Articles on 'exactly' how past civilizations did 'stuff' are always valuable to me ... they get to more than speculative generalities. And they're not easy to find. I stumbled over this one.
I've always wondered how such small 'cities' could support 'kings' (complete with armies, chariots, etc). How many surrounding villages did you need? How did you train an 'army'? Jerusalem or Samaria are good examples ... Ugarit being abandoned, with texts was a good research parallel.
The article (Academic and Master journal packages):
Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research #286 (May 1992): https://ref.ly/logosres/basor286?ref=Page.p+19
The article describes the surrounding road management, water planning, house construction, and so forth. What is interesting is professional 'house builders', and construction of groupings of buildings, the demands for lumber support (and expense), etc.
Excellent 'thinking' article.
Separately: If oddly enough, you also are curious about Chaco (a similar building mystery in north-central New Mexico), Ugarit offers a strange parallel during the same period.
