B 07: A Hunt for Raw-Materials? The Expansion of Mesopotamian Empires into the Northern Regions

Summary

The project investigates the effect of resources on socio-cultural dynamics in the expanding empires of Mesopotamia, contrasting and comparing those from the 3rd with those from the 1st mill. BC. The focus will be on the Empire of Akkad of the 3rd mill. BC, presumed to be the oldest expanding empire in history, and the Assyrian Empire of the 1st mill. BC, as one of the most complex and far-reaching states of the Ancient Near East. These two examples will be used to explore whether territorial expansion of early empires was motivated only by the search for raw-materials demanded by domestic economy, or whether the acquisition and valuation of cultural resources also played a decisive role. This approach understands itself as an explicit critique to the traditional point of view, reducing the motivation for expansion solely to the attempt to acquire resources not locally available in Mesopotamia for purely economic reasons.

Scientific Aims

In order to revise this interpretation the project will analyse:

1. which kinds of trade goods from peripheral regions were turned into culturally valuated resources in Mesopotamia and how this process of valuation took place;

2. how these culturally valuated resources changed during the time span from the 3rd to the 1st mill. BC;

3. for which functions precisely these resources were used in the Mesopotamian states and how the continuous flow of these resources was organised on economic and political levels;

4. which kinds of socio-political and socio-cultural dynamics were triggered by the Mesopotamian acquirement and valuation of resources within the conquered and peripheral regions.

It is expected to identify a number of specific ResourceComplexes for the Akkadian, as well as for the Assyrian Empire. This will facilitate the construction of models of the distinct ResourceCultures developed by these states, explaining which role they played within the political and social systems of their respective periods. To analyse these issues a region was chosen that can count as one of the preferred areas of expansion of Mesopotamian states, additionally offering a considerable amount of available evidence for the study of the factors relevant to our approach: the mountainous regions of the Zagros and Taurus adjacent to Mesopotamia in the north and north-west.

Case Studies

Within the project two case studies will be conducted. The first will concentrate on the written sources relevant for the problem, especially those of Neo-Assyrian time. In a complementary and comparative way the second will analyse the archaeological evidence, concentrating on an archaeological survey in the area of Iraqi-Kurdistan in northern Iraq. This region has been the northern periphery of the 3rd mill. BC Akkadian Empire, as well as the zone of contact and conflict between Assyria and Urartu during the 1st mill BC. This offers especially favourable conditions for the study of the dynamics in the expansion of both empires and the role of raw-materials and culturally valuated resources.

In order to construct models of ResourceComplexes on the results of the archaeological survey in Iraq GIS-methods in collaboration with geography will be applied. For the Collaborative Research Centre the project will provide insights into the mechanisms of expansive resource acquirement and the cultural construction of resources in ancient empires and the resulting socio-cultural dynamics in the centre and in the periphery of states. The focus on empires will allow fruitful conceptual comparisons with less hierarchized societies of ancient times studied by other projects of the Collaborative Research Centre.

_{Die Rechte der auf dieser Seite verwendeten Bilder liegen beim SFB 1070, Teilprojekt B07.}