The Ups and Downs of Barley

The third chapter of Uruk, by Mario Liverani, explains the workings of Mesopotamia’s economy. It states that there were two basic elements to the economy – sheep and barley. While both were important, barley can be seen as the crucial component to people’s lifestyles. It affected life for all people. In the absence of barley, the temple’s economic system would not have existed and people’s diet would have been more nutritious.

Barley was used by the Sumerians simply because it was “easily stored, preserved and redistributed” (35). It stayed for long periods of time without spoiling. Barley was also easy to grow; unlike wheat, in addition to thriving in warm and dry climates, it “matures very fast and is very tolerant of saline soils” (32). Liverani compares the barley to onions or lettuces which molded quickly. Barley is the perfect grain that can be “produced in a great surplus, […] easily stored and redistributed” (36). However, it was more efficient for the producers to accumulate and redistribute this crop if the temple was in charge. The temple, which functioned as a central agency, hired corvee labor and seasonal laborers to harvest the barley. Liverani argues that the economic system would not have been possible with another kind of crop. While tubers and plants were abundant, “they are not suited for collection in ­a central place or for redistribution, because they cannot be preserved for long” (35). Barley allowed the temple to lead the people and create a complex economic system unlike those before it.

Barley was a vital part of people’s diets and being so easy to grow and store made it the main component to each meal. However, it lacks nutritional value. Without barley, people would have been forced to branch out eat other types of food. In turn, they might have been healthier.

Barley ­­­­is the most important crop the Sumerians had. Besides being people’s main dietary staple, it started an economic system which involved different families and temple. It provided labor and pay. Barley truly was crucial to the Sumerians’s lifestyle and economic advancements.