Mobile Pastoralism and the Formation of Near Eastern Civilizations: Weaving Together SocietyIn this book, Anne Porter explores the idea that mobile and sedentary members of the ancient world were integral parts of the same social and political groups in greater Mesopotamia during the period 4000 to 1500 BCE. She draws on a wide range of archaeological and cuneiform sources to show how networks of social structure, political and religious ideology, and everyday as well as ritual practice, worked to maintain the integrity of those groups when the pursuit of different subsistence activities dispersed them over space. These networks were dynamic, shaping many of the key events and innovations of the time, including the Uruk expansion and the introduction of writing, so-called secondary state formation and the organization and operation of government, the literary production of the Third Dynasty of Ur and the first stories of Gilgamesh, and the emergence of the Amorrites in the second millennium BCE. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Chapter One The Problem with Pastoralists | 8 |
Chapter Two Wool Writing and Religion | 65 |
Chapter Three From Temple to Tomb | 164 |
Chapter Four Tax and Tribulation or Who Were the Amorrites? | 251 |
Conclusion Beyond Tribe and State | 326 |
Appendix | 331 |
| 333 | |
| 381 | |
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Mobile Pastoralism and the Formation of Near Eastern Civilizations: Weaving ... Anne Porter No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
Akkad akkadian algaze amorrites ancestor ancestral groups animals Anthropology aradmu aratta Archaeology archi argued arslantepe assemblage associated attested beveled-rim bowls Bonechi Buccellati building Chalcolithic Charpin complex context descent Durand ebla edited ekallatum enkidu enmerkar euphrates evidence fact fourth millennium Frangipane Fronzaroli function Gilgamesh gods habuba Kabira hacinebi herds huwawa Ibbi-Sin identity Inana interaction Ishbi-erra king kinship Larsa Late Chalcolithic letters located Lugalbanda maliktum Mardu Mari material culture Mesopotamia Michalowski mobile pastoralists Naram-Sin nomads nuer oates old Babylonian organization origin palace G pastoralism perhaps political porter practices production Red-Black Burnished Ware relationship ritual Samsi-addu sedentary seems settlement Shu-Sin Shulgi situation social society sociopolitical southern space Stein Steinkeller story structures suggest Sumer Sumerian tablets tell Brak temple texts third millennium Tidnu tion tomb traditional tribal tribe understanding Uruk expansion Uruk period vessels wall Zimri-Lim