The Hippodamian Plan: a Mesopotamian Origin?

Authors

  • Laura Battini

Keywords:

Hippodamian Plan, Hippodamos, Mesopotamia

Abstract

Classical historians and archaeologists maintain the idea that hippodamian plan is an invention of the Greek coast of Turkey. Called ‘hippodamian’ in honour of the Greek architect Hippodamos of Miletus who is considered the inventor of this plan, or ‘miletusian’ in honour of the city of Hippodamos, or more seldom ‘checkered’ in reason of the play board’s lines, this plan presents orthogonal streets intersected between them to form regular – square or rectangular – blocks of houses. This plan would be so seen as a pure result of the Greek rationality who appears in the will of organizing town space rationally.

References

Battini, L. 1998. Opposition entre acropole et ville basse comme définition de la ville mésopotamienne. Akkadica 108: 5-29. Bruxelles.

Battini, L. 1999. L’espace domestique en Mésopotamie de la IIIe dynastie d’Ur à l’époque paléo-babylonienne (British Archaeological Reports International Series 767). Oxford: Archaeopress.

Battini, L. 2009. Le tissu urbain de Nuzi: nouvelles perspectives. Nuzi and the Hurrians SCCNH 18: 637-663. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.

Delougaz, P. et al. 1967 Private Houses and Graves in the Diyala Regio (OIP 88). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kepinsky, Ch. 1992. Haradum I: Une ville nouvelle sur le moyen-Euphrate (XVIIIe - XVIIe siècles av. J.-C.). Paris: ERC.

Strommenger, E. 1980. Habuba Kabira. Eine Stadt vor 5000 Jahren. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.

Wetzel, F. 1930. Die Stadmauern von Babylon (WVDOG 48). Leipzig: O. Zeller.

Published

25/10/2018

How to Cite

Battini, L. (2018). The Hippodamian Plan: a Mesopotamian Origin?. Ash-Sharq: Bulletin of the Ancient Near East – Archaeological, Historical and Societal Studies, 2(1), 94–102. Retrieved from https://archaeopresspublishing.com/ojs/index.php/ash-sharq/article/view/739

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