Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization

In this book, Guillermo Algaze uses insights from modern economic geographers to analyze how the natural conditions of the Tigris-Euphrates region granted southern Mesopotamian polities significant competitive advantages.

He argues that these advantages, such as easy transportation of commodities, led to increased trade, economic activity, and higher population densities.

Algaze also discusses the socially created innovations in labor organization and record keeping that contributed to the emergence of fully developed city-states in the region earlier than elsewhere in Southwest Asia or the world.