Regional approaches to Mesopotamian archaeology: The contribution of archaeological surveys

This work synthesizes and critically evaluates the results of field surveys conducted over the last 20 years in southern (lower) and northern (upper) Mesopotamia, with emphasis placed on the increasing contribution of off-sit e and intensive surveys to regional analysis. During the Ubaid period the d ensity of settlement was probably higher in the rain-fed north than the irr igated south, and even during the phase of 3rd millennium BC urbanization, settlement densities in the north were probably equivalent to or even excee ded those in the south. Although trends in settlement were often synchronou s between north and south, there was also marked spatial variability in set tlement, with declines in one area being compensated by rise elsewhere. Par ticularly clear was the existence of major structural transformation from n ucleated centers during the Bronze Age towards dispersed patterns of rural settlement and more extensive lower towns in the Iron Age.