The first in a series of publications related to the Dutch project "The Economy of Ancient Mesopotamia", this volume contains nine contributions, most of which were presented during an international symposium in 1997. The focus is on the factors that enabled this region to acquire the goods it needed by means of imports. The period dealt with comprises the Third Dynasty of Ur up until the Achaemenid period. Topics include the formation of capital, the assets enabling merchants to conduct trade in a private or institutional context, and the availability and use of commodities that functioned as money.
Contributors: A.C.V.M. Bongenaar, J.G. Dercksen, G. van Driel, F. Joannès, H. Neumann, M.A. Powell, K. Radner and K.R. Veenhof.