Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T00:20:01.879Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Legal and archaeological territories of the second millennium BC in northern Mesopotamia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Lauren Ristvet
Lauren Ristvet*
Affiliation:
*Department of History, Georgia State University, Atlanta GA 30302, USA (Email: lristvet@gsu.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Defining territories and settlement hierarchies is a primary goal of archaeological survey, involving the mapping of different-sized settlements on the ground. However it may not always work, owing to the particular land use or political strategies anciently employed. With the aid of cuneiform documents from Tell Leilan, Syria, the author shows how the settlements found by archaeological survey in northern Mesopotamia actually relate to a number of intersecting authorities, with a hold on major tracts of pasture as well as on arable land and cities. These insights from the Near East have important implications for the interpretation of surveyed settlement patterns everywhere.

Keywords

Mesopotamiasecond millennium BCsettlement rankingsurvey
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 82 , Issue 317 , September 2008 , pp. 585 - 599
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akkermans, P.M.M.G. & Weiss, H.. 1991. Tell Leilan 1987, Operation 3: a preliminary report on the Lower Town palace. Annales archéologiques Arabes Syriennes 37/38: 91–109.Google Scholar
Banning, E. B. 2002. Archaeological survey. New York: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charpin, D. 2003. La ‘toponymie en miroir’ dans le Proche-Orient amorrite. Revue d Assyriologie et d'Archéologie orientale 97: 3–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charpin, D. & Durand, J.-M.. 1986. Fils de Sim'al: les origines tribales des rois de Mari. Revue d Assyriologie et d Archeologie orientale 80: 141–83.Google Scholar
Charpin, D. & Ziegler, N.. 2003. Florilegium marianum V: Mari et le Proche-Orient a l'époque amorrite: essai d'histoire politique. Paris:Société pour l'Etude du Proche-Orient ancien.Google Scholar
Donbaz, V. 1988. Some neo-Assyrian contracts from Girnavaz and vicinity. State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 2: 3–30.Google Scholar
Durand, J.-M. 1986. Fragments rejoints pour une histoire Elamite, in Demeyer, L., Gasche, H. & Vallat, F. (ed.) Fragmenta Historiae Elamicae: melanges offerts a M. J. Steve: 111–28. Paris: Recherche sur les Civilisations.Google Scholar
Durand, J.-M. 1992. Unité etdiversitésà l'époque amorrite, in Charpin, D. & Joannes, F. (ed.) La circulation des biens, des personnes et des idees dans le Proche-Orient ancien: 97–128. Paris: Recherche sur les Civilisations.Google Scholar
Durand, J.-M. 2004. Peuplement et sociétés al'époque amorrite (I): les clans bensim'alites, in Nicolle, C. (ed.) Amurru 3: nomades et sedentaires dans le Proche-Orient ancien: 111–98. Paris: Recherche sur les Civilisations.Google Scholar
Eidem, J. 1991a. An Old Assyrian treaty from Tell Leilan, in Charpin, D. & Joannes, F. (ed.) Marchands, diplomates et empereurs: études sur la civilisation mésopotamienne offertes a Paul Garelli: 185–208. Paris: Recherche sur les Civilisations.Google Scholar
Eidem, J. 1991b. The Tell Leilan archives 1987. Revue d Assyriologie et d'Archéologie orientale 85: 109–35.Google Scholar
Eidem, J. 1991c. Tell Leilan tablets 1987: a preliminary report. Annales archéeologiques Arabes Syriennes 37/38: 110–27.Google Scholar
Eidem, J. 2000. Northern Jezira in the 18th century BC: aspects of geo-political patterns, in Rouault, O. & Wafler, M. (ed.) La Djéziré et l'Euphrate Syriens: de la protohistoire a lafinduif millénaire av. J.-C. Tendances dans l'interprétation historique des données nouvelles: 255–64. Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
Eidem, J. 2008. The royal archives from Tell Leilan 1: Old Babylonian letters and treaties from the Lower Town palace. London & New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Eidem, J. & Warburton, D.. 1996. In the land of Nagar: a survey around Tell Brak. Iraq 58: 51–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falconer, S. E. & Savage, S. H.. 1995. Heartlands and hinterlands—alternative trajectories of early urbanization in Mesopotamia and the southern Levant. American Antiquity 60: 37–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), United Nations. 1966. Etude des ressources en eaux souterraines de la Jezireh syrienne. Rome: Fonds spécial des Nations Unies; Organisation de l'alimentation et de l'agriculture des Nations Unies.Google Scholar
Fish, S. K. & Kowalewski, S. A.. 1990. The archaeology ofregions: the case for full-coverage survey. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Fleming, D. A. 2004. Democracy's Ancient Ancestors: Mari And Early Collective Governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guichard, M. 1994. Au Pays De La Dame De Nagar, In Charpin, D. & Durand, J.-M. (ed.) Florilegium Marianum II: recueil d ‘etudes a lamemoire de Maurice Birot: 235–72. Paris: Recherche sur les Civilisations.Google Scholar
Guichard, M. 1997. Zimri-Lim a Nagar. Mari: annales de recherches interdisciplinaires 8: 329–37.Google Scholar
Ismail, F. 1991. Altbabylonische Wirtschaftsurkunden aus Tall Leilan (Syrien). Unpublished PhD dissertation, Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tubingen.Google Scholar
Kantner, J. 2008. The archaeology of regions: from discrete analytical toolkit to ubiquitous spatial perspective. Journal of Archaeological Research 16: 37–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lafont, B. 1999. Le Proche-Orientà l'époque des rois amorrites: un monde sans frontières?, in Milano, L., De Martino, S., Fales, F. M. & Lanfranchi, G. B. (ed.) Landscapes: territories, frontiers and horizons in the ancient Near East. Papers presented to the XLIV rencontre Assyriologique internationale, Venezia, 7-11 July 1997: 49–55. Padova: Sargon.Google Scholar
Van Liere, W. 1964. Soil maps of Syria 1:50 000. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation/World Sugar Research Organisation.Google Scholar
Lyonnet, B. 1996. La prospection archeologique de la partie occidentale du Haut-Khabur (Syrie du N. E.): méethodes, reésultats et questions autour de l'occupation aux IIIe et IIemillenaires av. n. à., in Durand, J.-M. (ed.) Amurru: Mari, Ebla et les Hourrites, dix ans de travaux, 1 àee partie (Actes du colloque international, Paris, Mai 1993): 363–76. Paris: Recherche sur les Civilisations.Google Scholar
Lyonnet, B. 1997. Questions sur l'origine des porteurs de pots en Haute-Méesopotamie, du VIe au milieu du IIe millénaire, in Charpin, D. & Durand, J.-M. (ed.) Florilegium Marianum 3: recueil d'études a la memoire de Marie-Therese Barrellet: 133–44. Paris: Socieétée pour l'Etude du Proche-Orient ancien.Google Scholar
Meijer, D. 1990. An archaeological surface survey: some assumptions and ideas, in Eichler, S., Wafler, M. & Warburton, D. (ed.) Tall al-Hamidiya 2: 31–45. Freiburg: Universitaätsverlag Freiburg.Google Scholar
Montagne, R. 1932. Quelques aspects du peuplement de la Haute-Djezirée. Bulletin d Etudes Orientales de l'Institut Français de Damas II:53–66.Google Scholar
Ristvet, L. 2005. Settlement, economy and society in the Tell Leilan region, Syria, 3000-1000 BC. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Ristvet, L. & Weiss, H.. 2005. The Habur region in the late third and early second millennium BC, in Matthiae, P., Al-Maqdisi, M. & Orthmann, W. (ed.) Historyand archaeology of Syria Volume 1. Saarbruäcken: Saarbruäcker Druckerei & Verlag.Google Scholar
Rowton, M. B. 1974. Enclosed nomadism. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 17: 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savage, S. H. 1997. Assessing departures from log-normality in the rank-size rule. Journal of Archaeological Science 24: 233–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Talon, P. 1997. Old Babylonian Texts from Chagar Bazar. Bruxelles: Fondation Assyriologique Georges Dossin.Google Scholar
Velud, C. 2000. French mandate policy in the Syrian steppe, in Musallam, B.. (ed.) The transformation of nomadic society in the Arab East: 63–81. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Villard, P. 2001. Les administrateurs de l'epoque de Yasmah-Addu, in Durand, J.-M. & Charpin, D. (ed.) Amurru 2: Mari, Ebla et les Hourrites, dix ans de travaux: 9–140. Paris: Recherche sur les Civilisations.Google Scholar
Vincente, C. 1992. The 1987 Tell Leilan tablets dated by the Limmu of Habil-kinu. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Yale University.Google Scholar
Wafler, M. 1995. Kahat, Tâdum und Ilansura. Nouvelles assyriologiques breves et utilitaires 31: 25–7.Google Scholar
Wafler, M. 2000. Historische Geographie: theoretische Perspektiven, in Rouault, O. & Wafler, M. (ed.) La Djeézirée et l Euphrate Syriens: de la protohistoire a lafindulle millénaire av. J.-C. Tendances dans l interpréetation historique des donneées nouvelles: 317–37. Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
Wafler, M. 2003. Tellal-Hamidiya 3: zur historischen Geographie von Idamaras zur Zeit der Archive von Mari und Shubat-enil/Shehna (Orbis Biblius et Orientalis Series Archaeologica 21). Freiburg: Universitaätsverlag Freiburg.Google Scholar
Weiss, H. 1990. Third millennium urbanization: a perspective from Tell Leilan, in Eichler, S. & Wäfler, M. (ed.) Tell al-Hamidiya 2: 159–66. Freiburg: Universitaätsverlag Freiburg.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. 2002. The settlement transition of the second millennium BC in the western Khabur, in Al-Gailani Werr, L., Curtis, J., Martin, H., McMahon, A., Oates, J. & Reade, J. (ed.) Ofpots and plans: papers on the archaeologyand history of Mesopotamia and Syria, presented to David Oates in honour ofhis 75th birthday: 361–72. London: Nabu Publications.Google Scholar