8 - Runner Empires (−3000 to −600)

Summary

A graph superimposes the growth–decline curves of major Runner Empires, from 3000 to 600 BCE. The Egyptian Old, Middle,and New Kingdoms dominate this period. Egypt’s sheltered location ensured stability, then suffocation. Mesopotamian states remained small, forming a mutual fighting community, until the brief rise of Akkad and Assyria. The Xia–Shang–Zhou empire took off only after 1500 BCE, and in a surprisingly northern location. It’s as if state formation in the west had begun on the Danube instead of Nile. Egypt came closest to the oikos model (state as the ruler’s household), with 90% of produce flown in and out of state storage. It might have been 83% in Sumerian city-states. This aspect of human self-domestication may have begun to retreat with the Hittite empire, and even Assyria. While the Hyksos surprised Egypt with chariots as early as around 1650 BCE, the Assyrians complemented chariots with cavalry only by 665 BCE. The era of Rider Empires was approaching.