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1882
Volume 9, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2736-2426
  • E-ISSN: 2736-2434

Abstract

Abstract

This paper defines place-making as a process in which individuals and communities create lived spaces through what I call ‘thickening’ — a time-tempered process of relating to landscapes and constantly making and remaking places through embodied experience. Focusing on the Hittite Empire, I first explore the temple district in Hattusa as an example of a thin place that failed to engage with an audience beyond a limited set of elites, ultimately resulting in ruination and alteration. On the other hand, the border city of Emar exemplifies thick places created through continuous acts of place-making by the entire community. Emar’s places survived the Hittite intervention in the city, and acted as means of resistance to imperial rule.

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2025-12-08

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