In the fifth millennia BCE, Western civilization began to take shape on the fertile banks of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The rich soils of Mesopotamia provided strong incentive for humans to create large, organized settlements, subsisting on the power of agriculture. Eventually, these agricultural settlements became what most scholars recognize as the first Western civilization. But, how and why did these isolated farming communities intertwine themselves to create ancient Sumer? While many theories exist, there is one explanation that is particularly powerful and relevant to this course: networks. “Trade and power in the fifth and fourth millennia BC” provides archaeological research showing the importance of trade networks in the development of Mesopotamian civilization.

While Mesopotamia’s fertile soil provided an ideal setting for agriculture, the land lacked important natural resources. The plain upon which Sumer existed had little or no metal, timber, and precious stones. In an ideal world of peaceful farming, these lacks would not have been devastating. But, due to the raiders of the surrounding highlands, Sumer needed protection. For this reason, trade played a critical role in the development of the structure of Sumer.

To gain better access to these resources, cities built their own trading outposts, established at critical nodes in the transportation network of goods. Cities that built the most new useful nodes and links in the trade network grew in power. A particularly important example of a powerful city establishing trading colonies is Uruk. Archaeological evidence of many settlements seemingly built for the storage and protection of goods show the breadth of the Uruk trading network. The excavations of Habuba Süd, Jebel Aruda, and other sites, classified as settlements related to Uruk, have shown the expansion of Uruk into Syria and Anatolia, driven by the new trading colonies. Through the creation of new links and nodes on the trading network, Uruk grew immensely powerful.

The work we have done in class on network exchange theory demonstrates why creating more trading colonies would lead to an increase in power. By having more potential sellers competing for their trade, Uruk could gain more favorable deals. This gave them more critical resources at better prices, fueling their social, political, and economic power. Though network exchange theory is a relatively new field, the expansion of Uruk shows that advantageous positioning in a trading network could yield great social power, as far back as the fifth millennia BCE.

Here is the original article:

“Trade and power in the fifth and fourth millennia BC: new evidence from northern Mesopotamia”

Joan Oates

http://www.jstor.org/view/00438243/ap000074/00a00070/0