| This study presents a survey of sources identifying evidence of workers' collective behavior and their organizations in the ancient world. This social history survey spans the eras of Pre-History to the sixth century of the Common Era creating a starting place from which the working class of the modern era can learn from the working class of the ancient era. Elite historians of the ancient world have jaundiced the knowledge of workers and their collective behavior. A search for evidence that brought workers together to advance their position in society---better wages, mutual benefits, or collectively seeking freedom from slavery, was sought from primary written works, archaeological finds, and secondary sources.;Starting with pre-historical understandings of the value of workers, evidence from Mesopotamian societies was explored. Through ancient literature and economic records, our first evidence of workers' collective behavior of weavers is noted. The spread of knowledge of collective behavior from eastern Mediterranean moving with commerce and the Phoenicians is noted. Collective behavior by workers in the form of slave uprisings and clubs is presented in the Greek and Roman worlds prior to the Common Era. It is, however, in a tumultuous period of the late Roman Republic and into the transition of the Roman Empire that clear evidence emerges of the proletariat being energized by organized labor. Archaeological remains of labors' honorific funerary practices where workers honored one-another at the requiem of death, engravings of assigned seating by guilds in theaters and amphitheaters, and union halls in the pristine cities of Pompeii and Ostia. And finally, the collective behavior of workers is evidenced by legal documents, such as the agreement of Sardis, the Theodosian Code, and Justinian Codes. This work reexamines ancient history for the educational relevancy of workers today. |
