Uruk: The First City »

Uruk: the First City is the first fully historical analysis of the origins of the city and of the state in southern Mesopotamia,the region providing the earliest evidence in world history related to these seminal developments. Contrasting his approach -- which has been influenced by V. Gordan Childe and by Marxist theory-with the neo-evolutionist ideas of (especially) American anthropological theory, the author argues that the innovations that took place during the 'Uruk' period (most of the fourth millennium B.C.) were a 'true' revolution that fundamentally changed all aspects of society and culture. This book is unique in its historical approach and its combination of archaeological and textual sources. It develops an argument that weaves together a vast amount of information and places it within a context of contemporary scholarly debates on such questions as the ancient economy and world systems.It explains the roots of these debates briefly without talking down to the reader. The book is accessible to a wider audience, while it also provides a cogent argument about the processes involved to the specialist in the field.

Translators' Preface     vii
List of Diagrams and Figures     xi
Introduction     1
History of the Question     5
The Urban Revolution and the Legacy of the Nineteenth Century     5
Theories in Conflict: 'Modernists' and 'Primitivists'     7
Neo-evolutionism and Continuity     8
Complexity and Transition     10
The 'Archaic' Texts from Uruk     12
Social Transformation of the Territory     15
Primitive Accumulation and Technical Innovations     15
Destination of the Surplus     19
Demography and Settlement     25
Social Structure     28
The Administration of a Complex Economy     32
The Cycle of Barley     32
The Cycle of Wool     36
Commerce: Procurement or Profit?     40
Crafts: Centralization or Dispersal?     44
Services: Who Serves Whom?     50
Politics and Culture of the Early State     53
The Scribe and the Administration of the Storage House     53
The Sexagesimal World     57
The House of God     59
Ideological Mobilization     62
Center and Periphery     67
TheRegional System     67
Primary and Secondary State Formation     70
The Problem of Collapse     73
Bibliography     77
Figures     83
Index     95