oa From ‘Secondary’ City to Primary Focus: A Historiographical Approach to the Urbanity of Seleucia in Pieria

This article examines the role of archive archaeology in shaping theoretical and conceptual approaches to urban archaeology, using Seleucia in Pieria as a case study. The authors challenge the perception of Seleucia as a ‘second’ city, which, while compounded by the lack of later archaeological focus, has its roots in early European travellers’ accounts of the site. By examining Seleucia, not as a suburb or outpost of Antioch, as it is often treated, but as a distinct urban context, this article seeks to further complicate hierarchical approaches to the study of urban centres. By exploring European travel writing from the Ottoman period, excavation reports from Mandate-era work, and modern evaluations, we highlight the role of historiography in examining sites with minimal previous analysis and in contemporary understandings of urbanity.