Analyzing Cities: Methods and Datasets

In the archaeology of the ancient Near East (ANE), a variety of approaches have been used to attempt the study of cities. The excavations of the 19^th and early 20^th

centuries exposed huge expanses of Southern Mesopotamian cities such as Nineveh, Babylon, Nippur, Uruk, and Kish. These excavations provided a baseline of knowledge about the architecture, urban layout, and ceramics of the various epochs of ancient Mesopotamia. The extensive corpus of texts has allowed the examination of urbanism through the lens of the economic, historical, religious, and property texts (e.g. Zaccagnini 1979, Liverani 1996, Stone 1987, 1997a, Adams 2008, Bracci 2008, Baker 2007, 2009, 2011, Van Koppen 2001, Biga 2013). In some cases, the increasing specialization of scholars has led to a growing disjoint between philological and archaeological

approaches (Pollock 1999, Zettler 2003). The rise of landscape studies has also enabled the study of cities within their particular landscapes (Adams 1965, 1966, 1981, Adams and Nissen 1972, Wilkinson and Tucker 1995, Wilkinson 1994, 2000, Wilkinson et al.

2004, Ur 2010b). As is always the case in archaeology, interpretations are much richer

when various datasets can be combined (e.g. Stone 2007, Sallaberger and Ur 2004).

An idealized form of ‘the city’ can be parsed from various texts, although they almost always come from periods post-dating the Early Bronze Age. Certain underlying realities pertain across time in urban environments, however, such as the need for productive land, pastoral steppe, etc., allowing us to use textual evidence as a starting point for examining third-millennium cities. Carlo Zaccagnini (1979) studied the landscape around the second-millennium urban center of Arraphe, in modern day northern Iraq. Using a textual analysis he identified the main components of the urban settlement system including both natural and man-made elements.¹⁰ In his model cities are nested within a network of smaller settlements and arable land, connected by roads and watercourses. His textual analyses provided evidence for several critical aspects of urban society, including towns and villages, mounds, watercourses, woods and forests, arable land, uncultivated land, houses, stables, roads, wells and urban structures. Simona Bracci (2008) used a similar textual approach to study the Nuzi countryside in the mid-second millennium. In archives, she was able to find land-ownership links between households within the city proper and land immediately outside the walls. Her work shows the importance of the areas immediately outside the walls for maintaining urban households. In the cases examined it also appears that households exercised control over the city gates within their sub-sections of the city (or neighborhoods).

Archaeological explorations of cities have often focused on the central mounds and the important institutions of the third millennium, including palaces and temples. In

10 See also discussion in Chapter 1 and Chapter 6.

some cases research has expanded to include an attention to lower towns and extramural areas. These areas have usually been subjected to intensive surface survey (e.g.,

Hamoukar, Brak, Mozan), with only a few scattered excavations. Excavations in lower towns, when conducted, are often preceded by geophysical surveys (e.g., Titriş, Chuera, Mozan).

Landscape studies including survey and geoarchaeological approaches have greatly expanded the study of ANE cities by placing them within larger contexts. These studies have been able to identify ancient watercourses, the locations of supporting villages, and the boundaries of agricultural lands. Wilkinson has pioneered the technique of using geoarchaeology to examine areas around tells (landscapes) to determine patterns of land use. His identification of the hollow ways around third-millennium sites has been used to determine the boundaries of ancient fields (Wilkinson 1994). He also identified several landscape features that can be associated with Zaccagnini’s textual analysis of Nuzi (Wilkinson 2003:119).

Survey has been invaluable for exploring diachronic change across the Ancient Near East, particularly in the Jezireh. Adams’ pioneering surveys demonstrated the changing landscape of cities and settlement over several millennia. Adam’s first survey, The Land Behind Baghdad, was published in 1965. Adams went on to conduct two more major surveys including The Uruk Countryside (1972), with Hans Nissen, and then Heartland of Cities (1981). Since these groundbreaking surveys, survey methods have become much used in the archaeology of the region, in particular for identifying periods of urbanization in the Jezireh (Wilkinson and Tucker 1995, Wilkinson 1990, 1994, 1998,

Eidem and Warburton 1996, Stein and Wattenmaker 1990, 2003, Ur 2002a, 2002b, 2012).¹¹

Nucleation of population during the mid-third millennium is a hallmark of the SUR. On-site surface surveys of extensive lower towns have recently become more popular (Thompson-Miragliuolo 1988, Pfalzner et al. 2004, Chapter 4, Ur et al. 2007, 2010, Oates et al. 2007, Ur 2002a, 2002b). These surveys have helped to establish periods of urban expansion and contraction. In some cases, such as Brak, survey results show the city was formed as a result of an agglomeration of small settlements.¹²

Combined approaches have produced excellent results in understanding urban areas, particularly off-site areas. Sallaberger and Ur (2004) used a combined landscape and textual approach to study the third-millennium landscape of Tell Beydar. As

mentioned above, Wilkinson used a combined textual and geoarchaeological approach to explain features around tells. A benefit of such combined approaches is the ability to verify interpretations. For example, Zaccagnini recognized two different types of roads or tracks in the texts – one for short distance travel and one connecting sites (Zaccagnini 1979). Subsequently, Wilkinson (2003:119) was able to identify two corresponding types of hollow ways – those that dissipate at a fixed distance from the site and those that continue over long distances (Wilkinson 2003).