Two types of urban structure were typical of Ancient Near East: civic settlements enclosed with an outer Castle (hkatlsu) and those with a palace in the center.The paper at hand will strive to do the analysis of each type mentioned above. In light of the cuneiform sources from the various archives of Mari and Nuzi it could be concluded that hkaltsu was an element making part of a periphery organization and a supporting pillar of the royal center.

The palace in its turn secured the contact with the periphery. It placed moderate demands on the dependent regions. In case the strong requirements were made with regard to the periphery, the latter would secede from the center. It would start to seek for other sources of existence and the center would eventually lose the possibility of managing the whole system.