eHRAF Archaeology

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The Early Dynastic Mesopotamia tradition is found on the lower Tigris, Euphrates, and Diyala river valleys, ca. 4900-4334 BP.  The region included some twenty to thirty city-states, each with a principle center linked to smaller towns and villages. Walled cities had a central temple surrounded by auxiliary religious and political buildings, and workshops. The economy was based on irrigation agriculture and animal husbandry. Powerful leaders, often referred to as kings, headed a complex hierarchical political system. Two distinctive artifacts of the period were cylinder seals and votive statues.

Heartland of cities

Sumer and the Sumerians

The structure of the Near Eastern society before the middle of the 2nd millennium BC

Household and family in early Mesopotamia

Non-religious residential settlement patterning in the late Early Dynastic of the Diyala region

Early political development in Mesopotamia

The balance of trade in southwestern Asia in the mid-third millennium B.C.

The Sumerians

Tradition summary

Of priestesses, princes and poor relations

Early Mesopotamia

The southern margins of Sumer

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Author	Title	Publication Date
Adams, Robert McCormick	Heartland of cities	1981
Crawford, Harriet E. W.	Sumer and the Sumerians	1990
D'iákonov, Igor' Mikhailovich	The structure of the Near Eastern society before the middle of the 2nd millennium BC	1982
Gelb, Ignace J.	Household and family in early Mesopotamia	1979
Henrickson, Elizabeth F.	Non-religious residential settlement patterning in the late Early Dynastic of the Diyala region	1981
Jacobsen, Thorkild	Early political development in Mesopotamia	1957
Kohl, Philip L.	The balance of trade in southwestern Asia in the mid-third millennium B.C.	1978
Kramer, Samuel Noah	The Sumerians	1963
Peregrine, Peter N. (Peter Neal)	Tradition summary	2003
Pollock, Susan	Of priestesses, princes and poor relations	1991
Postgate, J. N.	Early Mesopotamia	1992
Wright, Henry T. (Henry Tutwiler)	The southern margins of Sumer	1981

Early Dynastic Mesopotamia

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