RESIDENTIAL ASHUR
Regional Settlement Analysis has been changing the archaeological view of Mesopotamia for the last 37 years. According to an ICOMOS report in 2003:
“…recognizing the significant role of the systemic interaction between urban centers and rural settlements, and contributing to a better understanding of the emergence of states, the economic, social, and environmental relations, subsistence patterns and modes of production and trade through time... the impact of the rise of the Middle Assyrian and Neo-Assyrian empires on the immediate surroundings of Ashur have not been studied. In fact, it is understood that only small areas (perhaps only 1%) of the Mesopotamia has been studied so far.” (March 2003, Ashur [Iraq] NO 1130 ICOMOS Conservation, Risk Analysis, Par. 2)
The two major excavations of Ashur both happened before the importance of residential and hinterland communities was understood. Therefore, the majority of Ashur still remains unexcavated and most of the living quarters are untouched. Many of these homes contain indoor family burials that have not been exhumed.
These residences represent different social classes, levels of wealth, craft specializations, and time periods. Although a lack of funding and the unstable situation in Iraq makes any large excavations impossible at this time, archaeologists are eager to study the residential areas and indoor family burials that many homes contain. Such research will supply crucial information about domestic architecture and the conditions of life for those not part of the royal elite (ICOMOS 2003).
TRADE
In the Akkadian period, Ashur developed long distance trade routes and became a vital Centre in the state. Throughout the 2nd millennium Assyrian traders created a system of trade groups called Karum. The Karum network stretched across Anatolia, the northern Levant, and along the shores of the Black Sea. To ensure successful business, dedicated traders set up long term residence in cities such as Kanesh. Numerous texts about the Old Assyrian Trade have been excavated from Kanesh.
The detailed 21st century BC records illustrate a time of thriving international trade. Such texts allow anthropologists to reconstruct the components of trade, the price of commodities, and the manufacture processes of metallurgy, textiles, leather, and other industries (Hall & Kirk, 2002). Employing donkey caravans, the traders of Ashur travelled for 5 to 6 weeks to the city of Kanesh trading tin and textiles along the way for goods such as copper, gold, silver, lapis, lazuli and other precious metals and stones(Scarre, 2004 & Carr, 2010).
