Economics

Slavery is rare among hunter–gatherer populations, it being a system of social stratification.

Mass slavery, to be viable, also requires economic surpluses and a high population density.

Due to these factors, the practice of slavery would have only proliferated after the invention of agriculture during the Neolithic revolution about eleven thousand years ago.

Evidence of slavery predates written records, and has existed in many cultures.

Prehistoric graves from about 8000 BCE in Lower Egypt suggest that a Libyan people enslaved a San-like tribe.

The people of Lepenski Vir, an important Mesolithic archaeological site located on the banks of the Danube in eastern Serbia, within the Iron Gates gorge, near Donji Milanovac, probably represent the descendants of the early European population of the Brno-Predmost hunter-gatherer culture from the end of the last ice age.

Archaeological evidence of human habitation of the surrounding caves dates back to around 20,000 BCE.

The first settlement on the low plateau dates to 7000 BCE, a time when the climate becomes significantly warmer.

Seven successive settlements will be built on the site, providing a rare opportunity to observe the gradual transition from the hunter-gatherer way of life of early humans to the agricultural economy of the Neolithic.

The remains of one hundred and thirty-six residential and sacral buildings dating from 6500 BCE to 5500 BCE demonstrate the increasingly complex social structure that influences the development of planning and self-discipline necessary for agricultural production.

What may well be the world's oldest saltworks was discovered at the Poiana Slatinei archaeological site next to a salt spring in Lunca, Neamt County, Romania.

Archaeological evidence indicates that salt production began there as long ago as 6050 BCE, making it perhaps the oldest known saltworks in the world.

Evidence based on discoveries in Solca, Cacica, Lunca, Oglinzi, and Cucuieti indicates that the people of the Precucuteni Culture were extracting salt from the salt-laden spring-water through the process of briquetage.

First, the brackish water from the spring was boiled in large pottery vessels, producing a dense brine.

The brine was then heated in a ceramic briquetage vessel until all moisture was evaporated, with the remaining crystallized salt adhering to the inside walls of the vessel.

Then the briquetage vessel was broken open, and the salt was scraped from the shards.

The salt extracted from this operation may have had a direct correlation to the rapid growth of this society's population soon after its initial production began.

Salt from this operation probably played a very important role in the Neolithic economy of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture through its entire duration.

The Vinca culture emerges around 5500 on the shores of lower Danube.

As in all prehistoric cultures, the majority of the people of the Vinca network are occupied with the provision of food.

The economy is based on a variety of subsistence techniques: arable agriculture, animal husbandry, and hunting and gathering all contributed to the diet of the growing Vin a population.

Vinca agriculture introduces common wheat, oat, and flax to temperate Europe, and makes greater use of barley than earlier cultures.

These innovations raise potential crop yields, and in the case of flax allow the manufacture of clothes in materials other than leather and wool.

There is also indirect evidence that Vinca agriculture made use of the cattle-driven plow, which would have had a major effect on the amount of human labor required for agriculture as well as the types of soils that could be exploited.

Many of the largest Vinca sites occupy regions dominated by soil types that would have required the use of the plow to farm.

Areas with less arable potential were exploited through transhumant pastoralism, where groups from the lowland villages moved their livestock to nearby upland areas on a seasonal basis.

Cattle was more important than caprids (i.e.

sheep and goats) in Vinca herds and, in comparison to the cultures of the period, livestock was increasingly kept for milk, leather and as draft animals, rather than solely for meat.

Seasonal movement to upland areas was also motivated by the exploitation of stone and mineral resources.

The especially rich permanent upland settlements established would have relied more heavily on pastoralism for subsistence.

The Vinca subsistence economy, increasingly focused on domesticated plants and animals, continued to make use of wild food resources.

The hunting of deer, boar and auroch, fishing of carp and catfish, shell-collecting, fowling and foraging of wild cereals, forest fruits and nuts made up a significant part of the diet at some Vinca sites.

These, however, were in the minority; settlements were invariably located with agricultural rather than wild food potential in mind, and wild resources were usually underexploited unless the area was low in arable productivity.

The Merimde Culture, so far only known from a big settlement site at the edge of the Western Delta some forty-five kilometers northwest of Cairo, flourishes in Lower Egypt from about 4800 to 4200 BCE.

The settlement consists of small huts made of wattle and reed with a round or elliptical ground plan.

The culture has strong connections to the Faiyum A Culture as well as the Levant.

People live in small huts, produce a simple undecorated pottery, and have stone tools.

Merimde pottery lacks rippled marks.

Cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs are kept.

Wheat, sorghum, and barley are planted.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Merimde economy was dominated by agriculture although some fishing and hunting were practiced to a lesser degree.

The Merimde people bury their dead within the settlement and produce clay figurines.

The first Egyptian life-size head made of clay comes from Merimde.

There are no separate areas for cemeteries and the dead are buried within the settlement in a contracted position in oval pits without grave goods and offerings.

The Chasséen Culture: The Earliest Known Neolithic Culture in France (c. 4000 BCE)

The earliest known Neolithic culture in France, the Chasséen culture, emerged around 4000 BCE, taking its name from the site of Chassey-le-Camp in eastern France. This culture marked a fully developed agrarian economy, with crop production and animal husbandry at its core, reducing reliance on hunting.

Settlement Patterns and Subsistence

• Chasséen settlements were established in a variety of locations, including:

  • Fertile river terraces, ideal for crop cultivation and livestock grazing.
  • Caves and rock shelters, offering natural protection and strategic locations.
  • Hilltop sites, which later evolved into fortified enclosures.

• Agriculture and Animal Husbandry:

  • Cattle played a dominant role, alongside domesticated sheep, goats, and pigs.
  • Crop cultivation included wheat, barley, lentils, and peas, indicating an advanced farming economy.
  • Hunting was of little importance, unlike in earlier Mesolithic traditions.

Cultural and Technological Innovations

• Pottery: Chasséen ceramics are finely crafted, featuring cord impressions and geometric patterns.
• Stone Tools: A transition from flaked stone tools to polished axes facilitated forest clearing and agriculture.
• Trade and Exchange: Chasséen communities were part of wider trade networks, acquiring obsidian, flint, and decorative items from distant regions.

Legacy of the Chasséen Culture

• The Chasséen culture represents a fully agricultural Neolithic society, shaping the later development of farming communities in France.
• It played a key role in the spread of Neolithic traditions, bridging earlier Neolithic cultures with later Megalithic and Chalcolithic developments.
• The fortified settlements of the later Chasséen phase foreshadowed the rise of hierarchical social structures, influencing later Bronze Age communities.

The Chasséen culture stands as a defining moment in France’s Neolithic transition, solidifying permanent farming settlements and regional cultural identities.

It seems certain that Egypt became unified as a cultural and economic domain long before its first king ascended to the throne in the lower Egyptian city of Memphis where the dynastic period did originate.

Political unification has proceeded gradually, perhaps over a period of a century or so as local districts establish trading networks and the ability of their governments to organize agriculture labor on a larger scale increases.

Divine kingship may also have gained spiritual momentum as the cults of gods like Horus, Set, and Neith associated with living representatives become widespread in the country.

Some scholars suggest that Egypt most likely became unified through mutual need, developing cultural ties and trading partnerships, although the status of Memphis as the first capital of united Egypt is undisputed.

Afghanistan's first true urban centers arise in two main sites, Mundigak and Deh Morasi Ghundai.

Mundigak, near present Qandahar, has an economic base of wheat, barley, sheep, and goats, and may be a provincial capital of the Indus valley civilization.

Lothal, before the arrival of Harappan people in about 2400 BCE, had been a small village next to the river providing access to the mainland from the Gulf of Khambhat.

The indigenous peoples maintained a prosperous economy, attested by the discovery of copper objects, beads, and semiprecious stones.

Ceramic wares were of fine clay and smooth, micaceous red surface.

They had improved a new technique of firing pottery under partly oxidizing and reducing conditions—designated black-and-red ware, to the micaceous Red Ware.

Harappans had been attracted to Lothal for its sheltered harbor, rich cotton and rice-growing environment and bead-making industry.

The beads and gems of Lothal are in great demand in the west.

The settlers live peacefully with the Red Ware people, who adopt their lifestyle—evidenced from the flourishing trade and changing working techniques—and Harappans began producing the indigenous ceramic goods, adopting the manner from the natives.

Dominance in Mesopotamia begins to pass around 2400 BCE from the Sumerians in the lower valley to the more northerly Akkadians, a Semitic people who have begun to dominate central Mesopotamia and possibly the northern region.

Akkadian influence soon extends west into Syria and east as far as Susa in present Iran.

Other Semitic-speaking population centers grow in Syria-Palestine, southern Arabia, and various smaller centers along the Arabian littoral.

Sumerian references to the Mar.tu ("tent dwellers"—considered to be Amorite) country west of the Euphrates date from even earlier than Sargon, at least to the reign of Enshakushanna of Uruk in the twenty-sixth century.

Caucasian-speaking groups dominate Asia Minor and most of the Iranian plateau.

The Ebla tablets are a collection of as many as eighteen hundred complete clay tablets, forty-seven hundred fragments and many thousand minor chips found in the palace archives of the ancient city of Ebla, Syria.

The tablets, which were found in situ on collapsed shelves, retained many of their contemporary clay tags to help reference them.

They all date to the period between about 2500 BCE and the destruction of the city in around 2250 BCE.

They are the oldest and the largest collection of tablets yet found from the ancient Middle East.

Two languages appeared in the writing on the tablets: Sumerian, and a previously unknown language that used the Sumerian cuneiform script (Sumerian logograms or "Sumerograms") as a phonetic representation of the locally spoken Ebla language.

The latter script was initially identified as proto-Canaanite by professor Giovanni Pettinato, who first deciphered the tablets, because it predated the Semitic languages of Canaan, like Ugaritic and Hebrew.

Pettinato later retracted the designation and decided to call it simply "Eblaite,” the name by which it is known today.

The only tablets at Ebla that were written exclusively in Sumerian are lexical lists, probably for use in training scribes.

The archives contain thousands of copybooks, lists for learning relevant jargon, and scratch pads for students, demonstrating that Ebla was a major educational center specializing in the training of scribes.

The purely phonetic use of Sumerian logograms marks a momentous advance in the history of writing.

Sumerian scribes developed a clumsy system that employed a mixed use of logograms and phonetic signs.

Drawing from the existing systems, the scribes at Ebla employed a reduced number of signs entirely phonetically, both the earliest example of transcription (rendering sounds in a system invented for another language) and a major simplifying step towards "reader friendliness" that would enable a wider spread of literacy in palace, temple and merchant contexts.

The tablets provide a wealth of information on Syria and Canaan in the Early Bronze Age, and include the first known references to the "Canaanites,” "Ugarit,” and "Lebanon.” The contents of the tablets reveal that Ebla was a major trade center.

One focus was economic records, inventories recording Ebla's commercial and political relations with other Levantine cities and logs of the city's import and export activities.

For example, they reveal that Ebla produced a range of beers, including one that appears to be named "Ebla,” for the city.

Ebla was also responsible for the development of a sophisticated trade network system between city-states in northern Syria.

This system grouped the region into a commercial community, which is clearly evidenced in the texts.

There are king lists for the city of Ebla, royal ordinances, edicts, treaties.

There are gazetteers listing place names, including a version of a standardized place-name list that has also been found at Abu Salabikh (possibly ancient Eresh) where it was datable to around 2600 BCE.

The literary texts include hymns and rituals, epics, and proverbs.

The Eblaite tablets from the Igrish-Khalam dynasty administration, written in Sumerian cuneiform script, record commercial treaties; bilingual vocabularies; lists of birds, fish, and stones; ritual and mythological texts; diplomatic letters; military dispatches; and lists of personal and place names.

The Eblaite texts name Ebla as the center of a commercial empire that radiates north to Anatolia, west to Cyprus, south to Canaan and Egypt, east to Persia, and southeast to Mesopotamia.