Trade and Politics in Proto-Elamite Iran [and Comments and Reply]

During the Proto-Elamite period, 3300-2800 B.C., a political and economic hegemony seems to have arisen in the southwestern highlands of Iran. The power of this hegemony was derived from its control over the major trade routes between the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia; its extent is defined by shared styles in ceramics, art, and architecture and by the use of a distincitive system of writing and recording. Proto-Elamite influence grew rapidly during the last centuries of the 4th millennium B.C. and declined equally rapidly when maritime trade through the Persian Gulf was established several centuries later. This reconstruction is supported by independent evidence-the ratios of imported to exported materials-from Farukhabad, a site outside the Proto-Elamite sphere of influence in lowland western Iran. This paper emphasizes the role that long-distance trade can play in the rise and decline of prehistoric complex societies. Proto-Elamite hegemony was a political and social phenomenon but was based on exploitation of an economic situation. The important factor was not change in mode of production or control over means of production such as arable land or natural resources, but control over trade.