‘Città’, acropoli, e centri di potere nel Vicino Oriente protostorico: diverse traiettorie e modelli di sviluppo verso la centralizzazione politica ed economica

Abstract

The paper analyses different forms and degrees of urbanization in various Near Eastern regions in relation to the emergence
of hierarchical societies and social and economic ‘complexity’. Some reflections are proposed on the concept of
“city” and its definition, particularly looking at those features that can be recognised in the early formative phases. The
structural interconnections between various phenomena that have traditionally been linked to the birth of the so-called
‘urban’ societies in the archaeological and anthropological literature are examined and acknowledged, while, on the
other hand, the accent is put on the variability in the existence of real ‘cities’ in different societies and environmental
conditions. The author suggests that the ‘city’ is something more than just a sum of architectural, dimensional, social,
economic and cultural traits, it is rather an organic system of relations, which in turn depended on the structure of
society and environment potentials. Mesopotamia, South-Eastern Anatolia – with a particular reference to the site of
Arslantepe – and Western Anatolia are analysed and compared in this perspective, evidencing the substantial differences
between the imposing urban phenomenon developed in some Mesopotamian regions, the rise of Early State centres
without urbanization in SE Anatolia, and the formation of fortified towns and citadels, in the form of separated elite
areas somehow similar to ‘acropolis’, in Western Anatolia.