Thank you for showing the so-called hairy backside of envisioning ancient housing, particularly in a mud-brick context. Nice that you and your friends can openly disagree about essential considerations and yet remain friends!
I love this topic of experimental archaeology. Reconstructions of excavated structures is very neat to me; there’s a museum nearby me called Sunwatch where a couple decades ago they built several different interpretations of fort ancient housing. I think the idea is once they fully rot away they’ll be excavated
This is really very interesting stuff - it makes you realise just how much you don't know. and the fact that stairs don't necessarily mean a 2-storey building just wouldn't occur to me.
The reed lean-tos on the roof look very like the structures common on rooves in Spain and other Mediterranean countries. You will often find vegetables or fruit drying there, strung up in the shade but open to the wind. Though those are usually made of wood.
Yes, such structures are pretty common especially in hotter climates. Although strong wood was not common in ancient Mesopotamia, reeds are very good for making light structures like this.
After watching your previous video I was looking for information on what a city would look like reconstructed and this video exactly answers my curiosity. :)
I wonder how similar these ancient neighborhoods were to the old neighborhoods that can be found in modern Iraqi towns because they share a couple of features from narrow alleyways to open courtyard houses though the modern houses had an interesting feature which is basement level rooms that were used for sleeping because they provided better insulation so I wonder if there's any evidence for such design in the residential area of Ur?
I think they were similar to the oldest neighborhoods of more modern places in Iraq, but we have to be careful in making direct comparisons. Woolley felt the ancient was very similar to the more modern of his day -- his type-house 'No. 3 Gay Street' reconstruction was partly based on an old townhouse he had stayed at in Baghdad. We don't have evidence of basement level rooms, but we do find that the floor of a house can be a bit below street level in some cases. Most interpret this as evidence of street level rise due to packing down of mud and trash their, while the floor of the house was constantly cleaned out to stay lower. The depth from street is usually no more than about 50cm, so this wouldn't result in much insulation, though.
@@artifactuallyspeaking that's exactly what I meant as these neighborhoods very much resemble the oldest neighborhoods in the modern iraqi towns some of which are still present to this day! Thank you very much for the amazing video and for answering my question.
Most today see the Jemdet Nasr as a transition between Uruk and Early Dynastic and possibly not a true time period across Mesopotamia. The Uruk period is heavily researched for the development of state level society leading to the first cities. Guillermo Algaze has done a lot of work on it and so anything he has written, such as The Uruk World System (University of Chicago Press) is really good. Harriet Crawford's edited book Sumer and the Sumerians (Cambridge University Press) covers some of this period, and of course Mario Liverani's book Uruk, the First City (Equinox Publishing) should be of interest.
Here's a few studies, though most are academic books and may not be easy to find: Brusasco, Paolo 2004 “Theory and Practice in the Study of Mesopotamian Domestic Space” Antiquity 78:142-57 Miglus, Peter 1999 Städtische Wohnarchitektur in Babylonien und Assyrien Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern Stone, Elizabeth 1987 Nippur Neighborhoods Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization No. 44 Chicago: Oriental Institute Van de Mieroop, Marc 1999 The Ancient Mesopotamian City Oxford: Oxford University Press
Am I correct in assuming that a household would have to be "well-to-do" to possess a house with a courtyard? What type of house would lesser folk have, and how would they us it?
Most houses had courtyards. With no windows except small ones near the roof, you needed a central courtyard to circulate air and light. Houses were typically crowded against one another and streets were narrow, so a larger space in the middle of the house was needed, and they worked on the roof for space as well. Larger houses had rooms all the way around the courtyard, smaller had them only partially around. There were a few structures that had no courtyards in Area AH. Woolley identified these as commercial space or storage space.
Great video. Can you recommend any CAD programs for walkthroughs or rendering? I work with microstation program and are interested in what’s more useful for reconstructions of these albeit opinionated visualisations
I used to connect CAD models with 3D Studio Max, but now I usually rough something out in Sketchup. For more detailed walkthroughs, Unity can do most things and more and more people are using things like Unreal Engine to make complete environments. Of course we also use photogrammetry now to make models of what's really there (even our trenches) by taking many photos, often with a drone, and then putting them in Metashape Pro or the like.
@@artifactuallyspeaking thank you so much for your reply. Was thinking the unreal engine, but this other information is invaluable to me. Highly appreciated thanks
It can, if it's thick enough. The houses tend to have 60-80cm thick walls and these might support a second floor, but some say at least a meter of thickness is necessary. There are mud brick buildings created in more modern times that sustain two stories, so it is possible, just not overly common.
Take a look at the architecture of Yemen if you want to see what can be done with mudbrick. If you’re not already familiar with the tower houses of Shibam, they’ll blow your mind. In fact, I used to live in an eight storey mudbrick house there. And though that’s extreme, two storeys are certainly not uncommon in those parts of the world with mudbrick architecture traditions.
Yes, they did have true arches. Woolley found collapsed or covered-over brick arches in several doorways and often fought with Classicists who wouldn't believe that the arch existed before Classical times. The need for doors in mudbrick in a region where there were few materials for strong, straight lintels likely drove the invention because the opening would collapse unless there was a way to relieve the stress from above.
We don't find much indication at Ur of internal supports to walls, but in areas where there is more wood, there are sometimes indication of wooden supports imbedded in mud walls. We do find reed mats between courses of brickwork as well as bitumen mortar to help keep things straight, level, and together.
Wouldn't there be some sign of second floors somewhere? Like pieces of flooring and 2nd story walls falling down somewhere (if most were 2 stories)? Was a roof made exactly like a floor? No incline? I would think that they wouldn't want rain pooling on top of their mud bricks, either.
Yes, but sometimes the evidence is hard to interpret. We do find fallen bricks and things possibly from second stories, but they could have come from high walls and roofs instead. The roof falls in first (and we often have identifiable roof fall near the floor), then the walls start to collapse on top of that. So whether or not there was a second story, the evidence would be similar. Of course, there should be a second layer of roof fall if a two story building collapsed in a heap quickly, but it is usually a long period of decay that results in the upper roof falling onto the floor of the second story, then that falling down to the lower floor, and finally the walls falling in. Roofs seem to have been flat, though there may have been a kind of rain channel. Woolley thought there were drain runnels on the roofs directing water toward the courtyard so that it would flow into the drain at the center of the court.
Thank you for showing the so-called hairy backside of envisioning ancient housing, particularly in a mud-brick context. Nice that you and your friends can openly disagree about essential considerations and yet remain friends!
I love this topic of experimental archaeology. Reconstructions of excavated structures is very neat to me; there’s a museum nearby me called Sunwatch where a couple decades ago they built several different interpretations of fort ancient housing. I think the idea is once they fully rot away they’ll be excavated
I like that. Especially the idea of making different versions because that will give better comparisons when the remains are observed later.
I really loved the renderings. It's nice to see a depiction based on what we know that makes it clear that there're things we don't know.
This is really very interesting stuff - it makes you realise just how much you don't know. and the fact that stairs don't necessarily mean a 2-storey building just wouldn't occur to me.
I am grateful for your openminded consideration of things we can only know a little about.
The reed lean-tos on the roof look very like the structures common on rooves in Spain and other Mediterranean countries. You will often find vegetables or fruit drying there, strung up in the shade but open to the wind. Though those are usually made of wood.
Yes, such structures are pretty common especially in hotter climates. Although strong wood was not common in ancient Mesopotamia, reeds are very good for making light structures like this.
After watching your previous video I was looking for information on what a city would look like reconstructed and this video exactly answers my curiosity. :)
Awesome
Very well done. I'm really enjoying your work. Thank you for your time
amazing videos, thank you for sharing these things, very interesting!
Thank you! Very convincing
Really enjoy and appreciate your content!
Amazing video, thank you. Now I will have to re-model some stuff in our videos!
I wonder how similar these ancient neighborhoods were to the old neighborhoods that can be found in modern Iraqi towns because they share a couple of features from narrow alleyways to open courtyard houses though the modern houses had an interesting feature which is basement level rooms that were used for sleeping because they provided better insulation so I wonder if there's any evidence for such design in the residential area of Ur?
I think they were similar to the oldest neighborhoods of more modern places in Iraq, but we have to be careful in making direct comparisons. Woolley felt the ancient was very similar to the more modern of his day -- his type-house 'No. 3 Gay Street' reconstruction was partly based on an old townhouse he had stayed at in Baghdad.
We don't have evidence of basement level rooms, but we do find that the floor of a house can be a bit below street level in some cases. Most interpret this as evidence of street level rise due to packing down of mud and trash their, while the floor of the house was constantly cleaned out to stay lower. The depth from street is usually no more than about 50cm, so this wouldn't result in much insulation, though.
@@artifactuallyspeaking that's exactly what I meant as these neighborhoods very much resemble the oldest neighborhoods in the modern iraqi towns some of which are still present to this day!
Thank you very much for the amazing video and for answering my question.
Thanks for the video!
Could you recommend any books on the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods?
Most today see the Jemdet Nasr as a transition between Uruk and Early Dynastic and possibly not a true time period across Mesopotamia. The Uruk period is heavily researched for the development of state level society leading to the first cities. Guillermo Algaze has done a lot of work on it and so anything he has written, such as The Uruk World System (University of Chicago Press) is really good. Harriet Crawford's edited book Sumer and the Sumerians (Cambridge University Press) covers some of this period, and of course Mario Liverani's book Uruk, the First City (Equinox Publishing) should be of interest.
@@artifactuallyspeaking Thankyou for your advice!
Can you recommend any articles on the topic?
Here's a few studies, though most are academic books and may not be easy to find:
Brusasco, Paolo 2004
“Theory and Practice in the Study of Mesopotamian Domestic Space”
Antiquity 78:142-57
Miglus, Peter 1999
Städtische Wohnarchitektur in Babylonien und Assyrien
Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern
Stone, Elizabeth 1987
Nippur Neighborhoods
Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization No. 44
Chicago: Oriental Institute
Van de Mieroop, Marc 1999
The Ancient Mesopotamian City
Oxford: Oxford University Press
@@artifactuallyspeaking Thanks a lot, I appreciate that!
Great video. 👍🏻
Am I correct in assuming that a household would have to be "well-to-do" to possess a house with a courtyard? What type of house would lesser folk have, and how would they us it?
Most houses had courtyards. With no windows except small ones near the roof, you needed a central courtyard to circulate air and light. Houses were typically crowded against one another and streets were narrow, so a larger space in the middle of the house was needed, and they worked on the roof for space as well.
Larger houses had rooms all the way around the courtyard, smaller had them only partially around. There were a few structures that had no courtyards in Area AH. Woolley identified these as commercial space or storage space.
Great video. Can you recommend any CAD programs for walkthroughs or rendering? I work with microstation program and are interested in what’s more useful for reconstructions of these albeit opinionated visualisations
I used to connect CAD models with 3D Studio Max, but now I usually rough something out in Sketchup. For more detailed walkthroughs, Unity can do most things and more and more people are using things like Unreal Engine to make complete environments.
Of course we also use photogrammetry now to make models of what's really there (even our trenches) by taking many photos, often with a drone, and then putting them in Metashape Pro or the like.
@@artifactuallyspeaking thank you so much for your reply. Was thinking the unreal engine, but this other information is invaluable to me. Highly appreciated thanks
Intuitively (not a specialist, of course) I don't think there could be second floor. Can mud bricks even support second floor?
It can, if it's thick enough. The houses tend to have 60-80cm thick walls and these might support a second floor, but some say at least a meter of thickness is necessary. There are mud brick buildings created in more modern times that sustain two stories, so it is possible, just not overly common.
Take a look at the architecture of Yemen if you want to see what can be done with mudbrick. If you’re not already familiar with the tower houses of Shibam, they’ll blow your mind. In fact, I used to live in an eight storey mudbrick house there. And though that’s extreme, two storeys are certainly not uncommon in those parts of the world with mudbrick architecture traditions.
@@lugal_pcz Eight?.. Good Lord!
you had a lot of arched doorways in the drawings. did the sumerians have true arches 4000 years ago?
Yes, they did have true arches. Woolley found collapsed or covered-over brick arches in several doorways and often fought with Classicists who wouldn't believe that the arch existed before Classical times. The need for doors in mudbrick in a region where there were few materials for strong, straight lintels likely drove the invention because the opening would collapse unless there was a way to relieve the stress from above.
Modern buildings use rebar to add structual integrity. Is there any evidence of similar techniques anywhere?
We don't find much indication at Ur of internal supports to walls, but in areas where there is more wood, there are sometimes indication of wooden supports imbedded in mud walls. We do find reed mats between courses of brickwork as well as bitumen mortar to help keep things straight, level, and together.
Wouldn't there be some sign of second floors somewhere? Like pieces of flooring and 2nd story walls falling down somewhere (if most were 2 stories)? Was a roof made exactly like a floor? No incline? I would think that they wouldn't want rain pooling on top of their mud bricks, either.
Yes, but sometimes the evidence is hard to interpret. We do find fallen bricks and things possibly from second stories, but they could have come from high walls and roofs instead. The roof falls in first (and we often have identifiable roof fall near the floor), then the walls start to collapse on top of that. So whether or not there was a second story, the evidence would be similar. Of course, there should be a second layer of roof fall if a two story building collapsed in a heap quickly, but it is usually a long period of decay that results in the upper roof falling onto the floor of the second story, then that falling down to the lower floor, and finally the walls falling in.
Roofs seem to have been flat, though there may have been a kind of rain channel. Woolley thought there were drain runnels on the roofs directing water toward the courtyard so that it would flow into the drain at the center of the court.
@@artifactuallyspeaking Thanks for answering!