Antiquity Vol 81:313, 2007 pp 601-616 - Corinne Castel and Edgar Peltenburg - Urbanism on the margins: third millennium BC Al-Rawda in the arid zone of Syria

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Volume: 81 Number: 313 Page: 601–616

Urbanism on the margins: third millennium BC Al-Rawda in the arid zone of Syria

Corinne Castel^¹ and Edgar Peltenburg^²

¹CNRS, Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, ‘Archéorient; Environnements et Sociétés de l'Orient ancien’, Université Lyon II, Lyon, France (Email: Corinne.Castel@mom.fr) ²Archaeology, School of Arts, Culture and the Environment, University of Edinburgh, Old High School, Edinburgh EH1 1LT, Scotland, UK (Email: e.peltenburg@ed.ac.uk)

The Fertile Crescent of the Ancient Near East is well known for its early cities in irrigated farming regions. Here the authors describe the recent discovery and investigation of a planned, circular, mid/late–third millennium BC city beyond the limit of rain-fed cultivation in the arid zone of inner Syria. Founded on the initiative of an unknown power and served by pastoralists and cultivators, the research at Al-Rawda demonstrates how environmental constraints were overcome in order to establish and sustain new centres in demanding regions at a time of maximum urbanisation.

Keywords: Early Bronze Age, Syria, arid zone, pastoralism, temples, urbanism