What is the State?
Tides of History
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The Early Dynastic Period in Mesopotamia
There is a great deal of debate about precisely when this invention of the state happened and exactly where. China is the most obvious example, but were there other states that had sprouted from different sets of roots? The archaeological evidence tells the story of small, unstable, warring polities going back for at least a thousand years before that,. But what about before around two thousand b c, when even the most ancient texts slip into the realm of legend?"
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