Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Investigating the Role of Residential Quarters in the Development of Mesopotamian Cities: The Case of Kazane Hoyuk

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

Under the supervision of Dr. Cynthia Robin, Andrew Creekmore will study neighborhood organization at Kazane Hoyok, an Early Bronze Age (ca. 3000 - 2000 B.C.) city in southeastern Turkey. Kazane was part of a wave of urban development that swept across northern Mesopotamia in the third millennium B.C. The residents of these cities lived in densely packed houses grouped into neighborhoods. In order to study the socioeconomic structure of the city and the role of residents in urban growth, development and collapse, this project will focus on a neighborhood in the heart of Kazane. A neighborhood study is important because it addresses the social fabric of the city rather than a single household or institution. The spatial organization of a residential neighborhood, combined with patterns of production and consumption across this space, can reveal the dynamics of urban growth. Characteristics of house size, ground plans and street patterns, combined with evidence for craft and food production and access to luxury goods can reveal the degree of city planning, social inequality, and economic centralization in the city. Such an investigation of everyday life within an urban neighborhood is necessary to explain how the social and economic choices of residents contribute to urbanism. Cities are so large that they are difficult to study archaeologically. A study of a single house or street is not sufficient to explain urban social diversity, but excavating large parts of cities with modern techniques takes much time and money. To address this problem the present study uses magnetometry. With magnetometry, a machine carried above the ground surface measures differences in the magnetic field of buried features. This machine quickly creates a map of subsurface remains. At Kazane Andrew has mapped a two-hectare neighborhood, complete with houses, streets, open spaces and craft production facilities. Andrew will use this map to conduct targeted excavations that sample multiple structures and spaces within the neighborhood. When the architectural plans are combined with samples of artifacts from each building, the result will be a comprehensive picture of social and economic diversity across an entire neighborhood in the city. The results of this research will be presented to the scientific community and the general public via presentations at conferences in America and Europe, including Turkey, and through publications in academic and popular journals as well as a project website. In particular, this research is important for the citizens of Turkey and the project region because it will rescue a significant part of Kazane from impending destruction due to expanding irrigation works. For Andrew and several undergraduate and graduate assistants, including Turkish students, this research will provide valuable training in remote sensing, excavation, and archaeological analysis. This project is significant cross-culturally because the problems of urban social and economic organization, both in antiquity and modern times, are of interest across the globe from Asia to Europe, Africa and the Americas.