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Arts & Communication Constructing the image of ancient cities

if any. Moreover, the urban topography, morphology, and resolutions. Therefore, it is very important to understand
spatial relationships frame the discussion and the urban how the city is structured. Most ancient cities comprised
interpretations. Indirectly, they convey further important heterogeneous social groups varying from high political
information about the city and the main principles of its authority down to non-elite residents. The compositions
ancient inhabitants. of these cities were mostly characterized by bottom-up
Studying ancient cities is of high significance in modern and top-down structures. 13-15 The bottom-up approach is
times. In addition to transmitting the innovations in the most recognized by scholars, such as Monica Smith,
ancient people’s political and social systems to modern and who believes that the city is socially constructed based on
future generations, it reveals important information about households, neighborhoods, and urban interactions. She
the developments which modern cities and communities emphasizes that the interactions between urban elements
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have undergone. Many scholars, such as Max Weber, guarantee the long survival of the city. In cities, Smith
Paul Wheatley, and Richard Gabriel Fox, agree with argues, people are subject to different types of evolution as
Gordon Childe that the concept of the city originated in a result of exchanging information among different social
urban evolution and continuous transformations in the groups. Furthermore, it is always possible, at the city scale,
socioeconomic structure. In his Urban Revolution Theory, to create a new social, architectural, and urban identity
Childe insists on the importance of urban revolutionary based on the evolutionary level that people achieve.
aspects in the economic and social relationships between Therefore, supported by the above-mentioned theoretical
ancient people. That, he believes, led to a more complex notions and the understanding of the image of the ancient
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socioeconomic structure and, in turn, promoted both their cities, this paper aims to discuss the urban and landscape
urban environment and its organized structure, the city. aspects of the city of Ugarit, 17,18 an archeological site that was
He adds that the complexity of urban structure reflects the the capital city of a Bronze Age Canaanite civilization in the
degree of evolution that characterized ancient people’s lives. Northwest region of contemporary Syria (Figures 1 and 2).
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Fox also attributes the appearance of the city to political The paper intends to present these landscape and urban
and economic developments. He asserts that the concept of aspects within a coherent framework in an attempt to
the city started when ancient people organized themselves analyze and showcase how cultural, social, political, and
within a state. Thus, Childe creates a direct link between the economic aspects have shaped the city’s urban structure and
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city structure and the level of the political or administrative its urban and landscape development and synthesis.
system. Consequently, many ancient cities came to light as The article uses a mixed qualitative methodological
the end result of a long-time transformation process, and approach to develop its objectives. First, the research uses
their variation in form is ultimately regarded to be the result a literature analysis method to build a proper theoretical
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of the complexity of their society. To facilitate defining the framework through which the ancient city will be read
city, some scholars have identified specific elements that and its urban and landscape aspects will be interpreted.
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grant city status to the ancient urban agglomeration: social This framework aims to provide a comprehensive
classification, writing system, public and monumental understanding of the origin, structure, and evolution of
structure, large and dense population, and advanced ancient cities. Furthermore, it will shed light on meanings
crafting and industry, actually similar to the definition of as perceived by the cities’ inhabitants as well as through
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the concept of civilization and state. Furthermore, Colin modern approaches. The concept of the “Image of the City,”
Renfrew and Spiro Kostof suggested additional features that a significant one for the study of urban environments, will
characterize a city, such as the presence of diverse types of be used too. The work progresses in the city of Ugarit using
public building, social hierarchy, monumental and sacred architectural research methods to develop an in-depth
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centrality, cityscape (morphology), and organizational analysis of the architectural and urban dimensions of the
and urban features (streets, squares, plazas, and city walls) excavated part of the site. Using the document analysis
which promote an urban agglomeration to a higher level, research method, archeological reports and discovered
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the city. 10,11 Renfrew, in particular, emphasized that the large writings in the city of Ugarit will be analyzed to highlight
size of any urban agglomeration does not necessarily form how the political and cultural system, as well as social,
a city. He proposes Çatalhöyük in Turkey as an example: religious, cultural, and economic dimensions of Ugaritic
although the site is big and has an administrative center, people, had shaped the city structure and its urban
the absence of the monumental center is obvious and, thus, composition and complexity. Considering that the site is
Çatalhöyük is merely an overgrown village. 12 still partly excavated (Figure 2) and the excavated urban

A city is created and structured by its people who intend areas of the city are still fragmented, the article contributes
to express political, economic, and social views in spatial to establishing interpretations of Ugarit’s urban tangible

Volume 3 Issue 2 (2025) 2 doi: 10.36922/ac.4239