ABSTRACT
Daily life in ancient Mesopotamia has often been depicted using a very broad brush,relying on archaeological and textual evidence gathered from across at least three millennia (e.g. Saggs 1965; Nemet-Nejat 1998; Bottéro 2001). Given the paucity of information from any one period for the daily activities of individuals or groups (especially before 2000 BC), such an approach is perhaps inevitable. It may also be justified by the perceived longue durée of Mesopotamian culture, a recognition that there was much continuity in administrative, religious and artistic traditions (largely preserved by the literate elite) and in the use of resources and their manufacturing (seemingly paralleled in rural communities in Iraq until recently). In addition to such generalisations, a preference by early excavators for the exploration of sacred and palatial areas has led to a very biased view of daily life that focuses on the activities of elite sections of society as revealed by monumental architecture, art and texts, at the expense of the vast majority of the population who were engaged in agricultural, industrial and ordinary domestic activities.
