Hostname: page-component-669899f699-tpknm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-26T14:35:04.595Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

CENTRALIZED URBAN PLANNING AND ECONOMIC SEGREGATION: WEALTH INEQUALITY AT TELL ASMAR AND KHAFAJAH, MESOPOTAMIA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2025

Yoko Nishimura
Yoko Nishimura*
Affiliation:
Gettysburg College Gettysburg, PA 17325, USA [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article explores a possible correlation between centralised planning and economic homogenisation within residential neighbourhoods in ancient cities. Pre-planned and constructed urban living quarters may have contributed to the concentration of residents with similar levels of material wealth. Distinct groups of people may be identified among different districts, neighbourhoods or specific sections within a neighbourhood at the intra-site level. Several examples from different parts of the world are given to show this correlation. Also, a case study to test this correlation is drawn from the third millennium B.C. cities of Tell Asmar and Khafajah in central Mesopotamia. Excavations at these sites unearthed dozens of houses within residential neighbourhoods, with one of the occupation areas at Khafajah displaying a well-structured project dating to around 2400–2300 B.C. Utilizing the Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve, I observe that the houses constructed as part of the centralised project exhibit a slightly higher degree of economic similarity compared to those houses found at other levels within these sites.

التخطيط الحضري المركزي والفصل الاقتصادي: عدم المساواة في الثروة في تل أسمر وخفاجة، بلاد ما بين النهرين

يوكو نيشيمورا

يستكشف هذا المقال العلاقة المحتملة بين التخطيط المركزي والتجانس الاقتصادي داخل الأحياء السكنية في المدن القديمة. وربما تكون الأحياء السكنية الحضرية المخططة والمبنية مسبقًا قد ساهمت في تركيز السكان من ذوي المستويات المماثلة من الثروة المادية قرب بعضها. كما يمكن تحديد مجموعات متميزة من الأشخاص بين مناطق أو أحياء مختلفة أو أقسام محددة داخل الحي على مستوى الموقع الداخلي. ولقد تم تقديم عدة أمثلة من انحاء مختلفة من العالم لإظهار هذه العلاقة. وتمت دراسة حالة معينة مأخوذة من الألفية الثالثة قبل الميلاد لاختبار هذا الارتباط وذلك لمدينتي تل أسمر والخفاجة في وسط بلاد ما بين النهرين. فكشفت التنقيبات عن عشرات المنازل داخل الأحياء السكنية، وأظهرت إحدى المناطق السكنية في الخفاجة مشروعًا جيد التنظيم يعود تاريخه إلى حوالي 2400-2300 قبل الميلاد. وباستخدام معامل جيني Gini coefficient ومنحنى لورينز البياني Lorenz curve ، لاحظت أن المنازل التي تم بناؤها كجزء من المشروع المركزي تبدي درجة من التشابه الاقتصادي أعلى قليلاً من تلك الموجودة في مستويات السكن الأخرى داخل هذه المواقع.

Keywords

Socioeconomic clusteringcentralized planningwealth inequalityMesopotamiaTell AsmarKhafajah
Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , First View , pp. 1 - 22
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The British Institute for the Study of Iraq

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Adams, R. M. 1965. Land Behind Baghdad: A History of Settlement on the Diyala Plains. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Algaze, G., Dinckan, G., Hartenberger, B., Matney, T., Pournelle, J., Rainville, L., Rosen, S., Rupley, E., Schlee, D. and Vallet, R.. 2001. “Research at Titriş Höyük in Southeastern Turkey: The 1999 Season”. Anatolica 27: 23–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ames, K. 2007. “The Archaeology of Rank” in Bentley, R. A., Maschner, H. D. G. and Chippendale, C., eds. Handbook of Archaeological Theories. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, pp. 487–513.Google Scholar
Ames, K. and Grier, C.. 2020. “Inequality on the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America Measured by House-Floor Area and Storage Capacity.” Antiquity 94 (376): 1042–1059.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, J. E. and Ford, A.. 1980. “A Statistical Examination of Settlement Patterns at Tikal, Guatemala.” American Antiquity 45 (4): 713–726.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baadsgaard, A. 2008. Trends, Traditions, and Transformations: Fashions in Dress in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Basri, P. and Lawrence, D.. 2020. “Wealth Inequality in the Ancient Near East: A Preliminary Assessment Using Gini Coefficients and Household Size”. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 30 (4): 689–704.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogaard, A., Fochesato, M. and Bowles, S.. 2019. “The Farming-Inequality Nexus: New Insights from Ancient Western Eurasia”. Antiquity 93 (371): 1129–1143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cahill, N. 2002. Household and City Organization at Olynthus. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chase, D. Z. 1992. “Postclassic Maya Elites: Ethnohistory and Archaeology” in Chase, D. Z. and Chase, A. F., eds. Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological Assessment. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, pp. 118–134.Google Scholar
Chase, D. Z. and Chase, A. F.. 2004. “Archaeological Perspectives on Classic Maya Social Organization from Caracol, Belize”. Ancient Mesoamerica 15: 139–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chesson, M. S. and Goodale, N.. 2014. “Population Aggregation, Residential Storage and Socioeconomic Inequality at Early Bronze Age Numayra, Jordan”. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 35: 117–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clayton, S. 2015. “Teotihuacan: An Early Urban Center in Its Regional Context” in Yoffee, N., ed. The Cambridge World History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 279–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
David, R. 1997. “The Towns of the Royal Workmen” in The Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt: A Modern Investigation of Pharaoh’s Workforce. New York: Routledge, pp. 56–98.Google Scholar
Delougaz, P., Hill, H. D. and Lloyd, S.. 1967. Private Houses and Graves in the Diyala Region. Oriental Institute Publications 88. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dennehy, T. J., Stanley, B. W. and Smith, M. E.. 2016. “Social Inequality and Access to Services in Premodern Cities”. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 27: 143–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fochesato, M., Bogaard, A. and Bowles, S.. 2019. “Comparing Ancient Inequalities: The Challenges of Comparability, Bias and Precision”. Antiquity 93 (370): 853–869.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Folan, W. J., Hernandez, A. A., Kintz, E. R., Fletcher, L. A., Heredia, R. G., Hau, J. M. and Canche, N. C.. 2009. “Coba, Quintana Roo, Mexico: A Recent Analysis of the Social, Economic and Political Organization of a Major Maya Urban Center”. Ancient Mesoamerica 20: 59–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, M. 1982. “A Re-Evaluation of the Akkad Period in the Diyala Region on the Basis of Recent Excavations at Nippur and in the Hamrin”. American Journal of Archaeology 86 (4): 531–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, M. 2011. “The Diyala Sequence: Flawed at Birth” in Miglus, P. A. and Mühl, S., eds. Between the Cultures: XXXIXe The Central Tigris Region from the 3rd to the 1st Millenium BC. Heidelberger Studien zum Alten Orient 14. Heidelberg, Germany: Heidelberger Orientverlag, pp. 59–84.Google Scholar
Grossman, K. M. 2013. Early Bronze Age Hamoukar: A Settlement Biography. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Haviland, W. 1982. “Where the Rich Folks Lived: Deranging Factors in the Statistical Analysis of Tikal Settlement”. American Antiquity 47 (2): 427–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henrickson, E. F. 1981. “Non-Religious Residential Settlement Patterning in the Late Early Dynastic of the Diyala Region”. Mesopotamia 16: 43–113.Google Scholar
Henrickson, E. F. 1982. “Functional Analysis of Elite Residences in the Late Early Dynastic of the Diyala Region: House D and the Walled Quarter at Khafajah and the « Palace » at Tell Asmar”. Mesopotamia 17: 5–33.Google Scholar
Hutson, S. R. 2016. “The Spatial Experience of Inequality” in Hutson, S. R., The Ancient Urban Maya: Neighborhoods, Inequality, and Built Form. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, pp. 139–169.Google Scholar
Hutson, S. R. and Welch, J.. 2021. “Old Urbanites as New Urbanists? Mixing at an Ancient Maya City”. Journal of Urban History 47 (4): 812–831.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobson, T. 1982. Salinity and Irrigation Agriculture in Antiquity; Diyala Basin Archaeological Projects Report on Essential Results, 1957–58. Malibu, CA: Undena Publications.Google Scholar
Kemp, B. J. 1977. “The City of El-Amarna as a Source for the Study of Urban Society in Ancient Egypt”. World Archaeology 9 (2): 123–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kemp, B. J. 1987. “The Amarna Workmen’s Village in Retrospect”. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 73: 21–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kemp, B. J. 2012. The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Amarna and Its People. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
LaMotta, V. M. and Schiffer, M. B.. 1999. “Formation Processes of House Floor Assemblages” in Allison, P. M., ed. The Archaeology of Household Activities. London: Routledge, pp. 19–29.Google Scholar
Lancaster, J. and Matney, T.. 2023. “Digitally Constructing a Late Early Bronze Age Roof. Observations and Conclusions”. Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage 28: 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maaranen, N., Walker, J. and Sołtysiak, A.. 2022. “Societal Segmentation and Early Urbanism in Mesopotamia: Biological Distance Analysis from Tell Brak Using Dental Morphology”. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 67: 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manzanilla, L. R. 2009. “Corporate Life in Apartment and Barrio Compounds at Teotihuacan, Central Mexico: Craft Specialization, Hierarchy, and Ethnicity” in Manzanilla, L. R. and Chapdelaine, C., eds. Domestic Life in Prehispanic Capitals: A Study of Specialization, Hierarchy, and Ethnicity. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp. 21–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marchesi, G. and Marchetti, N.. 2011. Royal Statuary of Early Dynastic Mesopotamia. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Marcuse, P. 2002. “The Partitioned City in History” in Marcuse, P. and Van Kempen, R., eds. Of States and Cities: The Partitioning of Urban Space. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 11–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcuse, P. 2005. “Enclaves Yes, Ghettos No: Segregation and the State” in Varady, D. P., ed. Desegregating the City: Ghettos, Enclaves, and Inequality. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, pp. 15–20.Google Scholar
Margueron, J.-C. 2014. “About the First Town Planning Near East, 4th–1st Millennium” in P. Bieliński, M. Gawlikowski, R. Koliński, D. Ławecka, A. Sołtysiak and Z. Wygnańska, eds. Proceedings of the 8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 30 April–4 May 2012, University of Warsaw: Volume 1 Plenary Sessions, Township and Villages, High and Low – The Minor Arts for the Elite and for the Populace. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 335–367.Google Scholar
Martin, H. P., Moon, J. and Postgate, J. N.. 1985. Abu Salabikh Excavations Volume 2: Graves 1 to 99. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq.Google Scholar
Matney, T. 2000. “Urban Planning and the Archaeology of Society at Early Bronze Age Titriş Höyük” in Hopkins, D. C., ed. Across the Anatolian Plateau: Readings in the Archaeology of Ancient Turkey. Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, pp. 19–34.Google Scholar
Matney, T., Algaze, G., Dulik, M.C., Erdal, Ö.D., Erdal, Y.S., Gokcumen, O., Lorenz, J. and Mergen, H.. 2012. “Understanding Early Bronze Age Social Structure Through Mortuary Remains: A Pilot aDNA Study from Titriş Höyük, Southeastern Turkey”. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 22: 338–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMahon, A., Pittman, H., Al-Zawi, Z., Ashby, D., Burge, K., Goodman, R., Hammer, E. and Pizzimenti, S.. 2023. “Dense Urbanism and Economic Multi-Centrism at Third-Millennium BC Lagash”. Antiquity 97 (393): 596–615.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, J.-W., 2014. “The Round Cities: Foundation and Development. A View from Tell Chuera”. Syria supplement 2: 13–25.Google Scholar
Nichols, D. L. 2016. “Teotihuacan”. Journal of Archaeological Research 24: 1–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nishimura, Y. 2023. “Domestic Material Culture and Wealth Equality: Bronze Age Houses and Intramural Tombs at Titriş Höyük, Turkey”. Near Eastern Archaeology 86(3): 176–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novák, M. 2014. “The Phenomenon of Residential Cities and City Foundations in the Ancient Near East: Common Idea or Individual Cases?” in Osborne, J. F., ed. Approaching Monumentality in Archaeology. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, pp. 311–332.Google Scholar
Olson, J. M. and Smith, M. E.. 2016. “Material Expressions of Wealth and Social Class at Aztec-Period Sites in Morelos, Mexico”. Ancient Mesoamerica 27: 133–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porčić, M. 2019. “Evaluating Social Complexity and Inequality in the Balkans Between 6500 and 4200 BC”. Journal of Archaeological Research 27: 335–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reade, J. E. 1973. “Tell Taya (1972–73): Summary Report”. Iraq 35 (2): 155–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, I. G. 2008. “Insubstantial’ Residential Structures at Teotihuacan, Mexico”. Report to FAMSI, Coral Gables, FL. http://www.famsi.org/reports/06103/index.html.Google Scholar
Schulting, R. J. 1995. Mortuary Variability and Status Differentiation on the Columbia-Fraser Plateau. Burnaby, British Columbia: Archaeology Press, Simon Fraser University.Google Scholar
Smith, M. E. 1987. “Household Possessions and Wealth in Agrarian States: Implications for Archaeology”. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 6: 297–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M. E. 2007. “Form and Meaning in the Earliest Cities: A New Approach to Ancient Urban Planning”. Journal of Planning History 6 (1): 3–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M. E. 2010. “The Archaeological study of Neighborhoods and Districts in Ancient Cities”. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 29: 137–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M. E. 2011. “Urban Theory for Archaeologists”. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 18 (3): 167–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M. E. 2017. “The Teotihuacan Anomaly: The Historical Trajectory of Urban Design in Ancient Central Mexico”. Open Archaeology 3 (1): 175–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M. E., Dennehy, T., Kamp-Whittaker, A., Colon, E. and Harkness, R.. 2014. “Quantitative Measures of Wealth Inequality in Ancient Central Mexican Communities”. Advances in Archaeological Practice 2: 311–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snell, D. C. 1982. Ledgers and Prices: Early Mesopotamian Merchant Accounts. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Squitieri, A. and Altaweel, M.. 2022. “Empires and the Acceleration of Wealth Inequality in the Pre‑Islamic Near East: An Archaeological Approach”. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 14: 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, E. C. 2005. “Mesopotamian Cities and Countryside” in Snell, D. C., ed. A Companion to the Ancient Near East. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 141–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, E. C. 2013. “The Organization of a Sumerian Town: The Physical Remains of Ancient Social Systems” in Crawford, H., ed. The Sumerian World. New York: Routledge, pp. 156–178.Google Scholar
Stone, E. C. 2018. “The Trajectory of Society Inequality in Ancient Mesopotamia” in Kohler, T. A. and Smith, M. E., eds. Ten Thousand Years of Inequality: The Archaeology of Wealth Differences. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 230–261.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. M. and Ritzdorf, M., eds. 1997. Urban Planning and the African American Community: In the Shadows. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
Thompson, A. E., Feinman, G. M. and Prufer, K. M.. 2021. “Assessing Classic Maya Multi-Scalar Household Inequality in Southern Belize”. PLoS ONE 16 (3): 1–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Truex, L. A. 2019. “Households and Institutions: A Late 3rd Millennium BCE Neighborhood at Tell Asmar, Iraq (Ancient Eshnunna)”. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 30: 39–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van De Mieroop, M. 1997. The Ancient Mesopotamian City. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Kempen, R. 2002. “The Academic Formulations: Explanations for the Partitioned City” in Marcuse, P. and Van Kempen, R., eds. Of States and Cities: The Partitioning of Urban Space. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 35–56.Google Scholar
Van Kempen, R. 2007. “Divided Cities in the 22nd Century: Challenging the Importance of Globalisation”. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 22: 13–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolley, L. 1954. Excavations at Ur: A Record of Twelve Years’ Work. London: Ernest Benn Ltd.Google Scholar
Woolley, L. and Mallowan, M.. 1976. Ur Excavations, Vol. VII: The Old Babylonian Period. London: British Museum.Google Scholar
Wright, K. I. 2014. “Domestication and Inequality? Households, Corporate Groups and Food Processing Tools at Neolithic Çatalhöyük”. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 33: 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
York, A. M., Smith, M. E., Stanley, B. W., Stark, B. L., Novic, J., Harlan, S. L., Cowgill, G. L. and Boone, C. G.. 2011. “Ethnic and Class Clustering through the Ages: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Urban Neighbourhood Social Patterns”. Urban Studies 48 (11): 2399–2415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Nishimura supplementary material

Nishimura supplementary material
Download Nishimura supplementary material(File)
File 650.5 KB