Uruk Ch 3-5

As the first two chapters of "Uruk" began discussing the developments of the farming techniques in the south, it pointed towards the development of society in a wealth standpoint. As the surplus of food increased due to the new techniques, the presentation of the role of the temple became more and more important. As the text explained, the surplus was "reserved for 'social' investment, that is, infrastructure, public buildings, and the maintenance of specialists and administrators" (Liverani, 19), showing that it was supposed to be for the betterment of the public. As much as it would be awesome to think that this means that the wealth went to support the ordinary people of the time, it is revealed that it was not to help the regular people. Through this, Liverani shows us that there is no way to have a simplistic society. As much as people think that the ancient peoples had simple societies, research shows us that they had the same systems forming back then that we have much further developed in this day and age.

The wealth going towards building infrastructures, public buildings, and maintaining specialists and administrators basically manifested itself as the creation of bigger temples and the maintenance of people who worked at the temple instead of farming. Therefore, chapter 3 explains the depth of the role that the temple had in the society. Liverani does a good job of explaining the process of how it escalates to the point where the temple is basically in control of all monetary valued objects. Chapter three explains why exactly barley was the staple of the society at the time and what that meant to regular citizens. As the system became more and more developed, the role that the temple had in controlling it became more intense. The text says that, "In its entirety the mechanism resembles the 'feudal' system in late medieval Poland" (Liverani, 33). It turned into a system where "The harvest went directly to the temple, after deducting only the amount destined for the workers" (Liverani, 33).

The next development that had a huge impact on the society was the increase in far distant trade. It seems as though in this period of time where surplus' were becoming more regular, a lot changed. Instead of a simple society where each person farms their own land for their own family and eats what they need, a group of people decided to take advantage of the wealth that they could possibly accumulate by taking advantage of those with surpluses. With merchants going overseas but working with fixed quotas from the temple, they were able to accumulate wealth for themselves by exceeding the quota without bringing the temple more. In this way, merchants saw the opportunity to get ahead, something that hadn't fully manifested itself yet.

Chapter four then explains how the politics and culture developed out of this, and how some people moved up in society while the other stable workers declined. As this continues to develop, it's incredible to see that even before there were actual offices and elites, historians can pick up on the idea that they were there in people's minds. It was never really a simple society, people have always been complex and will always be. The difference is that it can actually be seen developing over a period of time which is fascinating and strange to learn about. To watch how the society gained speed and then broke apart is to have an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of these thousands of year old societies.

Laney Homet