Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization
The Evolution of an Urban Landscape
- Contents
- Review Quotes

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1. The Sumerian Takeoff
Natural and Created Landscapes
A Reversal of Fortune
Forthcoming Discussions
Chapter 2. Factors Hindering Our Understanding of the Sumerian Takeoff
The Material Limits of the Evidence
Conceptual Problems
Methodological Problems
Chapter 3. Modeling the Dynamics of Urban Growth
Growth as Diversification
Growth as Specialization
Growth Situated
Growth Institutionalized
Chapter 4. Early Mesopotamian Urbanism: Why?
Environmental Advantages
Geographical Advantages
Comparative and Competitive Advantage
Chapter 5. Early Mesopotamian Urbanism: How?
The Growth of Early Mesopotamian Urban Economies
The Uruk Expansion
Multiplier Effects
Chapter 6. The Evidence for Trade
Chapter 7. Early Mesopotamian Urbanism in Comparative Perspective
Evidentiary Biases
Florescent Urbanism in Alluvial Mesopotamia
The Primacy of Warka: Location, Location, Location
Aborted Urbanism in Upper Mesopotamia
Chapter 8. The Synergies of Civilization
Propinquity and Its Consequences
Technologies of the Intellect
The Urban Revolution Revisited
Chapter 9. Conclusion: The Mesopotamian Conjuncture
Epilogue: Early Sumerian Civilization: A Research Agenda
Agency
Paleoenvironment
Trade
Households and Property
Excavation and Survey
Paleozoology
Mortuary Evidence
Chronology
The Early Uruk Problem
Appendix 1. Early/Middle Uruk Sites in the Mesopotamian Alluvium Organized by Size and Presumed Functional Category
Appendix 2. Late Uruk Sites in the Mesopotamian Alluvium Organized by Size and Presumed Functional Category
Notes Reference List Source List Index“Algaze displays an impressive command of recent research in economic geography and an insightful knowledge of strengths and weaknesses of the textual and archaeological dataset. The result is a tight and theoretically explicit model for the precocious rise of southern Mesopotamian urban society that argues strongly for the primacy of trade, transportation technology, and uniquely diverse geographic circumstances. Algaze’s The Uruk World System drove the research agenda for the Uruk expansion; Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization will structure the direction of future field research on the emergence of the world’s earliest urban states.”
“This is an important and valuable distillation of Algaze’s most recent thinking on the development of southern Mesopotamian society. While it is indeed a worthy complement to his earlier work, this wholly original book takes his argument much further, making a number of important theoretical points.”
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