Cities are different animals: A zooarchaeology of urbanism at Hamoukar, Syria, 5th–3rd millennia BC

The advent of urbanism marks a significant shift in human lifeways, and comparative study has shown that the world has seen many different forms of urbanism. We argue that animals were a fundamental part of what made cities different from other forms of settlement and different from one another. In this article, we provide the first long-term, diachronic analysis of a Mesopotamian city that foregrounds the evolving role of animals. We argue that the site of Hamoukar in northeastern Syria is best viewed as a succession of three cities, each distinctive in its own way and each dependent on animals in its own fashion. To make this argument, we summarize urban dynamics at Hamoukar from the late 5th through mid-late 3rd millennia BC, with a particular focus on faunal remains. We show that intensive and potentially long-distance caprine management was key to the first city; a more mixed animal economy, with caprines potentially harvested for wool, defined the second city; and pigs dominated the meat supply of the third city. Analysis of changing patterns in species composition, caprine survivorship, secondary products exploitation, and biometrics demonstrates that the three different cities were––both literally and metaphorically––different animals. • Cities are multispecies spaces and centers animals in urban economy. • A diachronic zooarchaeological analysis from an early Mesopotamian city. • Analyses of species composition, caprine survivorship, and biometrics. • Changes in animal economy define Hamoukar as three successive cities.