Marshland of Cities: Deltaic Landscapes and the Evolution of Early Mesopotamian Civilization

Author(s): Jennifer Pournelle

Year: 2003

Summary

Prevailing theories of the evolution of early complex societies in southern Mesopotamia presume a uniform, arid landscape transited by Tigris and Euphrates distributaries. These theories hold that it was the seventh millennium BCE introduction of irrigation technologies from the northern alluvium to the south that began the punctuated evolution of Mesopotamian irrigation schemes. In this view, irrigation-dependent agro-pastoral production was the primary stimulus to urbanization and, millennia later, the emergence of city-states. In this dissertation, I cast serious doubt on the landscape characterization underlying this model. I argue that the archaic alluvial landscape of southern Iraq consisted in large part, not of desert or steppe, but of marshlands, and that this finding requires a comprehensive reassessment of southern Mesopotamian resource management strategies and their role in emergent complex polities. The earliest, largest, and longest-lived cities were founded and grew within and on the borders of marshlands. Large-scale irrigation was a later innovation, adopted in response to the dual processes of deltaic progradation and climate change that left cities stranded far upstream from their original resource base.

Cite this Record

Marshland of Cities: Deltaic Landscapes and the Evolution of Early Mesopotamian Civilization. Jennifer Pournelle. Doctoral Dissertation. University of California, San Diego, Anthropology. 2003 ( tDAR id: 380824) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8J67GK3

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

URL: http://www.environ.sc.edu/sites/default/files/files/pournelle/dissertation_po...


Keywords

Culture
Mesopotamian • Proto-Sumerian • Ubaid • Uruk

Material
Building Materials • Ceramic • Dating Sample • Fauna • Macrobotanical • Pollen • Shell • Wood

Site Name
Girsu • Lagash • Larsa • Tell Abu Salabikh • Tell Abu Shahrain • Tell Al Hiba • Telloh • Tell Ouelli • Tell Raidu Sharki • Ubaid • Umma • Ur • Uruk • Warka

Site Type
Agricultural Field or Field Feature • Ancient Communal / Public Structure • Ancient Governmental Structure • Ancient Structure • Archaeological Feature • Artifact Scatter • Building Substructure • Canal or Canal Feature • Fish Trap / Weir • Hamlet / Village • Hearth • Kiln • Non-Domestic Structures • Palace • Plaza • Refuse Pit • Resource Extraction / Production / Transportation Structure or Features • Road, Trail, and Related Structures or Features • Shell Midden • Shipping-Related Structure • Storage Pit • Temple • Town / City • Trash Midden • Water Control Feature • Water-Related • Ziggurat Show More

Investigation Types
Archaeological Overview • Environment Research • Ethnographic Research • Ethnohistoric Research • Historic Background Research • Methodology, Theory, or Synthesis • Reconnaissance / Survey • Remote Sensing • Research Design / Data Recovery Plan • Systematic Survey

General
Air Photo Imagery • Complex Political and Social Organizations • complex societies • Complex Taphonomic History • Cultural Ecology • Cultural Ecology & Ethnography • Cultural Ecology & Subsistence • Delta • Delta Ethnographic Summary • Delta Sites • Geoarchaology • Image Analysis • Irrigation Canal System • Landscape Archaeology • Landscape Archeology • Landscape Evolution • Malacology • Marsh Arabs • Marsh Area • Marsh Environment • Marsh Grasses • Marshland Resources • Mudbrick Analysis • Reed Bundle • Reed House • Reed Mat • Riparian • Riparian Communities • Riparian Vegetation • Satellite Remote Sensing • Tell • Turtleback Show More

Geographic Keywords
Iraq • Mesopotamia • Sumer

Temporal Keywords
Early Dynastic • Sumerian • Ubaid Period • Uruk Period

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: -6500 to -2500

Spatial Coverage

min long: 45.592; min lat: 31.224 ; max long: 45.692; max lat: 31.299 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Principal Investigator(s): Jennifer Pournelle

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access