Household Production at the Uruk Mound, Abu Salabikh, Iraq

Abstract

Restructuring of the economy is thought to have accompanied the emergence of ancient states and urban societies in the Near East, beginning in the Uruk period (fourth millennium B.C.), but scholars disagree on the precise nature of economic change. Through investigations at the Uruk Mound of Abu Salabikh, an Uruk-period town in southern Mesopotamia, we examine the contexts of production within one community. Our analyses rely primarily on data collected during detailed mapping of the surface of the site, supplemented by data from surface scraping and excavation. The results of our work suggest that the manufacture of pottery and the production and use of stone tools for processing plants, animals, and their products were widespread in the community, rather than organized or controlled by a few centralized institutions. Our findings suggest that state control in the Uruk period was not based on direct control of the production of these staple items.