Dynamics of Production in the Ancient Near East

Dynamics of Production in the Ancient Near East
Author: Juan Carlos Moreno Garcia
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2016-10-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 178570284X

The transition between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC was an era of deep economic changes in the ancient Near East. An increasing monetization of transactions, a broader use of silver, the management of the resources of temples through “entrepreneurs”, the development of new trade circuits and an expanding private, small-scale economy, transformed the role previously played by institutions such as temples and royal palaces. The 17 essays collected here analyze the economic transformations which affected the old dominant powers of the Late Bronze Age, their adaptation to a new economic environment, the emergence of new economic actors and the impact of these changes on very different social sectors and geographic areas, from small communities in the oases of the Egyptian Western Desert to densely populated urban areas in Mesopotamia. Egypt was not an exception. Traditionally considered as a conservative and highly hierarchical and bureaucratic society, Egypt shared nevertheless many of these characteristics and tried to adapt its economic organization to the challenges of a new era. In the end, the emergence of imperial super-powers (Assyria, Babylonia, Persia and, to a lesser extent, Kushite and Saite Egypt) can be interpreted as the answer of former palatial organizations to the economic and geopolitical conditions of the early Iron Age. A new order where competition for the control of flows of wealth and of strategic trading areas appears crucial.

The Organization of Ancient Economies

The Organization of Ancient Economies
Author: Kenneth Hirth
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 467
Release: 2020-09-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1108863671

In this book, Kenneth Hirth provides a comparative view of the organization of ancient and premodern society and economy. Hirth establishes that humans adapted to their environments, not as individuals but in the social groups where they lived and worked out the details of their livelihoods. He explores the variation in economic organization used by simple and complex societies to procure, produce, and distribute resources required by both individual households and the social and political institutions that they supported. Drawing on a wealth of archaeological, historic, and ethnographic information, he develops and applies an analytical framework for studying ancient societies that range from the hunting and gathering groups of native North America, to the large state societies of both the New and Old Worlds. Hirth demonstrates that despite differences in transportation and communication technologies, the economic organization of ancient and modern societies are not as different as we sometimes think.

Trade in the Ancient Near East

Trade in the Ancient Near East
Author: John David Hawkins
Publisher:
Total Pages: 256
Release: 1977
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Papers presented to the 23rd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale held at the University of Birmingham in 1976. Twenty seven papers address the question of trade in the Near East based on literary and archaeological evidence, including Sumerian literature and cuneiform tablets. The papers are concerned with specific types of evidence, as well as on more general discussions of interaction and the social, political and economic effects of trade between different areas of the Near east and Egypt.

Trade, Traders and the Ancient City

Trade, Traders and the Ancient City
Author: Helen Parkins
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2005-06-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134709412

Trade, exchange and commerce touched the lives of everyone in antiquity, especially those who lived in urban areas. Trade, Traders and the Ancient City addresses the nature of exchange and commerce and the effects it had in cities throughout the ancient world, from the Bronze Age Near East to late Roman northern Italy. Trade, Traders and the Ancient City employs the most recent archaeological, papyrological, epigraphic and literary evidence to present an innovative and timely analysis of the importance and influence of trade in the ancient world.

Trade and Civilisation

Trade and Civilisation
Author: Kristian Kristiansen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 567
Release: 2018-07-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1108425410

Provides the first global analysis of the relationship between trade and civilisation from the beginning of civilisation until the modern era.

Wool Economy in the Ancient Near East

Wool Economy in the Ancient Near East
Author: Catherine Breniquet
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 473
Release: 2014-07-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1782976310

The history of the Ancient Near East covers a huge chronological frame, from the first pictographic texts of the late 4th millennium to the conquest of Alexander the Great in 333 BC. During these millennia, different societies developed in a changing landscape where sheep (and their wool) always played an important economic role. The 22 papers presented here explore the place of wool in the ancient economy of the region, where large-scale textile production began during the second half of the 3rd millennium. By placing emphasis on the development of multi-disciplinary methodologies, experimentation and use of archaeological evidence combined with ancient textual sources, the wide-ranging contributions explore a number of key themes. These include: the first uses of wool in textile manufacture and organization of weaving; trade and exchange; the role of wool in institutionalized economies; and the reconstruction of the processes that led to this first form of industry in Antiquity. The numerous archaeological and written sources provide an enormous amount of data on wool, textile crafts, and clothing and these inter-disciplinary studies are beginning to present a comprehensive picture of the economic and cultural impact of woollen textiles and textile manufacturing on formative ancient societies.

Commerce and Colonization in the Ancient Near East

Commerce and Colonization in the Ancient Near East
Author: Maria Eugenia Aubet
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 423
Release: 2013-01-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0521514177

"In this analysis, the roots of the Phoenician colonial system are traced and the metropolis of Tyre is established as the final link in a chain of experiences in the ancient Near East"--Provided by publisher.

Law and Trade in Ancient Mesopotamia and Anatolia

Law and Trade in Ancient Mesopotamia and Anatolia
Author: N. J. C. Kouwenberg
Publisher:
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2020-10-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9789088909153

This book contains a selection of nineteen articles published by K.R. Veenhof, focusing on his main field of study: law and trade in the Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian society of the early second millennium B.C. They were originally published in journals, conference proceedings and collective volumes over the past fifty years. Their reissue here is motivated by their lasting value and their fundamental importance to the study of these subjects.It includes both "broad" articles, which give an introduction to or an overview of a specific subject, e.g. Old Assyrian trade and the practice of justice in Babylonia in the early second millennium B.C., and "narrow" ones that give an in-depth study of a single issue or a single text, such as a problematic paragraph of Hammurabi's law code or the meaning of the noun iṣurtum. The first two articles provide a general introduction to the subject; the next nine focus on Old Assyrian society, and the final eight concern Old Babylonian.The inclusion of "broad" and "narrow" articles makes this publication of interest both to the well-informed general reader interested in the Ancient Near East and to the specialist working on Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian society.Prof. dr. Klaas R. Veenhof (1935) was a teacher at the Catholic University of Nijmegen, professor at the Free University of Amsterdam and from 1982 until his retirement in 2000 professor at the University of Leiden. Key publications are his dissertation "Aspects of Old Assyrian Trade and its Terminology" (1972), "The Old Assyrian list of year eponyms from Karum Kanish and its chronological implications" (2003), and several editions of Old Assyrian texts, especially "Altassyrische Tontafeln aus Kültepe" (1992) and Kültepe Tabletleri 5 and 8 (2005 and 2010).