THE POLITICAL ECONOMY IN

ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

Prepared by:
Mary Rose C. Salazar

Date Submitted:
February 5, 2022

Polytechnic University of the Philippines

Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy 2 - 2
Sta. Mesa, Manila
 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

I. SUMMARY
The most ancient civilization in human history, Mesopotamia, is located in between the Euphrates
and Tigris rivers and is currently a part of Iraq. It was also a melting pot of languages and cultures as it
was located at a crossroads, which had a long-term influence on writing, technology, language, trade,
religion, and law. Mesopotamia, being a melting pot of languages and civilizations, was able to
understand the concept of speaking and languages, which led to the development of early writing. For
thousands of years, ancient civilizations employed symbols until societies ultimately transformed them
into the first written languages. These early Mesopotamian's collective efforts aided subsequent people in
preserving and improving their innovations and philosophies.
 
Mesopotamia is a monarch government where there are kings in every city rather than one king for
the entire civilization. Each city king designed the rules and systems that they thought would be most
beneficial for their people. Mesopotamian kings were selected by and ruled on behalf of the gods,
although a few Mesopotamian kings did attempt to claim divinity. The first kings found it necessary to
claim divine authority to establish their right to govern. The Code of Hammurabi was one of the earliest
and most complete written legal codes and was proclaimed by the Babylonian king, Hammurabi. The
Hammurabi code of laws, a collection of 282 rules, established standards for commercial interactions and
set fines and punishments to meet the requirements of justice. It was carved onto a massive, finger-shaped
black stone stele that was looted by invaders and finally rediscovered in 1901.
 
Farming was one of the first livelihoods for Mesopotamians, as it was for other ancient civilizations.
Mesopotamian farmers' crops are normally barley, beans, lentils, cucumbers, leeks, lettuce, and garlic, as
well as grapes, apples, melons, and figs. Sesame, olive oil, and peas are among the agricultural goods that
were added during the Akkadian period. To obtain the food, weapons, and spices they needed, the
Mesopotamians used the trading system. They trade cereals, cooking oil, pottery, leather items, baskets,
textiles, and jewelry, and import gold, ivory, pearls, silver, copper, and tin.
 
The first examples of Sumerian writing were bills of sale, which documented transactions between
buyer and seller. The Babylonians are credited with creating the early financial system and expanding
trade. Banks may be traced back to ancient Babylonian temples in the early second millennium B.C.
During Hammurabi's reign, there are records of loans issued by temple priests in Babylon.
 
The Sumerians began to explore strategies to keep their towns safe from their rivals' encroachments.
Sumerian towns began to be surrounded by formidable walls. Mud bricks were used to build the walls,
which were baked until they became firm in the sun. To keep invaders out of the city, the Sumerians built
moats outside the walls, where most of the inhabitants resided inside the walls, while the fields were on
the other side of the city. Farmers evacuated the fields in the event of an assault and sought refuge behind
the city walls.

II. PROBLEMATIQUE
Ancient Mesopotamia’s Political Economy’s local systems of power and authority coexisted with and
often resisted centralized governments. Where its social institutions were porous, and individuals played
numerous and diverse roles, reducing risks, cooperating, and competing as political fortunes changed over
time. To isolate and cull the elements or factors that make up a political economic study, agriculture;
education, culture, and arts; technology; finance and taxes; interrelationships among its areas and people;
weapons and warfare; ideology, law, and government; and foreign affairs will be categorized under the
four structures Political Economy. Categorizing the civilization’s institutions, arrangements, and
government to the four structures namely security, production, finance, and knowledge is important in
understanding the political and economic dynamics of Ancient Mesopotamia. This implies that Egypt's
Political Economy is determined by focusing on how and how much ancient Mesopotamia's political
systems, social and economic organization, can be identified.
 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

III. ANALYSIS
The production structure of a civilization is the totality of all arrangements that determine what is
produced, by whom, and for whom it is produced. The interrelationship between Mesopotamia and the
Mesopotamians will be studied, as well as the people at work, their value and worth, which will
eventually lead to Mesopotamia's production system.

Mesopotamia is a southwest Asian region in the Tigris and Euphrates River systems that benefited
from the area's climate and geology to host the beginnings of human civilization. Many key inventions
that impacted the world occurred during its history, including the notion of time, algebra, the wheel,
sailboats, maps, and writing. Mesopotamia is also characterized by a shifting succession of ruling bodies
from various locations and towns that acquired authority throughout thousands of years (Mesopotamia,
2019).

Settlements dating back to 10,000 B.C. have been discovered by archaeologists. The rich soil allowed
people to settle and start farming in Mesopotamia. In Mesopotamia, both men and women worked, and
most of them were farmers. Healers, weavers, potters, shoemakers, teachers, and priests or priestesses
were among the others. Kings and military commanders held the highest positions in society.
Furthermore, women enjoyed nearly equal rights to men. They could own land, divorce, run their own
enterprises, and negotiate trade deals. Women were among the first to manufacture beer and wine, and
they were also community healers. Men then took over these positions after seeing how much money
women were making (Culture and Society in Ancient Mesopotamia, 2017).

In ancient Mesopotamia, agriculture played an extremely important role in Mesopotamia's

production framework as it was the primary source of income. Mesopotamian farmers developed
effective strategies to promote the growth of the earliest governments, first cities, and the first recognized
empires under the supervision of the institutions that ruled the economy, despite the difficult limits they
faced, particularly the arid climate. They concentrated on wheat production and sheep husbandry, as well
as cultivated legumes, date palms in the south, and grapes in the north.

Two types of agriculture are present in Ancient Mesopotamia which overlapped with cultural
distinctions. The agriculture of Lower Mesopotamia, the land of Sumer and Akkad, which later became
Babylonia, received almost no rain, and required large-scale irrigation works that were supervised by
temple estates but could produce high returns. Barley was the main crop, but wheat, flax, dates, apples,
plums, and grapes were also grown. In this period, the earliest known evidence of carefully bred sheep
and goats was found, which were kept for meat, milk, butter, and cheese. The workforce included
storehouse recorders, work supervisors, overseers, and harvest supervisors, as well as laborers.
Agricultural produce was allocated to temple personnel in return for their services, to important people in
the community, and to small farmers.
While the agriculture of Upper Mesopotamia that soon became Assyria, had adequate rainfall to
support dry farming most of the time, irrigation and huge institutional estates were less needed and the
returns were typically lower. They built their own cities, such as Tepe Gawra, where archaeologists
uncovered brick temples with exquisite niches and pilasters, as well as other signs of a sophisticated
civilization (Crawford, et al., 2020).

Mesopotamia's economy began to flourish, and bartering became an important way for people in
Mesopotamia to get the materials they needed. Along with agriculture, bartering became a crucial
component of Mesopotamia's economy, which helped them establish their financial framework.
Mesopotamian culture appears to have been hierarchical, and innovation was almost certainly
discouraged. Furthermore, the majority of ancient Mesopotamia's inhabitants were underprivileged. These
are the people that are omitted from the cuneiform records and appear as numbers on occasion and as
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

names far less frequently, but their work has had a bigger impact on price stability than the type of money
utilized. Mesopotamian currencies are distinguished from ordinary commodities by the fact that they are
traded at constant rates, sometimes for one another, but more often as payment for various responsibilities
such as taxes, loans with interest, penalties, and so on. They were stored as storable riches and utilized as
indexes or standards of worth (Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 1996).

According to some sources, the Mesopotamians were the world's first excellent accountants. They
recorded everything that was consumed in the temples on clay tablets and kept it in the temple archives.
Many of the tablets discovered featured similar listings of commodities; royal seals were applied to
products; and they are also credited for founding the world's first government. Farmers were taxed by
paying tithes. The government's day-to-day activities were overseen by scribes and royal officials.
Farmers' taxes and transactions were kept track of by them.

Sumerian used the world's oldest writing to record economic transactions and engage in a trade
network that reached hundreds of kilometers. They were also regarded as creditors, with debts being paid
at particular time, such as during the harvest season for farmers and after a journey for traders. Most
economic operations, such as agricultural cultivation, animal husbandry, and trading, are temporal
processes that need significant upfront inputs and time before production can be realized. Therefore,
immediate coincidence of desires cannot be authenticated, and barter appears to be impossible. Exchanges
of products were conceivable in palace economies by adopting a debt and credit system, even if no
medium of exchange was adopted since they relied on a system of delayed exchange (Svizzero & Tisdell,
2019).

The Babylonians are credited with creating the early financial system and expanding trade. The first
examples of Sumerian writing were bills of sale, which documented transactions between buyer and
seller. When a trader sold ten head of cattle, he was given a clay tablet with a sign for the number ten and
a pictograph symbol of animals. Banks may be traced back to ancient Babylonian temples in the early
second millennium B.C. During Hammurabi's reign, there are records of loans issued by temple priests in
Babylon. Temples accumulated huge quantities of money thanks to donations and tax income, which
were subsequently distributed to widows, orphans, and the impoverished (Mesopotamian Economics and
Money , 2018).

Mesopotamia's knowledge structure expands with each epoch, as seen by its education, culture, and
arts; technology; and ideology, law, and government. As Mesopotamia was one of the first civilizations to
establish an ancient writing system, administrative documents were passed down from one period to the
next, allowing them to improve their knowledge structure.

Mesopotamia’s education was comparable to Egyptian education in terms of goals and instruction.
The goal of formal education was to prepare scribes and priests. Its scope was soon broadened to include
higher education in law, medicine, and astrology, in addition to basic reading, writing, and religion. In
general, upper-class youth were groomed to work as scribes, which included anything from copyists to
librarians and instructors. Priestly schools were reported to be as numerous as temples. This demonstrates
the completeness, as well as the superiority, of priestly education. Higher education is poorly understood,
yet the growth of priestly work offers insight into the broad scope of intellectual endeavor (Anweiler, et
al., 2021).

Mesopotamian cultures are regarded as civilizations because their people possessed writing, formed
communities in the form of villages, grew their own food, tamed animals, and had varied ranks of labor.
Mesopotamian culture was considered complex and distinctive compared to others, as they were able to
diversify thanks to the transition from hunting and gathering to civilization (Mesopotamia Culture,
Farming, Law, and Science Explored, 2021).
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

Three factors determine the nature of Mesopotamian art and architecture. One is the Sumerian
city-states' social system, as well as the kingdoms and empires that followed them. Cities have been
fortified and ornamented with public structures since the dawn of time; irrigation systems have been
planned and closely guarded; armies have been effectively equipped and troops have been educated in
concerted action; triumphs have been celebrated, and treaties have been concluded. Because interstate
fighting and foreign conquests were central to Mesopotamian kings' concerns, it is logical that a subset of
artworks was devoted completely to praising their military achievements most of the time.

The second, and perhaps even more crucial, is the key role of organized religion in Mesopotamian
governmental affairs. The temple, with its hierarchical priesthood, was responsible for the civic and
economic structure of a city in Sumerian times, with a power equivalent to that of the monarch and his
advisory council of elders. Consequently, in the early days of Sumer and Babylonia, religious buildings
received most of the architectural attention, and all sculpture served religious objectives. The elaboration
and ornamentation of palaces was a unique Assyrian invention.

Lastly, is the influence of the natural environment. The terrain and climate of southern Iraq impose
practical constraints on both artists and architects. Because there was no stone or wood on the alluvial
plain, sculptors had to rely on imported materials or make do with terra-cotta replacements. The limitation
of building materials to brickwork and, second, the challenges of roof construction, which were only
partially solved by the invention of brick vaulting in the 2nd millennium BCE, had a tremendous impact
on architecture. Good-quality stone was abundant for the Assyrians in the north, but the cost of quarrying
and transportation, along with a tenacious conservatism, caused it to be considered a luxury material, with
its usage limited to sculptured adornment and prominent architectural elements (Lloyd, 2019).

Mesopotamian ideology refers to the beliefs and practices of the Sumerians and Akkadians, as well as
their descendants, the Babylonians, and Assyrians, who lived millennia before the Christian period in
Mesopotamia. These religious ideas and practices are all part of a single tradition stream. The
Mesopotamian religion was contributed to and slightly changed by the Akkadians, whose own beliefs
were incorporated and blended with those of their new surroundings. Religion inextricably conditioned all
areas of ancient Mesopotamian culture as the only intellectual framework that could give a thorough
explanation of the forces regulating existence as well as instruction for ethical conduct in life. It offered
important symbols for poetry and art, as well as the forms in which that civilization's social, economic,
legal, political, and military institutions were and are understood. It affected peoples and civilizations
outside of Mesopotamia in numerous ways, including the Elamites to the east, Hurrians and Hittites to the
north, and Aramaeans and Israelites to the west (Jacobsen, 2020).

Both Sumer and Babylon had an odd system of governance that came close to a sort of democracy in
its preliminary stages. A monarch and nobles created laws, proclaimed war, and chose how to honor the
gods. Then there was a council of wise men, elected by the people, who could override the king and say
things like, "This isn't a good law, get rid of it," or "We don't want to go to war, stop it." There was a
monarch and an assembly for each city-state. In ancient Assyria, however, the government was different.

The Sumerians did not write down their laws. The monarch promulgated a law, which everyone was
supposed to study and follow. They would be punished if they broke the law in Sumer. Each offense has
its own consequence. The Sumerians were divided into city-states. Each city-state had its own royal
family, military, and king, as well as its own assembly of people. So, a monarch in one city-state may
enact a law, and if it is a good law that lasts, it is quickly accepted by all the city-states. So, even though
they were different city-states that constantly battled one another, they shared a lot of the same laws,
penalties, culture, urban lifestyle, language, and religion. People were free to travel between cities for
trade and residence.
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

The city-state of Babylon took control when the Sumerian city-states declined. For a while, Ancient
Babylon reigned over the whole Mesopotamian area in the south for a while. The Babylonian government
and laws were like the Sumerian government and laws. There was a king and several nobles who
governed with the assistance of a people's assembly. Babylonian laws were derived from Sumerian laws.
Everyone was expected to be aware of the laws and to follow them. To guarantee that the rules were
obeyed by all, King Hammurabi, one of Babylon's monarchs, had the laws set down on stone tablets so
that everyone would be treated equally under the law, whether rich or poor. Most of these laws are based
on Sumerian law.

In ancient Assyria, things were vastly different. In northern Mesopotamia, Assyria was a formidable
military kingdom. A king oversaw the Assyrian administration. The king governed as the earthly
representative of Ashur, the ancient Assyrians' most powerful god. The local government was run by
military officers. Other counsellors, drawn from the aristocracy, were also available to the king. The chief
of staff was the most significant counselor. On any given day, the chief of staff selected who was allowed
to speak with the monarch and who was not. The only people who could read or write were scribes. The
Assyrians, like many ancient Mesopotamians, enjoyed making lists and writing things down. From
Mesopotamia to Egypt, the Assyrian Empire once spanned the globe. However, there was no assembly in
ancient Assyria that could override the monarch. It was the king's word that was binding (The Unusual
Government of Ancient Mesopotamia, n.d.).

Mesopotamian science was characterized by endless, meticulous enumeration and ordering into
columns and series, with the ultimate ideal of including all things in the world but without the desire or
ability to synthesize and reduce material to a system from its beginnings in Sumer before the middle of
the third millennium BCE. Neither a single universal scientific law nor the use of analogies has been
shown to be common. Even though it was never written down, Pythagoras' law was still used in the 18th
century BCE, which is a remarkable feat. In the construction of the ziggurats, with their massive size, and
in irrigation, both in actual implementation and theoretical calculations, technical achievements were
refined. At the start of the third millennium BCE, Uruk used an artificial stone that was thought to be a
precursor to concrete, but the secret of how it was made appears to have been lost over time (Frye,
Edzard, & Soden, 2020).

The Sumerians laid the foundation for Mesopotamian scientific and technological progress by first
exploring the practice of scientific hypothesis, engaging in technological innovation, and creating the
written word, as well as developing mathematics, astronomy, and astrology, and even forming the
concept of time itself. The wheel, sail, writing, corbeled and true arches, irrigation and agricultural
equipment, maps, time and clocks, astronomy and astrology, medicinal drugs, and surgery were among
the Sumerians' most notable innovations. The Sumerians invented these items to better their lives, but
they must have discovered the need for them by seeing a problem and proposing a remedy that was then
tested (Mark, Mesopotamian Science and Technology, 2019).

Through wars, individuals, nations, and political factions have acquired control over territories
throughout history. A strong security structure was vital as foreign affairs were intertwined with
international relations and the interests of other countries in the home country. Mesopotamians then
developed weapons to defend their king against threats and harm that outsiders may have brought through
commerce.

According to various sources, Sumerian history in the early dynastic period was one of warfare, both
between city-states and with foreign invaders. Each city-state fought to dominate the others, and one city-
state after another – Kish, Uruk, Ur, Nipur, Lagash, and Umma – consolidated their power over part or all
southern Mesopotamia's other cities and beyond. Certain factors appear to have been at stake in this very
 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

lengthy power battle. Some conflicts were, simply fought over land, water, and trade routes. Aside from
this, though, an ambitious monarch would have two aims in mind.

One of them is the control given by Nippur over Sumer's religious center, for it was here that the
temple of Enlil, the Sumerian god of war, was built. This appears to have been a place of pilgrimage, and
a ruler's possession of it conferred immense power. Because of his funding of the temple, he gained
legitimacy as the ruler of neighboring city-states.

Second, dominating Kish appears to have been crucial to controlling the Semitic regions of Akkad,
which lay immediately north of the Sumerian heartlands, giving a monarch a significant strategic edge
over his rivals. As a result, these two cities play a significant role in the period's power conflicts
(Timemaps, 2019).

Some of the most notable weapons in Mesopotamia were used during war to try to protect their
region from traitors and invaders. One of them is the Naram-Sin, clutching a bow, an arrow, and a
narrow-headed axe on the Victory Stele of Naram-Sin. Spears are being carried by other Amiets. This
bow, according to Yigael Yaden, indicates that the Akkadians utilized composite bows to conquer
Mesopotamia in the Pre-Dynastic Period.

In the years 1922 to 1934, the tombs of Ur from the First Dynasty were unearthed. Several weapons
that closely matched Sumerian imagery were discovered in royal tombs, including a large gold dagger,
several copper daggers, spike-like javelins, broad-headed spears, and socketed axe-heads. In addition, 58
spears, 171 daggers, and 301 axes were discovered in the common burials. The royal tombs' finds add to
the legitimacy of the Sumerian imagery displaying these weapons. In this historical period, the weapons
recovered from the common graves are a good reflection of how weaponry was distributed among Ur's
warriors. It is also dangerous to use weapons that have been discovered to find out what the armies used
to fight.

It is unlikely that these individuals were buried with anything other than the weapons they used to
fight with in this context, but it is possible that they were buried with these weapons as a ceremony to
honor them or protect them after they died. No foundation would exist for the notion that these weapons
are proportional to their usage in the military if each weapon honored them in a unique way based on such
a ceremony. There would be no reason to believe that these weapons were ever utilized in warfare.

In the royal tomb of Ur, the Standard of Ur was unearthed. A box with shells and lapis lazuli is the
norm. On one hand, the troops of Ur are waging a war, while on the other hand, a feast is being held to
commemorate a victory in a war. A line of troops in uniform armor wielding short spears may be found
on the side depicting conflict. The guys in the line are all in the same position, gripping their guns in the
same way. This indicates that there has been some training. We also come across asses pulling war carts.
Each cart has two men: a driver and a warrior, with the warriors wielding a javelin or an axe. This
indicates that the cart is being utilized as a drive-by assassination weapon. The carts' fronts are armored,
implying that they may be used as ballistic vehicles. The warrior's clothes and training may imply that
they are royal guards, which would provide little insight into how or what the average warrior battled
with (Weapons | Ancient Mesopotamian Warfare, n.d.).

IV. KEY INSIGHTS

Four empires ruled enormous swaths of Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, which brought
together various cultures for over two hundred years by means of armed conquest and coercion. Thanks to
the empires, trade was enabled, and ideas and culture were transmitted. To secure obedience and
acceptance of their power, their rulers employed administrative, military, and other measures. Even if
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

their empires withered and collapsed, the emperors and the cities they built live on in legends, as was
intended.

As indicated by the prominence of temples and the idea that monarchy came from heaven, religion
was very important in ancient civilizations. Because the Sumerians left behind a plethora of knowledge
inscribed in cuneiform, one of the world's first written scripts, scholars have been able to detect Sumerian
advances. Scholars have begun to explain life in ancient Sumerian cultures and to appreciate the various
Sumerian accomplishments, such as those in arithmetic, where they invented a 60-digit computing
method. The Mesopotamians were innovators in general, with some of the earliest cities, one of the first
writing systems, major technical and architectural achievements, the formation of bigger governmental
institutions, and more.

For others, Mesopotamia is known as modern Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey, and Syria, or as a warzone.
However, the fact that this marks the beginning of organized civilization cannot be overstated. It's
possible that these ancient people were unaware of the concept of political economy and created one on
their own unknowingly, but it serves as a steppingstone for people to understand politics and the economy
at the same time. Many key innovations that revolutionized society, such as the concept of time, algebra,
the wheel, sailboats, maps, and writing, have shaped its history. As a result, despite withering and
collapsing, the emperors and cities they built live on in legends, as planned.
 
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

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