Pastoralists in Mesopotamia
Topic: Bronze Age Civilisations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1 "Writing and City Life"
Meaning
Pastoralists were herders who raised sheep and goats, mainly in the steppe (dry grassland) and on the edges of the farmland. They traded with farmers. They gave animals, cheese, leather, meat and manure, and got grain and metal tools in return. But the two groups also clashed. Flocks trampled sown fields, herders raided villages, and farmers sometimes blocked herders from reaching water. Nomads from the western desert kept moving into the farming heartland. They worked as herders, harvest labourers and hired soldiers, and some went on to set up ruling families.
Example
The Akkadians, Amorites, Assyrians and Aramaeans all came to rule in this way. The kings of Mari, a city on the Euphrates that flourished after c. 2000 BCE, were Amorites. They worshipped Mesopotamia's gods and also built a temple to Dagan, god of the steppe. The textbook sees this openness and mixing of peoples as a source of the civilisation's strength.