The Small Finds. Excavations were carried out at the Median and Parthian site at Tepe Nush-i Jan in Western Iran in the 60s and 70s.

The iconic minaret of Jam stands in a remote mountain valley in central Afghanistan, the finest surviving monument of the enigmatic 12th-century Ghurid dynasty. The rediscovery of the minaret half a century ago prompted renewed interest in the Ghurids, and this has intensified since their summer capital at Jam became Afghanistans first World Heritage site in 2002.Two seasons of archaeological fieldwork at Jam, the detailed analysis of satellite images and the innovative use of Google Earth have resulted in a wealth of new information about known Ghurid sites, and the identification of hundreds of previously undocumented archaeological sites across Afghanistan.Drawing inspiration from the Annales school and the concept of an archipelagic landscape, David Thomas has used this data to reassess the Ghurids and generate a more nuanced understanding of this significant Early Islamic polity.Some supplementary appendices for this title can be found at https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/17842

Dura-Europos is one of Syria's most important archaeological sites. Situated on the edge of the Euphrates river, it was the subject of extensive excavations in the 1920s and 30s by teams from Yale University and the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Controlled variously by Seleucid, Parthian, and Roman powers, the site was one of impressive religious and linguistic diversity: it was home to at least nineteen sanctuaries, amongst them a Synagogue and a Christian building, and many languages, including Greek, Latin, Persian, Palmyrene, and Hebrew which were excavated on inscriptions, parchments, and graffiti. Based on the author's work excavating at the site with the Mission Franco-Syrienne d'Europos-Doura and extensive archival research, this book provides an overview of the site and its history, and traces the story of its investigation from archaeological discovery to contemporary destruction.

Afghanistan is at the cultural crossroads of Asia, where the great civilisations of Mesopotamia and Iran, South Asia and Central Asia overlapped and sometimes conflicted. Its landscape embraces environments from the high mountains of the Hindu Kush to the Oxus basin and the great deserts of Sistan; trade routes from China to the Mediterranean, and from Central Asia to the Arabian Sea cross the country. It has seen the development of early agriculture, the spread of Bronze Age civilisation of Central Asia, the conquests of the Persians and of Alexander of Macedon, the spread of Buddhism and then Islam, and the empires of the Kushans, Ghaznavids, Ghurids and Timurids centred there, with ramifications across southern Asia. All of which has resulted in some of the most important, diverse and spectacular historical remains in Asia. First published in 1978, this was the first book in English to provide a complete survey of the immensely rich archaeological remains of Afghanistan. The contributors, all acknowledged scholars in their field, have worked in the country, on projects ranging from prehistoric surveys to the study of Islamic architecture. It has now been thoroughly revised and brought up to date to incorporate the latest discoveries and research.

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's open access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Archaeological discoveries in Jerusalem capture worldwide attention in various media outlets. The continuing quest to discover the city's physical remains is not simply an attempt to define Israel's past or determine its historical legacy. In the context of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is also an attempt to legitimate-or undercut-national claims to sovereignty. Bridging the ever-widening gap between popular coverage and specialized literature, Finding Jerusalem provides a comprehensive tour of the politics of archaeology in the city. Through a wide-ranging discussion of the material evidence, Katharina Galor illuminates the complex legal contexts and ethical precepts that underlie archaeological activity and the discourse of "cultural heritage" in Jerusalem. This book addresses the pressing need to disentangle historical documentation from the religious aspirations, social ambitions, and political commitments that shape its interpretation.

James Mellaart was a pioneering archaeologist who made some of the greatest discoveries about Turkey's prehistoric past, changing our understanding of the late stone age forever. His excavation of the huge Neolithic mound site of Catalhoeyuk, now a World Heritage Site, brought revolutionary evidence of a complex prehistoric town, revealing previously undreamt of art and culture, and making him famous. However, there was far more to the man than his archaeology - his troubled childhood, fierce identity, love for Turkish culture, as well as the controversies by which he was dogged, meant that his life was filled with adventure and exoticism. This book delves into the life of James Mellaart and his wife Arlette, their family histories and historical Istanbul, the romantic backdrop to Mellaart's ground-breaking work. His son Alan explores in detail how the lives of his parents and their respective families unfolded, set against the social whirl of a summer palace on the Bosphorus. Mellaart's archaeological discoveries and the excitement of excavation are vividly explained in first-hand accounts by those who were there at the time. Historical reports, eyewitness accounts from those who knew him and assessments of the impact of both Mellaart's work and character by leading academics show the undoubted importance of his contribution to the archaeology of Turkey and the wider Near East. Richly illustrated in colour throughout, here for the first time the reader encounters previously unseen archive materials, including Mellaart's personal notebooks and accounts, giving new perspective on one of the greatest and most controversial characters in the history of archaeology.

In this important and timely publication, top international scholars present current research and developments about the art, archaeology, and history of the ancient city of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Syria. Palmyra became tragic headline news in 2015, when it was overtaken by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), which destroyed many of its monuments and artifacts. The essays in this book include new scholarship on Palmyra's origins and evolution as well as developments from both before and after its damage by ISIS, providing new information that will be relevant to current and future generations of art historians and archaeologists. The book also includes a moving tribute by Waleed Khaled al-Asa'ad to his father, Khaled al-Asa'ad, the Syrian archaeologist and head of antiquities at Palmyra, who was brutally murdered by ISIS in 2015 for defending the site. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press

Game drives of the Aralo-Caspian region is a translated and revised edition of Yagodin's Strelovidnye Planirovki Ustyurta, originally published in Tashkent in 1991. Based on extensive fieldwork, the volume investigates arrow-shaped structures used for hunting in remote areas of Central Asia between the seventh and 14th centuries AD. This classic study of game drives remains one of the most significant works in Ustyurt archaeology and one of the few that integrates geoarchaeological, ecological and ethnographic data. This first English edition of Game drives of the Aralo-Caspian region has been amended with new material, including the study of satellite imagery, and enriched with many new illustrations.

Late Bronze Age Painted Pottery Traditions at the Margins of the Hittite State is the result of a workshop organized by the editors at the 11th ICAANE held in Munich in 2018 with additional contributions presented by renowned scholars working on this topic. The Late Bronze Age in the Ancient Near East is generally marked by a massive decline in the occurrence of painted pottery and a clear dominance of plain ceramics. This is especially evident when looking at Anatolia. Here, the presence of simple undecorated ceramics is considered as the main distinguishing trait of the dominance of the Hittite State and its material culture. Nevertheless, at the margins of the empire, especially in Southern and South-Eastern as well as Northern Anatolia, painted ceramics are frequently attested and, during recent years, new findings have come to light from a number of excavations. However, a comprehensive analysis of this material has not yet been accomplished. The intent of this volume is to break through the boundaries usually imposed by the study of 2nd millennium BC pottery production in Anatolia and to reconstruct a comprehensive scenario concerning the appearance, evolution, and related historical meanings of these painted pottery traditions. To this end, 12 papers of leading specialists working on relevant material have been collected in this book offering, for the first time, the possibility of a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of painted pottery in the 2nd millennium BC.

Pottery from the University of California, Berkeley Excavations in the Area of the Maski Gate (MG22), Nineveh, 1989-1990 presents the pottery from the UC Berkeley excavations in 1989 and 1990. Nineveh is one of the longest occupied cities in the world, with a record of habitation extending back to at least the middle of the 7th millennium BC, continuing in an almost uninterrupted sequence through today. It was one of the major urban centres in which the fundamental features of modern civilization first emerged. Its political and religious significance - particularly during its apogee as the capital of the Assyrian Empire in the late 8th and 7th centuries BC - secured its status as a legendary metropolis in history and literature. In 1987, the University of California at Berkeley initiated a program of archaeological investigations at Nineveh. The expedition aimed to elucidate the character and layout of the city's urban neighbourhoods; an aspect of Assyrian urbanism that had received little close attention in prior excavations. Near the Maski Gate (MG22), the UC Berkeley team uncovered a district of large dwellings and wide streets. Multiple layers of occupation and rebuilding suggest the area was occupied during the period when the city was handsomely embellished and enlarged by the Assyrian monarch, king Sennacherib (705/704-681 BC). The work in MG22 provides a stratigraphic history of Late Assyrian ceramics at the centre of the empire through at least the 7th century BC.

The Assyrian Empire was the first state to achieve durable domination of the Ancient Near East, enduring some seven centuries and, eventually, controlling most of the region. Yet, we know little about how this empire emerged from a relatively minor polity in the Tigris region and how it managed to consolidate its power over conquered territories. Textual sources, often biased, provide a relatively limited source of information. In this study, Bleda S. During examines the rich archaeological data of the early Assyrian Empire that have been obtained over the past decades, together with the textual evidence. The archaeological data enable us to reconstruct the remarkably heterogeneous and dynamic impact of the Assyrian Empire on dominated territories. They also facilitate the reconstruction of the various ways in which people participated in this empire, and what might have motivated them to do so. Finally, During's study shows how imperial repertoires first developed in the Middle Assyrian period were central to the success of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

Die fruhe Bronzezeit im dritten Jahrtausend v. Chr. in Sudostarabien ist eine Zeit grundlegender Veranderungen, die sich in der Entwicklung sozialer Komplexitat, der Ausbeutung neuer Ressourcen und dem Aufkommen neuer Lebensformen zeigt. Kennzeichen dieser Epoche sind monumentale Bauwerke, sogenannte Turme, und aus Stein gebaute runde Graber. Der zweite Band der Reihe Arabia Orientalis widmet sich der archaologischen Untersuchung der fruhbronzezeitlichen Nekropolen der UNESCO-Welterbestatten Bat und Al-Ayn im Sultanat Oman sowie dem monumentalen Turm Gebaude II in Bat. Er umfasst ausfuhrliche Abhandlungen zur Architektur und Stratigraphie sowie zu den Fundeassemblagen aus den ausgegrabenen Bauwerken, darunter Keramik-, Kleinfunde-, anthropologische sowie anthrakologische Untersuchungen. Die Publikation prasentiert Einblicke in sich verandernde Bestattungssitten und die Funktion des monumentalen Turms. Drei der vier ausgegrabenen Hafit- und Umm an-Nar-zeitlichen Graber in den Nekropolen belegen spatere Nachnutzungen, vor allem in der Samad- Zeit, in der neue Bestattungen in die bronzezeitlichen Graber eingebracht wurden. Das Gebaude II aus der fruhen Umm an-Nar-Zeit ist von einer grossen Grabenanlage umgeben, die moglicherweise als Schutz vor Uberschwemmungen des nahen Wadis diente.

Tayma' II is a Catalogue which contains all the inscriptions discovered during the 24 seasons of the Saudi- German excavations at Tayma' from 2004-15 which were funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The 113 objects carry inscriptions in different languages and scripts, illustrating the linguistic diversity of the oasis through time. Although the majority are fragmentary, they provide an important source for the history of the oasis in ancient and mediaeval times. The Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions in this volume confirm for the first time the ten-year sojourn at Tayma' of the last Babylonian king Nabu-na'id (556-539 BC). In addition, Imperial Aramaic inscriptions dated by the reigns of Lihyanite kings, based at Dadan (modern al-'Ula), reveal for the first time that they ruled Tayma' at a period in the second half of the first millennium BC. As well as editing the volume, Michael C. A. Macdonald edited the Imperial Aramaic inscriptions found from 2010-15, plus those in the form of the Aramaic script which developed in Tayma', and the Nabataean, Dadanitic, and Taymanitic texts. In addition, Hanspeter Schaudig edited the cuneiform inscriptions; Peter Stein, the Imperial Aramaic texts found from 2004-09; and Frederic Imbert, the Arabic inscriptions. Arnulf Hausleiter and Francelin Tourtet provided archaeological contributions, while Martina Trognitz curated the virtual edition of many of the texts recorded by RTI. The indexes contain the words and names from all known texts from the oasis, including those in the Tayma' Museum and other collections which will be published as Tayma' III.

From 1981 until 1986, the archaeologist Judith McKenzie, then a graduate student at the University of Sydney, travelled to the ancient site of Petra in Jordan, living in a cave there for extended periods, in order to survey and measure architectural mouldings on the rock-cut monuments. It was a critical time in the history of Petra, where, for centuries, its local inhabitants, known as the Bdoul, had lived and worked. But that tradition was coming to a close. In 1985, the Bdoul began a move to the nearby village of Umm Sayhoun, as directed by the Jordanian government. This first-hand account of life in a cave at Petra, based on diaries Judith kept at the time she lived among the Bdoul, is therefore important as a record of a lifestyle now largely vanished. As she writes in her introduction: "I spent so much time socializing with the Bdoul, I came to observe many aspects of Bdoul life in a series of visits over three main field seasons. As women we had access to the world of young girls and women, which men from outside did not, while we were also sometimes treated as honorary men." This memoir thus stands as a reminder of life at Petra before the arrival of modern-day tourism at the site. But this book is not only a memoir. Observations are made on the ways in which the Bdoul have adapted to their new environment. Changes at the site that have taken place since 1981 because of weathering and erosion are recorded through comparisons between photographs taken forty years ago and more recent images. Ramifications of the expansion of the tourist-industry at Petra in the 21st century are also considered. Life in a Cave in Petra with the Bdoul: 1981-1986 is therefore an important and essential volume on the archaeology and history of one of the best-known ancient sites in the world.

The ancient Mesoptamian city of Ur was a Sumerian city state which flourished as a centre of trade and civilisation between 2025-1738 BCE. However, in the recent past it suffered from the disastrous Gulf war and from neglect. It still remains a potent symbol for people of all faiths and will have an important role to play in the future This account of Ur's past looks at both the ancient city and its evolution over centuries, and its archaeological interpretation in more recent times. From the nineteenth century explorers and their identification of the site of Mukayyar as the Biblical city of Ur, the study proceeds to look in detail at the archaeologist Leonard Woolley and his key discoveries during the 1920s and 30s. Using the findings as a framework and utilising the latest evidence from environmental, historical and archaeological studies, the volume explores the site's past in chronological order from the Ubaid period in the 5th millennium to the death of Alexander. It looks in detail at the architectural remains: the sacred buildings, royal graves and also the private housing which provides a unique record of life four thousand years ago.The volume also describes the part played by Ur in the Gulf war and discusses the problems raised for archaeologists in the war's aftermath.

The Sasanian Empire (3rd -7th centuries) was one of the largest empires of antiquity, stretching from Mesopotamia to modern Pakistan and from Central Asia to the Arabian Peninsula. This mega-empire withstood powerful opponents in the steppe and expanded further in Late Antiquity, whilst the Roman world shrunk in size. Recent research has revealed the reasons for this success, notably population growth in some key territories, economic prosperity and urban development, made possible through investment in agriculture and military infrastructure on a scale unparalleled in the late antique world. Our volume explores the empire's relations with its neighbours and key phenomena which contributed to its wealth and power, from the empire's armed forces to agriculture, trade and treatment of minorities. The latest discoveries, notably major urban foundations, fortifications and irrigations systems, feature prominently. An empire whose might and culture rivalled Rome and foreshadowed the caliphate will be of interest to scholars of the Roman and Islamic world.Challenges our Eurocentric world view by presenting a Near-Eastern empire whose urban culture and military apparatus rivalled that of Rome . Covers the latest discoveries on foundations, fortifications and irrigation systems. Includes case studies on Sasanian frontier walls and urban culture in the Sasanian Empire

By the 13th century BC, the Syrian city of Ugarit hosted an extremely diverse range of writing practices. As well as two main scripts – alphabetic and logographic cuneiform - the site has also produced inscriptions in a wide range of scripts and languages, including Hurrian, Sumerian, Hittite, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Luwian hieroglyphs and Cypro-Minoan. This variety in script and language is accompanied by writing practices that blend influences from Mesopotamian, Anatolian and Levantine traditions together with what seem to be distinctive local innovations. Script and Society: The Social Context of Writing Practices in Late Bronze Age Ugarit explores the social and cultural context of these complex writing traditions from the perspective of writing as a social practice. It combines archaeology, epigraphy, history and anthropology to present a highly interdisciplinary exploration of social questions relating to writing at the site, including matters of gender, ethnicity, status and other forms of identity, the relationship between writing and place, and the complex relationships between inscribed and uninscribed objects. This forms a case- study for a wider discussion of interdisciplinary approaches to the study of writing practices in the ancient world.

In this lively treatment of one of antiquity's most mysterious civilizations, whose history disappeared from the records over 3,000 years ago, Trevor Bryce sheds fresh light on Hittite warriors as well as on the Hittites' social, religious and political culture and offers new solutions to many unsolved questions. Revealing them to have been masters of chariot warfare, who almost inflicted a disastrous defeat on Rameses II at the Battle of Qadesh (1274 BCE), he shows the Hittites also to have been devout worshippers of a pantheon of storm-gods and many other gods, and masters of a new diplomatic system which bolstered their authority for centuries. Drawing authoritatively both on texts and on ongoing archaeological discoveries, while at the same time offering imaginative reconstructions of the Hittite world, Bryce argues that while the development of a warrior culture was essential, not only for the Empire's expansion but for its very survival, this by itself was not enough. The range of skills demanded of the Hittite ruling class went way beyond mere military prowess, while there was much more to the Hittites themselves than just skill in warfare. This engaging volume reveals the Hittites in their full complexity, including the festivals they celebrated; the temples and palaces they built; their customs and superstitions; the crimes they committed; their social hierarchy, from king to slave; and the marriages and pre-nuptial agreements they contracted. It takes the reader on a journey which combines epic grandeur, spectacle and pageantry with an understanding of the intimacies and idiosyncrasies of Hittite daily life.

Butrint 6 describes the excavations carried out on the Vrina Plain by the Butrint Foundation from 2002–2007. Lying just to the south of the ancient port city of Butrint, these excavations have revealed a 1,300 year long story of a changing community that began in the 1st century AD, one which not only played its part in shaping the city of Butrint but also in how the city interacted and at times reacted to the changing political, economic and cultural situations occurring across the Mediterranean World over this period. Volume III discusses the Roman and Late Antique pottery from the Vrina Plain excavations. This detailed study of the ceramics follows the archaeological sequence recovered from the excavations in chronological order and provides a comprehensive and in depth review of the pottery, context by context, offering an important insight into the supply, as well as typology, of local and imported pottery available to the inhabitants of the Vrina Plain during this period. This is followed by a discussion on how the pottery trends found on the Vrina Plain relate to that of other sites in Butrint, both within the town (Triconch Palace; the Forum) and outside (Vrina Plain training school villa excavations; the villa of Diaporit). The volume also presents an overview of some of the principal typological developments found across Butrint so as to allow the reader to place the Vrina finds in context, including a discussion of a number of key contexts from the Forum, as well as the findings from thin-section petrology of some of the ceramics.

This groundbreaking, five-volume series offers a comprehensive, fully illustrated history of Egypt and Western Asia (the Levant, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Iran), from the emergence of complex states to the conquest of Alexander the Great. Written by a diverse, international team of leading scholars whose expertise brings to life the people, places, and times of the remote past, the volumes in this series focus firmly on the political and social histories of the states and communities of the ancient Near East. Individual chapters present the key textual and material sources underpinning the historical reconstruction, paying particular attention to the most recent archaeological finds and their impact on our historical understanding of the periods surveyed. The second volume covers broadly the first half of the second millennium BC or in archaeological terms, the Middle Bronze Age. Eleven chapters present the history of the Near East, beginning with the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom Egypt and the Mesopotamian kingdoms of Ur (Third Dynasty), Isin and Larsa. The complex mosaic of competing states that arose between the Eastern Mediterranean, the Anatolian highlands and the Zagros mountains of Iran are all treated, culminating in an examination of the kingdom of Babylon founded by Hammurabi and maintained by his successors. Beyond the narrative history of each region considered, the volume treats a wide range of critical topics, including the absolute chronology; state formation and disintegration; the role of kingship, cult practice and material culture in the creation and maintenance of social hierarchies; and long-distance trade-both terrestrial and maritime-as a vital factor in the creation of social, political and economic networks that bridged deserts, oceans, and mountain ranges, binding together the extraordinarily diverse peoples and polities of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Near East, and Central Asia.

The history of the Ancient Near East covers a huge chronological frame, from the first pictographic texts of the late 4th millennium to the conquest of Alexander the Great in 333 BC. During these millennia, different societies developed in a changing landscape where sheep (and their wool) always played an important economic role. The 22 papers presented here explore the place of wool in the ancient economy of the region, where large-scale textile production began during the second half of the 3rd millennium. By placing emphasis on the development of multi-disciplinary methodologies, experimentation and use of archaeological evidence combined with ancient textual sources, the wide-ranging contributions explore a number of key themes. These include: the first uses of wool in textile manufacture and organization of weaving; trade and exchange; the role of wool in institutionalized economies; and the reconstruction of the processes that led to this first form of industry in Antiquity. The numerous archaeological and written sources provide an enormous amount of data on wool, textile crafts, and clothing and these inter-disciplinary studies are beginning to present a comprehensive picture of the economic and cultural impact of woollen textiles and textile manufacturing on formative ancient societies.

Through the Lens of Anthropology is a concise introduction to anthropology that uses the twin themes of food and sustainability to connect evolution, biology, archaeology, history, language, and culture. The third edition remains a highly readable text that encourages students to think about current events and issues through an anthropological lens. Beautifully illustrated with over 100 full-color images and maps, along with detailed figures and boxes, this is an anthropology book with a fresh perspective and a lively narrative that is filled with popular topics. The new edition has been updated to reflect the most recent developments in anthropology and the contributions of marginalized scholars, while the use of gender-neutral language makes for a more inclusive text. New content offers anthropological insight into contemporary issues such as COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, and #MeToo. Through the Lens of Anthropology continues to be an essential text for those interested in learning more about the relevance and value of anthropology. The third edition is supplemented by a full suite of updated instructor and student resources. For more information visit www.lensofanthropology.com.

Marcus Pasha Simaika (1864-1944) was born to a prominent Coptic family on the eve of the inauguration of the Suez Canal and the British occupation of Egypt. From a young age, he developed a passion for Coptic heritage and devoted his life to shedding light on centuries of Christian Egyptian history that had been neglected by ignorance or otherwise belittled and despised. He was not a professional archaeologist, an excavator, or a specialist scholar of Coptic language and literature. Rather, his achievement lies in his role as a visionary administrator who used his status to pursue relentlessly his dream of founding a Coptic Museum and preserving endangered monuments. During his lengthy career, first as a civil servant, then as a legislator and member of the Coptic community council, he maneuvered endlessly between the patriarch and the church hierarchy, the Coptic community council, the British authorities, and the government to bring them together in his fight to save Coptic heritage. This fascinating biography draws upon Simaika's unpublished memoirs as well as on other documents and photographs from the Simaika family archive to deepen our understanding of several important themes of modern Egyptian history: the development of Coptic archaeology and heritage studies, Egyptian-British interactions during the colonial and semi-colonial eras, shifting balances in the interaction of clergymen and the lay Coptic community, and the ever-sensitive evolution of relations between Copts and their Muslim countrymen.