State Capacity, Security, and Welfare in the Ancient Middle East and China, 12,000 – 400 BCE.
State Capacity, Security, and Welfare in the Ancient Middle East and China, 12,000 – 400 BCE.
Join this Quantitative History Webinar and explore Joerg Baten’s latest use of bioarchaeological sources to study very long-run economic history. This is the first study that explores the welfare effects of the rise of early states in the pre-Classical Middle East. Indeed, this region and period saw the initial stages of development of state capacity in history.
Joerg Baten of the University of Tübingen and his co-authors draw on a large new data set of human remains from ancient Mesopotamia, Iran, the Levant, and Anatolia to assess its effects. They observe that the first proto-states were not able to reduce interpersonal violence and improve health and nutritional status of their population. However, the more advanced states of the Early Bronze Age did achieve this, hence Joerg Baten and his team can conclude that they reduced their predatory nature and switched from rent-seeking to security-oriented policies. This explains the remarkable economic success during the Middle Bronze Age, although increasing inequality might have prepared the dramatic reversal at the end of the Bronze Age.
New comparative evidence — presented here for the first time — allows also long-term comparisons between the ancient Middle East and China for the first time.
Joerg’s co-authors: This study is based on joint work with Giacomo Benati, Arkadiusz Sołtysiak, Alessandra Tagini, Xiaofan Sun, Qiang Wang, and a number of other colleagues.
Discussant: Michael B. C. Rivera, Lecturer, Department of History, The University of Hong Kong
Live on Zoom on March 23, 2023
16:00 Hong Kong/Beijing/Singapore
08:00 London | 17:00 Tokyo | 19:00 Sydney
The Quantitative History (QH) Webinar Series aims to provide researchers, teachers, and students with an online intellectual platform to keep up to date with the latest research in the field, promoting the dissemination of research findings and interdisciplinary use of quantitative methods in historical research. The QH Webinar Series, now entering its fourth year, is co-organized by Centre for Quantitative History at the HKU Business School and International Society for Quantitative History in partnership with Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences. The Series is now substantially supported by the Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. [AoE/B-704/22-R]). 量化歷史網上講座系列由香港大學陳志武和馬馳騁教授聯合發起，旨在介紹前沿量化歷史研究成果、促進同仁交流，推廣量化方法在歷史研究中的應用。本系列講座由香港大學經管學院量化歷史研究中心和國際量化歷史學會承辦，及香港人文社會研究所全力支持。從2023年開始，系列得到中國香港特別行政區研究資助局卓越學科領域計劃的重要資助 (項目編號[AoE/B-704/22-R])。
Conveners:
Professor Zhiwu Chen
Dr. Chicheng Ma
