essay
Cultural and political networks in the ancient Near East during the fourth and third millennia B.C.
uruk mesopotamia & its neighbors : cross-cultural interactions in the era of state formation • Sante Fe, Nm • Published In 2001 • Pages: 149-179
By: Nissen, Hans Jörg.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this article Nissen describes one of the greatest problems in the interpretation of events and trends in the Greater Mesopotamian region during the fourth millennium BC - the Uruk period. Despite a century of excavation work at Uruk-Warka, the collected data from the site is surprisingly mute on chronological issues, although it does convey the information that the city was of amazing size and internal complexity containing a society that was extremely formalized in its hierarchical organization. This hierarchy, built upon control of the city's hinterland and its labor potential, was unparalleled in the Uruk period. In order to understand the long-term trends at work in this region Nissen focuses on the entanglements of southern Mesopotamia and its neighbors in temporal and spatial contexts, even though much of his data remains hypothetical he presents it with the hope that future research will fill in the blanks and possibly correct the statements made in the study.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Theoretical orientation in research and its results
- Historical reconstruction
- Acculturation and culture contact
- Writing
- Chronologies and culture sequences
- Cultural stratigraphy
- Settlement patterns
- traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Late Chalcolithic Mesopotamia
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Middle East
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Middle East
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Archaeologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle; 2006
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 6000-5000 BP (4000-3000 BC)
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Uruk-Warka, Iraq
- NotesAdditional notes
- Hans J. Nissen
- For bibliographical references see document 17:Rothman
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 2001049321
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Middle East--Civilization--To 622/Erech (Extinct city)