Paper short abstract:

Sunlight has an important role in urbanism and can play a vital part in defining spatial boundaries, and the nature and use of urban space. The hot-arid climate of the Mesopotamian plain makes the analysis of sunlighting a powerful tool for understanding the early cities which developed here.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the impact of sunlighting on urban form, with particular focus on the cities of ancient Mesopotamia. Light plays a vital role in forming the character, functionality and meaning of urban space, and can act to define and enforce boundaries within the urban landscape. This is particularly true for hot-arid regions, such as the Mesopotamian plain, where the presence or absence of direct sunlight is amongst the most important factors in shaping the activities which take place in an area, and at what time these occur. At the city scale, settlements have the ability to create a favourable microclimate for their inhabitants through the manipulation of sunlighting. This can be achieved through city form; the street layout and the height and density of buildings, which act to selectively protect or expose buildings and exterior spaces from the effects of strong direct sunlight. In the cases examined here, city forms are well adapted to ameliorate climatic stress but are not produced through centralised planning; effective macro forms are instead produced by the requirements of basic lighting priorities applied at the household and neighbourhood level. The precise light environment produced by a settlement represents the result of choices and compromises made by the inhabitants which both reflect and form social practice. The strategic and culturally specific use of sunlight is demonstrated using the excavated 2nd millennium BC domestic housing from the city of Ur.