The "Great Institutions." From prehistoric times, prior to circa 3300 B.C.E., until the end of ancient Mesopotamian civilization in the early centuries of the Common Era, two great institutions, the temple and the palace, played an integral role in the economy. The functions of these two institutions were greatly interdependent, and while the relative importance of each institution varied over time, evidence for the operations of the temple is both earlier and more extensive than that relating to the operations of the palace. Moreover, the temple never completely lost its major position in the Mesopotamian economy.

The Temple. It is necessary to appreciate the ideology behind the temple in order to understand its significant— but not exclusive—role in the various productive, redistributive, and commercial sectors of the Mesopotamian economy. The word temple is...