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The Balance of Trade in Southwestern Asia in the Mid-Third Millennium B.C. [and Comments and Reply]

Trade frequently is considered an important and distinct subsystem that is integrated within a prehistoric cultural system. This paper rejects this interpretation and attempts a structural analysis of a specific trading network that existed in southwestern Asia in the mid-3d millennium B.C. in order to uncover the motivational factors and contradictions operative in trading relationships. An ideal dichotomy between sparsely populated, resource-rich highland centers and densely settled lowland cities is proposed, and the evolutionary significance of the relationship that developed between these areas is discussed.