Archaeological Evidence of the Political Economy in Pre-State and Early State Societies in the Near East. Mesopotamia and Anatolia, Some Remarks and Comparisons

Abstract

This chapter analyses the economic policies of governing elites in the most ancient proto-urban and proto-state societies of the ancient Near East between IV and III millennium B.C. with a focus on Greater Mesopotamia (including south-eastern Anatolia) and western Anatolia. Based on archaeological evidence diverse economic strategies emerge between the elites of the first centralised Mesopotamian societies characterised by early urbanisation and state structures and the elites of the fortified citadels in the little independent political centres of Anatolia at the beginning of the III millennium B.C. The comparison will allow some considerations on the economic centralisation of primary production and labour (the ‘staple-finance’ of Polanyi and Earle) in relation to the centralisation of products and/or productions of luxuries (‘wealth finance’) in various types of early societies. Further research is dedicated to changes in state control over crafts and trade in later and more mature forms of state.KeywordsPolitical economiesAncient Near EastInstitutional economicsKarl PolanyiStaple and Wealth finance