Settlement Pattern And Social Evolution At Yarim Tepe Ⅰ

Yarim Tepe I is a Neolithic site in the northern part of Mesopotamia, it’s atypical site of Hassuna culture. It contains12successive cultural layers, and therehave published several maps of those layers. This provides us abundant materials totry to research about the development of its social structure by analyzing the changesof settlement pattern of different layers. This paper started from the perspective ofgeneral space arrangement and the distribution of specific facilities, analyzed thesituations of each layer and discussed the whole process, in order to explore theintrinsic reason of those changes. According to the “Field-Habitus Theory” ofBourdieu, and on the base of the dialectic relationship between architecture and socialactivities, this paper discussed the interaction between household and community. Byregarding the whole settlement as an objective field, then it’s more than a combinationof architecture but also a network of social relationships. Firstly, this paper analyzedthe materials from Yarim Tepe I carefully and introduced them specifically, numberedrelated remains and figured their locations and relations with surrounding remains.We have observed three trends from the data:(1) the range of public space haveshrinked;(2) the ovens and hearths have been moved from outdoor to indoor;(3) thedevelopment of storage facilities. All those trends represent the element of householdis growing while the community is not. Afterwards, this paper tried to explain thesechanges from the perspective of private property. Space can be regarded as somespecial property and the development of household is represented by the accumulationof private property. The changes happen in Yarim Tepe I reflect the growth of privatespace and the public space have been invaded. Facilities which once could be sharedhave been moved into indoors and the possibilities of share have decreased a lot. Atlast, this paper discussed the respond made by the community to the development ofhousehold, the community has chosen to adjust to those changes and pursue a newbalance through becoming more institutional. In other words, the accumulation ofprivate property within household and the intensification of public control are actuallytwo parallel and interrelated trends in the development process of this settlement.