The Babylonian World (Routledge Worlds)

CHAPTER FIVE

URBAN FORM IN THE

FIRST MILLENNIUM BC



Heather D. Baker

INTRODUCTION

H

ere we present an overview of urban form in first millennium BCBabylonia.

Following a brief introduction to the sources and the state of the evidence, we

consider matters of urban layout and examine why the Babylonian cities took the

shape they did. In discussing the different elements of the city we will pay greater

attention to the less well studied features, such as the street network and the residential

areas, than to the monumental structures which have often been described in other

works. Many of the issues raised here will be dealt with in greater detail in a study

by the author (Baker forthcoming).

The sources

The evidence available for the study of urban form in first millennium BCBabylonia

encompasses both excavated remains and written sources. Archaeological excavation

has, of course, revealed the actual layout of a good many buildings, streets and other

features. The textual material, on the other hand, tends to offer a more indirect kind

of information, since the features referred to in the cuneiform documents very often

cannot be identified on the ground, usually because they have not yet been excavated;

alternatively, the details given in the tablets may not be sufficiently specific to secure

their identification. Nevertheless, the contemporary cuneiform documents constitute

an invaluable source on urban topography which, with careful study, can help to fill

in the gaps in the archaeological record and build up a more complete model of urban

form at this period. The tablets which are relevant for our purpose can be divided

into two groups: the literary/topographical tablets (edited with translations by George

1992 ) on the one hand, and the economic documents on the other (for an introduction

to these see Jursa 2005 ). The bulk of the latter group is made up of legal contracts

usually deriving from private family archives; administrative documents play a lesser

(though still significant) role. The economic documents are not evenly distributed

throughout the first millennium BC; rather, they peak in the sixth and early fifth

centuries, with another, smaller peak later on, in the Hellenistic period.