Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization: The Evolution of an Urban Landscape - Hardcover

Algaze, Guillermo

 
9780226013770: Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization: The Evolution of an Urban Landscape
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0226013774 ISBN 13: 9780226013770
Verlag: University of Chicago Press, 2008

Inhaltsangabe

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 Asia, most importantly the ability to easily transport commodities. In due course, this resulted in increased trade and economic activity and higher population densities in the south than were possible elsewhere. As southern polities grew in scale and complexity throughout the fourth millennium, revolutionary new forms of labor organization and record keeping were created, and it is these socially created innovations, Algaze argues, that ultimately account for why fully developed city-states emerged earlier in southern Mesopotamia than elsewhere in Southwest Asia or the world.

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Guilllermo Algaze is professor of anthropology at the University of California, San Diego, and the author of The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization, now in its second edition from the University of Chicago Press.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization

The Evolution of an Urban LandscapeBy GUILLERMO ALGAZE

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

Copyright © 2008 The University of Chicago
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-226-01377-0

Contents

List of Illustrations............................................................................................................................ixAcknowledgments..................................................................................................................................xiPrologue.........................................................................................................................................xiiiCHAPTER 1. The Sumerian Takeoff..................................................................................................................1Natural and Created Landscapes...................................................................................................................1A Reversal of Fortune............................................................................................................................3Forthcoming Discussions..........................................................................................................................6CHAPTER 2. Factors Hindering Our Understanding of the Sumerian Takeoff...........................................................................11The Material Limits of the Evidence..............................................................................................................11Conceptual Problems..............................................................................................................................14Methodological Problems..........................................................................................................................24CHAPTER 3. Modeling the Dynamics of Urban Growth.................................................................................................28Growth As Diversification........................................................................................................................30Growth As Specialization.........................................................................................................................33Growth Situated..................................................................................................................................36Growth Institutionalized.........................................................................................................................37CHAPTER 4. Early Mesopotamian Urbanism: Why?.....................................................................................................40Environmental Advantages.........................................................................................................................40Geographical Advantages..........................................................................................................................50Comparative and Competitive Advantage............................................................................................................63CHAPTER 5. Early Mesopotamian Urbanism: How?.....................................................................................................64The Growth of Early Mesopotamian Urban Economies.................................................................................................64The Uruk Expansion...............................................................................................................................68Multiplier Effects...............................................................................................................................73CHAPTER 6. The Evidence for Trade................................................................................................................93CHAPTER 7. Early Mesopotamian Urbanism in Comparative Perspective................................................................................100Evidentiary Biases...............................................................................................................................100Florescent Urbanism in Alluvial Mesopotamia......................................................................................................102The Primacy of Warka: Location, Location, Location...............................................................................................109Aborted Urbanism in Upper Mesopotamia............................................................................................................117CHAPTER 8. The Synergies of Civilization.........................................................................................................123Propinquity and Its Consequences.................................................................................................................123Technologies of the Intellect....................................................................................................................127The Urban Revolution Revisited...................................................................................................................140CHAPTER 9. Conclusion: The Mesopotamian Conjuncture..............................................................................................143EPILOGUE Early Sumerian Civilization: A Research Agenda..........................................................................................151Agency...........................................................................................................................................152Paleoenvironment.................................................................................................................................154Trade............................................................................................................................................155Households and Property..........................................................................................................................157Excavation and Survey............................................................................................................................159Paleozoology.....................................................................................................................................161Mortuary Evidence................................................................................................................................162Chronology.......................................................................................................................................163The Early Uruk Problem...........................................................................................................................164APPENDIX 1. Surveyed Early/Middle Uruk Sites in the Mesopotamian Alluvium Organized by Size and Presumed Functional Category.....................167APPENDIX 2. Surveyed Late Uruk Sites in the Mesopotamian Alluvium Organized by Size and Presumed Functional Category.............................173Notes............................................................................................................................................177Reference List...................................................................................................................................193Source...

„Über diesen Titel“ kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Verlag
University of Chicago Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2008
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0226013774
ISBN 13 
9780226013770
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
230
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Buchbär
info@buchbaer.de

Weberstr. 67
Osnabrück
49084
Deutschland

Weitere beliebte Ausgaben desselben Titels

9780226142371: Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization: The Evolution of an Urban Landscape

Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  022614237X ISBN 13:  9780226142371
Verlag: University of Chicago Press, 2014
Softcover