Peter Pfälzner 2012

“The Question of Desurbanisation versus Reurbanisation of the Syrian Jezirah in the Late Third and Early Second Millennium BC,“
in N. Laneri, P. Pfälzner, S. Valentini (eds.)
Looking North. The Socioeconomic Dynamics of Northern Mesopotamian and Anatolian Regions during the Late Third and Early Second Millennium BC
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 51-80.
Webpage

The paper aims at discussing and reinterpreting the paradigm of the collapse of cities in Syria at the end of the Third and the Early Second millennium BC., taking into account the peculiar situation of the site of Urkesh/Tell Mozan, in the light of the excavations and the geomagnetic prospections performed by the German team of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft (DOG), in 1998-2003, under the direction of P. Pfälzner and H. Dohmann-Pfälzner, University of Tübingen (within the framework of the project led by IIMAS – the International Institute for Mesopotamian Area Studies).

After a presentation of the “collapse theory”, proposed by H. Weiss, the author offers an overview on some data (related both to the structures and the pottery assemblage) hinting to a continuity in the population of the city of Urkesh/Tell Mozan, mostly for the extent of the Early Jazirah II period (2800-2600 BC) and the Middle Jazirah period (1550-1300 BC), showing clear “exceptions of the rule of collapsing cities” (p. 51). Thus, Urkesh/Tell Mozan reveals an “evidence for gradual, long-term developments”, offering “a model of endogenous reurbanisation, in which the dynamics of sociopolitical organization enabled the population to adapt to new situations and to avoid collapse” (p. 51).

Tell Mozan represents a clear case study to show how population can manage and face periods of crisis and internal troubles, by means of their capability of regeneration and resiliency. The author also discusses anew Peltenburg’s theory referring to four processes of collapse (namely, contraction, destruction, abandonment and dispersal), proposing an alternative model based on an “endogenous reurbanisation“ (p. 77) consisting of four interrelated steps (population, differentiation, integration and energy; see p. 76).

In conclusion, “Urkesh is an example of a city, which remained continuously settled from the Early to the Middle Bronze Age with the transition between the two periods happening as an internal process” (p. 58).