Economic Complexity in the Ancient Near East: Management of Resources and Taxation (Third-Second Millenium BC)

The spread of cuneiform writing from its Mesopotamian heartland to the peripheries during the second half of the third, and especially in the second mill. BC, represents an important historical and cultural phenomenon; cuneiform writing became the privileged means through which the administrations of these "peripheral" centers recorded economic transactions. These documents (taxes, rations, sales, etc) shed a fascinating light on the economic system in these regions.The 19 essays collected here elucidate the emergence, transmission, and interaction of economic structures and management of resources in time and space. Through a diachronic study, the volume identifies similarities, differences, and adaptations in the economic management of resources and taxation in the Ancient Near East (third – second millennium BC).Table of ContentsChapter 1. Management of Resources and Taxation in the Ancient Near East. An Introduction (Sergio Alivernini – Jana Mynářová)Chapter 2. Management of Resources and Taxation in the Early Dynastic and Sargonic Periods (Armando Bramanti)Chapter 3. The Fiscal Capacity of the Ebla State in the Early Bronze Age: Taxation and Political Structure (Giacomo Benati – Marco Bonechi)Chapter 4. Management of Resources and Taxation in an Early Mesopotamian Empire: the Case of the Third Dynasty of Ur (Sergio Alivernini)Chapter 5. Extraction and Inequality in Middle Bronze Age Anatolia (Gojko Barjamovic)Chapter 6. The Fiscal Regime of Babylonia during the Old Babylonian Period (Anne Goddeeris)Chapter 7. Taxation in the Late Old Babylonian Period. The Chief Dirge Singers’ Archive and Beyond (Katrien De Graef)Chapter 8. Old Babylonian Taxation as Political Mechanism (Seth Richardson)Chapter 9. Fiscal Regime and Management of Resources by the “King’s Household” in Mari during the Old Babylonian Period (Grégory Chambon)Chapter 10. Taxpayers and the Palace at the Time of the First Dynasty of the Sealand: Social Aspects, Officials, and Keeping Track of the Barley (Odette Boivin)Chapter 11. Taxation and Management of Resources in Kassite Babylonia: Remarks on šibšu and miksu (Susanne Paulus)Chapter 12. Tributes and Taxes in the Middle Assyrian Documentation (Jaume Llop)Chapter 13. Taxation and Management of Resources: the Case of Nuzi (Josué J. Justel)Chapter 14. Taxation and Management of Resources at Middle and Late Bronze Age Alalah (Jacob Lauinger)Chapter 15. Taxation and Management of Resources—The Evidence from the Late Bronze Age Middle Euphrates Region (Regine Pruzsinszky)Chapter 16. Taxation and Management of Resources at Ugarit (Kevin M. McGeough)Chapter 17. Management of Resources and Taxation in the Southern Levant in the Middle and Late Bronze Age (Jana Mynářová)Chapter 18. Empire Period Hatti—Tax Heaven in the Late Bronze Age (Jürgen Lorenz)Chapter 19. Management of Resources in Mesopotamia: the View from the First Millennium BC (Heather Baker) Read more