The reflection on the market is a fundamental topic of substantivism. In his model of the ancient economy, Karl Polanyi defended the preponderance of reciprocity and redistribution at the expense of self-regulating market in the ancient world. Assyriologists, be they fervent defenders of the Polanyian model, as Johannes Renger, or fierce critics of such model, as Morris Silver, have discussed the role of the market in the ancient near East along with other interpretations that seek to reassess the several archaeological and textual sources of the Mesopotamian society in various periods as in the work of Mario Liverani. By analyzing the arguments of these paradigmatic authors in this paper, I intend to propose an ample critical view of the discussion on the economy and society in Mesopotamia.
Karl Polanyi; ancient economy; Mesopotamia; market