The emergence of different social systems in Early Bronze Age Anatolia

Urbanisation versus centralisation

Dados Bibliográficos

ID10961237
AutoresÖzlem Çevik (0000-0001-5442-3744, Trakya University, autor correspondente)
Ano2007
Volume57
Páginas131-140
Data de publicação2007-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAnatolian Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0066-1546 • E-ISSN: 2048-0849
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0066154600008553
OpenAlexW2285526432
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas19
Referências citadas16

The second half of the third millennium BC has generally been accepted as the period in which urbanisation took place in Anatolia. Prominent sites of this period are described by scholars as ‘towns’, ‘town-like settlements’, ‘city-states’ and ‘proto-city-states’. The use of a variety of terms for the same type of site implies that there is no clear consensus on the conceptualisation of this transformational process. It is generally accepted that, from the Neolithic period onwards, Anatolia did not display a great degree of cultural homogeneity, both in terms of material culture and social systems. The topography of Anatolia is divided by deep river valleys and high mountain chains, and this may well have been a crucial factor in stimulating cultural regionalism. This article suggests that Early Bronze Age populations in Anatolia did not just experience the process of urbanisation, but also centralisation. Furthermore, it has been argued that certain areas of Anatolia at this time experienced neither urbanisation nor centralisation, but remained rural. This paper utilises archaeological evidence, such as settlement patterns, settlement layouts and types of material culture that have social implications, to explain these phenomena

Ancient history · Archaeology · Bronze Age · Centralisation · Economic geography · Economic growth · Ethnology · Geography · Human settlement · Period (music · Political science · Settlement (finance · Urbanization · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Ancient Near East History · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History