Tell Brak and Hamoukar: Urbanism in the north of Mesopotamia in the first half of the 4th millennium b.C.

Abstract

The archaeological excavations in Tell Brak and Hamoukar, in the Upper Mesopotamia, confirm that during the 5th millennium BC and, specially, throughout the first part of the fourth millennium BC, there were a significant urban development, before that in Lower Mesopotamia. This paper examines the implications that these discoveries have in the dispute about the origin of the city in the Ancient Near East.