The Uruk Period is considered to be the period in which a large scale trading network expanded to the north, mainly along the Euphrates river, nearly covering the entire area of Western Asia. This period corresponds to the Late Chalcolithic Period in Anatolia. The main cities in this period were generally located in places where communication could be conducted by water.
As far as the trading network is concerned, the contact between Mespotamian alluvial plains and the mountainous regions such as Zagros and Taurus foot hill has been emphasised. Apparently, northern Syria, northern Mesopotamia and southwestern Iran had close relationships with the Uruk culture. On the other hand, Anatolia is considered as a local region indirectly influenced by Uruk culture. Such influence came from main cities in the middle Euphrates basin (Habuba Kabira).
However, from a different point of view, it is possible to construct an entirely new theory for Anatolian culture in this period. Evidence supporting such a theory was found at Arslantepe, which is located near the city of Malatya in the upper Euphrates basin, eastern Anatolia. Its altitude is high enough to bring to snow and severely cold winter to this region. In spite of that, the Uruk merchants expanded their trading network as far as the mountainous regions to acquire the rich mineral resources of Anatolia.
Furthermore, according to new archaeological materials, Arslantepe, in which Uruk and Transcaucasian materiais were found together, suggests a close relation between the Transcaucasian region, Black Sea region, eastern Anatolia and Mesopotamia. The Transcaucasian region has richer mineral resources than Anatolia, as well as developed metal industries. Arslantepe played a role as the transport center between its northern neighboring region like Transcaucasus and southern Mesopotamia. This is based on a new trading network system which had not been proposed until now.

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This paper studies the development of craft specialization in stone tool production in the Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant, in particular focusing on Canaanean blades and tabular scrapers. It seems that regional production centers of Canaanean blades and tabular scrapers developed near high quality Eocene flint sources in the Early Bronze Age. Intensive flint mining was probably carried out at these centers. The centers mass-produced these products with high skill and distributed them in large quantities to sites as far away as several dozen kilometers.
 In the Early Bronze Age, a variety of daily commodities such as stone tools (Canaanean blades and tabular scrapers), copper tools and pottery were produced in regional production centers rather than in local settlements and were traded intraregionally in the Southern Levant. This suggests that the economy of the Southern Levant in the Early Bronze Age was highly in tegrated.

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Tell Kosak Shamali is a small site located on the eastern bank of the upper Euphrates valley in Syria, 40km south of the Turkish border. The excavations of the 1994-1997 seasons exposed thick deposits from the Pottery-Neolithic to the Middle Uruk Periods and yielded a large number of artifacts and well-preserved buildings. In this article, I describe the 25 Chalcolithic spindle whorls and the other objects relating to fiber exploitation excavated at Tell Kosak Shamali and draw conclusions about Chalcolithic fiber exploitation.
Spindle whorls are the flywheels of spindles, which spin fibers into yarn. The weight of the spindle whorls is a critical factor because it is closely related to characteristics of the fiber material and the thread thickness. When one spins fine fibers into fine thread, a light whorl is suitable, whereas a heavy whorl is suitable for heavy fibers. An analysis of the weight of the whorls excavated there reveals that their weight tended to decrease toward the later period. This trend suggests the improvement of fiber production at Kosak Shamali. It seems to corresponded with the tendency to move away from using sheep/goats purely for meat and toward their use for secondary production (wool and milk).
The weights of spindle whorls are divided into 2 categories, 9-47g (n=24) and 162g (n=1). Each category was probably used for spinning a different kind of fiber. The lighter whorls were probably used for spinning wool, and heavy one, for flax. I also examined the diameters of the holes of beads/pendants and seals and the rope impressions on clay sealings because they indicate the fineness and/or the spinning direction of the thread. Considering the decline in weight of the spindle whorls from Tell Kosak Shamali in view of previous studies on wool exploitation, I conclude that the decline may be related to the increase in the importance of fiber production during the Chalcolithic Period.

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