The Archaeology of Hybrid Material Culture

20. Architectural Spaces and Hybrid Practices in Ancient Northern Mesopotamia

466 20. Architectural Spaces and Hybrid Practices in Ancient Northern Mesopotamia Sevil Baltalı Tırpan Abstract: In this chapter, I investigate the sociocultural meanings of hybrid practices in ritual-architectural spaces from a northern Mesopotamian Late Chalcolithic period archaeological site. Northern Mesopotamian sites reveal widespread distribution during the fourth millennium b.c. of southern Urukstyle material cultural elements along with indigenous styles. Recent archaeological research on the problem has suggested that interregional interactions in the form of exchange relationships, movement of people, and establishment of trade colonies resulted in the blending of multiple cultural practices. Through architectural analysis, I particularly investigate the active role of individuals and groups in the creation of hybrid material culture. Diachronic and comparative analysis of architectural organization and use of space traces the transfer and recontextualization of different traditions and detects hybrid and nonhybrid practices that communicate both canonical (common architectural conventions that reflect larger sociocosmic principles) and indexical messages (the particular status of inhabitants). An eclectic concept of hybridity is applied in this study, which takes theoretical elements from the postcolonial concept of hybridity and the concepts of syncretism and cultural integration. Ancient Mesopotamia was a stage for cultural interactions between its various regions in the form of exchange relationships and movements of people. The long-term cultural interactions between southern and northern Mesopotamia during the fourth millennium b.c. (Late Chalcolithic period) resulted in the The Archaeology of Hybrid Material Culture, edited by Jeb J. Card. Center for Archaeological Investigations , Occasional Paper No. 39. © 2013 by the Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois University. All rights reserved. ISBN 978-0-8093-3314-1. Architectural Spaces and Hybrid Practices in Ancient Mesopotamia 467 flow and fusion of styles, ideas, techniques, images, and objects. Archaeological data from northern Mesopotamian sites during this period exhibit the spreading and blending of material cultural practices. The following research evaluates the theoretical and analytical utility of the concept of hybridity for understanding the mixture of practices in ritual-architectural spaces from a Late Chalcolithic archaeological site of northern Mesopotamia. The Late Chalcolithic period in northern Mesopotamia chronologically corresponds to the Uruk period of southern Mesopotamia, and Uruk-style material culture and stylistic elements, including hybrid ceramics and architecture, are found alongside indigenous styles at northern Mesopotamian sites at this time. Using contextual and diachronic approaches, I analyze the historical production of hybrid ritual-architectural practices at one of these northern Mesopotamian sites: Arslantepe, located in eastern Turkey (Figure 20-1). This chapter consists of four parts. The first part provides a brief sociocultural and political background for fourth-millennium b.c. Mesopotamia. The second part discusses the concept of hybridity that informed my analysis. The third part outlines the integrative architectural analysis that I developed to simultaneously analyze the canonical and indexical aspects of architecture, which provides information on the degree, nature, and meaning(s) of hybridization. The final part presents the architectural analysis of temples in comparison to houses from the northern Mesopotamian site of Arslantepe (Malatya, Turkey) in relationship to other sites in greater Mesopotamia. Fourth Millennium b.c. Mesopotamia During the Late Chalcolithic period (fourth millennium b.c.), most sites in northern Mesopotamia (eastern Turkey, Syria, northern Iraq, and western Iran) reveal the presence of southern Mesopotamian Uruk-style material cultural elements—such as architecture, ceramic, and glyptic styles—signaling increased cultural interaction between the two regions of Mesopotamia. This period (ca. 3800–3000 b.c.) is an important one in the social organizational history of greater Mesopotamia because the formation of centralized societies starts within it. Fourth millennium b.c. southern Mesopotamia displays the formation of state societies, urbanization, and literacy. The changes toward hierarchical organization and urbanization manifested through large cities, settlement hierarchy, monumental religious and public architecture, long-distance exchange, and largescale use of bureaucratic devices (Adams and Nissen 1972). A four-tier settlement hierarchy had its apex at the city of Uruk (ca. 100 ha in area), and the city name, Uruk, is used to define both this period in Mesopotamian history and the culture associated with the city (Charvat 2002; Nissen 1983; Postgate 1992). During the Uruk period, hierarchical organization seems to have been achieved through the institutionalized roles of the elites who were closely associated with religion (see Charvat 2002; Frangipane 2002a; Van de Mieroop 2007). Northern Mesopotamian societies during this period show sociopolitical landscapes that seem to have varied in sociopolitical and economic organization 468 S. B. T...