essay
The Uruk period in southern Mesopotamia
uruk mesopotamia & its neighbors : cross-cultural interactions in the era of state formation • Sante Fe, Nm • Published In 2001 • Pages: 181-231
By: Pollock, Susan.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Pollock suggests in this essay that many general scenarios that seek to explain developments in the fourth millennium in Greater Mesopotamia are based on assumptions about the political economy of the southern alluvial lowlands that require reconsideration. She argues that there were substantial differences in economic organization within southern Mesopotamia between the so-called Nippur-Adab and Warka areas, the latter where the city of Uruk-Warka is located. The author suggests that the Nippur-Adab subregion was characterized by a collection of relatively autonomous polities and was in fact more stable than the Uruk-Warka area, but with a less integrated and less 'complexly' organized economic system. She contends that societies in the Uruk area seem to have relied more heavily on the extraction of tribute using repressive means and may have been dominated by a single powerful center, the city of Uruk-Warka itself. In this article Pollock reevaluates data relevant to an assessment of demographic trends and argues that the results contradict the widely accepted scenario in which the Nippur-Adab area lost a substantial portion of its population to the Warka area in the Late Uruk period (p. 182).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Settlement patterns
- Cultural participation
- Production and supply
- Organization and analysis of results of research
- Ceramic technology
- Lithic industries
- Internal migration
- 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
- 6000-5100 BP (4000-3100 BC)
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Uruk Period, Iraq
- NotesAdditional notes
- Susan Pollock
- 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)