In the few cases where a significant portion of the town plan of ancient cities is exposed by magnetometry or excavations, we may begin to extend theories of architectural structuralism to entire settlements. I favor a soft structuralism in which structure is highly
PRODUCTION OF SPACE IN MESOPOTAMIAN CITIES
Figure 2.3 Tell Chuera, schematic plan of infrastructure and the primary use of various areas. Numbers 1-5 mark potential armature: 1) Aussenbau, 2) City gate, 3) Entry to upper city and temple complex, 4) Plaza,
5) Palace. Redrawn and modified from Meyer 20o6:Abb. 2;
Pruss 2000:igure 1; and Goethe Universitat, Institut fur Archaologische Wissenschaften 2007. Some information was also derived from Tell Chuera reports.
Influential, but does not determine behavior (see Trigger 2003:654). In doing so we can construct spatial maps, such as those described by Bill Hillier and Julienne Hanson (1984:90-142), to identify similarities and differences in spatial patterning within and between cities. These spatial patterns show how people organized and moved through space in the city (see, for example, Scott Branting's [2010] computer modeling of pedestrian trafic in an Anatolian city for which the entire street network has been reconstructed with remote sensing techniques). In round cities with known street patterns, such as Tell Chuera or Al-Rawda, main streets form ring roads and spokes that deine fairly regular wedge-shaped city blocks (Figures 2.3 And 2.4). This structure is more "symmetric" and "distributed," which suggests a "tendency towards the diffusion of spatial control" (Hillier and Hanson 1984:97 [italics in original]). Such readily discernible segments of space may make it easy to grasp the structure of a city, and provide greater access to outsiders (Lawrence
ANDREW T. CREEKMORE III
Figure 2.4 Al-Rawda, schematic plan showing city wall, temples (T1,2,3), major streets (R1,2,3; C1,2,3), excavated housing, and suburbs. Derived from Castel and Peltenburg 2007:figure 5; Castel et al. 2005:figures 2a and 3; and Gondet and Castel 2004:figure 8.
And Low 1990:471; Lynch 1964:67-70). Wheel or deformed wheelshaped street networks funnel outsiders along certain routes, mark the boundaries of residential areas, and preserve residential privacy (Hillier 2008:10).
No matter where you go in round cities, you are never too far from a major spoke or loop road that will convey you rapidly to other parts of the city, including the very center. Gates and topography notwithstanding, lines of sight and passage on radial roads often run directly to the city center, and ring roads make it possible to reach many sectors oF the city quickly while bypassing side streets or potentially congested areas. Over time, some main roads are blocked by expanding buildings, forcing pedestrians to detour through less-direct secondary streets. Without deep excavations in these spaces, it is not clear whether these obstructions are primary, marking planned defensible space (see the section on defensible space in this chapter) or secondary, marking conflicting claims to space (Low 1996:876) in which various groups block the street adjacenT to their houses or workshops in order to produce defensible space. An example of the latter may be found at Al-Rawda, where streets or architecture are asymmetrical or interrupt the general pattern. The excavators of this site argue that these features result from changes to a formerly integrated master plan (Castel and Peltenburg 2007).
PRODUCTION OF SPACE IN MESOPOTAMIAN CITIES
In contrast wIth the accessibility of round cities, streets in oblong cities tend to meander along a semi-straight course, as at Titris, or at best form a semi-orthogonal structure in which cross streets create rectilinear city blocks. These streets have less-direct lines of sight than perfectly straight streets and may impede transit for visitors. We might expect irregular streets to be emergent (i. e., unplanned), but excavations at Titri§ demonstrate that at least some of its streets were cut into sterile soil and built before adjacent houses, indicating that their pattern was planned and coordinated (Matney 2002:26-27), with their route influenced by topography (see Nishimura, Chapter 3 in this volume). Similar planning of streets is noted at the oblong cities of Kazane and Leilan, albeit wIth small exposures that do not clarify the entire path of the street (Creekmore 2008:167-168, 2010:78; Weiss 1990:201-203, aBb. 3, 7-9).
World History
