Interaction between Texts and Social Space in Mesopotamian Houses: A Movement and Sensory Approach.

Language and texts are considered by Mesopotamian scholars as the primary evidence in the reconstruction of past social relations and domestic space. Although the seminal work of Elizabeth Stone on Old Babylonian Nippur has broken new ground in household archaeology, residential patterns are often extrapolated by imposing textual or ethnographic evidence on the archaeological record (Charpin 1986; Van De Mieroop 1992, 1997, 1999; Stone 1996; Baker 2010). The extraordinary wealth of information provided by cuneiform archives excavated in urban settlements is not disputed, but problems may arise if an exclusive role is assigned to the written documentation. In the arena of Mesopotamian archaeology, despite a growing awareness that texts may be biased by the ideology and interests of the urban-based literati, and while space and material culture provide insights into the habitual actions of people (Matthews and Postgate 1994; Pfälzner 1996, 2001; Miglus 1996; Wattenmaker 1998; Zettler 2003; Rainville 2012), the importance of the material record is still minimized (Matthews 2003, pp. 155–82). Approaches that investigate the users’ perceptual experiences through the examination of multisensory evidence and movement from ground level are scarce but can complement our comprehension of ancient life. As shown by recent cognitive research, it is well known that the body and the five senses have a central position in evolution, particularly in such evolutionary processes as human imagination and language (Ruthrof 2000, pp. 39–41). This article applies such an approach to the unique evidence from second-millennium b.c. houses, and particularly the residential neighborhoods from Ur and Nippur. At these sites, the analysis can be grounded both on well-preserved house plans and family archives, thus offering an unprecedented opportunity to explore how verbal and nonverbal meanings interact in the archaeological past. Moreover, the veracity of claims made in ancient texts can be checked against the patterns of nonverbal meanings. Results from the analysis of Ur and Nippur can be applied to similar houses from other Mesopotamian sites that lack the combination of architectural and textual evidence.