bags appear to have been common in the Old and New King-
doms. Matting and basketry were used throughout the Dy-
nastic Period in both domestic and funerary contexts. Coiled
basketry continued in Ptolemaic times, but plaiting became
a commonly used technique as well, especially for decorative
containers and fans. Sewn-plait mats were widespread in the
Graeco-Roman Period.
THE MIDDLE EAST
BY TOM STREISSGUTH
Ancient Mesopotamia was a land of fertile soil and little
else in the way of natural resources. Base metals, precious
stones, gold and silver, marble, and timber were all scarce
in the Fertile Crescent, the semicircle of fertile land stretch-
ing from the eastern Mediterranean coast of the Levant to
the Persian Gulf. But as trade increased along the rivers and
seacoasts and between the growing cities of Mesopotamia,
the Levant, and Egypt, artisans began making use of a wider
variety of materials in shaping household objects, tools, and
weapons. Silver and iron ore arrived from Anatolia; the cedar
and pine forests of Palestine provided timber, and lapis lazuli
was brought west from Afghanistan. Th ese trading contacts,
maintained through seagoing vessels and overland caravans,
fostered the sharing of new technologies, and the spread of
Mesopotamian craft styles and techniques to other regions.
Th e rise of urban civilization stimulated the growth
of new manufacturing industries. While farming was the
dominant occupation of Mesopotamian villagers, the cities
became a focus of labor, money, and trading activity. Inde-
pendent merchants bought and sold goods, while the taxes
collected from craft workshops in turn contributed to the
region’s political and military power. Th e city of Ur, for ex-
ample, drew vast revenues from trade in its textiles, which
were renowned throughout the Middle East. Mesopotamian
kingdoms conquered through military power but prospered
through trade in their fi nished goods, which were produced
by private workshops and then exchanged for the raw materi-
als they lacked.
Th e fi rst craft s of the region drew on the few easily avail-
able natural resources. Red clay dug from riverbeds was
shaped and fi red, creating useful pottery and brick, which
went into basic construction and the paving of city streets.
Mesopotamian marshlands provided material for fl oor mats,
for baskets, for shoes, and for house construction, in which
wooden frames were fi lled in with thickly woven reeds. Bas-
kets, used to carry fruits, nuts, grains, and fi sh, were woven
from reeds and fi ber—the precursor to the carpet and tex-
tile industries of the Middle East—and waterproofed with
bitumen. Basket weavers worked in a variety of techniques,
interweaving the material in a coiled basket or “twilling” it
in diagonal strips. Th e size and shape of the fi nished piece
depended on the pliability and thickness of the material used.
Th ese perishable materials survive only in the form of small
fragments, some dating to 7000 b.c.e. Houses in the south-
Stone bowl, from Khafajeh, Iraq, Early Dynastic Period, about
2600–2400 b.c.e. (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)ern marshlands were also made from cut and woven plants, a
technique that survives to modern times. Artisans also used
woven plant materials to produce boats and small furniture.
For their farming tools and their weapons, the Mesopo-
tamians fi rst replaced stone with copper, an unalloyed metal
that occurs in natural deposits. Copper remained the prin-
cipal metal of tools and weapons as late as the fourth mil-
lennium b.c.e. Th e use of copper was later displaced by the
discovery of bronze (a more durable alloy of copper and tin).
We apon sm it hs c r a ft ed knives, axes, daggers, and body ar-
mor out of bronze before turning to iron, a much harder and
more durable substance that, at fi rst, was collected from me-
teorites. By 1200 b.c.e. iron smelting was coming into wider
use throughout the Middle East, though Mesopotamian iron-
workers had to import the raw ore from distant regions.
Timber was as rare as iron in Mesopotamia, meaning
that wooden furniture was a scarce luxury item. Because
wood deteriorates with time and weather, authentic furni-
ture from the region is very uncommon, and archaeologists
have to depend on painting and sculpture to learn how it was
made and used. Basic wooden furniture was oft en combined
with reed matting. Wooden benches, beds, and cabinets were
provided to the homes of the wealthy. Th ese pieces were as-
sembled from sawn timber, joined with pegs, and decorated
with mosaics, paintings, and marble or ivory inlay. Th e most
elaborate items were reserved for Mesopotamian kings, who
saw to it that any city they conquered was carefully searched
for its fi nest furniture, a prized spoil of war.
Th e most skilled artisans worked in the new medium
of glass, which was fi rst developed in northern Mesopota-
mia in the early second millennium b.c.e. Glass vessels were
made by core forming, in which a core of stone or coal was
placed into molten glass around a core. Th e thin layer of288 crafts: The Middle East