Disembedded Capitals in Western Asian Perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID2109442
AuthorsAlexander H Joffe (Pennsylvania State University, corresponding author)
Year1998
Volume40
Issue3
Pages549-580
Publication date1998-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative Studies in Society and History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-4175 • E-ISSN: 1475-2999
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0010417598001406
OpenAlexW2151790932
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited34

Disembedded capitals are urban sites founded de novo and designed to supplant existing patterns of authority and administration. While a controversial topic in New World archaeology, there is ample evidence from ancient Western Asia and Egypt to demonstrate that disembedded capitals were a well-understood and frequently used option in developed state systems. Ethnohistoric examples from Egypt and Mesopotamia are presented to show the common organizational, ideological, and ecological features of disembedded capitals, and their varying historical and imperial contexts. Disembedded capitals were typically founded by new elites, either usurpers or reformers, as part of innovations designed to simultaneously undercut competing factions and create new pattterns of allegiance and authority. But while intended to break away from existing power relationships, in order to function disembedded capitals were necessarily reembedded back into those structures, In an evolutionary sense disembedded capitals were short-lived phenomena which tended to create long-term societal problems

Allegiance · Archaeology · Economic geography · Geography · Mesopotamia · Political science · Politics · State (computer science) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Ancient Near East History · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Law

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub