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In our current division of academic labor,the emergence of the primary state is a topic for the archaeologists and anthropologists.In light of recent rethinking of fundamental assumptions in mode historiography,however,it becomes urgent to look for an integrated view of history from its rightful beginning.It is believed here that the analysis of power networks as promoted by Michael Mann could serve as a conceptual framework for an integrated understanding of the emergence of the primary state as a natural part of human history.The introduction of socio-spatial network analysis to the emergence of the primary state resulting in surprising conclusions comes to question the evolutionary scheme from state to empire,as an analytical narrative of the changing power networks in early Mesopotamia tends to suggest.From this perspective,the state as commonly termed will have to be categorically seen as a form of empire rather than vice versa.The city-states of the Early Dynastic Period,contrary to common understanding,are difficult to be taken as real states despite the nomenclature.It is believed that for the study of the ancient world in general and the emergence of the primary state in particular,"bringing the empire back in" could be potentially most productive.