This volume includes 11 contributions from participants at the conference of the same name held in Manchester in 1998. They cover the geographcical span of Uruk phenomenon, with emphasis on the material evidence as provided by the artefacts. The volume thus presents a summary of many of the most important sites and issues relating to this formative period at the threshold of the historical civilizations of the ancient Near East.

This book describes ten different government archives of cuneiform tablets from Assyria, using them to analyse the social and economic character of the Middle Assyrian state, as well as the roles and practices of writing. The tablets, many of which have not been edited or translated, were excavated at the capital, Assur, and in the provinces, and they give vivid details to illuminate issues such as offerings to the national shrine, the economy and political role of elite households, palace etiquette, and state-run agriculture. This book concentrates particularly on how the Assyrian use of...