The Uruk Expansion: Culture Contact, Ideology and Middlemen

Abstract

The Mesopotamian landscape was shaped by urbanization, population growth and trade during the 4th millennium bc. The Uruk expansion, an expansion of south Mesopotamian material culture to nearby and far-off regions started about 3700 bc. North Mesopotamian and Anatolian settlements formed a network with south Mesopotamia, which collapsed about 500 years later. This period has puzzled archaeologists for a century with different explanations being given for what this expansion was, how it happened and for what reasons. In this article I will focus on the interconnection between the two regions and how this may have created the expansion. I will use the archaeological material to study possible ideological changes. To explain how this happened I will show how the north Mesopotamian settlements functioned as middlemen in a trading network where they connected the resource-rich areas in Anatolia with the alluvial plains. The north Mesopotamian settlements exploited their position between the two regions where they could control the trading routes. This led to a lot of changes in the northern regions that do not necessarily mean that this was an occupied region or a region where decisions were dictated by leaders in south Mesopotamia.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Nils Anfinset for good advice and encouragement and for reading the article, and to David Wengrow for clues and hints that inspired me to write this. I also thank Arild Marøy Hansen for reading the article and giving advice. Thanks to NAR and the referees for good and constructive comments. Thanks to my good friend Lars Aas for discussions, Elisabeth Hornemann for helping me with the English language and my wife for help and encouragement.