ABSTRACT
Prehistoric Mesopotamia illustrates an evolutionary trajectory from horizontal egalitarian societies to stratified states. The storage of grain especially, but other goods, as well, reflects this developmental trend. Mesopotamian society evolved beyond the horizontal egalitarian mode of organization by the middle of the fifth millennium BC. Some cultural indicators remain the same. The social organization appears to be an equality-sharing one, likely one with some nascent vertical egalitarian organization. Graves showed distinct stratification in form and contents, which corroborates the changes in structure from a more vertical egalitarian to a ranked society. Goods moving north to south into core Mesopotamia were likely to pass through Arslantepe. Unlike Arslantepe, whose role in the Uruk expansion was most likely export, the focus at Uruk was more on imports. Unlike Tepe Gawra, tucked up into the piedmont hills, Arslantepe's chief locational asset was its position on trade routes from all directions.
