sealings at Jiroft, as well as the single City seal impression mentioned above, suggest
that merchants from the south may have journeyed there themselves to source these
desirable goods (Pittman 2008 : 99 and fig. 32 ). Adab may have been a centre for their
reception in Mesopotamia as vessels of several different origins were found here and it
may also have been part of the route by which such vessels were forwarded on to Mari
(Kohl 1975 : 30 , 2001 : 228 ff.). Not all the examples from Sumer were necessarily trade
goods, some, which were found in temples, may have originated as gifts from rulers
or merchants, or as royal booty, but if they were booty, the Sumerian rulers, who are
not known for their modesty, would surely have inscribed such prestige offerings as
they did less valuable vessels and as their successors did in the Agade period.
Susa does not appear to have been a major purveyor of copper and tin, although
copper was certainly entering the south from Iran – for example, from the Anarak
mines – but it probably arrived from the northeast, where Tepe Gawra seems to have
re-established itself as a market town, or down the Diyala, which might explain the
prosperity of this valley in the Early Dynastic period (Potts T. 1994 : 147 , 152 – 153 ). There
are also recent reports of an important tin/copper mine at Deh Hosein, approximately
45 km southwest of Arak on the borders of Luristan. The new mine is polymetallic
and was apparently in use from the third to the first millennium BC. Lead isotope
analyses of the metal match those of third millennium bronzes from Luristan, the Gulf
and Mesopotamia and raise the possibility that the area may have been a major supplier
of tin and copper from the third millennium onwards (Weeks 2008 : 336 ). It has long
been thought that tin may also have arrived from Afghanistan, possibly overland or else
through the Indus valley and up the Gulf (see below and Moorey 1994 : 298 ).
THE GULF ROUTE AND THE INDUS
Another major source of metals was the trade up the Gulf which also increased in
importance during the third millennium. Tablets document the trade between pre-
Sargonic Lagash, Fara, Umma and Dilmun to purchase copper and tin in return for
wool (Foster 1997 ; Prentice 2010 )^4. It should be noted that Dilmun at this period
almost certainly refers to the east coast of the Arabian peninsula and not specifically
to Bahrain as it did by the end of the millennium.^5 The merchants probably travelled
to sites such as Tell Abraq on the coast of Umm al Gawain Emirate, a site which has
an amazing range of overseas contacts reaching as far as Central Asia. Recent work on
the metal remains from this site strongly suggest that copper arrived here from a variety
of sources which included both local ones and others from much further afield which
were apparently channelled through the Indus alley. The tin was probably from
Afghanistan and arrived by the same route (Weeks 1999 ). Other goods forwarded on
to Mesopotamia included carnelian both in its unworked state and as beads, lapis
lazuli, shells from the Indian Ocean, more decorated chlorite vessels, and perhaps
exotic animals and birds (Ratnagar 2004 ). A similar but smaller and poorer tran-
shipment site lay slightly nearer Mesopotamia on Umm-an-Nar island (Frifelt 1991 ,
1995 ). Somewhat unexpectedly Ur-Nanshe claims to have brought timber by ship from
Dilmun to build various temples (Frayne 2008 : E 1. 9. 1. 2 , 84 ). This too must have
originated further afield as no suitable timber is found in Eastern Arabia.
–– Harriet Crawford ––