Page 60 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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Mesopotamian exchange goods are also documented in other texts from Ur
and are synchronous with the letters of Ea-nasir. One letter dated to 1794 B.C.
records that capital investments were provided to purchase copper at Dilmun.
Silver, for example, was used for the purchase of pearls. Unfortunately, there is no
complementary historic documentation from the other limbs of the trade network.
Oppenheim (1954) viewed the Indus Valley as a probable source for carnelian, ivory,
and lapis lazuli, but Kramer (1963) provided more detailed evidence. Lapis lazuli
was evidently shipped to Dilmun from an as yet unknown land (Harali), while
Meluhha was directly identified with carnelian and timber. In addition to copper,
Magan supplied diorite and other stones. Wool came from Elam, and finally, Ur
traded in grain, sesame oil, and clothing. Both Ur and Meluhha sent seamen to
Dilmun. The relative proportions of this maritime trade may be inferred from
other texts from Ur.
Oppenheim compared the relative frequency of the mention of boats in his
Isin-Larsa dynasty texts with those of the Ur in period translated by Legrain.
There were far fewer boats mentioned in the earlier period, but they were larger
than those of the Isin-Larsa dynasties. Ur III boats seem to have been as large as
272-300 gur as compared with a later maximum of only 40 gur (Oppenheim 1954:8).
He used this difference to imply a larger proportion of overseas travel and deep sea
fishing centered at Ur during Isin-Larsa times, rather than when the city was the
center of the Ur m empire.
Although the economic situation was vastly different between the Ur in
and Isin-Larsa dynasties, the trade network appeared to have been similar. Magan
and Dilmun were mentioned in both periods as geographic realities while Meluhha
dropped out of contact by the Isin-Larsa period (Oppenheim 1954:14). Traders
sailed between Ur and Dilmun or Magan where they exchanged cargoes. The major
difference during Ur in times was that Mesopotamian trade goods came from
institutional stores while during the dynasties of Isin and Larsa merchants had
private backing from entrepeneurs.