fourth millennium. In the late fourth this dominance began to shift to
southern Mesopotamia, signaling the economic and political rise of Sumer.
Events in Iran were responsible in the early third millennium for a sudden
collapse of the trade, during which no lapis reached Mesopotamia, Syria, or
Egypt for two centuries. This so-called“lapis crisis”left such an impression
on the Sumerians they immortalized it in an epic known asEnmerkar and the
Lord of Aratta.
Enmerkar was the King of Uruk. He wanted to adorn a temple for the
goddess Inanna, but there was no lapis because the King of Aratta, said to be
located beyond seven mountain ranges to the east in Iran, was trying to
monopolize all the prestige goods he could get his hands on to embellish his
own temples. Enmerkar sent an ambassador to Aratta, who attempted to
negotiate but was rejected as apparently Aratta had no need of any product
from Sumer. This was followed by a series of threats, challenges, and the
solving of riddles until finally negotiations brought about an equitable
exchange after Aratta was stricken with famine sent by Inanna. A donkey
caravan loaded with grain was dispatched for Aratta, and in return Enmerkar
received his lapis. This story may represent an actual instance when prestige
goods were received in exchange for food during a famine and evolved into
ongoing trade since by the mid-third millennium vast quantities of lapis
were being imported into Sumer.
The story of Enmerkar seems to imply that either Aratta was very close to
the mines and had a monopoly over production, or that there was only one
principal route the lapis was sent across, or that Aratta was large enough to
control all the routes. In fact, over the centuries the precious blue stone
reached Mesopotamia from three major directions, one that ran north and
another that ran south of the mines, both connecting to east–west trunk
roads, and one that ran to ports on the Indian Ocean. It is not likely that this
was down-the-line or trickle trade. It could have been directional trade: in
the fourth millennium lapis was available in Mesopotamia but does not
appear to have been used near its source nor along the way. Or this could
have been what is called central place trade, in which producers sent their
product to a nodal point where traders from consuming lands went to buy it.
In the lapis trade there are two likely candidates to have served as central
places, Shahr-i-Sokhta in the south and Tepe Hissar in the north.
Shahr-i-Sokhta, now located in a desert in southeastern Iran, was once a
prosperous urban center where lapis as well as carnelian from the Hindu
Kush Mountains was brought in raw blocks. There, stoneworkers shaped and
trimmed the material, removing a large amount of impurities to reduce the
cost of further transport. Some beads and other items were also produced
there, but for the most part the Sumerians wanted tofinish their own pro-
ducts. The archaeological record provides no evidence as to what was
imported from Mesopotamia in return, and lapis was not traded within the
local economy. Shahr-i-Sokhta may have been the mysterious Aratta
38 Thefirst link