While our understanding of the general layout of north Mesopotamian cities has improved in recent years, our reconstruction of socio-spatial patterns produced by the bulk of the population has not kept pace. Large-scale excavations and surveys at late-third millennium Titri§ produced rich data that enable us to reconstruct the socio-spatial organization across its ancient urban residential districts. The analysis and interpretation of these data illuminate the hitherto underrepresented aspects of daily life in the city that were experienced by the majority of the residents. These aspects include relative socioeconomic homogeneity within densely occupied neighborhoods, as well as daily social interaction among neighbors and accessibility within habitation zones.
Mesopotamia has long been studieD by scholars interested in the origins of the first cities, but recently this interest has shifted from the traditional emphasis on southern Mesopotamia to the recognition of the north as an important region of urban development in its own right. Early trends toward urbanism in northern Mesopotamia can now be traced back to the fourth millennium BC or even as early as 4400 BC (Emberling 2003; Gibson et al. 2002; Oates et al. 2007; Ur 2010). The growth of early cities in the northern region is explained increasingly as an indigenous development, largely independent of the influences of contemporary settlements in the southern region. The appearance of the first northern cities was followed by a second surge of urbanism in the middle centuries of the third millennium BC, resulting in the rapid and explosive growth of dozens of densely populated sites in northern Mesopotamia and its surrounding regions. The archaeologically best-understood key sites in this perioD include Chuera, Beydar, Brak (ancient Nagar), Mozan (ancient Urkesh), Leilan, Hamoukar, Taya, Sweyhat, Mardikh (ancient Ebla), Titris, and Kazane (see Creekmore, Chapter 2 in this volume)
Figure 3.1 Third-millennium urban centers in north Mesopotamia and its vicinity (drawn by author; base map adapted from Oriental Institute Computer Laboratory 2010).
NORTH
MESOPOTAMIAN
URBAN
NEIGHBORHOODS
(Figure 3.1). The archaeological investigations at these ancient cities have greatly increased our knowledge about the developmental trajectory, spatial configuration, and decline of the mid-late third-millennium settlements in this region. However, the concentration of the excavations at the majority of these sites on and around the high mounds, where public buildings tend to be found, still limits our understanding of the extensive lower cities that surround the high mounds. When these early northern cities flourished, what did residential areas look like? How did the common city inhabitants organize their everyday environment spatially and socially? In this chapter, I present my analyses of the excavation and survey data obtained from Titris Hoyuk, with the focus of attention on the vast habitation sections in the lower town. In so doing, I will illustrate the homogenous nature of the crowded urban occupation areas, as well as daily social interaction among neighbors and the accessIbility both to and within the city proper at this northern Mesopotamian community. Horizontal excavations and extensive magnetometry surveys were carried out across much of the lower town at this site, making available diverse data on the bulk
YOKO NISHIMURA
Figure 3.2 Site plan of Titri§ Hoyuk, with areas where magnetic-field gradient surveys were conducted. The excavated areas are shown in black. "A" and "B" are two extensively excavated areas (drawn by author; base map adapted from Algaze et al. 2001:82).
Of the population, as well as revealing the overall spatial configuration (Figure 3.2). In order to reconstruct the use of domestic space at Titri§, a systematic activity-area analysis was conducted based on the large quantity of household remains derived from the horizontal excavations at two opposing sectors of the settlemenT (Nishimura 2008, 2012). Magnetometry surveys covering almost half of the lower town allowed me to reconstruct the overall, site-wide use of space by tracing arcHitectural plans and streets.
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