Modelling the built environment: Spatial patterns, siting techniques and layout works of non‐monumental architecture in Early Bronze Age Eastern Arabia

Abstract

Architectural vestiges constitute a major culturally related element and are key in defining archaeological complexes. Each and every of component of the built environment reflects a social dimension that constitutes its essence, and is a significant proxy for socioeconomic and cultural dynamics (cf. Azzarà, 2012: 432-433; in press). The analysis of the architectural space is essential to comprehend how settlements integrate with the wider cultural landscape, how housing integrates settlements, how communities cope with their needs at the level of the social unit and beyond, and ultimately how populations conceive their own socioeconomic organisation. Understanding how buildings were designed in the past is a core question when approaching architecture and its development, and a question that has long been the object of archaeological research (e.g. Arnold, 1991; Emery, 2007; Forest, 1991; Kubba, 1990). By conceiving architecture as active material culture, the analysis of architectural materiality and design reveals its social dimension both in the final