Town planning and domestic architecture in ancient Mesopotamia from earliest times until the middle of the second millennium B.C

Thesis

After an introduction setting out the adms of the study in examining ancient housing for evidence of population and social structure, Chapter 1 describes the geographical setting of ancient Mesopotamian civilisation and outlines the various resources and their uses in building. Chapter 2 deals with ethnoarchaeology, the use of parallels drawn from modern Near Eastern villages in the interpretation of ancient settlements, and describes a survey of modern villages in the Khabur region of northern Syria, concluding that such surveys are most valuable in providing insights into traditional technology. Methods of calculating settlement population are considered in the light of existing knowledge of ancient demography and society. In Chapter 3 the material from the early prehistoric periods is examined and possible links between the architecture of the 'proto-Hassuna' and Hassuna cultures and the Samarra and 'Ubaid cultures are traced, aithough the origins of the Samarra and Haiaf cultures remain obscure. Chapter 4 points out the absence of excavated evidence for domestic architecture from 'Ubaid sites in southern Mesopotamia but compares the distinctive house type found in the north with the 'Tripartite' houses of the Uruk period which are found as far west as Habuba Kabira. For the early historical periods, Chapter 5 discusses the emergence of the square-plan house with rooms arranged around a central courtyard and considers the implications of variations on this plan in terms of family structure and population. Similar plans from the Ur III to Old Babylonian periods are described in Chapter 6 and the Larsa period housing areas at Ur are considered in the light of an American study of contemporary houses and their texts at Nippur. Chapter 7 deals with the relatively sparsely-represented period of Kassite rule and points out that the houses at the northern site of Nuzi represent a distinctly different type of dwelling from the better-known courtyard house. In the conclusion the archaeological evidence is summarised and discussed in terms of the current interest in ethnoarchaeology and the question of continuity in Mesopotamian cities and domestic architecture is considered.

Authors: McAdam, E

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-5zpzjqqov
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: earliest times; Mesopotamia; City planning; domestic architecture; Town planning; Iraq; second millennium B.C.
• Subjects: City planning -- Iraq -- History; Architecture, Domestic -- Iraq -- History; Iraq -- Antiquities