As a consequence of greater interest by researchers in the analysis of both ancient cities and households, a growing number of studies have recently been conducted on socio-spatial patterning at the intermediate level (e. g., neighborhoods, districts) within ancient urban residential quarters (Arnauld et al. 2012; Cahill 2002; Chapdelaine 2009; Clayton 2011; Colantoni and Ur 2011; Creekmore 2010, Chapter 2 in this volume; Fisher, Chapter 6 in this volume; Healan 2009; Keith 2003; Kenoyer 2012; Manzanilla 2009; Nishimura 2008, 2012; Rainville 2005; M. E. Smith 2010, 2011; Spence et al. 2005; Stone 2000, 2008; York et al. 2011).
One of the focal points in the analyses of habitation sections within ancient cities has been the question of whether or not each
Section typically conflated different groups of people in terms of their socioeconomic classes, occupations, and/or ethnic backgrounds. For instance, Stone (2008) has presented a model linking political organization to spatial coniguration at the second-millennium site of Mashkan-shapir in southern Mesopotamia and the irst-millennium site oF Ayanis in eastern Turkey. Stone distinguishes between state societies that were based on heterarchical/consensual (Mashkan-shapir) and hierarchical/exclusionary (Ayanis) governance, and states that these different types of political strategy developed in distinct ecological contexts. According to her socio-spatial model, cities with a more heterarchical political system would mosT likely exhibit housing areas that were not segregated by wealth, but rather mixed with different social classes. Such areas contained not only houses of both the rich and poor, but also loci for various manufacturing activities. In contrast, the housing areas of state societies that exercised exclusionary domination were socioeconomically more segregated, containing relatively similar domestic structures.
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Whereas Stone's model connects heterogeneity and homogeneity in urban communities to the political structure of each settlement, Keith (2003) describes heterogeneous neighborhoods in ancient Mesopotamian cities as a result of everyday household and occupational activIties. Following Rapoport's (1969, 1990) conceptualization of the organization of space as "systems of activities that take place in systems of settings" (Keith 2003:60), Keith deines the neighborhood as "the area within which local residents conducted most of their daily activities" (2003:58). Accordingly, Keith reconstructs residential zones within the Old Babylonian cities (e. g., Ur, Nippur, Sippar) by tracking the daily activities that the local residents performed in areas adjoining their houses. Using excavation and textual evidence, Keith identiies neighborhood facilities (e. g., shops, bakeries, mills, taverns, chapels) and examines patterns of common, everyday activities within the living areas. In her reconstruction of the Old Babylonian neighborhoods, Keith concludes that there was a mixture of various household tasks as well as occupational activities within the habitation quarters.
Michael E. Smith and his colleagues in their interdisciplinary research project on urban neighborhoods believe that residential areas in both ancient and contemporary cities are commonly socially diverse (Smith 2010, 2011; York et al. 2011). Rather than various interspersed social classes, however, these researchers maintain that
Urban habitation quarters often exhibit concentrations of particular groups of people who share common social identities, in terms primarily of ethnicity, socioeconomic class, religion, and occupation. Smith (2010) distinguishes and defines neighborhoods and districts as archaeological concepts. In so doing, he argues that these distinct areas in ancient cities are discernible archaeologically and offers archaeological methods that are applicable to habitation sections cross-culturally across time and space. Once these separate zones are recognized, the identified spatial patterning can be interpreted in social terms, such as social clustering of particular ethnic groups and socioeconomic classes. In order to explain the existence and development of distinct neighborhoods and frequent occurrence of social clustering, in particular ethnic and class clustering, York et al. (2011) enumerate a number of causal factors as top-down (the actions of state authorities, local regimes, and institutions) or bottom-up (the actions of individuals, households, and small groups) forces. According to these authors, ethnic and class clustering in separate habitation areas develops as a result of a complex mixture of these top-down and bottom-up processes.
The identification of such social clustering in urban residential neighborhoods is best exemplified by the studies of foreign enclaves and other discrete habitation areas aT the Classic period regional center of Teotihuacan, located in the Valley of Mexico (e. g., Clayton 2011; Manzanilla 2009; Spence 1996; Spence et al. 2005). Using primarily mortuary, architectural, ceramic, and lithic data, sociocultural differences of ethnicity, occupation, wealth, and status among the inhabitants were spatially discernible at this settlement. These studies aT Teotihuacan have recently been extended to include several isotope analyses on human bone and teeth to investigate places of origin, dietary changes, and marriage customs among the populations who resided within the foreign enclaves (Price et al. 2000; White et al. 2004a, 2004b).
We also have a glimpse of the presence/absence of socioeconomic differences within a residential context at the late-third millennium city of Hamoukar in northern Mesopotamia, where six housing units were excavated in a habitation quarter at the eastern edge of the site (Colantoni and Ur 2011). In the absence of evidence for administration or specialized manufacturing, these dwelling units exhibit traces of activities that were largely domestic in nature. Based on the size of House H I, the only house that was more or less
Completely exposed, the house size at Hamoukar is considered average in the region. Nevertheless, Colantoni and Ur suggest that this was a prosperous neighborhood, owing especially to the frequent use of baked brick in architectural features. These houses show similarities in architectural construction (e. g., house forms, courtyards with occasional baked brick pavements, and drainage), as well as in the use of domestic space (e. g., activity areas). But Colantoni and Ur (2011:59) still admit some architectural variations (e. g., house size) between the houses, and these variations are thought to reflect slight differences in socioeconomic status.
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Through the reconstruction of socio-spatial patterns at the community level, the analysis of the rich excavation data and survey results obtained at Titri§ will contribute to the discussion of neighborhood variability and will also bring insights into the social interaction among neighbors and accessibility within the habitation sections. In this chapter, I irst outline the overall political conigura-tion of the region in which Titris was a flourishing urban center. The settlement layout will then be characterized, especially as related to public structures, which we can infer based on comparisons with other contemporary centers in the region. Finally, I offer an analysis of the spatial patterning within the lower town at Titri§, using both the excavation and survey data from this site.
World History
