The Middle Bronze Age Farming Economy of the Upper Tigris Region: A Reconstruction Basing on Archaeological, Archaeobotanical and Ethnoarchaeological Analysis

Abstract

The recent excavations in the Upper Tigris region have revealed monumental Middle Bronze Age buildings dated to the 18th-17th centuries BC. These large buildings are constructed on higher hills suitable for controlling the agricultural lands in the vicinity. The archaeobotanical data suggest the existence of a dry-farming economy comparable with those described in the historical archives of the Near East. The historical data show that there was an agricultural administrative system in the Near East from the Middle Bronze Age until recent decades. Although no Middle Bronze Age texts have been found within the Upper Tigris Region yet, the settlements rather seem like the frontiers of an economical system, managing the agricultural lands. The comparison of pre-modern agricultural methods and their economic value with those established in cuneiform archives as well as in the Medieval and Ottoman archives enables a preliminary reconstruction regarding the Middle Bronze Age agricultural economy of the region.