Evidence for an Early State Emerges in Northern Iraq

By Free Republic | Created at 2025-01-24 01:39:38 | Updated at 2025-01-24 05:08:21 3 hours ago

Evidence for an Early State Emerges in Northern Iraq
Archaeology News ^ | December 6, 2024 | editors / unattributed

Posted on 01/23/2025 5:33:06 PM PST by SunkenCiv

Excavations at an ancient Iraqi site called Shakhi Kora have revealed new clues about the origins of the world's earliest governing institutions, according to research led by the University of Glasgow.

The research published in the journal Antiquity today (Wednesday 4 December 2024) suggests these early governing institutions emerged partly from their ability to provide large-scale meals, potentially as payment for labour. However, the later abandonment of these centralised structures, without signs of violent overthrow or environmental stress, points to a deliberate rejection of centralised forms of organisation that likely involved increasing top-down control...

Shakhi Kora is a Late Chalcolithic site in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, whose inhabitants were increasingly connected to the Uruk world of southern Iraq in the 4th millennium BCE (Before Common Era)...

The excavations at Shakhi Kora uncovered a long sequence of structures spanning several centuries. Over time, the cultural items found at the site shifted from reflecting primarily local traditions to being closely associated with the major ancient city of Uruk in southern Iraq, one of the world's first cities, which featured a large-scale monumental precinct in the later 4th millennium BCE and yielded thousands of clay tablets containing the earliest written texts.

(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...

TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; iraq; kurdistan; shakhikora

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1 posted on 01/23/2025 5:33:06 PM PST by SunkenCiv

To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

2 posted on 01/23/2025 5:33:42 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)

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