article

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

Current anthropology • 19 (3) • Published In 1978 • Pages: 463-492

By: Kohl, Philip L..

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Kohl discusses a site in Iran called Tepe Yahya, one site where elaborate stone bowls were manufactured for export. These stone bowls were distributed from Uzbekistan and the Indus Valley to Syria. Some of these Tepe Yahya bowls have been found in the royal tombs at Ur. Kohl then uses the bowls to discuss possible foreign trade between Mesopotamia and Khuzistan and the Iranian plateau. Kohl points out that Mesopotamia had large surpluses of food and textiles and that these items could have been traded for metals, turquoise, lapis lazuli, and other materials that the alluvial plains lacked. Early Dynastic temples helped finace some of this foreign trade. Comments by 15 anthropologists follow the article along with Kohl's reply to them.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Acculturation and culture contact
Production and supply
External trade
Mercantile business
Visual arts
traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Early Dynastic Mesopotamia
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2003
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
article
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
Sarah Berry ; 2001
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
not specified
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
5th millenium BP or 5000 BP-4000 BP (3rd millennium B.C. or 3000 B.C.-2000 B.C.)
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Mesopotamia; Iran and Iraq
NotesAdditional notes
by Philip L. Kohl
Comments by Lucien R. Bäck, Henri J. M. Claessen, Antonio Gilman, Christopher L. Hamlin, Kensaku Hayashi, C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, Hans J. Niessen, Joan Oats, Akira Ono, Daniel Potts, H. D. Sankalia, Jim G. Shaffer, Wilhelm G. Solheim II, Mark V. Stark, Trevor Watkins
Includes bibliographical references (p. 489-492)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
a 63000576
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Iraq--Civilization--To 634