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The Uruk World System
From this he concludes that economic exploitation of less developed peripheral areas was integral to the earliest development of civilization in the ancient Near East. However, the early Mesopotamian outposts did not endure long. They either collapsed or were withdrawn by the end of the fourth millennium B.C. According to Algaze, this is explained, in part, by the impact that the outposts had on the sociopolitical evolution of peripheral societies. He argues that the cross-cultural contacts initiated by the intrusions would have led to an initial strengthening of local chiefs, so that in some cases local communities soon became expansive in their own right. This unintended consequence would have required core polities either to arrive at more formal (political and military) modes of domination or, alternately, to abandon the periphery altogether, ceding control of trade routes to the newly emerging local powers
Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization
The alluvial lowlands of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Mesopotamia are widely known as the “cradle of civilization,” owing to the scale of the processes of urbanization that took place in the area by the second half of the fourth millennium BCE. In Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization, Guillermo Algaze draws on the work of modern economic geographers to explore how the unique river-based ecology and geography of the Tigris-Euphrates alluvium affected the development of urban civilization in southern Mesopotamia. He argues that these natural conditions granted southern polities significant competitive advantages over their landlocked rivals elsewhere in Southwest ...
Space and Spatial Analysis in Archaeology
The archaeology of space and place is examined in this selection of papers from the 34th annual Chacmool Archaeological Conference.
Rethinking World-Systems
The use of world-systems theory to explain the spread of social complexity has become accepted practice by both historians and archaeologists. Gil Stein now offers the first rigorous test of world systems as a model in archaeology, arguing that the application of world-systems theory to noncapitalist, pre-fifteenth-century societies distorts our understanding of developmental change by overemphasizing the role of external over internal dynamics. In this new study, Stein proposes two complementary theoretical frameworks for the study of interregional interaction: a "distance-parity" model, which views world-systems as simply one factor in a broader range of intersocietal relations, and a "tra...
Ancient Iran and Its Neighbours
The fourth millennium BC was a critical period of socio-economic and political transformation in the Iranian Plateau and its surrounding zones. This period witnessed the appearance of the world’s earliest urban centres, hierarchical administrative structures, and writing systems. These developments are indicative of significant changes in socio-political structures that have been interpreted as evidence for the rise of early states and the development of inter-regional trade, embedded in longer-term processes that began in the later fifth millennium BC. Iran was an important player in western Asia especially in the medium- to long-range trade in raw materials and finished items throughout this period. The 20 papers presented here illustrate forcefully how the re-evaluation of old excavation results, combined with much new research, has dramatically expanded our knowledge and understanding of local developments on the Iranian Plateau and of long-range interactions during the critical period of the fourth millennium BC.
The Archaeology of Colonialism
The Archaeology of Colonialism demonstrates how artifacts are not only the residue of social interaction but also instrumental in shaping identities and communities. Claire Lyons and John Papadopoulos summarize the complex issues addressed by this collection of essays. Four case studies illustrate the use of archaeological artifacts to reconstruct social structures. They include ceramic objects from Mesopotamian colonists in fourth-millennium Anatolia; the Greek influence on early Iberian sculpture and language; the influence of architecture on the West African coast; and settlements across Punic Sardinia that indicate the blending of cultures. The remaining essays look at the roles myth, ritual, and religion played in forming colonial identities. In particular, they discuss the cultural middle ground established among Greeks and Etruscans; clothing as an instrument of European colonialism in nineteenth-century Oceania; sixteenth-century Andean urban planning and kinship relations; and the Dutch East India Company settlement at the Cape of Good Hope.
Cities and the Shaping of Memory in the Ancient Near East
This book investigates the founding and building of cities in the ancient Near East. The creation of new cities was imagined as an ideological project or a divine intervention in the political narratives and mythologies of Near Eastern cultures, often masking the complex processes behind the social production of urban space. During the Early Iron Age (c.1200–850 BCE), Assyrian and Syro-Hittite rulers developed a highly performative official discourse that revolved around constructing cities, cultivating landscapes, building watercourses, erecting monuments and initiating public festivals. This volume combs through archaeological, epigraphic, visual, architectural and environmental evidence to tell the story of a region from the perspective of its spatial practices, landscape history and architectural technologies. It argues that the cultural processes of the making of urban spaces shape collective memory and identity as well as sites of political performance and state spectacle.
Archaeological Perspectives on Houses and Households in Third Millennium Mesopotamian Society
There have been few studies in Ancient Near Eastern archaeology that have concentrated on domestic buildings, with little existent information about houses. This represents a serious lacuna in the knowledge of Mesopotamian culture, considering the importance of the house in society, as the main space of social dynamics. This book addresses this gap, analysing the characteristics and the variations of Mesopotamian houses in the third millennium, which represents a critical period for early urbanization. It identifies common aspects and differences, and relates those characteristics to the socio-economical history of the period to broaden the understanding of this interesting period in Mesopot...
The Imperialisation of Assyria
How can we understand the remarkable success of the Assyrian Empire? This book provides an agent-centred explanation using archaeological data.
Arch Of Society
This volume marks a departure from earlier descriptive archaeological summaries of the Holy Land. Taking an anthropological and socio-economic perspective, many of the leading archaeologists who work in Israel and Jordan today present timely and concise summaries of the archaeology of this region. Chronologically organized, each chapter outlines the major cultural transitions which occurred in a given archaeological period. To explain the processes which were responsible for culture change, a review is made of the most recent research concerning settlement patterns, innovations and technology, religion and ideology, and social organization. The material culture of every period of human histo...
