Andrew Theodore Creekmore (III) 2008

Kazane Höyük and Urban Life Histories in Third Millennium Upper Mesopotamia
PhD Dissertation (Field of Anthropology), Northwestern University, Evanston (Illinois); June 2008.
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“This dissertation addresses the problem of the development of cities in Upper Mesopotamia in the third millennium B.C.E. I investigate these cities through their settlement patterns and urban plans. I argue that these cities were not planned or organic, but exhibited degrees of planning. I treat my reconstruction of the developmental pathways of these cities as urban life histories. This approach examines how socio-political and economic processes are expressed in the social production and construction of urban space.

At the core of this dissertation is a case study of the 100 hectare city of Kazane Höyük, located in southeastern Turkey, which was the capital of a regional polity. My study of regional settlement patterns identifies the shape of Kazane’s polity, its growth and decline, and its relation to other nearby polities. I study the organization of space within Kazane through magnetometry analysis of several large areas. I study the use of space through excavations and analysis of artifacts and ecofacts. The results reveal a roughly 2 hectare area in the outer city that is characterized by elite and institutional architecture, including houses, storage facilities, and temple-related contexts, adjacent to a main street. My analysis of storage capacity indicates that this part of the city engaged in specialized administration and distribution of cereals and other products. Faunal remains show that this area also participated in a highly specialized system of animal management.

Finally, I compare Kazane’s urban plan and life history with that of several other third millennium cities in Upper Mesopotamia. I find that their plans are most in keeping with the theoretical perspective that these polities were heterogeneous societies in which even the most powerful ruling families were rarely able to control all socio-political or economic aspects of the polity. Instead, different factions in society concentrated on the specific socio-economic goals that best suited their needs. These strategies, and the tension between them, are expressed in the urban plan and the life history of the city” [Author’s abstract on pp. 3-4].

[Urkesh/Tell Mozan is specifically mentioned on pp. 33, 47-48, 96, 238, 239-240, 314, 315-316, 330, 339-342, 344, 360, 365, 430 (Fig. 5.7), and 515 (Fig. 7.2) [bolded pages are also reported in this page, as excerpts (see infra)]:

• 239-240: “Tell Mozan is located in the Upper Khabur Plain, just on the Syrian side of the Turkish-Syrian border. This 135 hectare site consists of an 18 hectare tell, occupied mostly in the third and second millennium, and a lower town dating to the third millennium, when the site became a large city (Buccellati and Kelly-Buccellati 1997: 60). Sealings with inscriptions found at the site identify it as Urkesh, well known from texts of the period. Excavations on the high mound uncovered a large structure, identified as a palace on the basis of sealings with royal inscriptions (Buccellati and Kelly-Buccellati 2000: 135). One part of this palace, sector AK, part A-B, is interpreted as a storage room on the basis of thousands of sealing fragments found there, which date the structure to about 2200 B.C.E. (Buccellati and Kelly-Buccellati 2003: 225).
       The storeroom walls of AK, part A-B, are 1m – 1.25m thick, bare (i.e. not plastered) mudbrick over relatively shallow stone foundations, and have an earthen floor (Figure 7.2) (Buccellati and Kelly-Buccellati 1995-96: 4-5). The storage area in part A has internal dimensions of approximately 14m X 12m, or 168m², divided into five square and two rectangular rooms. Despite the many sealings found in this area, there is apparently no direct evidence for what was stored, although the excavators note that the frequency of large vessels is higher in this sector than in other parts of the palace (Buccellati and Kelly-Buccellati 2000: 183). The other parts of the structure around the storage room include sector C, which is interpreted as an administrative area on the basis of tablets and installations found there, and sector D, interpreted as a kitchen because of a hearth and oven situated in the center of the main room.”
• 315-316: “Tell Mozan is a 135 hectare city located in the Upper Khabur Plain. The story of urbanization at Mozan is not as clear as at several other sites discussed here. There is evidence for settlement upon the 18 hectare, 25m high tell and in the lower city in the early third millennium (Figure 7.2). It is likely that the inner city wall and moat around the tell were built in the early third millenium. In the mid third millennium, the inner city moat was filled with debris, and the inner city wall likely went out of use as a new wall was built around the lower city. A small temple, temple BA, was built in the mid third millennium at the top of a long staircase upon an isolated platform on the highest part of the tell, where it looked down upon the rest of the settlement. In the later third millennium, a large palace (building AK) appeared on the western edge of the tell, with residential housing adjacent on one side (Figure 7.2). Also in this period, temple BA was substantially remodeled, although it may have no longer served as a temple. In the later third millennium, the palace was abandoned and used for dumping refuse and as the foundation for scattered residences. Additional residences and several burials with many bronze objects were also found on the tell. (All above information from Buccellati 1998, and Buccellati and Kelly-Buccellati 1997, 2000, 2001).
       Although the information from Mozan is fragmentary, it indicates that when the city expanded in the mid third millennium, the inner wall was abandoned and outer fortifications were added. Although the Mozan temple was small, it was located on a prominent platform on the highest spot in the city, was built in the earliest period of the city, and was rebuilt into the middle of the second millennium. In contrast, the third millennium palace was built at the edge of the tell and was abandoned by the end of the third millennium. Regarding Smith's scheme, the exposures at Mozan are not large enough to determine if buildings were coordinated to common features. Formality is evident in both the temple and palace plans, and temple BA's position at the highest point of the tell made it a highly visible focal point for the entire city. The ramped entrance to the temple faces the direction of the palace, but it is not clear if the palace entrance or other features are oriented towards the temple.”