Hammer, E. 2022. “Multi-centric, Marsh-based Urbanism at the Early Mesopotamian City of Lagash (Tell al-Hiba, Iraq).” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 68: 101458. (original) (raw)
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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.
Ancient canals, marshes and proximity of the sea heavily characterised the landscape and environment of the ancient State of Lagash in southern Iraq, from the mid-fifth to the second millennium BC: indeed the diachronic changes that can be analysed thanks to geological and archaeological observation and investigation show how this waterscape definitely influenced the shapes of settlement and the organisation 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-third 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 characterised by marine water due to the proximity of the sea. In this respect, human actions (such as the digging of canals) and natural conditions (such as the reduction in the fifth millennium and the progressive growth in the fourth millennium BC of water level) are recognisable in the field, and they of course 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, e.g. the exploitation of lands for agricultural purposes).
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.
Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie
This paper draws on the preliminary results of the QADIS survey project, conducted by the University of Bologna and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage since 2016 in the Qadisiyah province. The project addresses phenomena related to anthropogenic transformation of landscapes in a region that was at the core of the early Mesopotamian urbanization process. Building upon the seminal work conducted by R. McC. Adams in the 1960 s and 1970 s, we implemented an integrated documentation technique to reconstruct at regional levels the changes in the dense network of human settlements and artificial water infrastructures characterizing the evolution of this archaeological landscape over time. The aim of the article is that of providing a finer-grained regional picture of 4th and 3rd millennium BC urban developments which can be useful for better conceptualizing the scale and pace of early Mesopotamian urbanism.
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Antiquity, 2023
Studies of ancient Mesopotamian cities have long focused on their institutions. Here, instead, the authors draw on recent investigations at the third-millennium BC site of Lagash (modern Tell al-Hiba, Iraq) to explore urban density, economy and sustainability at one of the largest ancient urban centres of the region. Drawing on excavation, environmental and remote-sensing data, the authors adopt a multi-scalar approach, revealing dense urban occupation, with subdivision into distinct walled quarters, as well as evidence for multiple foci of intensive industrial production and the exploitation of a rich mosaic of surrounding micro-environments. The study emphasises how a combination of new field data and alternative research directions offers novel insights into early urbanism.
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Prevailing theories of the evolution of early complex societies in southern Mesopotamia presume a uniform, arid landscape transited by Tigris and Euphrates distributaries. These theories hold that it was the seventh millennium BCE introduction of irrigation technologies from the northern alluvium to the south that began the punctuated evolution of Mesopotamian irrigation schemes. In this view, irrigation-dependent agro-pastoral production was the primary stimulus to urbanization and, millennia later, the emergence of city-states. In this dissertation, I cast serious doubt on the landscape characterization underlying this model. I argue that much of the archaic alluvial landscape of southern Iraq consisted in large part, not of desert or steppe, but of wetlands, and that this finding requires a comprehensive reassessment of southern Mesopotamian resource management strategies and their role in emergent complex polities.