Textile Extensification, Alienation, and Social Stratification in Ancient Mesopotamia

One of the most significant transformations in the emergence of economically and socially complex societies has been the development of social groups with differential access to productive resources. Anthropologists have puzzled over the number of empirical cases suggesting that women have disproportionately lost access to productive resources. This paper follows one such case—the development of textile workshops in Mesopotamia—to offer new insights into the alienation of women producers in the ancient Near East and the development of Mesopotamia's political economies. During the transformation from a series of relatively self‐sufficient communities to a highly integrated complex of rural and urban settlements, a fundamental shift took place from the use of flax to the use of wool for the majority of textile production. This shift has extremely important implications for archaeologists' reconstructions of agricultural production, labor roles, and social relationships. This paper explores the socioeconomic context of a change in the materials of textile production and its potential for explaining the development of important aspects of social complexity and political economy in ancient Mesopotamia.