#neareast

Trade in Ancient Mesopotamia: How Commerce Encouraged Civilization

Trade began in Mesopotamia for the same reason it did anywhere else – need. The Mesopotamians had a surplus of grain, clay, and reeds (among other assets) that they could offer in return for resources they lacked, such as precious metals, minerals, and wood from other regions. The development of long-distance trade during the Ubaid and Uruk periods led to the invention of writing in the form of cuneiform script by circa 3500 BCE so that merchants could communicate with clients in foreign regions or distant Mesopotamian cities.

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A theory about the origins of agriculture that domestication began as a symbiotic relationship between humans, animals, and plants at oases during the drying of the Near East at the end of the Pleistocene; associated with V. Gordon Childe and others. Both humans and animals and plants would have gathered around the few oases or water sources, and humans would gradually come to control many other species.

Near East: A Modern Term for an Ancient Land

The 'Near East' is a modern-age term for the region formerly known as the 'Middle East,' comprising Armenia, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and part of Turkey, corresponding to ancient Urartu, Mesopotamia, Elam, Persia, the Levant, and Anatolia. The region is often referred to as including the Fertile Crescent and is known as the Cradle of Civilization, although civilization had also developed elsewhere, such as in ancient China, the Indus Valley, and the Americas. Even so, the Near Eastern region of Mesopotamia, specifically Sumer, is regarded as the oldest civilization on earth due to the established dating of inventions and developments which constitute civilization.

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10 Maps of Bronze Age Empires

During the Bronze Age, which spanned roughly from 3300 BCE to 1200 BCE, several powerful empires emerged, shaping the course of early civilization. In this collection of ten maps, we take a look at the empires that flourished in regions such as ancient Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, empires which have left behind remarkable legacies of influence on many later cultures.

10 Maps of Bronze Age Empires

During the Bronze Age, which spanned roughly from 3300 BCE to 1200 BCE, several powerful empires emerged, shaping the course of early civilization. In this collection of ten maps, we take a look at the empires that flourished in regions such as ancient Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, empires which have left behind remarkable legacies of influence on many later cultures.

Trade in Ancient Mesopotamia

Local trade in ancient Mesopotamia began in the Ubaid Period (c. 5000-4100 BCE), had developed into long-distance trade by the Uruk Period (c. 4100-2900 BCE), and was flourishing by the time of the Early Dynastic Period (2900-2334 BCE). Developments in trade continued up through 651 CE, the beginning of the modern period of the Near East.

A One-mina Weight from Southern Mesopotamia

Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin (Copyright)