Is it true that in Sumer and later Mesopotamia, the economy was

>>2423945
Temples were often centers of commerce in the ancient world, so I don't see why not - though when you go that far back things no doubt get fuzzy, so while I doubt we really know the particulars, it parallels more recent activity that is part of historical record.

>>2423978
it just seems a little random. Say you bring in 50 clay jars, how would that compare to your demands for heads of cattle or barley or something

>>2423991
If that was the methodology, I assume they would put up a daily exchange rate sign, or you'd negotiate.

>>2423945

Not so much in the later Mesopotamia i.e, after the rise of Semitic Kingdoms, but earlier social structuring was most probably set up as some kind of egalitarian redistribution system centred around Temples. Earlier Sumer was built by three distinct ethnic populations with three distinct trade identities. The southern Fishermen, the Northern Agriculturalists and the City-state metallurgists. The priestly class arose after the system started getting complex and society focussed more on Divine favours for their community trades.

The Patron of fishermen was Enki, patron over water, seas, sea-storms etc,
The Patron of agriculture was Enlil, patron over rain, storm, wind, thunder etc,
The Patron of metal-workers is difficult to reconstruct in the earlier stages but it was something to do with tin and copper city.

Other deities arose, as the need arose - like beer, music, judgment etc.

IIRC from the inferences we have, the temples did have rationing (although it seems to be for hired workers and used in times of dire need for the cities' people--like sieges). I also believe many of them acted as a treasury and people brought the amount owed for their taxes (usually applied to land owners who had their property assessed) as well to officialize contracts and sales receipts (such as slave sales, apprenticeships, bigger trades like exchanging entire herds of animals or property, and marriages). I doubt they conducted every type of trade there or it went through temple officials or government magistrate hands, as that would require huge archives of sale receipts over time for a bunch of petty shit that no one would care to track, and that there were probably many other minor insignificant cities that didn't have enough people and urban planning to warrant that.

>>2424221
>Earlier Sumer was built by three distinct ethnic populations with three distinct trade identities. The southern Fishermen, the Northern Agriculturalists and the City-state metallurgists.

Any recommended reading for more information on this?

>>2424402

Any decent book on Proto-Euphratean also called as Ubaidians and their interrelationship with Eastern Arabian Littoral culture.

Structuring the Late Stone Age of Southeastern Arabia by Margarethe Uepermann shed light on the latter group.

Another book by Parpola on Aryan Migration has few chapters on Middle-east which might be of use. Roots of Hinduism by Asko Parpola (It is tangential but the information on Middle-east is substantial)

>>2424402

If you keep an open mind and don't mind non-traditional sources of materials then I would suggest some books by Joseph P Farrell. The core material is the usual conspiracy stuff but the textual examples that he corroborates are mostly archaeological (with his interpretation, something which you can ignore if you are mainly interested in History).