Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization: The Evolution of an Urban Landscape
Guillermo Algaze
Abstract
The alluvial lowlands of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Mesopotamia are widely known as the “cradle of civilization”; owing to the scale of the processes of urbanization that took place in the area by the second half of the fourth millennium bc. This book draws on the work of modern economic geographers to explore how the unique river-based ecology and geography of the Tigris–Euphrates alluvium impacted the development of urban civilization in southern Mesopotamia. It argues that these natural conditions granted southern polities significant competitive advantages over their landl ... More
The alluvial lowlands of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Mesopotamia are widely known as the “cradle of civilization”; owing to the scale of the processes of urbanization that took place in the area by the second half of the fourth millennium bc. This book draws on the work of modern economic geographers to explore how the unique river-based ecology and geography of the Tigris–Euphrates alluvium impacted the development of urban civilization in southern Mesopotamia. It argues that these natural conditions granted southern polities significant competitive advantages over their landlocked rivals elsewhere in Southwest Asia, most importantly the ability to transport easily commodities. In due course, this resulted in increased trade and economic activity and higher population densities in the south than were possible elsewhere. As southern polities grew in scale and complexity throughout the fourth millennium, revolutionary new forms of labor organization and record keeping were created, and it is these socially created innovations, the author argues, that ultimately account for why fully developed city-states emerged earlier in southern Mesopotamia than elsewhere in Southwest Asia or the world.
Keywords:
Mesopotamia,
Tigris,
Euphrates,
urban civilization,
Southwest Asia,
labor organization,
record keeping,
urbanization,
trade,
population
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2008 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780226013770 |
| Published to Chicago Scholarship Online: March 2013 |
DOI:10.7208/chicago/9780226013787.001.0001 |
