This book, consisting of 12 contributions, amalgamates the most recent results from archaeological research in the Upper Mesopotamian piedmont. Under the growing influence of expanding territorial states which had become established during the 2nd millennium BC, this region experienced a substantial change in social and political life during that time. The discussion is centered around settlement shapes, developments in the material culture, as well as written documents that attest to this change. In summary, this book emphasizes the significant roll of archaeological research in the reconstruction of models concerning the formation and transformation of political space in the ancient world.

Despite ongoing interest in Middle Assyrian glyptic art, the publications of Middle Assyrian seals and seal impressions from excavated sites in the Near East are very rare. The book is the first to offer a comprehensive study on the seal corpus from an archaeological site historically located in the western territory of the Middle Assyrian state. The seal impressions and few original seals, which were found during the excavations in Tell Fekheriye (Syria), substantially add to our understanding of the iconographic repertory and the use of seals in the Middle Assyrian period. The corpus dates to the reigns of the Assyrian kings Shalmaneser I and Tukulti-Ninurta I in the 13th century B.C. It documents practices of governance and administration in the growing Middle Assyrian Empire, points to activities of high-ranking Assyrian officials and unfolds the pictorial reality of political and ideological intensions. While finding detailed information on unpublished materials, their archaeological contexts and interpretations, the reader is also invited to follow a discourse on art, state and society for which the Middle Assyrian seal motifs from Tell Fekheriye provide an excellent case study.

Drawing on a broad range of disciplines, the contributions gathered in this volume focus particular attention on early state formation, development of material cultures, and the transfer of iconographic concepts from late perhistoric to historic times. With chapters on the archaeology and history of the Indonesian archipelago, the multi-directional flows of Buddhist art in Southeast Asia, art and architecture of the Khmers, traditions and actions of various ethnic groups, specific regional phenomena are addressed in order to provide a resource for comparative perspectives. Connecting Empires and States contains 29 papers presented at the 13th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists (EurASEAA). Held in Berlin in 2010, the conference was jointly organised by the Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology at the Freie Universitat Berlin and the German Archaeological Institute. The peer-reviewed proceedings bring together archaeologists, art historians and philologists who share a common interest in Southeast Asia's early past.