Early Urban Development in the Near East

摘要

We present here the results of a study ofrnthe evolution of urbanism at the site ofrnTell Brak, in northeastern Syria. Wernapproached demographic scale, density, andrnpatterns of growth by using the spatial distributionrnof chronologically sensitive surface artifacts as a proxy indicator for the distribution and density of ancient settlement (1). Our results show Brak's urban origins to be contemporary with the appearance of cities in southern Iraq, the region generally considered to be the birthplace of Mesopotamian cities; hence, the emergence of urbanism in the Near East was a regionally multicentric process (2). The spatial patterning of its growth, however, diverges from the southern Mesopotamian model, with implications for underlying sociopolitical processes.