MULTICENTRICITY

PRODUCTION OF SPACE IN MESOPOTAMIAN CITIES

Because many Upper Mesopotamian cIties developed from preexisting villages and were highly nucleated, it is easy to assume that these settlements grew from the center or tell to the periphery in an oil-stain-like spread in which new residents joined neighborhoods that expanded around a single administrative, elite nucleus, as expressed in Sjoberg's model of preindustrial cities (1960:323). Current data are not sufficient to determine if urban growth followed major streets defining sectors in a process akin to Homer Hoyt's sector model (1939), or leap-frogged open spaces as multiple centers were established in a fashion that recalls Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman's multiple nuclei model (1945). The fortified cluster of a palace, temples, markets, and storage aT the center of Beydar comes closest to Sjoberg's model, but the social structure or status of surrounding neighborhoods is not yet clear. Recent research has uncovered multiple administrative and elite centers in several cities, and all of these cities must have had other social centers measured in terms of neighborhoods, pedestrian traffic, a convergence of major roads, or the value of land (Hoyt 1939:18).

At Kazane, elite and institutional structures form at least three administrative centers in the city. These centers include the presumed (but not excavated) administrative citadel on the tell; a probable palace or other administrative building east of the tell, marked by a massive wall; and numerous monumental structures revealed by magnetometry and excavations in the southern portion of the city. These include large storage facilities, a large house, and another possible palace or massive administrative building (Figure 2.5) (Creekmore 2010; Wattenmaker 1997). At Titris, a small exposure of mid-third millennium remains in the outer town revealed monumental architecture characteristic of elite housing or public buildings (Algaze and Pournelle 2003:107; Matney 2002:25; Matney and Algaze 1995:49). This may mark a second center, far from the citadel, that existed during the earliest period of the city. Although standard domestic structures were later built over these buildings, Nishimura (see Chapter 3 In this volume) identifies several larger buildings at key locations in the outer town during the later third millennium that may mark additional centers in the final period of the city.

At Al-Rawda, ring and radial roads demarcate sectors containing features that represent multiple ritual centers (Figure 2.4). On the basis of magnetometry data, two and possibly three ritual areas were

ANDREW T. CREEKMORE III

Figure 2.5 Kazane, schematic plan of Early Bronze Age infrastructure, administrative, sacred, and other areas. Middle Bronze Age housing and burials are also marked owing to possible continuity in the use of these spaces from the prior period. Note: the location of the citadel walls and city gates are suggestions, and are not based on any excavated evidence.

Palace and Middle Bronze Age housing areas are shown larger than the actual exposures to enhance visibility. After Creekmore 2008:Figure 9.3.

Identified in the city, one of which was confirmed by excavations. Each consists of one or two small temples surrounded by open space enclosed by a wall (Gondet and Castel 2004:104, figures 8a and 8c; Castel et al. 2005:igure 6a; Castel and Peltenburg 2007:606, figures 7 and 8). Notably, the inner sanctuary of the temples in all three areas is oriented toward the center of the site, and a single ring road, C2, intersects or passes all three compounds (Figure 2.4). The existence of muLtiple, spatially separated temples in a relatively small city may

Figure 2.6 Beydar, upper city, schematic plan of infrastructure and the primary use of various areas, with excavation areas marked with letters. Use areas derived from Lebeau 2006a:plan 1; Lebeau and Suleiman 2008, 2009; and excavation reports. Gates placed after Bluard 1997: Figure 1.

PRODUCTION OF SPACE IN MESOPOTAMIAN CITIES

Indicate the worship of multiple gods, the presence of different social or ethnic groups, and multiple nodes of religious power.

Chuera contains at least two major but separate administrative centers (Figure 2.3). These include the palace on the western edge of the upper cIty and the cluster of small but monumental temples and related structures on the eastern edge of the city. Small, isolated temples also exist within residential areas in the upper city. At Beydar, a second palace was recently discovered, just below but adjacent to the acropolis mound that contained a palace and multiple temples (Figure 2.6: Areas F and P) (Lebeau and Suleiman 2009).

Aside from ritual and administrative centers, multiple residential areas served as centers of social life. Street patterns, as discussed earlier, formed wedge-shaped or rectilinear blocks of housing areas subdivideD by small lanes. Major intersections, culs-de-sac, and other less-visible features such as utilization of a particular neighborhood temple or shrine, couLd define neighborhoods or centers of social activity in the city. Thus, although a particular sector may have an elevated status owing to association with particular residents or proximity to certain features in the city, and some administrative or religious centers may have been higher in the pecking order of the city governance and devotion, these features were not relegated to a single business, religious, or housing district. Instead, they formed multiple centers of urban life.