Trade and power in the fifth and fourth millennia BC: New evidence from northern Mesopotamia

The formation of the earliest known cities was accompanied by the foundation of colonies in Syria and Anatolia, established to secure raw materials lacking in the Mesopotamian homeland. The growth in Sumer of organization(s) capable of constructing and administering such distant colonies both reflected and contributed to increasing levels of social and economic complexity. The paper summarizes new evidence from Tell Brak and Tell Shaikh Hassan, which substantially lengthens the colony period. It also emphasizes the cUbaid roots of this pattern.