NOTES ON THE MESOPOTAMIAN ENERGY ECONOMY

Summary All societies require thermal energy for human survival and for household and industrial purposes. Archaeological and ethnoarchaeological data show that dung, a ubiquitous secondary animal product, was employed as fuel in the ancient Near East, in addition to use as agricultural fertilizer. A review of Mesopotamian texts shows, however, that dung is mentioned occasionally in medical contexts, rarely in reference to agriculture, and never with respect to fuel. How the energy economy was organized in Mesopotamia and other early complex societies remains unclear, but apparent textual lacunae suggest that dung was part of an informal economy with well understood rules lying outside the scope of literate institutions.