First States in the Middle East: Formation, Factors and Processes

Pre-requisites: To have passed the following subjects: Palestinian Archaeology: Epipaleolithic-Bronze Age; Archaeology of Egypt: Pre and Early Dynastic Period; Egypt and its Surrounding: Interrelations in the 4th Millennium B.C.; Basics of Biblical Archaeology.

Course objectives: An overview of evolutionary trajectories of the first states on in the Middle East. Introduction to the: processes, dynamism and markers of the level of socio-political complexity in a state, and its archaeological definition. The development of critical data reviewing skills

Course description: Elements for state identification in the archeological context of the Middle East. Archaeologically identifying the change from chiefdom to a state. Review of factors and processes in the formation of a state. Models of social development and centralization. Mesopotamia during the Uruk period. Formation and the development phases of the state in Egypt, from the protonomes to the empire.

Learning Outcomes: Attendance and written examination.

First States in the Middle East: Formation, Factors and Processes

Pre-requisites: To have passed the following subjects: Palestinian Archaeology: Epipaleolithic-Bronze Age; Archaeology of Egypt: Pre and Early Dynastic Period; Egypt and its Surrounding: Interrelations in the 4th Millennium B.C.; Basics of Biblical Archaeology.

Course objectives: An overview of evolutionary trajectories of the first states on in the Middle East. Introduction to the: processes, dynamism and markers of the level of socio-political complexity in a state, and its archaeological definition. The development of critical data reviewing skills

Course description: Elements for state identification in the archeological context of the Middle East. Archaeologically identifying the change from chiefdom to a state. Review of factors and processes in the formation of a state. Models of social development and centralization. Mesopotamia during the Uruk period. Formation and the development phases of the state in Egypt, from the protonomes to the empire.

Learning Outcomes: Attendance and written examination.

Literature/Reading:

• Literatura se može dobiti u biblioteci Odeljenja za arheologiju.
• Anđelković, B., 2006 Models of State Formation in Predynastic Egypt. Pp. 593-609 in Archaeology of Early Northeastern Africa. In Memory of Lech Krzyzaniak. Studies in African Archaeology 9,
• Anđelković, B.,2007, Parameters of Statehood in Predynastic Egypt. Pp. 1037-1054 in Egypt at its Origins 2, eds B. Midant-Reynes and Y. Tristant. OLA 172. Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters.
• Forest, J.-D., 2005, The State: The Process of State Formation as Seen from Mesopotamia. Pp. 184-206 in Archaeologies of the Middle East: Critical Perspectives, eds. S. Pollock and R. Bernbeck. Malden
• Baines, J. and Yoffee, N., 1998, Order, Legitimacy, and Wealth in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pp. 199-260 in Archaic States, eds. G. M. Feinman and J. Marcus. Santa Fe: School of American Research
• Yoffee, N., 2005, Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [strane 4-21].
• Haas, J. 1982 The Evolution of the Prehistoric State. New York: Columbia University Press [130-152].
• Algaze, G., 2001 The Prehistory of Imperialism. Pp. 27-83 in Uruk Mesopotamia & Its Neighbors: Cross-Cultural Interaction in the Era of State Formation, ed. M. S. Rothman. Santa Fe and Oxford: School
• Earle, T. 1997 How Chiefs Come to Power. Stanford: Stanford University Press [strane 1-16, 67-75, 105-110, 143-158, 203-211].
• Yoffee, N. 1993 Too many chiefs? (or, Safe texts for the\’90s). Pp. 60-78 in Archaeological theory: who sets the agenda? eds. N. Yoffee and A. Sherratt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.