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Corinne Castel, Jan-Waalke Meyer and Philippe Quenet (eds.)  – Circular Cities of Early Bronze Syria

Augusta McMahon
p. 125-127
Référence(s) :

Corinne Castel, Jan-Waalke Meyer and Philippe Quenet (eds.) 2020 – Circular Cities of Early Bronze Syria. Turnhout: Brepols (Subartu XLII). 395p.

Texte intégral

1This volume presents the papers from a 2013 conference on circular cities (sometimes known as “Kranzhügel”) in Early Bronze Age northwestern Syria. The conference collated current knowledge about these settlements to answer questions about their chronology and origins, urban design and planning, and the political management of urban space. The conference was based in collaboration among the archaeological projects at Tell al-Rawda, Tell Chuera and Khirbet Malhat, but the scope of this comprehensive and detailed volume goes well beyond these. The papers are mainly in English, with a few in French; abstracts of each paper are given in both languages.

2The editors rightly question the primacy of southern Mesopotamia in the origin of urbanism in the region, arguing for its independent development in Syria/northern Mesopotamia. But they propose that urbanism in Syria developed only in the 3rd millennium BC, after the collapse of the Uruk expansion. There is no explicit definition of “city”, although it is implied that urban traits include large size, dense occupation, institutions, and a central place in a site-size hierarchy of sites. The editors also at times present the existence of an ‘urban model’ as a necessary trait to identify a city; that model includes conscious planning, circular form, external walls, dense occupation and a network of radial and concentric streets. The material in this volume certainly supports the existence of such a model, but this is a limited view of Mesopotamian cities and their great variety. Was Tell Brak—a complicated settlement of 130 hectares during the mid-4th millennium BC, with religious and secular institutions, distinct industrial zones, and an interconnected hinterland—a city or only a “proto-city”? Is a city any less a city if it was short-lived? Brak’s experiment in urbanism was ultimately unsuccessful, contracting to fewer than 50 hectares from the late 4th millennium BC, but the EBA circular cities were also abandoned or reduced in the late 3rd millennium BC. Do cities only exist when there is a critical number, or can they exist in isolation? the cities of the Indus are so far apart (c. 280 to 840 km; Parikh and Petrie 2019) that their intra-influence was limited, yet we do not question that these were genuine cities. Must all cities be planned and high-density? Mayan low-density cities are cities (Isendahl and Smith 2013). In Mesopotamia, the lively organic settlements of Ur and Nippur in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC were certainly cities despite their lack of top-down planning.

3Three introductory papers by the editors set the stage. Castel describes the model for Syrian circular cities, based in elements shared by Tell al-Rawda, Tell Chuera, Kharab Sayyar and Tell Sh’airat. Geophysical techniques have been transformative in our understanding of these sites, and the dramatic networks revealed, comprising streets, standardised plot sizes and house plans, are indeed strong evidence for top-down planning initiatives. It is clear that networks of streets were planned and built first, with structures filling the spaces created, much like the modern expansion of Erbil (e.g., 150 Meter Ring Road). Quenet addresses the location and dating of these cities—their origins and decline—drawing a contrast between developments in two zones: the central Jezirah and the Shamiyah, east of Hama and Homs. Meyer describes the origins of circular cities, based in data from Tell Chuera that support several stages of growth; he challenges past interpretations that connect the form of these cities to settling nomads and argues for an Upper Euphrates origin for their first inhabitants. The street network plan, fortification walls and their developments over time are convincingly described, although Chuera’s status as a central place is less well supported by the limited evidence for smaller sites. These introductory chapters are followed by two sections, the first thematic and the second on regional case studies.

4Within the Thematic section, the first sub-section includes two strong, detailed papers on the origins of the circular city. The first thoroughly describes the stages of growth of Tell Chuera (Hempelmann), including changes in architecture, economy and material culture that reflect developments in social organisation and institutional power. The second gives the results of archaeometric analyses of North Mesopotamian Metallic Ware, as a proxy for connections between southeast Anatolia and northwest Syria, supporting a potential origin for the Syrian circular city further north (Falb and Kibaroǧlu).

5Monumental architecture, especially city walls and palaces, is the theme for the next sub-section, with most of the discussion focussing on Tell Chuera. Helms and Quenet compare the evolution of fortifications at Chuera and al-Rawda, starting from their EB I foundations; Kromberg addresses the linear arrangement of Steinbauten and their impact on the urban landscape of Chuera; and Tamm discusses the location, history, and visibility of Chuera Palace F. These monumental structuring features of the walled cities are crucial to the understanding of this model of urbanism, but their effect on the arrangements of neighbourhoods and houses is still largely unknown. a short material culture sub-section follows. The first paper contrasts the ceramics from the west Jezirah and Shamiyah sites in terms of technology and typology (Babour and Mouamar); the second discusses the stratigraphy and chronology of the Chuera Area K seal impressions (Binder).

6The sub-section on environmental and hinterland studies is the most extensive, with seven papers covering rainfall and environment (Smith and Wilkinson), soil types and quality (Thiemeyer), city orientations (Kudlek), agro-pastoralism (Herveux, Barge and Chambrade, and Vila) and climate change and environmental fragility (Brochier). Together, these papers effectively emphasise the challenges to urban living, mainly low rainfall, yearly variation in rainfall, and limited groundwater and fuel; they underline the importance of Wilkinson’s earlier identification of the ‘zone of uncertainty’ (Wilkinson et al. 2014a, 2014b). The potential coping strategies identified by Wilkinson and Smith include cities’ reliance on surplus from satellite settlements during dry years; however, they consider this strategy unlikely due to the limited number of such settlements in the western Jezirah. Extensification of agriculture and shifts in farming-herding balance are more plausible and are supported by Herveux’ archaeobotanical evidence, Vila’s study of animal management, and Barge and Chambrade’s description of a micro-landscape, with a ‘mosaic’ of geomorphological features supplemented by canals, walls and dikes to direct and retain water. Kudlek’s speculative paper seems out of place in this sub-section; the data come from regional survey, but her identification of internal lunar- or solar- orientations makes it more relevant to the monumental architecture sub-section.

7These are followed by a final sub-section comprising three papers on text-based studies by Biga, Catagnoti and Porter. Biga’s paper effectively mines the Ebla texts for economic and political interconnections between Ebla and the Jezirah in the 3rd millennium BC and underlines that texts do not distinguish between circular cities and cities with other forms. Catagnoti examines the complex data for the Badiyat/Shamiyah area, noting the challenges of linking textual toponyms to specific sites or regions. Both note that there is a term in the Ebla archives for fortified settlement (bàd) but that this is too generic to specify the circular cities. Porter takes a theoretical approach, identifying cities as ‘sites of attraction’ and loci of deep kinship connections, framed by their inhabitants’ identity rather than institutional power. The proposal to identify the main structuring element of cities as a core aspect of their inhabitants, rather than traditionally-assumed power institutions, is very welcome. But the identity proposed is not defined: social-cosmological, socio-political, and ancestral/genealogical are offered. The wide-ranging discussion includes small family-sized shrines, transmission of traditions by mobile pastoralists, and kin-based work groups, dipping into sites such as Arslantepe, Tell Banat and Tell Brak, as well as Chuera.

8The Regional Studies section includes five papers on contemporary sites in the Jezirah, comprising Mari (Butterlin), a contrast between Beydar and Brak (Lebeau), Tell Khazna I (Amirov), Tell Tcholma Foqani (Ali) and Khirbet Malhat (Quenet and Sultan). Also included in this section are single papers on aspects of western Anatolia (Perello), the Jebel Bishri region (Sultan), the Shamiyah (Mouamar), and southern Mesopotamia (Vallet). The Anatolian case studies are not directly related to Syrian circular cities but offer useful comparison data in their radial layouts and central open spaces. The Jezirah section is the most relevant and best integrated with previous sections. Butterlin modifies Margueron’s reconstruction of Mari as an enormous circular city, which was based on the preserved curved segment of outer wall at the site’s west. This outer wall segment is very clear, but the reconstruction of a perfect circle largely destroyed by river and canal action remains difficult to support. a circular form has also been reconstructed for Tell Qubr Abu al-Atiq, upstream from Mari (Novo et al. 2014). In both cases, at most a quarter of the purported outer city wall is preserved, a poor foundation for such reconstructions (see also Schwartz 2011). The description of Mari’s major streets and hinterland of smaller sites and watercourses, however, is very welcome and convincing. Lebeau’s detailed paper on the FS and SS complexes at Brak and Temple E and its surroundings at Beydar outlines their comparable locations within the city, monumentality, proportions, building materials, and shared features such as bent-axis shrines, niched-and-buttressed façades, paved courtyards and podia. The similarities reflect the intensity of interactions between these two settlements, as known from texts. The next three papers discuss lesser-known sites, and their inclusion in the conversation is very valuable. Amirov describes the plan and phasing of Tell Khazna I, a small site west of Brak with dramatic terracing and a system of streets that has affinities with the radial-concentric networks of later and larger settlements. Ali focusses on Tell Cholma Foqani, in the centre of the Upper Khabur triangle, where satellite imagery and survey suggest a double-walled perimeter and radiating streets. Quenet and Sultan describe the survey at and around Khirbet Malhat, in the Lower Jezirah south of the Jebel AbdulAziz. This site also has inner and outer city walls, radial and concentric streets. Sultan’s chapter on the Jebel Bishri region combines texts and archaeology to underline its strategic location connecting the mid-Euphrates and Shamiyah areas. Mouamar describes the massive site of Tell Sh’airat in the Shamiyah steppe region (96+ hectares), including its radial-concentric plan, several layers of defensive walls, and rapid growth and abandonment. The volume concludes with Vallet’s southern Mesopotamian contrast, focussing on a proposed “ladder pattern” of streets at Abu Salabikh and Khafajah, and its reflection of planning, dense space use, and social organisation.

9The major results of this book comprise a close study and thorough characterisation of the distinctive circular cities of northwest Syria and a comprehensive discussion of their regional context, in terms of settlement patterns and environmental constraints. It emphasises their shared characteristics and demonstrates the existence of a specific concept of the city in the past. Not all of the material presented is entirely new; the magnetometry results from Chuera have been published elsewhere, for instance, as have aspects of the material culture and environmental studies. But there is enormous value in bringing all this information together in short concise chapters, allowing for easy comparison and cross-referencing. The integration of the well-known sites of Chuera and Rawda with sites known only from survey or more limited excavation (e.g., Sh’airat) is also extremely valuable. The EBA Syrian circular cities are an exciting type of urban settlement, and the research presented here is excellent and thought-provoking.

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Bibliographie

Isendahl C. and Smith M. 2013 – Sustainable agrarian urbanism: the low-density cities of the Mayas and Aztecs. Cities 31: 132-143.

Novo A., Solla M., Montero Fenollós J.-L. and Lorenzo H. 2014 – Searching for the remains of an Early Bronze Age city at Tell Qubr Abu al-‘Atiq (Syria) through archaeological investigations and GPR imaging. Journal of Cultural Heritage 15,5: 575-579.

Parikh D. and Petrie C. 2019 – “We are inheritors of a rural civilisation”: Rural complexity and the ceramic economy in the Indus Civilisation in northwest India. World Archaeology 51: 252-272.

Schwartz G. 2011 – Review of J.-M. Meyer, Tell Chuera: Vorberichte zu den Grabungskampagnen 1998bis 2005, vol. 2, II. Journal of the American Oriental Society 131,4: 678-680.

Wilkinson T. J., Galiatsatos N., Lawrence D., Ricci A., Dunford R. and Philip G. 2014a – Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Landscapes of Settlement and Mobility in the Middle Euphrates: a Reassessment. Levant 44,2: 139-185.

Wilkinson T. J., Philip G., Bradbury J., Dunford R., Donoghue D., Galiatsatos N., Lawrence D., Ricci A. and Smith S. 2014b – Contextualizing Early Urbanization: Settlement Cores, Early States and Agro-pastoral Strategies in the Fertile Crescent During the Fourth and Third Millennia BC. Journal of World Prehistory 27: 43-109.

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Augusta McMahon, « Corinne Castel, Jan-Waalke Meyer and Philippe Quenet (eds.)  – Circular Cities of Early Bronze Syria »Paléorient, 47-2 | 2022, 125-127.

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Augusta McMahon, « Corinne Castel, Jan-Waalke Meyer and Philippe Quenet (eds.)  – Circular Cities of Early Bronze Syria »Paléorient [En ligne], 47-2 | 2022, mis en ligne le 02 mars 2022, consulté le 07 juin 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/paleorient/1435 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/paleorient.1435

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Augusta McMahon

Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge – UK | amm36@cam.ac.uk

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