the agrarian state of Ur. We provide proof that temple households in the early 3 rd millennium BC controlled land estates that could virtually sustain entire urban sites and exploited them through increasingly complex arrangements with the farming sector. 1 C. Lecompte wrote § § 3, 4, 5.2, and the Appendixes; G. Benati wrote § § 2 and 5.1; § § 1 and 6 were written together. We thank Emmert Clevenstine for having corrected our English, the editors of this volume for useful comments that helped us strengthen the article, and R. Rattenborg for discussing with us relevant methodological aspects of the approach employed in this work. 2 State capacity at the dawn of the Bronze Age: H. Wright's model of agricultural political economy According to the analysis carried out by H. Wright (1969, 27-28), Ur at the beginning of the 3 rd millennium was a town of ca. 21 ha populated by ca. 4,000 people. The institutional sector was formed by at least one large temple household, the temple of Nanna, headed by saĝĝa-officials, and by a palatiallike sector headed by an ensi-official (cf. Benati 2015, § 4.4.5; Sallaberger 2010; Visicato 2000, 18 fn. 17). These political institutions performed functions that largely correspond to those traditionally attributed to the state, i.e. organizing agricultural activities, levying taxes, providing public goods, etc. In the surroundings of Ur were located two small towns-Tell al-Sakheri, and Sakheri Sughir-and some small agricultural villages (Wright 1969, 117; Benati / Leoni / Mantellini 2016; Hammer 2019). The total rural population is estimated to have been around 6,000 individuals (Wright 1969, 27). The center of Ur had at working distance ca. 9,000 ha of arable land, watered by a branch of the Euphrates river and by a network of small channels bringing water to the fields (Wright 1969, 34 fig. 4; Hammer 2019, 196 fig. 19). By analyzing the cuneiform records stemming from the administration of the temple of Nanna, Wright (1969, 27) concluded that the temple household was formed by a class of 2 It has been formerly demonstrated that the agricultural domain mentioned in the ED I texts from Ur belonged to the temple household of the god Nanna, see

Journal of World Prehistory, 1992

In recent decades the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods of the fourth millennium B.C. in Mesopotamia have been the subject of considerable research by scholars of the ancient Near East. Interests in and interpretations of these periods have focused on their credentials as early states, urban societies, and the immediate antecedents of Sumerian civilization. ln this overview, I first present a brief historical background on the study of these periods, followed by a critical review of recent approaches that have had significant impacts on current directions of research and understanding of the fourth millennium. Finally, I suggest some research avenues currently being tentatively explored that may be especially appropriate for developing further our understandings of these periods.

Journal of Archaeological Research, 2000

Ongoing debates over the significance of specialized production in ancient political economies frequently hinge on questions of whether elites or commoners controlled craft manufactures and whether the material or ideological import of these production processes was more significant in deciding power contests. Though long recognized, such queries were traditionally answered in relatively straightforward economic terms. Recently, these time-honored approaches have been questioned. An ever increasing number of authors are promoting varied takes on the causal linkages between political forms and processes, on the one hand, and patterns of production, distribution, and use of craft goods, on the other. The literature generated by these discussions is extensive, vibrant, and often confusing. Rather than trying to synthesize all reports and essays dealing with specialized manufacture, this paper highlights general interpretive trends that underlie and structure current debates. The concluding section offers suggestions for how studies of relations among crafts, power, and social heterogeneity might be pursued profitably in the future.

Tag un g e n d e s L a nd e s m u s eum s f ür Vo r g e s c hi c h T e h a L L e • B a nd 13 • 2016 Summary After briefly considering the various forms and degrees of social differentiation that may be included in a generic concept of »inequality«, the type of »unequal social relations« will be outlined. The paper focuses on the potential of certain social differences to evolve into real socioeconomic disparities and forms of permanent political authority, looking both at some specific types of social conditions which lie at the root of those inequalities and at the different conditions and requirements of subsistence economies in different environments. The next step is an attempt to analyse the nature of the first unequal and hierarchical social relations in Middle Eastern societies by identifying their economic and/or political bases, with particular reference to the Mesopotamian and peri-Mesopotamian world in the 4 th millennium BC. This region shows very interesting examples of the transformation from ranked to truly hierarchical societies, based on a growing centralisation of primary resources and labour, and also offers relevant data for the study of the dynamics of change that led to the formation of early state societies. The paper analyses the historical roots of the changes that occurred in southern Mesopotamia, from forms of hierarchical kinship ties, recognisable in the Ubaid period (5 th millennium BC), to the establishment of unequal economic and politi cal relations in the Late Uruk phases. Such changes resulted in the formation of strong centralised power systems. Since inequality involves subordinate relations, it goes hand in hand with the rise of »power« and differentiated access to resources; a process which also took place in other regions in northern Mesopotamia and southeastern Anatolia, which are comparatively analysed. Finally, the case of Arslantepe, in the Upper Euphrates region, is presented in detail, as a meaningful example of the transition from prestige to power and from the use of reli-gious/ideological consensus in public ceremonial practices to the exercise of power in more secular and direct forms, seen here in a very precocious example of a fully fledged palace dated to the end of the 4 th millennium BC. This transition is seen as a crucial stage in the rise of the state and the consolidation of unequal socio-political and economic relations. But the centralised system at Arslantepe, albeit very powerful , probably did not have the solid foundation for a differentiated and hierarchical system of social and economic relations that only an urban society can guarantee. It therefore collapsed as soon as it was born.

Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2015: 2, 2015

Political economies of early Mesopotamia are traditionally modeled upon text-oriented research and unilinear schemes. These approaches are flawed in many ways and often over-emphasized the agency of élite groups. An integrated strategy combining archaeological, textual and anthropological theories is used here to draw a more nuanced picture of social arrangements in early 3rd millennium BC Ur. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the changes of political organization and on the manifold economic strategies put in place by political powers in an early urban system in southern Mesopotamia

Material Symbols: Culture and Economy in Prehistory, 1999

Archaeological discussions of the rise of states have appropri ately focused on their defining feature : specialized, hierarchical political control. Yet archaeologists have neglected the implications of this politi cal transformation for emerging cultural differentiation in newly formed states. This essay outlines the development of ethnic markers during state formation . It describes ethnicity and discusses methods for identi fying ethnic and other social groups in archaeological remains. Finally, it considers a tradition of painted pottery in an area along the Zagros Mountains of Mesopotamia between the fifth and third millennia B.C. Painted ceramics throughout that period of time used many of the same symbols and structures of design and were produced at similarly small scales. Yet the social use of the designs changed over that time from markers of elite status to symbols of ethnic identity. By the end of the se quence, the ceramics were no longer distinctive to any social group. Such shifts in the meaning of material culture may be a general feature of de velopment from chiefdoms to states.

From the 21st Century BC to the 21st Century AD, Proceedings of the International Conference on Neo-Sumerian Studies Held in Madrid, 22-24 July, 2010, 2013

The working group at Hirschbach met to address a set of comparative historical questions about how ancient labor (often, a rubric for mass or forced labor) was compelled or procured in ancient economies. This paper will interrogate some of the premises for those questions themselves, by way of an econometric exercise. What are the grounds for assuming that coercion or inequality (political, social, or economic) should be the determining theoretical problems for research ? Are either social and legal degrees of "unfreedom" or political and economic inequality the crucial explanatory forms to seek out and examine ? In what other contexts of political economy could ancient mass labor be understood? What tools can we use to think about the largest possible formal representations of the ancient economy, given the massive metho dological and documentary challenges presented by the sources? * This essay was helped immeasurably by advice and input over the years from

Crafting Culture at Alalakh: Tell Atchana and the Political Economy of Metallurgy, 2020

Tell Atchana, ancient Alalakh, was the seat of the territorial kingdom of Mukiš during the 2nd millennium BC with extensive trade ties to the wider Near East. Part of the urban fabric of this city was an active metallurgical industry characterized by several workshops located within the palace walls and the lower town. A sociotechnical systems perspective provides the background for evaluating the processes and social relations that structured the metallurgical industry and its associated technologies at Alalakh from approximately 1600-1300 BC. This work demonstrates the long-term presence of two parallel specialized metallurgical industries; one palace-based, small-scale, routinized and tapped into long-distance exchange networks, the other, vernacular, larger-scale, technically sophisticated, multi-craft, and based on the use of specific central Taurid ore deposits and other montane resources. At an archaeological and historical level, my results de-center the Near Eastern palace economy as a driver of technological development and economic expansion and show that state power beyond the palace walls may have been more limited than generally considered. Methodologically, this work shows the power of multi-method archaeometallurgical studies for answering questions of broad social and historical significance when thoroughly contextualized. Finally, of key importance is a demonstration that craftspeople at Alalakh used their unique technological system to resist co-optation into hierarchical power structures even as they helped contribute to its political complexity.

A. Garcia-Ventura (ed.), What’s in a Name? Terminology related to the Work Force and Job Categories in the Ancient Near East. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 440. Münster: 369–395, 2018

Journal of Anthropological Research, 2019

The activities associated with palaces provide clues to understanding the strategies leaders in prehistoric polities used to accrue power. Controlling craft specialists who make prestige goods is one such tactic. Many models presume preciosities were distributed to build alliances or for exchange; however, some objects may be imbued with sacred power. These singular goods would have a different distribution than prestige goods. The relations of production may also differ; elites, rather than attached specialists, may have produced singular objects as an empowering strategy. I propose that some elites in the Wari Empire (600-1000 ce) made elaborate pottery, some of which were sacred goods essential for the performance of rituals, in order to exclude others from this important source of power. To support this hypothesis, I describe the regional distribution of decorated pottery, the manner of its deposition, and evidence that elites created ceramic vessels in a Wari provincial palace at Cerro Baúl, Peru.

Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, 11(2), 199-239, 2024

The Ur III kingdom, which flourished in southern Mesopotamia at the end of the third millennium (ca. 2110-2003 BCE), produced and kept detailed administrative records from which historians can reconstruct the economic and social life of the period. Among these sources, we find household inventories of wealthy individuals, lists of temple treasures, receipts of luxury gifts, and accounts documenting allocations of prestige goods. Collectively, these documents shed light on the material culture of Babylonian society in the Early Bronze Age. Clothing, footwear, accessories, jewellery, weapons, and furniture feature among the objects most frequently associated with royals, priests, urban notables, and other elites. By combining data from these diverse textual sources and comparing them with possible parallels in glyptic iconography and the archaeological record, we will examine the elements that most clearly identify high-status individuals to determine the relationship between the economic and socio-cultural value of these objects, and reconstruct the context within which they were gifted and displayed.

Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, 2011

Højlund has argued that since the numbers are based on counts of rim sherds, this introduces a bias in the record; therefore the actual percentages of Mesopotamian vessels in periods Ia and Ib are more likely to be as high as 18% and 31% (1994: 130).

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