This study aims to analyze the conditions that led to the birth of the Mesopotamian civilization, the world's first civilization in human history, and the development of early civilizations in Southwest Asia, a phenomenon known as the "Uruk Expansion"...
This study aims to analyze the conditions that led to the birth of the Mesopotamian civilization, the world's first civilization in human history, and the development of early civilizations in Southwest Asia, a phenomenon known as the "Uruk Expansion". Southern Mesopotamia, where early civilization occurred, was a region where agricultural development lagged behind that of the Levant and the so-called "Fertile Crescent" region, but large-scale settlements were formed before reaching the civilization stage due to the ecological environment favorable to hunting and gathering activities. However, aridification beginning in 3500 BCE, or the Late Uruk Period, led the complex hunter-gatherer societies of southern Mesopotamia to face an ecological crisis, and the process of increasing social and ecological "resilience" to overcome it led to the development of irrigated agriculture, which ultimately led to the development of cities and states. Thus, irrigated agriculture is not a prerequisite for civilization, but rather a consequence, and the conventional view that irrigated agriculture was a condition for the development of early civilization should be reconsidered.
A key feature of Mesopotamian civilization is that long-distance trade developed rapidly as soon as the civilization was formed, and in the process, the southern Mesopotamian culture represented by the 'Uruk culture' spread extensively not only to Upper Mesopotamia but also to the surrounding regions such as the Levant, Turkey, and Iran. When this phenomenon, called 'Uruk expansion' was first raised in academia, it was perceived as an asymmetrical relationship between the center and the periphery from the perspective of 'world system theory' and interpreted as a result of imperialism and colonialism. However, in recent years, there has been a growing consensus that it is not possible to interpret this phenomenon simply in terms of political and economic relations, and that it is necessary to approach the phenomenon symmetrically from a more diverse perspective. The 'International interaction model' and 'World culture theory' are currently gaining attention as alternatives to the 'world system theory'. What these alternative hypotheses have in common is that they move away from the standard politico-economic narrative and emphasize concepts such as koiné, assimilation, hybridization, and social imitation competition from a cultural perspective, and they seek to identify the diverse spectrum of what is meant by 'Uruk culture'.