Durham E-Theses Early Urbanism in the Northern Fertile Crescent: A Comparison of Regional Settlement Trajectories and Millennial Landscape Change LAWRENCE, DAN How to cite: LAWRENCE, DAN (2012) Early Urbanism in the Northern Fertile Crescent: A Comparison of Regional Settlement Trajectories and Millennial Landscape Change, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5921/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Abstract Early Urbanism in the Northern Fertile Crescent: A Comparison of Regional Settlement Trajectories and Millennial Landscape Change Daniel Elias Lawrence This thesis investigates the development of urban centres in the Northern Fertile Crescent during the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age and seeks to place this development in a wider context of landscape transformation over time. Settlement data from eight archaeological surveys covering a range of landscape types and environments are brought into a single interpretive framework, organised through a Geographical Information System (GIS). These surveys are enhanced through the use of satellite imagery, particularly Corona spy photography, to discover new sites both within and outside the boundaries of their original areas. Methods for the incorporation of this wide range of data are developed, including the use of concepts such as ‘certainty’ and ‘precision’ and techniques for the comparison of multiple chronological systems. These new methods are used to undertake a multi-scalar examination of settlement trajectories from the 5th to the 3rd millennium. Two phases of urban development are evident, first in the Late Chalcolithic and then during the ‘second urban revolution’ (Akkermans and Schwartz 2003) in the later Early Bronze Age. Whilst the Late Chalcolithic centres emerged within dense landscapes of small settlements, urbanisation in the later Early Bronze Age was accompanied by the widespread incursion of settlement into a ‘zone of uncertainty’ on the margins of the steppe. It is argued that a combination of factors, including the shift from flax to wool as the raw material in textile production and the development of social institutions capable of bearing risks at a large scale, provided the incentive and the means for this expansion, and that this transformed the societies of the region as a whole. This phenomenon is then placed in the wider context of long-term landscape change. It is argued that differences in settlement histories across the region can account for variations in the preservation of the archaeological record. 1 Title Page Early Urbanism in the Northern Fertile Crescent: A Comparison of Regional Settlement Trajectories and Millennial Landscape Change Daniel Elias Lawrence Submitted for the qualification of PhD in the Department of Archaeology, Durham University September 2012 2 Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................... 1 Title Page ............................................................................................................................................. 2 Contents .............................................................................................................................................. 3 List of Figures .................................................................................................................................... 11 List of Tables ..................................................................................................................................... 14 List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................................................... 15 Declaration ........................................................................................................................................ 16 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................................... 18 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 18 The Northern Fertile Crescent as a Regional Unit ........................................................................ 20 Physical Context ............................................................................................................................ 21 Climatic and Environmental Context ............................................................................................ 22 The Emergence of Complex Societies in the Northern Fertile Crescent....................................... 24 An Historical Reconstruction of the Later Early Bronze Age ......................................................... 27 Landscape Archaeology and Landscape Transformation Processes ............................................. 28 Scale and Agency .......................................................................................................................... 29 Useful Concepts for Regional Analysis in the Fertile Crescent ..................................................... 30 The Zone of Uncertainty ............................................................................................................... 32 Aims and Structure of the Study ................................................................................................... 33 Chapter 2: Landscape Transformation Processes in the Near East: the State of the Art ................. 36 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 36 Physical and Environmental Landscape Transformation Processes ............................................. 36 Landscapes of Survival and Destruction ....................................................................................... 38 Landscapes of Survival in the Lowlands ........................................................................................ 39 Landscapes of Survival in the Uplands .......................................................................................... 40 Structural Transformations and Signature Landscapes ................................................................ 41 3 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 42 Chapter 3: Methods .......................................................................................................................... 43 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 43 Survey Data ................................................................................................................................... 43 Technology and Survey Methods .................................................................................................. 47 Categorising the Surveys ............................................................................................................... 47 Site Location .................................................................................................................................. 50 The Problem of Georectification ................................................................................................... 50 The Impact of GPS ......................................................................................................................... 51 Geographical Precision ................................................................................................................. 52 Site Shape and Size ....................................................................................................................... 54 Text Descriptions .......................................................................................................................... 55 Cartographic Data ......................................................................................................................... 56 GPS and GIS ................................................................................................................................... 56 Boundary Certainty for Surveyed Sites ......................................................................................... 57 Remote Sensing Data .................................................................................................................... 59 Corona ..........................................................................................................................................