The first city in history, Uruk, in S. Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), is the subject of this book by Mario Liverani, a Professor at Sapienza University of Rome.

It was at Uruk at the fag end of the 4th millenium BCE that, as the translators, Zainab Bahrani and Marc Van De Meiroop write, "We see the appearance of the state, of writing, of bronze manufacture, of monumental art and architecture, and of an integrated economy that tied together the urbanized core and the non-urban periphery." (p.vii)

The start of the Bronze Age in Mesopotamia. So what was the driver for these phenomena? And how were they connected?

To start with, the tool Prof. Liverani uses in his analysis is the Marxist concept of "the 'primitive' (primary, or pristine) accumulation of capital." What this boils down to is an investigation of production, agricultural production and in particular the production of grain (barley.) Prof. Liverani shows how the invention of "long field" agriculture in Uruk meant (1) centralization necessary to organise it, but (2) production was boosted so much that a massive surplus could be siphoned off from its producers by a priestly class, to fund the projects like "hydraulic works" (irrigation canals) and temples needed to keep the system itself going.

This book hasn't got a lot of theological content. Prof. Liverani doesn't discuss whether or not the gods exist(ed.) His interest is more in ideology, in the gods being used to prop up the economic system:

"Regarding the industrial revolution, Marx wrote that, 'the methods of primitive accumulation are anything but idyllic'. Similar considerations should be made for the accumulation of resources that brought about the urban revolution. The extraction of resources from the producers, and from consumption within the families, and their diversion towards social services, required a strong dose of coercion. Such coercion could be physical, but the use of force is expensive and becomes counterproductive after a while. Therefore, preferably the coercion is ideological. The temple was the only institution that could convince producers to give up substantial parts of their work for the advantage of the community and its administrators, represented by their divine hypostases." (p.24-5)

So what were the technical innovations powering the "urban revolution" at the start of the Bronze Age? Prof. Liverani discusses four: the long field; the seeder plough; the threshing sledge; and the clay sickle.

THE LONG FIELD

Prof. Liverani differentiates between two types of irrigation: Basin irrigation, and furrow irrigation.

Basin irrigation submerged a field under a thin layer of water, which soaked straight down. It was done in a square field with low embankments. A single family could work a whole field without much need for co-ordination with neighbours.

Furrow irrigation came to be used in long sloped fields, narrower strips of land with a canal along the higher end of the slope, with water travelling down furrows to marshes or drainage basins at the bottom:

"An extensive area had to be developed *ex novo*, with great blocks of fields placed in a 'herringbone pattern' off the two sides of the canal. The slope of the terrain was adapted to the morphology of the delta, since the canals inside dykes were raised above the fields, as a result of the buildup of sediment, and there were lateral basins or marshes for the release of excess water. The long fields therefore required the presence of a central coordinating agency for their planning and management. One installed, they allowed productivity on a large scale..." (p.16)

THE SEEDER PLOUGH

Connected to the long field was another development, the animal-pulled plough. Using 2-3 oxen, this allowed digging furrows hundreds of metres long. The ploughs were unwieldy turning around, but the lengths of the fields minimised the need for this, and the ploughs saved massive amounts of time compared to digging furrows by hoe.

At seeding time, the plough had a funnel fitted converting it into a seeder. The seeder plough put the seeds deep into the furrow, saving on loss from dispersion by hand. Prof. Liverani estimates a 50% increase in yields from the seeder plough.

THE THRESHING SLEDGE

Barley was threshed on a special threshing floor, using a sledge with flint blades at the bottom, pulled by an ass. The most efficient means of transporting the harvest from field to threshing floor and from threshing floor to storage house was by boat. These used the system of canals and river branches.

THE CLAY SICKLE

Crescent shaped sickles with sharp internal edges were used to harvest barley. These were low cost (and disposable, not being resharpenable like flint), therefore they made feasible using multiple labourers working simultaneously.

Prof. Liverani estimates that taking all these technical innovations together, with the system of central organisation, there was an increase in productivity of 500-1000%.

SHEEP AND GOATS

Sheep were the other staple of the 3rd millenium Sumerian economy, apart from barley.

There were three phases of the wool economy:

1. BREEDING

There were two patterns for sheep and goats.

'Horizontal transhumance.' Pastures were used in the Syro-Arabian steppe (dry grassy plain) during winter and spring, when vegetation spouted following winter rains. In the hot and dry summer herdsmen used pastures in the river valleys.

'Vertical transhumance' in the Zagros Mountains in N.E. Mesopotamia. Mountain pastures were used in the summer and autumn, and foothill pastures in the winter and spring.

Flocks were entrusted to shepherds. Sheep breeding took place out of reach of temple administrators so there were fixed quotas set for the growth of flocks from births, and for their production of wool and dairy products. Animals slaughtered for the temple and used as sacrifices and at banquets were deducted from the total. This was normally <25% so flocks tended to remain constant over time.

2. SHEARING BY FORCED LABOUR

Shearing required a high concentration of labour over a short period. So forced labour was used, paid for with rations. (The same system was used for the barley harvest.)

3. SPINNING AND WEAVING BY SLAVE LABOUR

This was the most labour-intensive phase in the work with wool. Slave labour was used, hundreds of women and children concentrated in special buildings controlled by guards and overseers. Slaves were recruited from prisoners of war and oblates. (Later, in the 2nd millenium, it was mostly debt-slaves.)

TRADE IN METALS, SEMI-PRECIOUS STONES AND WOOD

These raw materials were naturally lacking in Lower Mesopotamia. So long-distance trade developed, especially because of the emergence of metallurgy. Similar to the deal with shepherds, merchants working on behalf of the temple could make a profit for themselves, by exchanging goods in other lands for more than the rate of exchange set them by temple administrators.

Trade was carried out by means of caravans of asses and mules, travelling about 25KM per day. Sample loads per animal were 70KG cloth(export) and 90KG metal (import.)

ACCOUNTING BY 60 AND THE WORLD VIEW IN BRONZE AGE IRAQ

Standard measures were introduced because of the need to calculate food rations for labour, the values of merchandise, etc.

"A first level of standardization of reality derives from the inventory itself of its constitutive parts. The lexical lists - instruments that helped scribal activity - contain in fact a taxonomic summary of reality. In the infinite variability of the real, typological or functional units were fixed through their relationship to economic use." (p.57)

Labour time was calculated in man days- the amount of labour one man is to perform in a day. It was an abstraction which could represent the amount of earth dug out for a canal, the area of a field to be harvested, or the amount of pottery or textiles produced. Numerical relations, in rations and labour, used a sexagesimal system (based on 60.)

This affected the computation of time. A sexagesimal system was introduced, years of 360 days, divided into 12 months of 30 days. 5 or 6 days were added at the end of each year and were outside of labour calculations.

Linear measurements started from the length of a man's forearm, and then other measurements were taken from that using 1:10, 1:6 and 1:60 ratios.

Construction projects used cubits and its multiples, i.e. working out the number of bricks to be produced and put in place- both in relation to volume and labour time.

Weights were based on shekels, minas and talents (1 talent = 30KG = the load a man can carry) and on the 1:60:360 sequence.
Different commodities could be exchanged with each other using this system of weights and measures. 1 shekel of silver = 300L of barley = 12L of sesame oil =6 or 10 minas of wool =2 or 3 minas of copper.