Conflict and Exclusivity in Early Bronze Age Societies of the Middle Euphrates Valley
The demise of the traditional model of central, palace-based, bureaucratic Mesopotamian societies as the template for interpreting all complex societies in the ancient Near East has freed scholars of that region to re-assess material culture patterning. It is increasingly recognized that more diffus...
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| Published in: | Journal of Near Eastern studies 2013-10, Vol.72 (2), p.233-252 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
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| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | The demise of the traditional model of central, palace-based, bureaucratic Mesopotamian societies as the template for interpreting all complex societies in the ancient Near East has freed scholars of that region to re-assess material culture patterning. It is increasingly recognized that more diffuse forms of historically-contingent power better account for the archaeological correlates of early socio-political systems. This shift in interpretive approaches has been widely felt over the last twenty years in archaeology as well as in text-based studies. For example, there have been recent reconceputalizations of Early Bronze Age (EBA) societies of the Southern Levant as essentially kin-based communities, or tribal confederacies that were neither cities nor states. Peltenburg details the major aspects of Middle Euphrates Valley's (MEV) material record--fortifications, weaponry, and differential mortuary practices--in order to demonstrate two points: first, that conflict was endemic in the MEV during the EBA, leading to individualism and the acceptance of exclusive groups; and second, that corporate and heterarchical structures continued to operate, but the division of power between the corporate and exclusionary was volatile and subject to change. |
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| ISSN: | 0022-2968 1545-6978 |