Neighborhoods. Residential areas of cities were crowded with houses, workshops, and shrines. Rich and poor people lived in the same neighborhoods. The house of an important official could be next to the house of a poor worker or a workshop for a craftsman such as a copper-bronze smelter. Residential areas were connected by a network of streets and alleys. Streets were uneven because, as houses were rebuilt on previous foundations, parts of the streets had to be raised to reach their doors. Clay models of houses have been recovered from several sites throughout the ancient Near East, where they may have served as votive offerings; no one style of house can be considered typical.

Materials. Ancient Mesopotamian houses were constructed from materials still used in Iraq today. Walls were made of sun-dried mud bricks, whose shapes and sizes changed over time. Clay...