were middlemen although it is uncertain how proactive they were. In one
scenario Dilmun was a neutral meeting ground where foreign merchants
connected with each other to trade unmolested. In another the Dilmunites
made the connections themselves and did the carrying. Sumerian sources
make frequent reference to the Dilmunites as“great seafarers,”which would
tend to favor the more proactive model.
In the third and second millennia, Mesopotamia appears to have been an
inexhaustible market for copper. At the same time that donkey caravans were
bringing it down from Anatolia and Iran, ships from the Gulf were arriving
with consignments, according to temple records, of up to 18 tons in the
form of ingots, oblong pieces, and occasionallyfinished objects such as ket-
tles. The source of this copper was actually Magan (Oman with portions of
Iran on the opposite shore) at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The mining
was done in the mineral-rich mountains at numerous small-scale sites by
people practicing subsistence activities such as agriculture and herding who
engaged in mining as a supplementary activity. Other Magan-made products
that arrived on the docks of Sumerian cities included diorite, a hard, black,
igneous stone favored in making sculpture, and red ocher used as a pigment.
The Sumerians also acquired a taste for high-quality dates and for a peculiar
type of local onion (perhaps garlic or asafetida), which was imported in large
quantities. Magan was also known for its special breeds of donkeys and goats
but no gold, ivory, gems, or special wood products–these had to come from
still farther afield.
An Akkadian tablet boasting of Sargon’s achievements mentions in pas-
sing that“ships of Melukha, Magan, and Dilmun moored at the quay of
Agade,”the Akkadian capital. A poem from the time of Naram-Sin speaks of
elephants and apes,“beasts from distant lands jostling in the great square.”
Elephants and apes could not have originated in Dilmun or Magan, but
reference to this third place, Melukha, provides the key for understanding
the full extent of this early trade system. Melukha was India, or more spe-
cifically the Indus River Valley culture known as Harappan civilization.
Among the early alluvial riverain civilizations, the Harappan was the most
extensive, covering much of modern Pakistan and parts of northwestern
India with sites along the coast from just north of modern Mumbai to the
Iranian border. By the time it reached its mature state of development inc.
2600 BCE, Harappan civilization contained a multitude of centers including
five major cities, the largest of which was Mohenjo-Daro with a population
estimated at between 30,000 and 50,000. Urban concentrations appear to
have been located to take advantage of specific resources or to occupy stra-
tegic nodes in the transportation system. Urban planning is evident in the
layout of cities that included neighborhoods of artisans and craftsmen with
small shops lining the streets. The system of government, the nature of
society, and the mechanisms driving the economy are all matters of endless
debate since Harappan writing remains undeciphered.
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