Davide Nadali, 2021, Cities in the Water: Waterscape and Evolution of Urban Civilisation in Southern Mesopotamia as Seen from Tell Zurghul, Iraq (original) (raw)
Related papers
Southern Mesopotamia: Water and the rise of urbanism
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 2019
The region of southern Mesopotamia, in modern southern Iraq, was home to perhaps the world's oldest cities and complex societies. Such cities and towns developed closely to irrigation works and other water features, with major settlements developed along levees and so-called 'turtle backs' made up of natural accumulation and human-made debris. While water was a critical component to the rise of cities, it was also the unique evolution of societies to their complex landscape, including the development of different social practices, that made the region develop early cities. By-products of these social developments included religious institutions and inequality but also the rise of governments, written language, laws, and other forms of social development we associate with our own societies. Recent work in southern Iraq demonstrates that the region was likely occupied much earlier than we thought; new climate data and other work will mean our picture on how the environment shaped the development of urban-based societies in southern Mesopotamia will evolve in the coming years. New fieldwork, including surveys and excavations, will also shape a new understanding of how urbanism arose in this complex landscape.
A complex system of ancient river channels and marshes in proximity of the sea heavily characterized the landscape of the ancient State of Lagash, at the downstream sector of the Mesopotamian Plain (southern Iraq), from mid-5th to 2nd millennium BC. The diachronic landscape changes that can be analysed thanks to the integration of geological and geomorphological analyses (through both remote sensing techniques and targeted field surveys) and archaeological investigations show how this “waterscape” definitely influenced the shapes of settlement and the organization of ancient societies from a cultural, economic and biological point of view. Recent excavations at Tell Zurghul in southern Iraq are giving the possibility to test, in the field, the presence of water: ancient cuneiform sources, from the mid-3rd millennium BC, show the intense programme of the rulers of the State of Lagash in managing water through the construction of canals and the regulation of marshes characterized by marine water due to the proximity of the sea. In this respect, human actions (such as the digging of canals) and the variations of natural conditions (such as, for example, the geomorphic response to the mid-Holocene climate changes of the fluvial-and-marshes system at the lower sector of the Mesopotamian Plain) are recognizable in the field and they explain the morphology of the site in the past and the changes it suffered even in the present: water in fact is doubtless a fundamental resource for suitable conditions of formation and growth of a urban centre, but it also limits the possibility of extending occupation on the entire surface (as for example the exploitation of lands for agricultural purposes).
Geoarchaeology, 2024
The last two decades witnessed increasing scholarly interest in the history of water management in southern Mesopotamia. Thanks to many geoarchaeological research projects conducted throughout the central and southern Iraqi floodplains, a general understanding of the macrophases of anthropogenic manipulation of this vast hydraulic landscape has been achieved. However, current narratives mostly rely on studies at a regional scale and are based on excessively long chronological phases (often spanning a whole millennium). A finer‐tuned analysis at a submillennial scale is needed to better appreciate the dynamics that led to the development of artificial canals and irrigation systems and the creation of harbours in cities and other navigation‐related facilities. The Iraqi‐Italian QADIS project is addressing this issue through a systematic geoarchaeological investigation in the south‐eastern area of the Qadisiyah province. We aim to update the current narrative by analysing case studies involving specific periods of occupation. We performed 17 boreholes to propose a date on the functioning period of the hydraulic works in five selected archaeological sites of this region. This approach allowed us to understand changes in water management strategies in both the short and the medium term (i.e., on a scale of centuries). In this paper, we present the results for the fourth and third millennia B.C.E. This period witnessed a crucial passage from the basic exploitation of natural watercourses for irrigation and occasional navigation to the emergence of the first system of artificial canals and intraurban harbours.
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2022
Leveraging a suite of remote sensing technologies deployed over large areas, this paper presents results that challenge long-held ideas about the origin and development of the world's oldest urban centers, in southern Iraq. The standard model of third millennium BCE Mesopotamian cities presents them as nuclear, compact settlements set within an irrigated agricultural hinterland, expanding continuously from a monumental religious complex. This reconstruction holds enormous influence in the comparative global study of early urbanism. UAV photos and magnetic gradiometry data captured at Lagash (Tell al-Hiba) show dense architecture and related paleoenvironmental features over c. 300 ha, revealing a city that does not conform to the standard model. Early Dynastic Lagash (2900-2350 BCE) was composed of spatially discrete sectors bounded by multiple surrounding walls and/or watercourses and separated by open spaces. The evidence is suggestive of a marshy or watery local environment, and the city sectors may have originated as marsh islands. The discontinuous, walled nature of inhabited areas would have had social and logistical ramifications for city inhabitants. A number of contemporary sites are characterized by multiple archaeological mounds, suggesting that early southern Mesopotamian cities may have frequently been spatially multi-centric.
Mesopotamian waterscapes: watermills in the ‘Land behind Mosul'
MESOPOTAMIA, 2021
Indici storici e abstract sono consultabili sul sito della casa editrice: www.apicelibri.it/collana/mesopotamia/13 sommario mesopotamia lvi 2021 paola sconzo-Hasan aHmed Qasim, with contributions by moussab al besso-benjamin Glissmann-andrea titolo, Investigating Jubaniyah, a Late Chalcolithic Site on the Upper Tigris River, Kurdistan Region-Iraq.
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2023
Remote-sensing techniques play an important role in the resumption of archaeological research in southern Iraq. These tools are especially powerful when ground-truthed through excavation and survey, and when informed by local environmental histories. This response engages with propositions put forward by Hammer (2022): "Multicentric, Marsh-based urbanism at the early Mesopotamian city of Lagash (Tell al-Hiba)." Using a mix of UAV photography and magnetic gradiometry data, Hammer argues that Lagash was a marsh-based city toward the end of the Early Dynastic period in Mesopotamia (c. 2,900-2,292 BCE), and that on-site habitation had previously been restricted to points of high elevation because of excess water. Fundamental geoarchaeological and chronometric data, however, are absent. Based on evidence from previous excavations and general conditions of site preservation, we review Hammer's interpretations, including the validity and reliability of the data that the paper uses to advance its arguments. Ongoing work at that site has the potential substantially to enhance our understanding of ancient urbanism. Ultimately, this response seeks to rectify basic principles of chronology, taphonomy, and paleoenvironment at Lagash, and to highlight the importance of verifiable representation in the presentation of remotely-sensed datasets.
Iraq, 2022
Satellite imagery and UAV (drone) photos taken at Lagash (modern Tell al-Hiba) after rainstorms and at times of elevated soil moisture show dense near-surface architecture that dates mostly to the Early Dynastic III period (c. 2600-2350 BCE) and covers several hundred hectares. Archaeological knowledge of Mesopotamian urban structure has mostly been limited to isolated excavated neighbourhoods, such as at third millennium BCE Tutub (Khafajah) or Eshnunna (Tell Asmar), and early second millennium BCE Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar). The morphology of Tell al-Hiba and the quality of the imagery sets create a unique situation that enables the reconstruction and comparison of neighbourhoods across almost the whole of the city of Lagash. Mapping of near-surface architectural remains, streets, and water features reveals a discontinuous city located within a watery, possibly marshy environment.