Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Landscapes of Settlement and Mobility in the Middle Euphrates: A Reassessment

Wilkinson, T. J.; Galiatsatos, Nikolaos; Lawrence, Dan; Ricci, Andrea; Dunford, R. W.; Gibbons, Philip

doi:10.1179/0075891412z.0000000007

Cited by 32 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…The fragmented landscapes drained by these riverine corridors provide smaller-scale landscapes of tells with more muted hierarchies than the extensive agricultural plains. Particularly common are small tells (1-3 ha), which dominate these cultural landscapes from the LC onwards (Schwartz and Falconer 1994;Philip 2007;Casana 2007;Schwartz et al 2000;Wilkinson et al 2012). However, where the valleys open up, or are flanked by broader plains, Bronze Age cities attained some 50-60 ha in area.…”

Section: Alluvial Valleysmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…• The Titriş Höyük Survey (Turkey): conducted in 1990 and 1992 as part of the Titriş Höyük Project (Algaze et al 1992; for the Euphrates surveys see also Wilkinson et al 2012). …”

Section: Survey Areas (Figs 2 4)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…11, 12, 13) Here we summarize results of the Titriş, Kurban Höyük and Sweyhat surveys in northern Syria and southern Turkey; a fourth survey, the Land of Carchemish Survey, is not discussed, but has been presented in greater detail elsewhere ( Fig. 11; Wilkinson et al 2012;Peltenburg 2007). …”

Section: Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…12a, b). In the Late Chalcolithic, when 15 ha Samsat was dominant, the remaining settlement was concentrated at small tells along the Euphrates river valley and a sparse scatter of settlements away from the river (Wilkinson 1990;Algaze et al 1992;Wilkinson et al 2012). During the early EBA (3100-2650 BC), Samsat did not expand but new sites, including the 5 ha main tell at Titriş, developed on the previously sparsely-settled plain south of the Euphrates.…”

Section: Titriş-kurban Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further south around Tell es-Sweyhat-situated within an area of broad river terraces firmly within the agro-pastoral zone of uncertainty-the difference between Late Chalcolithic and EBA settlement is even more marked (Wilkinson et al 2012). Only three very minor sites were occupied during the Late Chalcolithic, with a further possible occupation at Tell Hajji Ibrahim during the Uruk and early EBA periods (Danti and Zettler 2007).…”

Section: Sweyhat Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contextualizing Early Urbanization: Settlement Cores, Early States and Agro-pastoral Strategies in the Fertile Crescent During the Fourth and Third Millennia BC

et al. 2014

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This paper employs data from selected sample survey areas in the northern Fertile Crescent to demonstrate how initial urbanization developed along several pathways. The first, during the Late Chalcolithic period, was within a dense pattern of rural settlement. There followed a profound shift in settlement pattern that resulted in the formation of large walled or ramparted sites ('citadel cities') associated with a more dynamic phase of urbanization exemplified by short cycles of growth and collapse. By the later third millennium BC, the distribution of larger centres had expanded to include the drier agropastoral zone of northern and central Syria, termed here the 'zone of uncertainty'. This configuration, in turn, formed the context for Middle Bronze Age settlement, and the pattern of political rivalries and alliances that typified the second millennium BC. Evidence is marshalled from archaeological surveys and landscape analyses to examine these multiple paths to urbanization from the perspectives of (a) staple production within major 123J World Prehist (2014) 27:43-109 DOI 10.1007/s10963-014-9072-2 agricultural lowlands; (b) the shift towards higher risk animal husbandry within climatically marginal regions; (c) changes in local and inter-regional networks (connectivity); and (d) ties and rights to the land. Textile production forms the core of the proposed model, which emphasizes how the demand for wool and associated pasture lands opened up new landscapes for agro-pastoral production and settlement. The resultant landscapes of settlement are then compared with the picture in the southern Levant where a more restricted zone of uncertainty may have limited the opportunities for agro-pastoral production.

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Section: Alluvial Valleysmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…• The Titriş Höyük Survey (Turkey): conducted in 1990 and 1992 as part of the Titriş Höyük Project (Algaze et al 1992; for the Euphrates surveys see also Wilkinson et al 2012). …”

Section: Survey Areas (Figs 2 4)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Titriş-kurban Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sweyhat Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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