Dynamics of Production in the Ancient Near East

The transition between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC was an era of deep economic changes in the ancient Near East. An increasing monetization of transactions, a broader use of silver, the management of the resources of temples through “entrepreneurs”, the development of new trade circuits and an expanding private, small-scale economy, transformed the role previously played by institutions such as temples and royal palaces. The 17 essays collected here analyse the economic transformations which affected the old dominant powers of the Late Bronze Age, their adaptation to a new economic environment, the emergence of new economic actors and the impact of these changes on very different social sectors and geographic areas, from small communities in the oases of the Egyptian Western Desert to densely populated urban areas in Mesopotamia. Egypt was not an exception. Traditionally considered as a conservative and highly hierarchical and bureaucratic society, Egypt shared nevertheless many of these characteristics and tried to adapt its economic organization to the challenges of a new era. In the end, the emergence of imperial super-powers (Assyria, Babylonia, Persia and, to a lesser extent, Kushite and Saite Egypt) can be interpreted as the answer of former palatial organizations to the economic and geopolitical conditions of the early Iron Age. A new order where competition for the control of flows of wealth and of strategic trading areas appears crucial.

Table of Contents:
1.  Economies in transition:  trade, 'money', labour and nomads at the turn of the 1st millennium BC Juan Carlos Moreno García   2. Oil and wine for silver? The economic agency of the Egyptian peasant communities in the Great Oasis during the Persian Period Damien Agut-Labordère   3.  Urban craftsmen and other specialists, their land holdings, and the Neo-Assyrian state Heather D. Baker   4. Beyond capitalism – conceptualising ancient trade through friction, world historical context and bazaars Peter F. Bang   5.  Phoenician trade – the first 300 years Carol Bell   6.  The contribution of pottery production in reconstructing aspects of local rural economy at the northern frontier of the Neo-Assyrian Empire Anacleto d’Agostino   7.  Silver Circulation and the development of the private economy in the Assyrian Empire (9th–7th centuries BCE): Considerations on private investments, prices, and prosperity levels of the imperial élite Salvatore Gaspa   8.  Long-distance trade in Neo-Babylonian Mesopotamia: the effects of institutionnal changes Laetitia Graslin-Thome   9.  The empire of trade and the empires of force. Tyre in the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods Caroline van der Brugge and Kristin Kleber   10.  Temples and agriculture labour in Egypt, from the Late New Kingdom to the Saite period Juan Carlos Moreno García   11.  North-east Africa and trade at the crossroads of the Nile Valley, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea Robert Morkot   12.  Temples, trade and money in Egypt in the 1st millennium BC Renate Müller-Wollermann   13.  From 'institutional' to 'private': traders, routes and commerce from the Late Bronze to the Iron Age Susan Sherratt   14.  Intercultural contacts between Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula at the turn of the 2nd to the 1st millennium BC Gunnar Sperveslage   15.  Interactions between temple, king and local elites:the hanšû land schemes in Babylonia (8th–6th centuries BC) John P. Nielson   16.  Organization and financing of trade and caravans in the Near East Jean-Baptiste Yon   17.  Aegean economies from Bronze Age to Iron Age: some lines of of development, c. 13th–7th BC J. Zurbach Julien Zurbach Development, 13th-7th c. BC”