Sustaining civilizations: An examination of pastoral production in three complex societies (Mesopotamia)

While much has been written on the formation and collapse of state-level societies, relatively little attention has been paid to the actual function of those societies. With this analysis, I hope to contribute to this area of investigation.; Large-scale society cannot support itself without specialized and administered food production and redistribution. This production can be either agricultural or pastoral in nature, which will be reflected in the archaeological record in the form of botanical or faunal remains. This analysis utilizes three faunal assemblages from varying levels of cultural complexity to examine pastoral practices in complex societies. This analysis is performed with the goal of developing a model for pastoral production at different levels of complexity: pre-state, state, and secondary state.; A number of different aspects of the assemblages are examined, including species distribution, mortality profiles, and body part distribution throughout the site. By identifying patterns within these assemblages, it is possible to characterize pastoral production before the rise of the Mesopotamian state, after the establishment of that state, and after the establishment of the Islamic Empire. The model is then tested using a second Islamic assemblage.; The development of this model suggests that in societies with low social and economic complexity that pastoral production will be generalized, with very little focus on any single domestic species or product. In the case of the Mesopotamian State, the tributary economy demands a highly specialized focus on the production of ovicaprines and their secondary products, namely wool. By the Islamic Period, currency and a system of taxation as opposed to tribute allows for an economy that focuses on optimization of all taxa and their products.