Theme Organiser: Miss Helen Taylor
Location: Gustav Tuck Lecture Theatre, University College London
and Foster Court, University College London.
Please note that this is not a final time-table and may be subject to some change. If you wish to make any corrections, please use this form: CORRECTIONS FORM
As stated in your acceptance email, papers should be no more than 20 minutes long
Please note that only the first author is in the summary timetable. Click on the name to see full paper details
Timetable: Gustav Tuck lecture theatre
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09.30 › Introduction | 09:20 › McCartney | 09:20 › Mateiciucová | 09:20 › Rumaiydh | |
| 09:55 › Genz | 09:55 › Bartl | 09:55 › Hussein | ||
| 10:20 › Kopetzky | 10:20 › Stein | 10:20 › al-Hussainy | ||
| 10:45 › COFFEE | 10:45 › COFFEE | 10:45 › COFFEE | ||
| 11:15 › Banning | 11:15 › Vallet | 11:15 › Lebeau | ||
| 11:40 › Bourke | 11:40 › Schwartz | 11:40 › Kolinski | ||
| 12:05 › Veldhuijzen | 12:05 › Wolf | 12:05 › Rova | ||
| 12:30 › Puturidze | 12:30 › Falsone | |||
| 12:55 › LUNCH | 12:55 › LUNCH | 12:55 › LUNCH | ||
| 13:15 › LUNCH | 14:00 › Routledge | 14:00 › Guliyev | 14:00 › Peltenburg | |
| 14:30 › Daviau | 14:30 › Helwing | 14:30 › Matthiae | ||
| 14:55 › Thompson | 14:55 › Lyonnet | 14:55 › Baffi | ||
| 15:20 › Master | 15:20 › Marro | 15:20 › Iamoni | ||
| 15:45 › COFFEE | 15:45 › COFFEE | 15:45 › COFFEE | ||
| 16:15 › E-Verniory | 16:15 › Parker | 16:15 › Bonatz | ||
| 16:40 › Bechar | 16:40 › Ristvet | 16:40 › Da Ros | ||
| 17:05 › Salem | 17:05 › Piller | 17:05 › Perini | ||
| 17:30 › Chataigner | 17:30 › Pfalzner |
Timetable: Foster Court
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09.30 › Introduction | 09:20 › During | 09:20 › Milevski | 09:20 › Kuzucuoglu | |
| 09:55 › Bichener | 09:55 › Greenberg | 09:55 › Erkanal | ||
| 10:20 › Shillito | 10:20 › Nigro | 10:20 › Zimmermann | ||
| 10:45 › COFFEE | 10:45 › COFFEE | 10:45 › COFFEE | ||
| 11:15 › Baird | 11:15 › Pulhan | |||
| 11:40 › Palumbi | 11:40 › Günel | |||
| 12:05 › Schoop | 12:05 › Marchetti | |||
| 12:30 › Yağcı | ||||
| 12:55 › LUNCH | 12:55 › LUNCH | 12:55 › LUNCH | ||
| 13:15 › LUNCH | 14:00 › Naderi | 14:00 › Kidd | ||
| 14:30 › Zeidi | 14:30 › Eger | 14:30 › Şahoğlu | ||
| 14:55 › Ascalone | 14:55 › Özyar | 14:55 › Harrison | ||
| 15:20 › Mortazavi | 15:20 › McPhillips | 15:20 › Schloen | ||
| 15:45 › COFFEE | 15:45 › COFFEE | 15:45 › COFFEE | ||
| 16:15 › Dusting | 16:15 › Özfırat | |||
| 16:40 › De Schacht | 16:40 › Lehmann | 16:40 › MacGinnis | ||
| 17:05 › Sauer | 17:05 › Gophna | 17:05 › Cecchini | ||
| 17:30 › Hopper | 17:30 › Artzy |
Fieldwork & Recent Research Abstracts
The Excavations at Marad
Dr Abbas al-Hussainy(Al-Qadissiya University, Iraq)
The ruins of ancient Marad, now known as Tell as-Sadoum, are located about 20 km north-west of ad-Diwaniya city, and about 50 km south east of Kish, on the Arahtu River. In antiquity the city was positioned between the three large and very important cities of Nippur and Isin to the south and Babylon to the north. Al-Qadissaya University conducted three seasons of excavations at Tell as-Sadoum, the first in 1990. This excavation revealed parts of the sacred wall and a variety of archaeological objects including seals, pottery, tablets, and other objects, the results of that season published in Sumer 49 (2000) by professor Naal Hannoon. The second season, in 2005, was directed by the author. Following survey and mapping we began the excavation in four sectors. The first was in the eastern side of the highest part of the site; in this sector we revealed the main temple of the city. The second sector excavated was on the other side of the top of the mound, where we revealed a building representing the administrative centre for the sacred area. The third excavated area was the south-east corner of the sacred wall and the fourth consisted of private houses. In the third season, 2007, we conducted further excavations on the sacred wall and in the northern part of the main temple. As well as architecture many archaeological objects have been discovered including seals and pottery, tablets, figurines, and other objects.
Coastal Ecology and Archaeology, a Holistic Approach: Nami Area as a Case Study
Prof Michal Artzy, Dr Yossi Salmon (University of Haifa, Israel)
The regional project at Tel Nami has been a focus for intense interdisciplinary research since the 1970's. Excavation seasons and some preliminary geological geo-morphological studies are in the final stages of publication. Only two settlement periods were noted in the excavations, MBIIa and LBIIb (LBIII). The studies' results reveal evidence of an international anchorage site as well as interactions between humans and forces of nature during the second millennium BCE. During this period the Nami region had undergone varied geo-morphological processes and changes in sea level which might well mirror those of other sites on the Levantine coast: the establishment of an urban settlement with eastern Mediterranean contacts, desertion, human activity void for a lengthy period and re-habitation followed by abandonment until modern times. The traditional paths of research include an expansion of the archaeological excavations and geo-archaeological field-work, which in this case involves large tracks covered by sand. It was decided to expand the research with newly available methods based on theoretical and practical advances in landscape archaeology. New survey techniques that incorporate spatial and GIS analyses and remote sensing surveys allow us to sample a larger area. On the basis of survey results we can carefully choose small excavation areas and coring spots to be analyzed by geo-chemical and botanical methods to answer our research questions. The preliminary results of Ground Penetrating Radar, an underwater survey and the mapping of the archaeological and geomorphological features enable us to depict plausible archaeological and ecological settings of an anchorage during the second Millennium BCE.
Preliminary Report from Qaleh Kutchek. First Campaign of Italo-Iranian Joint Mission in the Halil Valley, Jiroft (South-eastern Iran)
Dr Enrico Ascalone (University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy),
Dr. A. Azadi (ICAR, Iranian Center of Archaeological Research)
and Dr. L. Peyronel (University of IULM, Milan)
The evidence collected by University of Rome 'La Sapienza' and ICAR (Iranian Center of Archaeological Research) during the first archaeological campaign at Qaleh Kutchek (Jiroft district) allows a new approach to the historical dynamics of South-eastern Iran. Surveys, soundings and test-trench in Qaleh Kutchek and in the Lower Halil valley sites offer new chronological evaluations and settlement analysis of the so-called 'Jiroft civilization'.
New discoveries at Tell Tuqan (Syria)
Prof Francesca Baffi (Universitã del salento)
The recent Salento University excavations at Tell Tuqan, in the region of Maath in inner Syria, are enriching the information about the Middle Bronze town and showing the total stratigraphy of the ancient settlement, from the Early Bronze IV until the late Roman/Byzantine time. The excavations concerned both the lower and upper town; in the upper city the fortification system is especially interesting; a step trench in particular, opened in the south side of the tell, is showing all the structural components. In this way it is possible to understand the defense system's features, through the second and first millennia B. C.; these features are typical of the region, compared with the those known in the nearby areas of Tell Mardikh/Ebla and Tell Afis, but at the same time they present their own local peculiarities. Inside a complex defense system, a lively settlement life was going on from the Middle Bronze to the Late Roman period, with a special strong incidence in the Iron Age; the reason of the interest in the old town was because its geographical position, on the shore of the lake created by the Nahr el Qweiyk river. That position was fundamental for the climate, helping agriculture and cattle breeding. The Lower Town currently appears to have been inhabited from the Early Bronze IV until the Middle Bronze I and II, with a temporary abandonment of the area at the end of the Middle Bronze II, with no visible evidence of violent destruction.
The Boncuklu Project: the antecedents of Çatalhöyük and the development of the Neolithic in central Anatolia.
Dr Douglas Baird (University of Liverpool, UK)
The florescence of elaborate symbolic imagery in the earliest sedentary societies of late Pleistocene and early Holocene SW Asia has been explained in a variety of ways. This has included suggestions it is a response to the increasing longevity and proximity of households in densely occupied increasingly large village settlements. This view has found support in the intensity of artistic expression at the largest and densest Neolithic settlements like Çatalhöyük. Alternatively it is suggested that new cosmologies found expression and practice in this manner, whether those cosmologies centred humans in their universe or drew new metaphorical distinctions between the domestic and the world of the wild. This paper will present initial results from excavations in 2006-2008 at Boncuklu höyük 9 kms north of Çatalhöyük where decorated curvilinear buildings, light work structures, and middens have been exposed. These results allow us to discuss the appearance of elaborate material symbolism in contexts immediately preceding its florescence at Çatalhöyük. They thus provide useful insights into the development of this phenomenon in relation to questions of the appearance of sedentism, cultivation and herding in central Anatolia c. 8500-7500 BC calibrated and into its role in the emergence of the 'megasite' of Çatalhöyük.
Excavations at al-Basatîn, a Late Neolithic and EBI site in northern Jordan
Prof Ted Banning (University of Toronto, Canada),
Dr Kevin Gibbs (University of Manchester)
and Dr Seiji Kadowaki (University of Tokyo)
New excavations in Wadi Ziqlab, a tributary of the Jordan River in northwestern Jordan, have exposed structures, features and living floors belonging to two distinct components. One, dated to about 5700-5300 cal BC, shows affinities to the Wadi Rabah culture, and has a small number of round huts along with more common cobbled platforms or floors. Analysis of absorbed residues in pottery from this level has recently identified saturated fatty acids of animal fats. The upper component, dated ca. 3600-3300 cal BC, has distinctive early EBI characteristics and both round and rectilinear buildings. A noteworthy find from this level was a group of sherds, apparently from a crucible, partially encrusted with copper corrosion products.
Storage in the Late Neolithic period. New data from the 7th millenium site of Shir/West Syria
Dr Karin Bartl (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Orient-Abt., Außenstelle Damaskus, Germany)
The Late Neolithic site of Shir, located near Hama in western Syria, has been the subject of a cooperative project of the German Archaeological Institute Damascus and the Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées de la Syrie since 2006. Excavations conducted there are aimed at determining the stratigraphic sequence, the layout of the settlement and the association between settlement and environment. Results thus far have attested a complex sequence of layers dating to between ca. 7050 and 6200/6000 BC, and whose material culture, in particular with regard to architecture, is still strongly attached to traditions of the LPPNB/PPNC. In 2008 investigations began in a large building complex that lies away from the centre of the settlement and which was recognised through geophysical data. The structures exposed are indicative of a planned layout, consisting of several, likely two-storey buildings with cell-like rooms, all or part of which must have served for the storage of foodstuffs. Numerous objects used for the storage and processing of plant foods support this assumption. In view of the data gathered so far, the complex should be dated to the last phase of the settlement, prior to its abandonment at the end of the 7th millennium BC. The reasons for the settlement's end are possibly connected with the often postulated change in climate around 8200 BP, which may perhaps apply to the prominent storage units as well. The find contexts in Shir, which have only a few parallels, have enabled detailed investigations on numerous economic and social aspects of early sedentary societies that are associated with the storage of (foods) goods. The ecological basis, production forms, organisation of work, social structure in the settlement, and use- and/or distribution-patterns of stored goods are some of the questions that will be dealt with based upon the context or situation of finds at hand. The answers should enable some generally applicable statements on the socio-economical situation at the end of the 7th millennium BC in the northern Levant.
Life in a Canaanite City - Renewed Excavations in the Lower City of Hazor
Miss Shlomit Bechar (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)
Tel Hazor, in northern Israel, is the largest Canaanite site in the southern Levant. The tel, covering an area of 80 hectares, consists of an upper city, occupied in the second millennium BC by monumental and public buildings, and a lower city, in which mainly residential buildings, but also public and cultic structures, were excavated. The residential quarters of the lower city were only fragmentarily excavated in previous seasons. In 2008, excavations in the center of the lower city were renewed. Following a geo-magnetic survey, an area of domestic structures excavated during the 1950's was expanded. . Four rooms, with an open area between them, and an alley attributed to the last phase of the Late Bronze Age city, were found. The aims of the renewed excavation are to achieve a better understanding of a domestic quarter in the Canaanite city. Different sampling methods were used in the past two years of excavation, and these will be described in the lecture. Their implications for our understanding of the domestic activities, as well as the abandonment processes, at the site will be discussed.
The Dogs of Domuztepe
Ms Rachel Bichener (University of Manchester, UK)
The dog is one of the most intriguing of the domesticates, as its relationship with humans is often more than that of predator and prey. The remains of domestic dogs are ubiquitous, if numerically uncommon, on Near Eastern Neolithic sites. However, their low numbers and disparate contexts are barriers to their systematic study. The "Death Pit" at Domuztepe, with its striking human and dog burials, offers a rare opportunity for the analysis of a temporally discrete group of these animals, dating to the Halaf period. This new study of previously excavated material uses a series of morphometric and statistical techniques to look at the size, shape and conformation of the Death Pit dogs, and to assess variation between them. From this data, it is possible to discern whether the Domuztepe dogs were "plain dogs", or whether they were more specialised, even at this early stage. The conformation and degree of specialisation of an animal can also give us clues to roles it could have played in the lives of the people around it. The dogs of Domuztepe are also compared to the known Neolithic dog "populations" of Europe, in order to understand differences between the "plain dog", as described by Harcourt for northern Europe, and the dogs of Neolithic Turkey. The new data are then used to evaluate the established views of early dog breeding, and the advent of specialised breeds. So far, there is evidence that the dogs of Domuztepe were not uniform, and that they had little in common with the saluki-like hunting dogs which seem to appear in the art of the proceeding Ubaid period in Mesopotamia.
rachel.bichener@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
Preliminary Report on the Excavations at Tell Fekheriye between 2005 and 2009
Mr Peter Vinzenz Bartl and Prof Dominik Bonatz (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)
Within the scope of the renewed archaeological investigations at Tell Fekheriye, a longer-term project was launched to research ancient history in the Upper Mesopotamian region. Since 2005, a Syro-German cooperation-project has conducted survey work and excavations in order to systematically record the ancient topography and to reconstruct the settlement history of the mound. The excavations confirmed the importance of the site, particularly in the Late Bronze Age and in the Roman-Byzantine to the early Islamic period. Favourable topographical conditions in the west of the Tell enabled the excavation of Late Bronze Age building levels over a larger area. The structures exposed so far indicate that Middle Assyrian administrative facilities and private houses as well as a late Middle Assyrian graveyard are located here. Significant finds include large quantities of typical Middle Assyrian seal impressions and administrative texts that can be dated to the reign of Shalmaneser I and Tukulti-Ninurta I or even earlier, as well as a fragment of a Middle Assyrian letter mentioning a citizen of Aššukanni. The levels underneath contain a monumental structure and are associated with the early Middle Assyrian and Mittani period. In this paper the authors aim at presenting the results of the excavation and framing them in their historical context, as well as evaluating their socio- and geopolitical background including a possible identification with the capital of the Mittani empire.
Urban Origins and the Development of Cult Practice at Pella in Jordan:The 2009 Field Season.
Dr Stephen J. Bourke (University of Sydney, Australia)
The 2009 field season at Pella in Jordan completed the excavation of three small mudbrick anten-temples, that lay at the base of the eight-temple sequence unearthed over the past 15 years. At the base of the temple sequence, we excavated a phase of domestic architecture, which suggests that the sacred utilisation of the site of the later Migdol temple precinct began early in the MBA, but not contemporarily with the resettlement episode, as was previously thought. Minor investigations beside the eastern facade of the temple revealed an earlier, anten-style phase to the massive Migdol temple facade, dating from around 1700 BCE. All three of the early pre-Migdol temple structures are likely to have been simple anten-temples. Immediately west of the Fortress temple, removal of extensive Iron I domestic deposits revealed sections of a late LBA (ca. 1200 BCE) massively constructed stone-paved building, with extensive exterior terrazzo paving, and a series of lamp and bowl deposits placed within foundations. Initial assessments would suggest this may be an Egyptian-style 'Residency' building, similar in design to those encountered at Beth Shan and Tell Fara. Towards the end of the season, an earlier LBA (ca. 1400 BCE) Palatial complex was reached to the south of the 'Residency' structure. This early building features large open plastered courtyard areas and resembles palatial structures found at Megiddo, and perhaps more intriguingly, at Kabri. Further excavations in the prehistoric soundings to the south of the temple precinct uncovered a series of Late Chalcolithic (ca. 4200 BCE) child burials associated with two phases of architecture, one featuring an Egyptian (perhaps Badarian) 'flower pot' import. Below this several phases of Late Neolithic (ca. 5000 BCE) pit/domestic deposits were uncovered, featuring a plethora of wild (?) olive remains and large brick-lined storage facilities. Major architectural discoveries, select finds and appropriate contextual details will be presented, along with short remarks of how the new discoveries alter our views on the civic context of the temple precinct over time.
A sounding at Arslan Tash. Re-visiting the "Bâtiment aux ivoires"
Prof S.M. Cecchini, Dr F. Venturi (Universita' di Bologna, Italy)
A Joint Syro-Italian archaeological expedition has been operating since 2007 in Arslan Tash (North-Syria) where in 1928 French excavations of the Musée du Louvre, directed by F. Thureau-Dangin, brought to light palaces, city walls and their gates, and temples with inscriptions which allowed the identification of the site with the Assyrian provincial city of Khadatu. In the frame of a joint project of the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums of Syria, the University of Bologna and the Musée du Louvre for the study and restoration of the engraved ivories unearthed by the French archaeologists in the so-called "Bâtiment aux ivoires", the archaeological research has the aim of looking for the lacking data about the archaeological context of the finds discovered during the 1928 season. In fact, the Arslan Tash excavations report, published in 1931, is lacking in any reference to the material culture. Neither pottery finding nor field notes are available. The topographic survey of the site was the first stage of the archaeological project in 2007. The second part, in 2008, was the geo-physical investigation, in order to locate the excavated monuments, now disappeared, in the context of the new very dense urban texture. In September-October 2009, a two square sounding was made in a small area where the geo-physical investigation allowed us to find part of the "Bâtiment aux ivoires" eastern side. The deep sounding revealed the foundations structures described by F. Thureau-Dangin and some more ancient phases."
serenamaria.cecchini@unibo.it
f.venturi@unibo.it
Prehistoric sites in Northwestern Armenia
Dr Makoto Arimura (National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Japan),
Dr Christine Chataigner (C.N.R.S, Lyon, France),
Dr Valentin Radu (National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest, Romania)
Mr Boris Gasparyan (Institute of Archaeology, Yerevan, Armenia)
Mr Arthur Petrosyan (Institute of Archaeology, Yerevan, Armenia)
The beginning of the Holocene is a poorly understood period in Armenia (Southern Caucasus). At the very beginning of the 6th millenium BC, Neolithic populations settled in the Ararat plain; herding and farming were fully practiced during this period. However, the origin and development of the Neolithization process in this region remain almost unknown. During 2003-2009, a French-Armenian mission carried out excavations in Kmlo-2 and Tsaghkahovit in Northwestern Armenia. Kmlo 2 is a rock shelter situated in the Kasakh valley, on the eastern flank of the Aragats mountain. The excavation of this site yielded rich archaeological remains (obsidian artifacts and animal bones). A series of obsidian artefacts, called ""Kmlo tools"", were previously unknown in the prehistory of Armenia. ""Kmlo tools"" have analogies with Neolithic cultures, both in Northern Near East ("Cayönü tools" - 8th-7th millennia BC) and Northwestern Georgia ("hook-like tools" of the Paluri-Nagutny culture). Unfortunately, prehistoric layers at Kmlo-2 were heavily disturbed by medieval occupation. According to the material analysis and to C14 datings, prehistoric layers at Kmlo-2 could belong to several phases: 11th-10th millennia BC, 8th millenium BC (Mesolithic or Neolithic) and 5th millenium BC (Chalcolithic). Tsaghkahovit is also a small rock shelter. It is located on the northern flank of Aragats, at 2000m usl. The excavations revealed a thin occupation layer containing lithics, pottery and animal bones. Numerous obsidian arrowheads and dacite knives or scrapers were found. Faunal remains were rare and not well preserved, but identified bones include mainly horse. The location of the site and the archaeological remains suggest that it was a hunting camp. C14 datings confirm the attribution of this site to the Chalcolithic (5th millenium BC). The results obtained by our mission so far are filling blanks in the prehistory in Armenia.
An example of LBA residential architecture from Qatna
Dr Monica Da Ros (University of Udine, Italy)
In Area T1, located immediately to the east of Qatna's Royal Palace, recent excavations conducted by the Italian component of the Syro-Italian Mission revealed a large dwelling, covering an area of approximately 200 m2, the full extent of which has not yet been determined. The discovery of this building, which is discussed in the paper, constitutes the first evidence, together with the four contemporary houses excavated by the Syrian team at the base of the Coupole de Loth, of a LBA II post-palace occupation of the site dated to the thirteenth century BC. The stratigraphy and the finds recovered from the dwelling attest to the reoccupation of the area after the destruction of the Royal Palace and the levelling of its ruins. The house underwent substantial modifications during its lifetime, marked by later additions and internal partition of the rooms. Three major architectural phases of occupation have been identified so far. The paper considers the architectural and material context of this building within the contemporary cultural horizon of the late LBA Northern Levant.
The Neo-Assyrian Empire as a Milieu for the Spread of Phoenician Culture
Dr P. M. Michèle Daviau (Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, Canada)
The appearance of Egyptian-style iconography evident in Ammon and Moab during the Iron Age appears to coincide with the increasing influence of Assyria as it integrated the small kingdoms of Syria and the Levant into its Empire and linked these cultures to one another. The impact of increased contact and trade can be seen in the ivory industry with its workshops in Phoenicia, North Syria and Assyria. It is in the iconography of the Phoenician ivories that the popularity of Egyptian motifs is most clearly seen. In Transjordan these iconographic elements appear in Proto-Aeolic architectural elements, the use of Egyptian-style amulets, the creation of male and female figures (statues and figurines) in Egyptian style, the use of anthropoid coffins and in the presence of imported and imitated Cypro-Phoenician pottery. With an increasing number of excavation projects in central Jordan, there is new evidence for the appearance of these elements in the local cultures. This paper will examine the distribution of these architectural elements, iconographic influences, and ceramic vessels in the Levant and their appearance in Transjordan and explore the evidence for cultural exchange between Phoenicia and the kingdoms of Ammon and Moab.
Results of salvage excavations at the Achaemenid dam and hydrological structure of Sad-i Shahidabad (Fars, Iran)
Mr Tijs De Schacht (Ghent University, Belgium),
Mr Ali Asadi (Parsa Pasargadae Research Foundation, Persepolis),
Dr Rémy Boucharlat (Université de Lyon 2, CNRS, Lyon, France),
Mr Yves Ubelmann (Freelance Architect, France),
Prof. Morgan De Dapper (Ghent University)
The remains of at least five monumental dams are found scattered in the small valleys and wadibeds that surround the Dasht-i Morghab highland plain, home to the palatial site of Pasargadae. First recorded by Wolfram Kleiss in the 1980s and 90s, these monuments presumably date back to the Achaemenid period and primarily acted as checkdams, preventing erratic floods of rain and meltwater in winter- and springtime. Within the framework of a research into the ancient systems of water management, both in the Dasht-i Morghab as well as in the Persepolis plain, these off-site traces have been the object of recent fieldwork by a joint Iranian-French team. The dam site of Sad-i Shahidadad, located 22 km north of Pasargadae, hereby serves as one of the major case studies and was excavated in two seasons (2008 and 2009). Main focus of these operations was on the 20 meter long ashlar built hydrological structure that was attested in superposition to the dam body. This canal infrastructure, constructed during the Early Achaemenid period, is of quite unique design and has in recent years been the object of intense pillage and destruction. With this paper, we provide a synopsis of the excavation results from both seasons. Furthermore, we discuss the restitution hypotheses and the major challenges in interpreting the use and function of this elaborate and peculiar hydrological structure.
Of Rough Seas and Rugged Mountains – The Cide Archaeological Project 2009
Dr Bleda During (Leiden University, The Netherlands) and
Dr Claudia Glatz (Glasgow University, UK)
The Black Sea littoral occupies a geographically marginal zone with respect to inner Anatolia due to the east-west orientation of the Pontic mountain range. In many periods this topographic situation translates into localised cultural traditions, socio-political organisation and economic strategies. At the same time, the coastal location provides the region with a relative centrality with regard to communication along and across the Black Sea. Both factors, a simultaneous peripheral and potentially central position in two different interaction networks, are likely to have played a significant role in the socio-economic development of the central Anatolian Black Sea littoral and its cultural orientation. Such issues of connectivity and cultural influence remain hitherto unexplored in the Cide region of Kastamonu province. One of the aims of the Cide Archaeological is to address these broad questions through intensive and targeted surface survey. In this paper, we will concentrate on methodological concerns of surveying in difficult terrain and present the results from our first field season in 2009.
Season Three at Qaleh Kali
Ms Amanda Dusting (University of Sydney, Australia)
The Achaemenid site of Qaleh Kali in Fars province, SW Iran, was originally identified in 1924 by Ernst Herzfeld and explored briefly in 1959 by a team from Tokyo University. It has more recently been the focus of three seasons of excavation by a joint team from the University of Sydney and ICAR (Iranian Centre of Archaeological Research). Excavation has revealed a masonry portico with three bell-shaped column bases and a group of stone-based mud brick walls of substantial proportion, which form the foundations of an associated building. Stylistically, the closest parallels for this structure are to be found at the Royal centres of Persepolis and Pasargadae, suggesting a 'royal' connection for the structure at Qaleh Kali. This connection may be further reinforced by its location close to the so-called "Royal Road" from Persepolis to Susa, which suggests that the building may be a way-station on that road; and the possibility that Qaleh Kali may be mentioned in the Persepolis fortification texts. However, despite some similar features to buildings at Persepolis, this structure is the only one of its kind excavated thus far and, as such, presents a unique opportunity to explore the architectural forms and functions of Achaemenid building programmes within the Persian "homeland." In the 2009 season, fieldwork was designed to establish the dimensions of the structure and to clarify the chronological phasing in order to provide information on later structures of the Post Achaemenid period. Geophysical surveys using resistivity and magnetometry were conducted in the areas to the north and south of the portico, with interesting results that included the possibility of a second structure of similar proportions located 50m to the south of the portico, and the presence of walls running parallel to the portico on its north. Trenches that targeted the extent of the building revealed a complex stratigraphy in the Post-Achaemenid phases and the likelihood of a major rebuilding of the site, which has been tentatively dated to the Parthian period. This paper will present the preliminary results of the 2009 excavation and survey season.
Hisn al-Tinat and the Waystations of the Islamic-Byzantine Frontier
Prof Asa Eger (University of North Carolina, Greensboro, USA)
Cilicia in the Early Islamic period was traditionally considered a no-man's land or borderland, part of the embattled Islamic-Byzantine thughūr that stretched from Tarsus to Malatya. Yet, it was also the main transportation corridor between Islamic and Byzantine lands, situated between the Cilician Gates, connecting to the Anatolian plateau, and the Syrian Gates, connecting to the lands of bilād al-shām. As such, the depiction of a border in history is inaccurate. The frontier on the ground was a settled peripheral zone both of urban and rural settlements, on the one hand participating in trade and local production, and on the other interacting, competing, and exchanging with each other and with central lands. A mid-level settlement was the waystation, established in the Abbasid period and located on frontier routes connecting to Byzantine lands. One example of such a settlement was Hisn al-Tinat in eastern Cilicia (the narrow coastal Plain of Issos), occupied in the Early Islamic and Middle Byzantine period of reconquest (8-12th centuries) and mentioned in sources as a fort and timber depot and port. Its architecture, material culture, and environmental context revealed in recent excavations show how the site was linked to a wider network of cultural exchange. Further, the frontier site of Hisn al-Tinat alludes to the complex symbiotic relationship of a militarized and economic resource-based frontier landscape, disintegrating the notion of an empty war torn no-man's land or a hermetically sealed border zone.
Liman Tepe excavations
Prof Dr Hayat Erkanal, Dr Gregory Votruba, Dr Levent Keskin, Dr Sila Votruba, Dr Irfan Tucu
(Ankara University Research Center for Maritime Archaeology (Anküsam), Turkey)
and
Prof. Dr. Vasıf Şahoğlu, (University of Haifa, Israel)
Data on the prehistory of Western Anatolia has been steadily increasing during the last few decades as a result of new excavations and research carried out both on coastal and inland sites. These excavations and research have greatly contributed to our present knowledge and help us better understand the prehistoric cultures of Western Anatolia within a broader context of Aegean and Anatolian cultural spheres. Liman Tepe, located in Izmir province, shows a continuous habitation sequence from the Chalcolithic period onwards to the Classical ages. The importance of the site is represented by the impressive remains of the Early Bronze Age when it was one of the largest harbor towns in the Aegean world. During the EBA I period the site was fortified with a monumental defensive wall accompanied by two rectangular towers. The settlement plan includes long houses, sharing common walls and built perpendicular to the fortification wall. This radial plan accords well with the "Anatolian settlement plan" which is well-known from other contemporary Western Anatolian and East Aegean island settlements. So far three houses (Houses 1, 2 and 3) have been completely or partially investigated. The archaeological evidence demonstrates that these buildings were used not only for domestic purposes but also acted as production areas. Particular buildings were used for specific activities, including metalworking, textile and obsidian production. During this period, Liman Tepe displays all the characteristics of an important harbor town with many imported finds, especially from the Cycladic islands. During the succeeding phase, the dimensions of the settlement increased and the upper town was surrounded with a massive and monumental fortification system supported by horse-shoe shaped bastions. At the earlier phases of EBA II the long houses of the previous period were still in use with some alterations but were later accompanied by the construction of a monumental communal complex. The finds from this building, such as seals, cultic objects and fine examples of pottery suggest that it acted both as a religious and administrative center of the site. The 2009 season at Liman Tepe aimed at further documenting the stratigraphy of House 1 in its northern half, while also aiming to reach the levels at its southern end (unexcavated until this year). This paper will represent the results of the 2009 season at Liman Tepe concerning the Early Bronze Age within the perspective of previous years' work.
Iron Age houses and households in the south Levant
Ms Lydia Evdoxiadi Verniory (University College London, UK)
Despite the fact that many Iron Age sites in the southern Levant have benefited from excavations often spanning decades, research on Iron Age domestic life is sparse, especially in comparison to other periods, namely the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Paradoxically, alongside this dearth of research, there is an unprecedented popularity in discussions of the concept and implications of houses and households, mainly as tools for addressing broader geopolitical concerns, such as state formation processes. The eagerness to link the few analysed domestic microprocesses to the socio-political macroprocess of the Iron Age as a whole (ca. 1200-600 B.C.E) has resulted in interpretations that may be overturned from within these microprocesses. This could be partially attributed to the fact that traditional culture-historically oriented research often passes over the basic intermediate steps of setting a theoretical and general methodological framework and applying it in data analyses. Couched in a culture-historical framework, the most frequent analysis performed on houses is a typological approach to house form in combination with questions which place emphasis on ethnicity and cultural affiliations as probable explanations for variations in house forms. Aware of the large body of available data and the possibilities this implies, this paper documents and confers the existence of a significant range of variations in different aspects of Iron Age houses in the southern Levant. Concerning house form, this paper documents and analyses domestic architectural variability through ground-plan analysis and classification. It examines material culture by means of quantitative analysis, in order to explore questions about wealth/status differentiation and social unit composition within selected sites. Through spatial analysis, it investigates the use of space in Iron Age houses, in an attempt to reframe long-held views on domestic space and consequently social interaction. This research integrates notions and nuances that derive from anthropological and scientific approaches to archaeology.
Tell Shiukh Tahtani on the Euphrates. Highlights of the last excavation seasons.
Prof Gioacchino Falsone (University of Palermo, Italy)
Dr Paola Sconzo (Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany)
In recent years (2006-09) the University of Palermo Euphrates expedition has continued rescue excavations at Tell Shiyukh Tahtani (the "Lower Hill of Sheikhs") as part of the Tishreen Dam Salvage Project. Located on the left bank of the river south of Jerablus, in the land that once was the Carchemish district, this small mound has revealed a long occupation sequence from around 3.000 B.C. to Byzantine and early Islamic times. During the last three seasons we mainly concentrated on the investigation of the eastern slope of the upper tell (Area CD), where a continuous Bronze Age occupation has been detected. Apart from the later levels (EB IV, Middle and Late Bronze Age), one of the main goals has been the investigation of the EB I–III town, dating to the first half of the 3rd millennium, a period still obscure in the Upper Syrian Euphrates Valley. In a deep trench at the foot of the tell three main phases have been identified: (a) the earliest (incipient EB I), probably transitional with the Late Uruk culture, can be assigned to the flourishing "champagne-cup" culture of the Middle Euphrates and is characterized by fine mud-brick architecture, decorated with niches and buttresses, strongly reminiscent of the contemporary style of Lower Mesopotamia. The second phase (EB Ib-II) shows a strong continuity, also marked by funerary rituals strikingly similar to the ones uncovered by the British Museum pioneer expedition on the citadel mound at Carchemish. The third level (EB III) marks an abandonment, characterized by some kind of squatters´ occupation, with a complete change in town planning and material culture. These and other finds suggest that the small settlement of Shiyukh Tahtani played a relevant role in the history of the Middle Euphrates region and of North Syrian civilization as a whole.
From Town to Village: the Early and Middle Bronze Age Remains at Tell Fadous-Kfarabida (Lebanon)
Prof Hermann Genz (American University of Beirut, Lebanon)
The Early Bronze Age site of Tell Fadous-Kfarabida, situated on the Lebanese Coast two kilometers south of the modern city of Batroun, was only discovered in 2004. In this paper the main results of the first three seasons of excavations, conducted by a team from AUB from 2007 to 2009, will be summarized. During the Early Bronze Age II, despite its small size of 1.5 ha, the site definitely shows urban characteristics such as a fortification system and a densely built-up interior with evidence of regular planning. The Middle Bronze Age, on the other hand, is only represented by isolated buildings and a few burials and thus seems to represent a rural settlement. In this paper the major discoveries of the first three seasons will be presented and discussed in the context of Bronze Age settlement systems in the coastal plain of Lebanon.
Tell Qudadi, a Bronze Age Site at the outlet of the Yarkon River, Tel Aviv, Israel
Prof Ram Gophna (Tel Aviv University, Israel) and Dr Yitzhak Paz (Ben Gurion University, Israel)
Tel Qudadi is located on the northern bank of the outlet of the Yarkon River. The site was badly damaged by modern activities prior to its archaeological study. Excavations at the site were conducted in 1937-8 first by P.L.O. Guy and afterwards by E.L. Sukenik and S. Yeivin, with the participation of N. Avigad. During the excavations, whose results have not been published untill now, two impressive superimposed Iron Age fortresses were found. While processing the materials from the excavations as part of an on-going project of publication of the Iron Age fortress and its finds by Dr. Oren Tal and Dr. Alexander Fantalkin (Tel Aviv University), some Chalcolithic, Early and Middle Bronze age pottery sherds were detected by us. These sherds suggest a continuous history of the site's use from the Chalcolithic period through a considerable part of the Bronze Age. The presence of the above mentioned pottery in Tel Qudadi, a fairly large site located at the outlet of the Yarkon river, may enable us not only to insert the site into the regional settlement pattern of Tel Aviv vicinity between the Chalcolithic period and the Middle Bronze Age, but also to assume that the existence of settlements at the tell during the above mentioned periods has important implications for the reconstruction of maritime activity along the central Mediterranean coasts of Israel during these periods. It may be proposed that mariners roamed the sea and anchored at sites like Jaffa and Tel Qudadi, and could also use the inland riverine connections to anchorage sites like Tel Gerisa, during both the Early and Middle Bronze ages.
issac.paz@beitberl.ac.il
gophna@post.tau.ac.il
Excavations at Tel Bet Yerah/Khirbet el-Kerak, 2009
Dr Raphael Greenberg, Dr Sarit Paz (Tel Aviv University, Israel) and Dr David Wengrow (University College London, UK)
The 2009 season at Tel Bet Yerah/Khirbet el-Kerak, a Tel Aviv University/UCL collaboration, was the first full-fledged campaign of renewed excavations at the site. Work was centered on three principal phases of occupation: the Early Bronze Age III, the Hellenistic period, and the late Byzantine/Early Islamic transition. For EB III, we concentrated on the immediate environs of the Circles Building (Granary), and the domestic areas adjoining it. Here, important evidence came to light for the introduction of the Khirbet Kerak 'culture' at the cusp of EB III, with its well-documented connections to eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus. A remarkable discovery was that of a fragment of a carved archaic Egyptian palette, attributed to the Dynasty 0/Dynasty 1 transition. This new discovery joins previously published evidence for a significant connection between the site and Egypt at the turn of the 3rd millenium BCE. As for the late periods, a determined effort was made, for the first time since the 1950's, to establish the chronology and stratigraphy both of Hellenistic Philoteria and of the remains tentatively identified with the Umayyad palace of al-Sinnabra (an identification first suggested by D. Whitcomb at ICAANE 3). We will report on progress made towards the confirmation of the suggested identification.
New light on the south Caucasian Neolithic: Insights from Goytepe, Azerbaijan.
Dr Farhad Guliyev (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Azerbaijan)
and Dr. Yoshihiro Nishiaki (University of Tokyo, Japan)
One of the main research areas of modern archaeology is the study of the formation of sedentary cultures with the earliest forms of subsistence economy based on agriculture and stockbreeding. During this process that is termed the "Neolithic Revolution", a number of features develop that are characteristic for the regions of the Near East, Southwest Asia and Caucasus. Research into the Neolithic in Azerbaijan began with the excavations at Kultepe I (1951) near the city of Nakhchivan. Subsequent research has since resulted in the discovery of about 150 Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlements in Azerbaijan. A number of Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites are located in the Ganja-Gazakh region, mostly along the middle reaches of the Kura River. One of the largest of these is the site of Goytepe, situated 2 km northwest from the village Qushchu and 1 km away from the highway, in the Tovuz district of Azerbaijan. The site extends over more than 2 ha, with a diameter of 145 m and a height of 8 m. In 2008-2009, the Expedition of Neolithic and Chalcolithic studies of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, conducted archaeological excavations at Goytepe. The excavation area on the upper part of the mound measured 400 m2. It was divided into 4 square trenches each 10x10 m in size: in trench 1A, 2A, 2B, which was reached at the depth of 3 m by Azerbaijan team, and in trench 4B, the Neolithic occupation layer which was excavated by a Japanese mission (the University Museum, the University of Tokyo, Pr. Yoshihiro Nishiaki). A number of densely arranged, thick-walled circular constructions were discovered; only one building had a rectangular from. All structures were composed of plano-convex mud-bricks with straw temper. For their manufacture, yellow and dark coloured clay was used. The structures built of yellow mud-bricks had dark coloured binding material, whereas dark bricks were bound with light-coloured mortar. In 2009 we plan to continue the fundamental and large-scale archeological researches on the Neolithic settlement Goytepe in cooperation with Tokyo University. One of the main goals remains the study of the complete stratigraphy of the site.
A New Site in western Anatolia: Çine Tepecik
Prof Sevinç Günel (Hacettepe University, Turkey)
Tepecik is situated in the Aydın province, on the edge of the Çine valley (Marsyas) which forms the southern branch of the Meander river. Its location on a number of natural routes is reflected in the material culture of the site, which displays both local and Aegean elements. Tepecik has yielded significant results about the regions archaeological cultures. It is not only important for the Anatolian archaeology but also for the Aegean world to trace the cultural characteristics of Tepecik as it sheds light on the Bronze Age.
Tepecik shows the model of a settlement dated to second millennium B. C., surrounded by a fortification wall. This settlement revealed architectural remains dated to the late period of the Late Bronze Age. Late Bronze Age cultural remains include a group of Mycenaean pottery, presented and assessed, that can be dated to the LH III B-C period based on decorative style and typology. Both the locally produced and imported Mycenaean ceramics at Tepecik reflect characteristic vessel forms and decorative elements of Mycenaean decorated pottery. In particular, the motifs used in the decoration of vessels resemble those of the later phases of Mycenaean decorative style and exemplify the decorated pottery tradition of the period. The later phases of Mycenaean culture are noteworthy for the distrubution of this culture across a wide area including the eastern Aegean islands and the coastal region of western Anatolia. The Mycenaean finds from Tepecik require a re-evaluation of the border of the Mycenaean cultural sphere in this period to include Çine within its distrubution area. The earliest culture layer of the settlement is dated to the Middle Bronze Age. The finds found in the architectural remains of this layer shed a light on the quite limited knowledge of the religious understanding of the region. Tepecik is in the position of a new centre which besides a developed local culture of the second millennium B. C. reveals interregional cultural relations.
Qubur el-Walaydah, The 2007-2009 Seasons
Dr Gunnar Lehmann (Ben-Gurion University, Israel)
Excavations at Qubur el-Walaydah, Israel, since 2007 have focused on a rural village of the Iron Age. A fortified Egyptian administrative building of the 12th century BCE has been excavated that was built over by a Philistine village of the 11th through 7th century BCE. The village reflects the settlement processes and the exchange pattern of the Gaza region with the Negev and the Transjordan during the Iron Age.
Recent Discoveries at Tell Tayinat on the Orontes
Prof Timothy Harrison (University of Toronto, Canada)
Tell Tayinat, located in the North Orontes Valley, has been the focus of excavations by the University of Toronto since 2004. Thus far, investigations on the sites upper mound, or citadel, have uncovered extensive remains from the Early Bronze (EB IVB, or Amuq Phase J) and Iron Ages, specifically the Early Iron I (Iron IA, or Amuq Phase N), the Iron II (9th-8th Centuries BCE), and the Iron III (late 8th-7th Centuries BCE). This paper will present the results of the 2008 and 2009 excavation seasons, with particular attention devoted to the newly discovered Iron Age temple in Field 2, including its cultic paraphernalia, Luwian hieroglyphic monuments, and cache of cuneiform tablets. The temple formed part of a larger religious complex, essentially a sacred precinct, adjoined to the nearby royal palaces, or bit hilani, of the Neo-Hittite kings of Patina. The archaeological evidence uncovered to date supports recent historical reconstructions of an Early Iron Age polity associated with the Land of Palastin (precursor to the later Patina), and comprised of an amalgam of Aegean, Anatolian (or Luwian) and Bronze Age West Syrian cultural traditions. Tayinat (ancient Kunulua) was destroyed by Tiglath-pileser III in 738 BCE, and then transformed into an Assyrian provincial capital equipped with its own governor and imperial administration. The destruction of the Luwian monuments in the sacred precinct, and its conversion into an Assyrian religious complex, may represent the physical manifestation of this historic event.
Kamiltepe 2009: First results of the joint Azerbaijan-German investigations in the Mil Steppe
Dr Barbara Helwing (German Archaeological Institute, Germany) and
Dr Tevekkül Aliyev (Baku, Azerbaijan, National Academy of Sciences, Institute for Archaeology and Ethnography)
Until recently, the earliest sedentary occupation in Azerbaijan was attested with the type site of Shomutepe in the area of the middle Kür River and its tributaries. Further east and south, sedentary life seems to have begun only later. In the Mil Steppe and the Karabagh plain, investigations in the 1950-60s by A. A. Iessen and I. Narimanov have yielded evidence for an eneolithic village type occupation that they dated to the 5th millennium BC or eneolithic, based on comparisons with Kujltepe/Naxicevan and Dalmatepe/Iran. Archaeological investigations at Kamiltepe began this summer, following previous soundings by T. Aliyev in 2008, within the framework of a scientific cooperation between the German Archaeological Institute and the National Academy of Sciences Azerbaijan. The site was one of those eneolithic settlement sites previously investigated by Iessen and Narimanov, and the foremost objective of the work was to establish a type assemblage for the earliest sedentary settlements in the Mil Steppe. It was a real surprise that the site turned out to consist in large part of a large and massive mudbrick platform, with walls of domestic houses built up against the edge of the platform. Cooking ware and animal bones accumulated around the structure indicate that a considerable amount of cooking took place there, either related to daily domestic cooking activities over a longer period, or to periodic feasting. However, the monumentality of the construction within the context of the earliest sedentary sites in the Mil Steppe remains enigmatic and indicates a so far unknown degree of complexity in the fifth millennium BC communities of Southwest Azerbaijan.
Surveys and excavations on the NE Sasanian frontier, Iran
Miss Kristen Hopper (Durham University, UK)
The Gorgan Plain played a crucial role in the story of several Near Eastern empires, namely as the Parthian heartland, and as an edge of the Sasanian empire - an idea manifest in the almost 200km long Gorgan Wall. This boundary, often cited as a defense against nomadic raiders, not only mimics the division in the natural landscape between the fertile lands in the shadow of the Elburz mountains, and the arid western plains to the north of the Gorgan River, but suggests that the region has been the locus for interaction between 'nomadic' and sedentary communities, most likely for thousands of years. Rowton (1974) has explored the idea of enclosed nomadism in the Near East, indicating mobile groups that seasonally have established relationships with sedentary groups, and contrasted this with those 'nomads' who practiced a far more isolated form of mobility (i.e. the 'nomads' of Central Asia). Importantly, the Gorgan Plain represents an area that at times was part of Near Eastern empires, but equally, looked toward Central Asia. Recent fieldwork conducted by a joint British and Iranian team in August/September 2008, and April/May 2009 has included excavation at the site of Ghelich Ghoynigh, which has revealed a town-site of relatively short duration that existed as part of a settlement system most likely predating the Parthian period. Survey has further indicated that this site exists as one of many with a similar layout that can be discussed in terms of ethnographic research on the use and construction of village/town space. Using various types of satellite imagery (CORONA, Landsat, Google Earth) the region has been mapped to explore the complex relationship between human settlement, modes of subsistence and land use in the region. This evidence can further our understanding of the relationship between sedentary, 'nomadic', and how we define boundaries.
Pottery from the temple of Ishtar Kidmuru at Nimrud
Dr Muzahim Mahmoud Hussein (Head of the Iraqi Department of Antiquities excavations at Nimrud, Iraq)
Pottery fragments dating to the Neo-Assyrian period have been found during recent excavations conducted by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities in the western part of the temple of Ishtar Kidmuru at Nimrud, some including scenes of war and another representing the arrest of prisoners. This research deals with analysis of these finds and compares them with those from previous excavations, noting similarities to wall panels and bronze gate bands, as well as murals from Til Barsip, northern Syria. Decoration on the fragments resembles some pieces previously discovered at Nimrud, especially reliefs found in the throne room of the palace of King Ashurnasirpal II. Among the clay fragments are cuneiform inscriptions, the initial reading of which has revealed mention of the Assyrian king Tukulti Ninurta II (890-884 BC).
The Eastern Palace of Qatna. A new example of MB Syrian palace architecture
Dr Marco Iamoni (University of Udine, Italy )
Recent excavations at Tell Mishrifeh/Qatna have exposed a significant sector of a large monumental building, the so-called Eastern Palace. During the 2008 season the stratigraphy and architecture have been further clarified, thus permitting a first reconstruction of the palace plan and its development throughout its existence. New building phases have been identified that show that the Eastern Palace is not a creation ex novo of a new building, but rather the result of substantial modifications to pre-existing buildings. The study of the material assemblages that come from the Palace rooms has refined the chronology of these different phases, allowing for a more precise placing of the Eastern Palace within the final MB II horizon of Central Western Syria and thus permitting a better understanding of its architectural features. This paper aims firstly at exposing these characteristics in order to highlight the occurrence of specific architectural modules in the Eastern Palace plan. As a second target, the achieved results will then be discussed in a wider perspective, by comparing them with other palaces, especially - though not only - from the Northern Levant, in order to provide new information which may increase our knowledge of the MB palace architecture in the Levant.
Karakalpak-Australian Excavations in ancient Chorasmia: recent excavations of wall paintings at Kazakly-yatkan
Dr Fiona Kidd (University of Sydney, Australia)
Since 2004 the Karakalpak-Australian Expedition to Chorasmia has been excavating a rich corpus of mural art in a monumental building complex at the site of Kazakly-yatkan (modern Uzbekistan). This diverse corpus - increasingly recognized as the best preserved and most extensive early mural art of Central Asia – offers significant new material from which to study relations between Iran and Central Asia. The paintings also provide a new platform from which to understand the complex socio-political context of ancient Chorasmia during the final centuries BCE and the beginning of the CE. While the portrait gallery – preserving perhaps 36 individually framed portraits – and the animal and human procession scene are reasonably well known, the most recent excavations have uncovered a surprisingly diverse range of imagery in various contexts and spaces across of the building complex. This paper will provide an update on the paintings excavated during the 2007-2009 field seasons, concentrating on their archaeological and architectural contexts.
Tell Arbid (NE Syria) at the turn of the third millennium BC.
Dr Rafał Kolinski (Institute of Prehistory, Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznañ, Poland)
In the Spring of 2008 a three-year research program on the Post-Akkadian period was launched at Tell Arbid by Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznañ. Two field seasons revealed a sequence of strata belonging to the late 3rd and early 2nd Millennium BC. Khabur Ware period: The MBA/OJ II remains included remnants of five houses and 28 graves dug into ancient surface of the tell in their vicinity. Four types of graves were observed: family chamber graves (4 examples), brick cist graves (6), pot-burials (8), and simple pit inhumations. The two last types of graves were reserved for children. Post-Akkadian period: Core of the settlement consisted of an impressive structure, dubbed "Residence". It is composed of a paved courtyard, measuring 5,4 by at least 4 m, and two wings: on the north-west (composed of at least three rooms) and on the north-east. Its walls were over 1m thick and preserved up to 1.7 m in places. On the west, a number of smaller structures were unearthed, some of them built against the outer wall of the "Residence". Further towards the west and south an open area extended, featuring bread ovens and other installations. There some post-Akkadian children's graves were cleared. Finally, higher on the slope, a pottery kiln of the same date was discovered. The post-Akkadian settlement appears to be quite wealthy, as it yielded a number of bronzes (two sickles, kohl-pin, several cloth pins and jewellery pieces), a mould for casting bronze, and a number of complete pottery vessels. Of much interest was the presence of an intermediate horizon, represented by pits cutting into post-Akkadian layer. Some were later cut by pisé foundations of the Khabur Ware houses. A few of them yielded material which may represent the MBA/OJ I period at the site.
Sidon and Tell el-Dabca: a long history of exchange
Dr Karin Kopetzky (SCIEM 2000, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria)
The British museum excavation site of Sidon revealed a large number of imports from Egypt during the periods of the MB II and LB. Beside scarabs and stone vessels the bulk of these imports consists of pottery. They were found in an area which was used as an burial ground during the whole MB II period. Rather restricted in their shapes some of these vessels are chronological markers and can help to tie the phases of Sidon to the chronology of Ancient Egypt and shed new light on the trade between the Levantine coast during the period between the Middle and the New Kingdom. These exchanges are also attested in the harbour town of Auaris (modern Tell el-Dabca excavation of the Austrian Archaeological Institute), where imports of the Levant are numerous. By analysing the exchanged goods and their quantity and quality one gets a clearer picture of the nature of their commodity as well as the intensity of the, most likely, seagoing trade.
Chogha Golan, A PPN Site in the Foothills of the Zagros Mountains
Mr Mohsen Zeidi Kulehparcheh, Dr Simone Riehl, Dr Kathleen Deckers, Mr Hannes Napierala and
Prof Nicholas J. Conrad (University of Tuebingen, Germany)
In the summer of 2009 the TISARP team began a collaborative research project with the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research at the PPN site of the Chogha Golan. This tell, which was discovered and initially described in the early 1990s by the late A. M. Khalilian, is located in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains in the Ilam Province of western Iran. Chogha Golan is an aceramic tell with a height of 4-5 meters and an area of about 2 hectares. The site is situated on the eastern side of the Mehran-Ilam highway just south of the modern village of Golan. In 2009 we conducted excavations to document the site's cultural and chronostratigraphic context. The main goals of this project are the recovery of all classes of organic and inorganic materials needed to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental setting and the subsistence economy of the site's inhabitants. Based on surface and excavated finds, the occupation of the tell dates to the eighth or ninth millennium BC, a period transitional between hunting and gathering and farming. Since archaeological sites dating to this period are poorly documented in western Iran, the excavation of Chogha Golan is potentially important for reconstructing the region's settlement history. This work aims to test the hypothesis that the first phase of lowland Neolithic settlement would occur in a region adjacent to the mountains, the presumed natural habitat of key domesticated species. In this context the Mehran Plain and the nearby foothills of the Zagros form a promising setting to investigate early domestication and early village life.
Climate Change and Anthropogenic Signals in Holocene Sequences of North Central-Anatolia
Dr Catherine Kuzucuoglu (CNRS, France)
In the northern plateaux of Anatolia, two research programmes allow us to characterize and date, during the Holocene: a) century-scale rapid climatic events within a millennium-scale global evolution of climate, and b) human impacts on forests and soil resources. The first record is provided by a 6.8m long sequence cored in the Tecer lake (Sivas area), not far from the Hittite Kusakli site. It delivered a continuous high resolution record of indicators of environmental changes since the beginning of the 6th mill. BC: pollen, minerals (calcite, aragonite, gypsum, quartz), grain distribution, organic carbon, nitrogen. Detailed chronology is provided by radiocarbon dates on pollen grains from 8 levels, and on sedimentation rates-based extrapolation. Another series of records is formed by sequences cored in valley fills and spring-fed marshes in the Egri river basin (Yozgat region). Several of these sites are positioned next to archaeological tells, first occupied during the Chalcolithic (e.g. Alisar, Çadir). The geomorphological interpretation of each sequence benefits from electric profiles of Holocene sediment accumulations. Characterization of the Holocene sedimentation and climatic records is based on mineralogy, grain size and organic/inorganic contents. Completed with sections in river terraces and slope deposits, the obtained panel of sequences has been inter-related on the basis of stratigraphy and chronology. Results evidence climatic and anthropogenic short-duration signals. They also record major changes in the human use of soil and vegetation resources during and after the end of the mid-Holocene climatic Optimum. Two forest clearance periods are dated: a) at both sites during the 3rd mill. BC (Early Bronze Age); b) at the beginning of the Early Holocene in the Yozgat area, signalling the presence of Neolithic populations whose settlements are yet to be found. Results also shed light on the relationships between climate and human societies during the mid- and Late Holocene.
Catherine.Kuzucuoglu@cnrs-bellevue.fr
Recent Discoveries at Tell Beydar (Syria), in particular South of the Acropolis
Dr Marc Lebeau (European Centre for Upper Mesopotamian Studies, Brussels, Belgium)
The latest seasons at Tell Beydar (Syria) progressively reveal the city planning of the third Millennium town (Early Jezirah IIIb), in particular the structure of the Upper City: houses, temples, a second palatial building, and workshops. South of the Acropolis, a recently discovered large architectural complex comprises a fifth temple (Temple E), a large paved official court, wings of service rooms, and a ceremonial hall. This sector of the city shows strong similarities with FS and SS complexes at Tell Brak.
Recent Research on the Chalcolithic Period in Azerbaijan, the site of Mentesh Tepe
Dr Bertille Lyonnet (CNRS, France)
Situated in Azerbaijan, in the middle of the Kura River Valley and on its right bank, Mentesh Tepe is a Chalcolithic site of the second half of the 5th millennium B.C. excavated by a French-Azerbaijan team since 2008. Though partly destroyed by a Kura-Araxes collective vaulted tomb under a kurgan, it allows a better understanding of the evolution between the local Neolithic Shomu-Shulaveri culture, and the Late Chalcolithic Leilatepe culture. It also presents ties with North Mesopotamian cultures during the Terminal Ubaid and the transitional phase to the Late Chalcolithic, especially in its pottery. This, added to the strong links already demonstrated between the two areas at this later period, tend to show that Southern Caucasus should not be considered as completely separate from the history of Mesopotamia but on the contrary that it probably contributed to its making on the same level as Eastern Anatolia.
Ziyaret Tepe/Tushan - a Provincial Capital of the Assyrian Empire
Dr John MacGinnis (Cambridge University, UK)
The site of Ziyaret Tepe lies on the Tigris in southeastern Turkey some 60 km east of Diyarbakir. This is an area which until recent times was almost terra incognita in terms of archaeological exploration, while at the same time being of high interest for students of near eastern history and archaeology due to its position on the northern marches of the Assyrian Empire. Consequently, once the opportunity presented itself to carry out survey and excavation in the region it was to be expected that rich results would follow. This has indeed been the case. The present paper reviews the results of the now more than ten years of fieldwork at Ziyaret Tepe. The site can be identified as the ancient Assyrian provincial capital of Tußhan. Discoveries have been commensurate with this status. Starting with a comprehensive programme of remote sensing the project has carried out major excavation in multiple area on both the central mound and the surrounding lower town. In addition to the exposure of major architectural remains this has produced epigraphic material of extraordinary importance which clearly relates to the concluding years and final collapse of the Assyrian empire. The data is evaluated in this context and pointers for future investigations explored.
The 2009 Turkish-Italian salvage excavations and restorations at Tasli Geçit Höyük (Turkey)
Prof Nicolo' Marchetti (University of Bologna, Italy)
The 2009 salvage excavations of Gaziantep Museum and Bologna University, with additional funding from the Italian Ministries for Foreign Affairs and for Education, Universities and Research, have been undertaken at Tasli Geçit Höyük (Islahiye, Gaziantep), in cooperation with Istanbul University. The site lies within an artificial lake, dried up in summer, severely eroding the lower part of the mound, a threat which has been mitigated through the application of some high tech barriers provided by Maccaferri group. A low cost wireless system (a cluster of MID handhelds connected to a self-powered server) was used for data recording in the field and at the camp, employing an open source web application developed by Bologna University (AlmaDig; www.nadir.unibo.it/almadig/). The excavations were carried out in eight areas on the upper and lower sectors of the 3.5 ha mound and the combined results highlight the later settlement history of this urban center: the site, unfortified, flourished until the end of Middle Bronze IB, when it was deserted probably in connection with the growth of nearby Tilmen Höyük. However, after the destruction of the latter at the end of Middle Bronze IIB, Tasli Geçit Höyük was reoccupied in Late Bronze I and a large scale building program was started, with an impressive stone glacis, a massive fortress, a residency and public storerooms. An earthquake seemingly destroyed the town during the construction process, which accounts for the wealth of materials retrieved, including several bronze tools and two idols, seals and a vast array of pottery shapes. The Late Bronze II occupation was reduced in scale and the site remained subsequently abandoned until the Hellenistic period, when a village with a regular layout was present on top of the site.
Archaeological investigations at the salt mine of Duzdagi (Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan)
Dr Catherine Marro (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France),
Dr Veli Bakhşhaliyev (Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Naxçıvan, Azerbaijan)
The mine of Duzdagi is a major salt dome located some 5 km to the Northwest of Nakhichevan city, along the former Silk Road linking Tabriz to Constantinople. The slopes of the mine, which is still being exploited today, are dotted with archaeological artifacts, among which stone tools are found in quantity. In the 1970s, the remains of four workers were found together with their tools by Soviet miners. These remains, which lay in an ancient tunnel that had fallen in, were dated from the stone tools to the beginning of the 2nd Millennium BC (Middle Bronze Age), as the tools show significant similarities with a series of hammers and maces that had been retrieved from stratified contexts at Kültepe I. However, research carried out at Duzdagi by a French-Azerbaijani team over the last two years has revealed that the systematic exploitation of this mine probably started much earlier: the frequent occurrence of Kuro-Araxes pottery suggests that the mine has been intensively exploited since at least the middle of the 4th Millennium BC. Moreover, aerial photographs taken from a kite have revealed the traces of ancient tunnels, all fallen in, indicating the existence of an elaborated mining system at an ancient date. After a brief description of the survey's aims and methods, this paper will present its first results in detail and discuss their significance within the Late Prehistoric regional exchange network.
Iron Age discoveries from the 2009 Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon
Dr Daniel Master (Wheaton College, USA)
As a city of more than ten thousand inhabitants, Ashkelon was the largest seaport in the southern Levant, dominating its hinterland for more than 3000 years. During the 13th and 12th century B.C., the relationship of Ashkelon to its surroundings was transformed. Until the 13th century, Ashkelon was a Canaanite trading post dominated by Egypt but connected to maritime commercial networks extending into the central Mediterranean. By the end of the 12th century, Ashkelon was the only seaport in a Philistine pentapolis whose interests had turned decisively eastward. During the critical transition, Ashkelon was in a unique position to maintain and re-form maritime networks abandoned by the inland Philistine cities during the dislocations of the twelfth century. The 2009 Leon Levy Expedition uncovered the best preserved twelfth century remains ever found at the site including epigraphic, ceramic, and architectural evidence which shed new light on the settlement of the "Sea Peoples" in the southern Levant. Of particular note, the 2009 expedition uncovered a unique "four-horned" installation set off in an inner room of the complex. This installation provides evidence either for household religion or perhaps even for a twelfth century temple at the site. This paper will highlight the results of the 2009 excavations which shed light on the social, religious, and commercial connections of the earliest "Sea Peoples" at Ashkelon.
Surface Survey and Geophysical Prospection in the Microregion of Tell Arbid,NE Syria
Dr Inna Mateiciucová, Mr Jakub Matousek, Mr Peter Milo, Mr Marek Vlach and Mr Tomás Tencer
(Masaryk University, Brno, Institute of Archaeology and Museology)
One of the aims of the Czech Prehistoric Archaeological Project, attached to the Syria-Polish Expedition at Tell Arbid in the Upper Khabur area of NE Syria, is field survey of the surrounding region. Results of the 2005-2009 field seasons are reported here. Two types of surveys small- and large-scale varying in purpose, method, size of area surveyed, and expected results - were carried out. A large-scale, 89 ha area investigated in the region near wadi Abyad, while a more intensive, small-scale survey (23 ha) covered the Late Neolithic site of Tell Arbid Abyad. In addition, two sites with Neolithic and Chalcolithic remains, Khirbet Bezi and Khirbet Shane were surveyed for surface finds. These surveys recovered more than 30,000 sherds whose distribution was used to create interpolated raster layers of sherd density. We also tested satellite-derived expectations of high and low density surface remains predicted by Jason Ur and Bjoern Menze (2007). During 2008 we also carried out geophysical surveys at sites with Neolithic to Iron Age settlements. The Scintrex Mavmap SM-5 Cesium Magnetometer measured the vertical gradient of the magnetic field over an area of 11.25 ha, with a resolution of 1.0 x 0.15 m. The results of geophysical survey differs from site to site.
The Acropolis of Ebla. Excavations of 2008 and 2009
Prof Paolo Matthiae (University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy)
During the 2008 and 2009 excavation campaigns at Tell Mardikh-Ebla the Italian Archaeological Expedition of the "Sapienza" - University of Rome obtained important results in two sectors of the Acropolis, where we have now decided to concentrate our research. In the first place, below Ishtar's Temple (Area D) of Middle Bronze I-II we singled out the Red Temple (Temple D2) of Early Bronze IVA, and Temple D3 of Early Bronze IVB. In the second place, in Areas F and E, respectively East of Ishtar's Temple amd in the north region of the Old Syrian Citadel, we brought to light some peripheral sector of the Royal Palace E of Middle Bronze I-II, featuring important re-employments of Late Bronze I.
Excavations at Ayia Varvara Asprokremnos
Dr Carole McCartney (University of Cyprus)
Excavations at Ayia Varvara Asprokremnos in central Cyprus provide evidence of a previously un-recognized Early Neolithic phase of occupation on the island. An initial set of 14C dates places the site in the 1st half of the 9th MBC cal showing the site to be contemporary with late PPNA transitional EPPNB sites of the mainland Levant. Excavated features and material culture correlate well with contemporary mainland traditions with numerous parallels corresponding to the Northern Levant in particular. More broadly, evidence from the site including the lack of a 'Neolithic package' suggest that the Neolithization of Cyprus was initiated by foragers not farmers.
Rural Islamic settlement patterns: the Upper Orontes Valley, Syria
Asst. Prof. Dr. Stephen McPhillips (University of Copenhagen Carsten Niebuhr
Institute (ToRS), Denmark)
Historical profiles of the Islamic past of Syria have given little voice to rural life. Islamic archaeology in Syria has tended to rely on overly rigid chronological models when creating taxonomies of material culture, and this has impacted upon how we interpret of the settlement history of the non-urban environment. The importance of its archaeological investigation is amplified by the rapid disappearance over the last three decades of a large number of sites and landscape features in many parts of the Middle East. Targeted survey in September 2009 has provided new understandings of settlement patterns in Islamic periods in central western Syria. This builds on the large corpus of site data identified in a 600 square kilometre area by the University of Durham Survey of the Homs Region using a combination of satellite imagery and ground survey, and on work undertaken by the author establishing ceramic typologies. The current project aims to provide new insights into the changing nature of human presence in the Upper Orontes valley, a key location at the juncture of inland, coastal and desert zones of Syria through the Islamic centuries. By combining new comparative data with our developing understanding of the landscape history of the Homs region we can work towards new understandings of settlement history for western Syria. This suggests continuity of occupation into the Abbasid period at sites in the W'ar basalt plateau west of Homs, and an expansion of habitation away from an apparent concentration along the river course and lakeshore into the hinterland from the twelfth century which persists well into the Ottoman era in the marl landscapes further south.
The Neolithic site of Yiftahel (Khalet Khalladyiah), lower Galilee.
Results from the 2007-2008 seasons of excavation.
Dr Ianir Milevski, Dr Hamoudi Khalaily and Mr Nimrod Getzov (Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel)
Two extended seasons of excavations were conducted during 2007 and 2008 at site of Yiftahel (Khalet Khalladyiah) in the fringe of Beit Netofa valley, lower Galilee (Israel). Four new areas (F, G, H and I) were opened in addition to the five areas previously excavated during the 1980's and 1990's. This lecture will present the highlights from the main occupational periods excavated at Yiftahel, i.e., the Pottery Neolithic (Jericho IX culture) (ca. 6,500-5,500 BC) and the Mid-Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (8,000-7,000 BC). Large PPNB buildings, displaying rectilinear plans with mud-brick and/or stone walls were discovered in the recent seasons of excavations. All of the buildings have thick lime-plastered floors. Aside from plentiful lithic assemblages related to the ""naviform"" industry, rich botanical and faunal remains were found at the site. The most outstanding finds are related to the mortuary practices at the site, including three modeled plastered skulls. The Pottery Neolithic is well represented in Area G. Pottery from this period was found in Area B of the previous excavations. The importance of the renewed excavations is that they exposed several rectilinear buildings, pottery vessels, flint items, faunal remains and several burials.
Empty or crowded? An attempt to estimate the relevance of ruins inside the urban landscape in the Ancient Near East.
Dr Lucia Mori (Rome "La Sapienza", Italy)
Dr Silvia Festuccia, University Suor Orsola Benincasa, Naples, Italy
The present paper aims at investigating, through the analysis of some case studies, a specific topic concerning the urban landscape in some settlements of the ancient Near East, which is the ratio between settled and unsettled areas, between the empty – or no longer inhabited - areas and buildings and the real residential structures, basing the research both on archaeological and on philological data. If the archaeological excavations are a fundamental tool in uncovering and understanding the layout and functional use of the different quarters of the ancient cities, the recovery and analyses of juridical texts concerning real estates – when available - can add a further step in the interpretation of the ancient urban landscape and its complex use, reuse, abandonment and development. The study of properties adjoining houses in real estate sales gives precious and detailed indications on a topographic setting wider than the simple building itself. Among the many observations possible, this paper aims at analysing the relation between houses and ruins in different chronological and geographical contexts. As a matter of fact, the presence of ruins is well attested in tablets both from southern Mesopotamia (é.ki.ûb.ba in texts from Larsa and Dilbat) and from the Middle Euphrates valley (kirsitu in documents from Emar and Ekalte). Their mention is interesting evidence of the fact that buildings excavated and pertaining to a specific archaeological phase could be temporarily abandoned or could not be inhabited contemporaneously. The interpolation between archaeological and philological data could thus help in adding a deeper insight the important topic of the ancient demography inside the articulated urban fabric.
Craft Specialization in the Iranian Sistan: Tepe Dasht
Asst. Prof Mehdi Mortazavi (University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran)
Tepe Dasht, located 3 km southwest of Shahr-i-Sokhta, was a manufacturing site for ceramics during the third millennium BC. Like Shahr-i-Sokhta, Tepe Dasht is situated on the right side of Zabol-Zahedan highway. This site, first discovered by the Italian mission in the 1970s, was surveyed in 2007 by an Iranian team from The University of Sistan and Baluchestan. It was excavated by the author in February and March 2009. Tepe Dasht appears to have been peripheral to Shahr-i-Sokhta, functioning as a manufacturing center during the third millennium BC. Ceramic samples indicate that this third millennium BC occupation was contemporary with periods II-III of the Shahr-i-Sokhta sequence.
Tosi's excavations at Shahr-i-Sokhta have revealed the clearest evidence for the emergence of a complex society in the Sistan Basin. His studies have been augmented by field surveys of neighboring sites and excavation at Rud-i-Biyaban. It is believed that there is a relationship between complexity and craft specialization. As the complexity of a society increases, more networks are created among individuals, more hierarchical controls are created to regulate these networks, more information is processed, and there is more centralization of information flows. An understanding of Tepe Dasht is integral to an understanding of the growing complexity of Shahr-i-Sokhta since it functioned as a related manufacturing site, in which craft specialization is clearly visible.
This paper aims to examine craft specialization at Tepe Dasht in the Iranian Sistan during the third millennium BC. It seems that there are four pre-requisites in the formation of a large pottery production site. These are clay, water, fuel and wind as well as the increasingly complex urban society of neighboring Shahr-i-Sokhta. Without the presence of the above factors, craftsmen could not have developed Tepe Dasht into such a significant manufacturing site.
Chenask; an open air middle Palaeolithic site from the southern foothills of the Alborz
Mountains
Mr Rahmat Naderi, Asst Prof Farzad Mafi, Mr Reza Akhondi (University of Azad Abahr, Iran)
Currently, most Palaeolithic data in Iran derives from investigations in the central and southern parts of the Iranian Zagros Mountains, although during the last decade numerous Palaeolithic sites have been discovered in the central plateau and Alborz Mountains. In 2006 the authors conducted a Palaeolithic survey in the southern foothills of the Alborz Mountains around 30 km north of Abeyek City (Qazvin Province). Our survey has documented 89 open air sites in the region, dating from the Middle Palaeolithic to Historic Periods. The Middle Palaeolithic open air site of Chenask has an area 4000 m. sq. around 2000 a.s.l. The site is located in a corridor–like area in the Alborz Mountains connecting the lowlands around the Caspian Sea in the north and the central plateau in the south. The site is one of the highest middle Palaeolithic sites known in the Iranian Plateau. We collected 30 stone artefacts from the surface of the site. The lithics included flakes and tools confirming the existence of Levallois technology at the open air site of Chenask.
zagrosnaderi@yahoo.com
farzadmafi@iau-abhar.ac.ir
Jericho 2010: 10,000 years of archaeology in Palestine: recent discoveries of the Italian–Palestinian Expedition at Tell es–Sultan
Prof Lorenzo Nigro (Rome "La Sapienza" University, Italy) and
Dr Hamdan Taha (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Palestine National Authority, Palestine)
In March 2009 Rome La Sapienza University and the Palestinian Department of Antinquities resumed excavations at Tell es-Sultan, ancient Jericho, mainly focusing on the Bronze Age cities, investigating main urban features, defenses (from EBII to MBIII) and several dwelling quarters. A basic discovery was the public area on the Spring Hill (with the EB palace and the MB temple), as well as a huge buildings in the Lower Town at the southern foot of the tell, and in the eastern Lower Town around the Spring (Ain es-Sultan). Restorations and excavations also reached Neolithic layers, bringing to light new important evidence aside the PPNA Tower.
New Investigations in the Van Lake Basin: Bronze and Iron Ages'
Assistant Prof. Aynur Özfırat (Yüzüncü Yıl üniversitesi,
Fen–Edebiyat Fakültesi, Arkeoloji Bölümü, Kampüs, 65080–Van, Turkey)
Our campaigns in the region of Van Lake Basin include survey for periods from the Late Chalcolithic to the Late Iron Age. The region is located in eastern Anatolia. Survey shows that the eastern Anatolian high plateau should be considered together with Transcaucasia and Iranian Azerbaijan, which are its geographical continuation in terms of culture. This wide region shared the same culture despite the various regional differences. A clear change in the settlement pattern is visible throughout the region after the Early Bronze age, as sedentary life seems to be abandoned until the Urartian period. At the end of the Early Bronze age, human communities seem to leave the valleys and the plains and shift to pasture land in higher areas, as is suggested by the presence of numerous large cemeteries located at the foot of such areas. However, settlements are also conspicuous by their absence in the pasture lands. The sites of Iron Age Van Lake Basin that we explored all showed comparable traits in their locations and architectural structures. The fortresses stand atop the hills, where they dominate the plain. They are surrounded with large fortification walls. The cemeteries extend along the feet of the fortresses.
Tarsus–Gözlükule 2007–2009: The Early Islamic Remains
Prof Asli Özyar (Boğaziçi University, Turkey)
The Cilician plain or Çukurova lies in what was the contested border region between the Byzantine world and the rising polity of Islam. In 1935 Hetty Goldman began excavations sponsored by Bryn Mawr College on a settlement mound in the plain of Cilicia with the aim to reveal the stratigraphic sequence in full scale. The selected site is known as Gözlükule Höyük, located on the former east bank of ancient Cydnus or the later Al–Baradan river (Tarsus Çayı), today on the southern fringes of the modern city of Tarsus in the province of Mersin. The Goldman excavations revealed that the main core of this mound was formed in prehistoric times and that it continued to be inhabited through the Classical and Roman eras. On the top layer of both excavated areas, however, her team uncovered an Early Islamic settlement phase of the Abbasid or possibly Umayyad period. The results of the Goldman period excavations were published in a number of preliminary reports where Islamic levels were mentioned in passing. Furthermore, Florence Day who had been assigned the Islamic material published articles on selected finds. With F. Day passing away the final publication of the Islamic remains is still outstanding. In 2001 an interdisciplinary team sponsored by Boğaziçi University and in cooperation with Bryn Mawr College began new researches at the mound of Gözlükule in Tarsus. The Goldman period study collection formerly in the Adana Museum was brought to Tarsus to be investigated and re–studied. This collection also included the bulk of the Islamic material which had been sorted, mended, and recorded for publication by F.Day. An earthquake and a flooding of the Saros (Seyhan) river had disarrayed most of the mended pieces while in the Adana Museum. In 2007 new excavations were begun on the eastern summit of Gözlükule in an area abutting the Goldman period trench A. Early Islamic settlement remains began to appear at surface level and continue to dominate the excavated area in 2008. Islamic levels are expected to continue providing us with the majority of our finds in 2009. The planned paper will present the preliminary results of the 2007–2009 excavations regarding the Early Islamic remains.
Latest results from the excavations at Mersin–Yumuktepe (seasons 2008–2009) and the discovery of a new chalcolithic architectural complex: redistribution at the sea?
Dr Giulio Palumbi, Prof. Isabella Caneva, Dr. Antonia Pasquino and Dr. Burhan Ula
(Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy),
Located between the Mediterranean and the Taurus mountains and on the routes connecting Central Anatolia to Northern Syria, Mersin–Yumuktepe has always been characterised by very specific local developments and at the same time by heterogeneous foreign cultural influences. The excavations carried out during the last two years (2008 and 2009 campaigns), and focused on the Early Neolithic and Chalcolithic occupations, have not only confirmed this general trend but also highlighted that, even if at the "margins" of the Near Eastern world, the site was well tuned in to the technological achievements and socio–economic and cultural processes which characterised the entire Near Eastern region from the Early Ceramic Neolithic to the Chalcolithic periods. Regarding this latter phase, J. Garstang's excavations had already revealed very early forms (for the whole Near East) of spatial, functional and possibly also social differentiation of the settlement (the so–called citadel from Level XVI), which might have reflected the emergence of elitarian groups linked to the control over the trade or production of metal goods. The following level XIIB, little excavated and very poorly understood by Garstang, could not give any special clue on the socioeconomic developments of this same community in the second half of the fourth millennium. However, the 2008 and 2009 excavations of both a residential area and a large (possibly monumental) complex (corresponding to Garstang's Level XIIB), have definitely shed light on the developments of this community in the Late–Ubaid period. Thousands of fragments of mass–produced bowls (Coba Bowls) found in these buildings point first of all to a shift in the economic strategies undertaken by the local households and, at the same time, witness how the economic model founded on redistribution (analogous to that of the contemporary Ubaid societies of Mesopotamia) was adopted by a maritime community and readapted (also from a dietary perspective) to a Mediterranean context.
In the Shadow of Ararat: Recent Research in the Araxes River Region, Naxçivan, Azerbaijan
Prof Bradley Parker (University of Utah, USA)
During the summer of 2009 a team from the University of Utah conducted intensive archaeological surveys at seventeen archaeological sites at the confluence of the Arpaçay and the Araxes Rivers, in the province of Sharur (Şərur), in the region of Naxçivan, Azerbaijan. The goals of the project were threefold. First, our intention was to conduct an intensive pedestrian survey of the agricultural fields around the important Iron Age fortress of Oğlanqala in an effort to locate and record small sites within its immediate environs. Second, we set out to map and make systematic archaeological collections of a number of Urartian fortresses known to exist in the hills surrounding the Arpaçay River. Our third objective was to map and make systematic archaeological collections from eight Early Transcaucasian (ETC) sites identified in the region. Many interesting results are emerging from this research. By presenting data collected at four Urartian fortresses, including the massive and previously unexplored fortress of Sederekqala, this talk will present some initial conclusions about the applicability of the "network empire theory" in the heartland of the ancient empire of Urartu. It will also present new data pertinent to the study of the Early Transcaucasian (ETC) culture.
The Land of Carchemish (Syria) Project 2009: The Sajur Triangle
Prof Edgar Peltenburg, (University of Edinburgh, UK),
Prof Tony J. Wilkinson (Durham University, UK),
Mr A. Ricci (University of Kiel, Germany),
Mr D. Lawrence (Durham University, UK),
Dr A. McCarthy (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Dr Eleanor B. Wilkinson (Durham University, UK),
Dr P. Newson (American University Beirut, Lebanon) and
Miss Silvia Perini (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Our third fieldwork season focused on investigations west of the Euphrates River, in the heart of the triangle formed by that river, the Sajur tributary and the Syro–Turkish border starting at Carchemish. Details of some 70 sites allow us to address the knowledge bias that has resulted from excavations confined to Euphrates Valley sites. For example, the distribution of hinterland sites with Uruk–type material provides much–needed insights into the nature of the expansion phenomenon. The region forms the core of the Sanlaville–Moore surveys published in 1985. They reported some 20 tells and dated them according to pottery– and chipped stone–derived chronologies. Since then, the results of excavations have led to chronological refinements of these materials, and the Land of Carchemish (Syria) Project (LCP) has re–evaluated several of the sites recorded earlier. The opportunity is taken here to show how the LCP is changing our understanding of long–term settlement and landscape development by comparing the methods and results of the two surveys, with particular attention to issues concerning the Middle Bronze Age and to the Hellenistic, Roman & Byzantine dispersal. Reference will also be made to survey conducted in the mainly Iron Age Outer Town of Carchemish.
e.peltenburg@ed.ac.uk
t.j.wilkinson@durham.ac.uk
e.b.wilkinson@durham.ac.uk
The Middle Bronze Age at Tell Ahmar (North Syria): new data from seasons 2004–2009
Miss Silvia Perini (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Tell Ahmar is located on the east bank of the Syrian part of the Euphrates River, about twenty kilometres south of the ancient city of Carchemish in the cultural area called the Middle Euphrates Valley. Since 2004, excavations in Tell Ahmar have been focused in three areas of the acropolis: A, M and S14. Here, three architectural units have been discovered by a Belgian team directed by Professor Guy Bunnens of the University of Liege: a public building (Area M, in the western part of the acropolis) and two private houses to the east (Area S14 and Area A28/A29). The well preserved building stratification, together with the conspicuous body of ceramic material, have allowed the utilization of these structures to be estimated as being between the end of the Middle Bronze Age and the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. In the last five years, excavations have been mainly concentrated in Area M and in Area S14. All the rooms of the structures which emerged in both areas were destroyed by a fire at the end of the Middle Bronze Age. This episode may be strongly connected with the subsequent abandonment of the areas. This paper provides a preliminary description of the ceramic assemblage discovered at the excavated areas from 2004 onwards. A functional approach, which is primarily based on vessel morpho-technological characteristics, has been adopted for the analysis of the material. Four vessel functional categories have been taken into consideration: storage, processing, transport and multi-function. According to architectonical evidence and to the frequency and distribution of the vessel functional categories, room functions have been proposed.
Landscape Archaeology South of the Caspian Sea: Some new Insights.
Dr. Christian Konrad Piller (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany)
The area under consideration consists of the modern Iranian provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan as well as the adjacent territories of Azerbaijan (Talesh) and Turkmenistan (Sumbar). Despite the fact that the first archaeological investigations took place as early as the 19th century, the importance of the region for long-distance communication between Central Asia, the Near East and the Southern Caucasus has long been underestimated. Due to the natural barrier formed by the Alborz Mountains, factors such as the climatic conditions, the vegetation and the traditional architecture of the Caspian littoral and the northern flanks of the mountains differ in many respects from those of the Iranian Highlands. Before the construction of some modern road links in the 20th century, a direct communication between both regions was only possible through a few natural corridors such as riverbeds or mountain valleys, the most important ones being the valley that was formed by the course of the Sefid Rud River and the Firuzkuh pass northeast of modern Tehran. It was well known since antiquity that the main route of the so-called silk road followed the southern foothills of the Alborz Mountains. Only recently, the importance of the northern east-west connection from Central Asia to the Caucasus and Anatolia along the Caspian Coast has been recognised as one of the "arterial" roads of the Bronze and Iron Age trade networks in the Middle East. A detailed study based on newly published material of archaeological investigations in the region and a number of survey tours by the author revealed a sophisticated structure of archaeological sites. The aim of this contribution is to exhibit the connection between landscape and archaeological sites and their importance for the ancient communication routes in the southern Caspian region.
The First Season of Gre Amer Hoyuk in Batman, Turkey
Dr Gul Pulhan (Koc University, Turkey)
Gre Amer is a multi–period site located on the east bank of the Garzan River, an eastern tributary of the Tigris River in southeastern Turkey. The mound is within the proposed Ilisu Dam Reservoir area and if the construction of the long–contested dam goes ahead the site of Gre Amer will be flooded completely. The first season of salvage excavations were carried out in summer 2009 by Koc University, Department of Archaeology and History of Art in cooperation with the Mardin Archaeological Museum. At circa four hectares, Gre Amer constitutes the largest attested settlement in the Garzan River Valley. The 2009 excavations unearthed nearly one thousand square meters at four different locations of the mound with the aim of understanding the settlement chronology and the nature of the site. A road cut through the site in the 1950s to provide access to nearby oil fields had destroyed part of the archaeological deposit, yet revealed a large section of the mound. Two superimposed well–preserved burnt levels that were visible in the section were explored horizontally in multiple areas. Preliminary analyses of the stone–architecture and rich pottery data including numerous in situ whole pots, combined with metal, baked–clay, glass and obsidian artifacts place the two burnt levels in the Early Iron Age and Late Bronze Age horizons of the Upper Tigris Region. Two further (unburnt) structural levels above the upper burnt level indicate later Iron Age occupation. The hand–made, grooved and incised bowls, the typical markers of the Early Iron Age in Eastern Anatolia and in the Upper Tigris, painted jars with geometric designs, large jars with a variety of applied rope motifs as well as unique examples of turquoise glazed ware and red–brown wash ware establish strong parallels both with the Ilisu Salvage Project sites along the Tigris and with sites in northern Syria such as Sabi Abyad and Tell Brak. Partial recovery of a stone fortification wall, combined with the presence of a cuneiform inscribed ceramic bowl fragment and sealed jar fragments raises the possibility of a Middle Assyrian walled–farm, a dunnu, for the Late Bronze Age period of the site.
First Results of the Joint Shida Kartli Archeological Project
Dr Marina Puturidze (Tbilisi State University, Georgia) and Dr Elena Rova (Università Ca'Foscari, Venice, Italy)
The paper will present the general aims and the results of the first campaign (August–September 2009) of the Shida Kartli Archaeological project. This is a new collaborative project of the Ca' Foscari University of Venice in collaboration with the Tbilisi State University and the Georgian National Museum, devoted to the investigation of the 4th and 3rd millennium B.C. cultures of the Shida (Inner) Kartli province of Georgia and of their connections with the contemporary cultures of the Ancient Near East. The first campaign was dedicated to the re–study, for the final publication, of the material of the important EBA settlement and cemetery of Nastargora (Khashuri district). The site is of fundamental importance for the investigation of a still poorly understood and widely debated chronological phase of the later prehistory of Georgia, namely the transition between the Kura–Araxes culture and the following Early Kurgan (Bedeni) culture, in the mid–third millennium B.C. In addition, the expedition carried out a geo–morphological survey of the region and visited the most important 4th and 3rd millennium sites of the area, in order to draw a preliminary map of settlement distribution during the investigated periods. A program of sampling pottery and metal items for archaeometric analyses from both the Nastargora site and contemporary settlements was also carried out.
The Origins of Political Complexity in the Caucasus: 2008–2009 Excavations and Survey at Oğanqala
Dr Lauren Ristvet (University of Pennsylvania, USA), Dr Vəli Baxşəliyev,
Dr Səfər Aşurov (Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Azerbaijan)
The nature of political complexity in the Caucasus before the rise of Urartu has emerged as a major research question in Near Eastern archaeology. The emergence of fortresses beginning in the Late Bronze Age indicates a long prehistory for this type of polity. Until recently, archeological developments in the Naxçivan, Azerbaijan have been left out of this discussion. Two seasons of survey and excavation undertaken by the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania at the major Iron Age site of Oğlanqala have begun to clarify Naxçıvan's indigenous development and its relationship to major Near Eastern empires including Assyria, Urartu and Achaemenid Persia. The fortification walls of Oğlanqala enclose an area of 12 hectares, but there are extensive visible architectural remains and pottery scatter outside of this area, including in the plain north of the site. Situated on the Karatepe mound, in the northern half of the fertile Sharur Plain, Oğlanqala was in a position to control passage through the Zangezur mountains as well as the agricultural potential of the plain. Indeed, the northern half of the Sharur Plain represents a complex Iron Age landscape, dominated by Oğlanqala, but including at least five other fortresses, two kilometer long fortification walls, and extensive kurgans and cemeteries lining the boundary between the sown and the steppe. The 2008 survey revealed the construction history of Oğlanqala, with a Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age foundation and extensive Middle and Late Iron Age material, as well as an important Medieval occupation. Soundings in 2008 and 2009 in the ancient palace and domestic buildings uncovered interesting architectural and ceramic differences from contemporary Urartian sites, while also revealing evidence for interaction, including the presence of cuneiform inscribed pithoi.
Excavations at Tall Dhiban, Jordan: A Centre in the Periphery.
Dr Bruce Routledge (University of Liverpool, UK),
Dr Benjamin Porter (University of California, USA),
Dr Danielle Steen-Fatkin (Knox College, USA),
Dr Katherin Adelsberger, (Knox College, USA) ,
Mr Andrew Wilson, (University of Liverpool, UK)
2009 marked the third season of work by Dhiban Excavation and Development Project at the site of Tall Dhiban in central Jordan. Dhiban is best known as the site of the discovery of the Mesha Inscrption in 1868, and as the putative capital of the Iron Age kingdom of Moab. However, until quite recently the site was both poorly understood in the archaeological literature and difficult to understand for site visitors. The Jordanian Department of Antiquities initiated a project of excavation and site development at Dhiban in 2002 to address these problems. The present authors piloted a partner project at Dhiban in 2004. This paper will report on the results of our 2009 season, focusing on five key issues: 1)the formation and abandonment of the Mamluk town of Dhiban; 2) the occupational sequence and use of a large Iron IIB "public" building; 3) the documentation of settlement shifts on the tall over time, with a particular emphasis on delineating the limits and location of Nabataean through Byzantine settlment in relation to the Mamluk town; 4) preliminary geo–archaeological investigations, focused in particular on analysing and interpreting sequences of colluvial deposition at the base of the tall; 5) plans, progress and inherent challenges relating to the development of Tall Dhiban as a heritage resource and the engagement of the modern Dhibani community in this process.
A New Group of Seal Impressions from Tell Beydar
Dr Elena Rova (Università Ca' Foscari – Venezia, Italy)
More than 1000 seal impressions have been unearthed during the 2008 and 2009 seasons in the southern section of the Upper City mound of the 3rd millennium site of Tell Beydar in north–eastern Syria . The majority of them come from different rooms of the large official building (Temple E) in Field M excavated by the Syrian team headed by A. Suleiman, while a smaller group was found the spaces surrounding the large open space ("Southern Square") in Field S. Door sealings represent by far the most attested type of sealing (close to 90%). Most fragments appear to belong to different sealings, with very few fragments joining together. A few seals were impressed on a large number of sealings, whereas a larger number of images are only occasionally attested. The most frequent seals belong to either the Brak style, or to the "Beydar style" (complex compositions usually on two registers with small, almost miniaturistic figures) but sealings in South Mesopotamian styles (e.g. contest scenes) are also attested. The paper will discuss the iconography and style of the reconstructed seal designs (among them several previously unknown ones) and their findspots, as well as the function of the different types of sealings.
Al–Judafia, a Babylonian City on the Euphrates
Dr Salah Rumaiydh (State Board Antiquities and Hertage, Iraq)
Al– Judafia settlement lies on the right bank of the Euphrates, about 34km south of Hadditha city, 52 km northwest of Hit city. It was one of the many sites excavated in advance of the construction of the Al–Baghdadi Dam. Initially the area was investigated and a map was drawn and divided into interlinking squares, each square measuring 10x10m, to keep a record of the archaeological finds during excavations.
Having identified many structural remains of buildings at surface level. We chose five locations for further excavation. We discovered part of large building, possibly an adimstrative centre, measuring on its north–eastern side 37m and on its south–eastern side 57m. This contained a variety of rooms and a court yard. We also carried out a depth sounding to establish the periods evidenced at the site and their relation to one another.
Based on the excavated building and the different material remains found (pottery, plaques, terracottas), we concluded that Judafia was a Babylonian city. The inscriptions from Ashninana mention a city on the right bank of Euphrates between Hit and Mari. It may be that this is Iabila, mentioned in many letters from inscriptions from Mari and Ashinana and in the tablets from Shesheen. I suggest that Judafia is the city Iabila and that Shesheen, located c. 1km away, is a fortress associated with Judafia on the left bank of the river.
Çeşme – Bağlararasý:
A Bronze Age Harbour Settlement in Western Anatolia
Asst. Prof Vasýf Şahoğlu, Prof. Hayat Erkanal, Dr Levent Kesýn and
Dr Ümit Çayir Böyükulusoy (Ankara University Research Center for Maritime Archaeology (ANKüSAM), Turkey)
Excavations at the harbour settlement of Çeşme – Bağlararasý which is situated at the westernmost tip of western Anatolia facing Chios island, started again in 2009 after a break of four years as an independent excavation project of Ankara University Research Center for Maritime Archaeology (ANKüSAM). Çeşme – Bağlararasý is a promising new site which is beginning to contribute to the Aegaeo–Anatolian Bronze Age archaeology.
The unique Bronze Age settlement at Çeşme Bağlararasý has shifted its location horizontally according to the changing coastline and the alluvium brought by a nearby river throughout time. Available data suggests that the site was inhabited during the EB2 and Later MBA – Early LBA periods. The EB2 site consists of rows of houses with uniquely well preserved plastered mudbrick walls, divided by streets. Çeşme – Bağlararasý must have been one of the gateways of the EBA Anatolian trade network towards the west.
Following a gap in the habitation history, a similar settlement model evolves and continues to be used in the later MBA which is contemporary with Middle Minoan III period. A winehouse dating to this period is a unique structure which reflects all stages of wine production, storage and consumption. A powerful earthquake destroyed the entire settlement and ends this phase. Following a recovery phase, the last occupation of this site consists of many pits dug all over site including a rich variety of Minoanising Cycladic and Eastern Aegean wares as well as Cretan imports dating to the LMIA period. The site must have been an important harbour town acting as one of the main ports within the Minoan Sea Trade around the Aegean during the 2nd Millennium BC.
The Izmir region has proved to be an important cultural zone where Anatolia meets the Aegean and acts as a valuable laboratory for analysing the relative chronologies of both regions, as well as investigating the changing nature and degree of interaction between them during the Bronze Age.
Excavations at Kh. Birzeit– Palestine
Dr Hamed Salem (Birzeit University, Palestine)
Kh. Birzeit is the proposed site of the Byzantine and Medieval villages of Birzeit. Three recent excavation and survey seasons were conducted between 2006 and 2009. The 2009 excavation season at Kh. Birzeit continues the 2006 season's work of fully documenting and understanding the stratigraphic relationship between the main medieval building and the nearby settlement. The 2006 season revealed the main plan of the building and its stratigraphic context in relation to the settlement at the eastern slope. The function of the western area and the limits of the Byzantine and Medieval villages were also clarified.
During the 2009 season, a Byzantine church was recovered south of the main building. It is composed of a large building about 21 meters by 18 meters, making it one of the largest in the Rammallah region. Major parts of the church were restored during the Medieval (crusader) period, but later on were destroyed to erect the Medieval building. The church marks Birzeit as a significant town on the Byzantine cultural map, paralleling other early churches found at et–Taibah and Jifna.
The three squares opened on the eastern slope clarified the Byzantine and medieval village planning. The area was composed of a main street crossing the village from east to west, surrounded by buildings on both sides.
The excavation indicates that the site has been severely damaged by modern activities. Streets opened by the municipality caused substantial destruction to the church building and other structures. Farmers had turned some parts upside down mainly to use stones in building terraces and other buildings in Birzeit village. Nonetheless, there is an ongoing plan between Birzeit University and the Municipality to change the site into a national park.
Sasanian Campaign Bases, Cities and Mountain Refuges in the Vicinity of the Gorgan Wall: the 2008 and 2009 Seasons of the Joint Project of the Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handicraft and Tourism Organisation and the Universities of Edinburgh and Durham
Mr Hamid Omrani Rekavandi (Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handcraft and Tourism Organisation, Iran),
Prof Eberhard Sauer (University of Edinburgh, UK),
Prof Tony Wilkinson (University of Durham, UK) and
Mr Ghorban Abbasi (Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handcraft and Tourism Organisation, Iran)
Previous seasons of our fieldwork in the Gorgan Plain have shed considerable light on late Sasanian frontier walls, most notably the c. 200km long Gorgan Wall. In 2008 and 2009 the focus of our research project shifted towards sites in its vicinity. Noteworthy in particular are large fortified compounds of geometric shape. At least four of them share similar physical characteristics: • they are square or almost square, • they are of similar size (35–45ha internal dimension), • they lack substantial permanent buildings in the interior, • all, except one each, have a citadel in one corner, are surrounded by a moat, are supplied by water via a raised canal and show evidence or projecting towers at similar intervals. This new type of site is best interpreted as military campaign base. We also explored a c. 3km2 large city in the hinterland of the Gorgan Wall, and a variety of other sites, ranging from a town of the 8th/5th century BC to early Islamic mountain strongholds. Our latest fieldwork has not just provided us with a much improved knowledge as to how the Sasanian army operated, it also demonstrated what economic assets were at stake. Fortifications built c. a thousand years before the Sasanian Gorgan and Tamishe Walls, as well as long after, show that security concerns have marked the history of this frontier landscape for millennia.
Recent Excavations at Zincirli, Ancient Sam'al
Dr David Schloen (University of Chicago, USA)
The impressive citadel and fortifications of the 40–hectare Iron Age city of Sam'al (modern Zincirli in the Gaziantep province of Turkey, on the eastern edge of the Amanus Mountains near the modern Syrian border) were excavated from 1888 to 1902 by a German expedition. In 2006 a new excavation project was begun by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago to explore the large lower town of Sam'al, which comprises 80 percent of the site but was not previously explored, and to investigate the 8–hectare Bronze Age upper mound in the middle of the site (on which was built the Iron Age royal citadel). Four excavation seasons have now been completed, exposing 3,000 square meters of seventh– and eighth–century B.C. remains in the lower town and in parts of the upper mound and outer wall, and probing 20 hectares of the shallow lower town with a magnetic gradiometer. The Iron Age finds at Zincirli are of special interest because they document the political and socioeconomic progression of the kingdom of Sam'al from a period of independence, when the city was rebuilt and expanded by a Semitic–speaking dynasty in the tenth or ninth century B.C., through its incorporation into the Neo–Assyrian Empire under vassal kings of the native dynasty, until its conversion into a directly ruled Assyrian province around 700 B.C. and its final abandonment in the latter part of the seventh century. An overview of the recent excavation results will be presented. Of particular interest is an inscribed, pictorial mortuary stele of a royal official of the late eighth century, which was found in July 2008 in its original context in a small ""mortuary chapel"" in the northern part of the lower town. By its text, imagery, and archaeological context, this stele sheds light on Sam'alian religion and the interaction of Luwian and West Semitic cultural traditions in the kingdom.
Çamlıbel Tarlası – Metallurgy, ritual and death in 4th millennium North–Central Anatolia
Dr Ulf–Dietrich Schoop (University of Edinburgh)
Three seasons of fieldwork have been conducted at Çamlıbel Tarlası, a small Late Chalcolithic hamlet in North–Central Anatolia, a mountainous environment which was heavily forested in antiquity. Human interest in this location appears to have been caused by the nearby presence of copper ore outcrops. The first activity at the site consisted of recurring visits which left a large number of bowl furnaces, copper ore waste and ash behind. This initial phase was followed by several phases of permanent presence with increasingly massive architectural remains. These later phases date to the mid–4th millennium BC. The site was then surrounded by a stone–built boundary wall. A large number of graves was found in between and underneath the houses. These graves mostly belong to infants and children and display differential age–related burial habits. One large building within the settlement displays unusual traits including floors covered with lime–plaster and installations of animal bones. This building ended in a massive conflagration, apparently an act of intentional destruction. Bowl furnaces continued to be used in between the houses. One large courtyard was used for the processing of copper slag. In general, it appears that the metallurgy as conducted at Çamlıbel Tarlası was of a cottage industry type and practiced (possibly as a seasonal activity) by the whole community. The overall pattern of metal distribution and metal consumption in which Çamlıbel Tarlası participated remains to be clarified, however. An interesting feature is the presence of non–local flint blades which appear to have arrived at the site as exchange objects.
The material culture of Çamlıbel Tarlası is of a Central Anatolian type with ties to Eastern Turkey (Malatya region). Other traditions, however, seem to betray a western, southeast European origin. The occurrence of such overlapping macro–geographical influences is quite unique so far. The findings at Çamlıbel Tarlası present a view of pre–Bronze Age life in the Central Anatolian mountains which differs substantially from the picture offered by older investigations into this area.
Recent Excavation and Analysis at Umm el–Marra, Syria
Prof Glenn Schwartz (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
In the 2008 excavation and 2009 study seasons, the Johns Hopkins – University of Amsterdam project based at Tell Umm el–Marra, Syria acquired new data on the developments of this west Syrian regional center in the third and second millennia BC. Work on the elite ("royal"?) cemetery of the mid–late third millennium BC (Early Bronze III–IV) revealed that the complex was larger than previously understood, yielding additional tombs and ritual installations. A new chronology for the cemetery is proposed, along with a typology of sacrificial installations associated with different phases. A round stone platform, Monument 1, also associated with rituals of animal sacrifice, was erected above the Early Bronze mortuary complex in the early second millennium BC, providing data relevant to issues of social memory and configurations of authority in the Middle Bronze (Amorite) period. The Mittani period habitation phase reveals a political and cultural break with the preceding occupations and differs in character and scale.
Daily activities, resource use and diet at Neolithic Catalhoyuk, Turkey – microstratigraphic and biomolecular evidence from middens
Dr Lisa–Marie Shillito (Reading University, UK)
Çatalhöyük, dated between 7400 and 6000 cal BC, is a key site in understanding the early development of agriculture, resource use and diet in Anatolia. Middens are a rich source of information at the site, containing abundant finely stratified organic and plant remains, such as ash, coprolites and phytoliths. Using thin section micromorphology, individual depositional events can be distinguished, allowing observation of cycles of activity at high resolution timescales. Integrating micromorphology with phytolith, spectroscopic (FT–IR, SEM–EDX) and biomolecular (GC–MS) analysis of individual layers and deposits has provided new evidence for plant resource use, activities and diet which has not previously been considered at Çatalhöyük, as well as challenging the idea of middens as ""rubbish"" deposits. It is argued instead that these represent important activity areas which should be considered alongside buildings when discussing ""households"" and use of space.
Joint Syrian–American Excavations at Tell Zeidan 2008–9: Investigations of the Ubaid and Late Chalcolithic 1–2 in North Syria.
Prof Gil Stein (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, USA)
The 12.5 ha. site of Tell Zeidan, located at the confluence of the Balikh and Euphrates Rivers in north Syria, provides a unique opportunity to investigate the development of indigenous complex societies in Upper Mesopotamia during the 6–4th millennia BC. The site is particularly important as a source of information on the organization of regional centers during the Ubaid 3–4 periods. Almost all Ubaid regional centers are deeply buried beneath either alluvial silts or millennia of later occupations. However, because Zeidan was abandoned shortly after 4000 BC and never re–occupied, the prehistoric levels of the site are immediately accessible, allowing for broad horizontal exposures of the Ubaid and LC 1–2 phases of the settlement. The joint Syrian–American excavations at Zeidan have documented a continuous stratigraphic sequence at the site extending from the Halaf through the Late Chalcolithic 2 (LC2) periods. Calibrated AMS radiocarbon dates confirm the occupation dates as ranging from 6000–4000 BC. Results to date provide evidence indicative of long distance exchange, craft specialization, large scale architecture, and local elite development at Zeidan, beginning in the Ubaid, and developing more extensively in the LC 1 and 2 periods. Long term excavations at Zeidan can help clarify Ubaid political organization and the nature of the Ubaid expansion out of southern Mesopotamia into the north during the sith–fifth millennia BC.
The Identification of Tarshish, from the Perspective of Silver
Prof Christine Thompson (University of Akron, Ohio, USA),
Dr Zofia A. Stos-Gale (University of Oxford, UK)
The Phoenician Question essentially asks whether the Phoenicians sailed to the western Mediterranean in search of metals, particularly silver, prior to colonization in the 9th-8th centuries. While traditional archaeological inquiry has not been able to identify compelling evidence for such activities, ancient authors report that the Phoenicians sailed to the western Mediterranean in search of silver prior to colonization, to a place sometimes identified as Tarshish. Those scholars who suspect that the legends concerning Tarshish preserve some element of historical truth, have considered the regions of Iberia and Sardinia as the most probable locations: each is inordinately rich in silver-bearing ores, and the Phoenicians eventually colonized the silver-rich zones of both. Ore-provenance studies of a recently identified corpus of 35 silver hoards from Israel and the Palestinian territories (Cisjordan) indicate that silver from the western Mediterranean was reaching the southern portion of the Phoenician homeland as early as the 11th century. The corpus of Cisjordan Hoards is the largest identified concentration of pre-coinage silver hoards in the ancient Near East, and yet the region has no native source of silver. In other words, all of the silver in these hoards was necessarily imported. Approximately 150 samples were taken from silver artifacts in the Cisjordan Hoards, making this the largest coherent sample-set of prehistoric silver artifacts ever collected for ore-provenance studies. This paper presents the ore-provenance data, which are consistent with the hypotheses that Tarshish may be identified with (at least) Sardinia, and that the acquisition of silver was a primary objective of Phoenician westward expansion prior to colonization.
Tell Feres al Sharqi, a Late Chalcolithic site in the Khabur basin
Dr Regis Vallet (CNRS, France)
Extensive excavations have been under way at Tell Feres al Sharqi (North–East Syria) since 2006, in order to investigate local dynamics of change from the relatively simple communities of the first half of the 5th millennium (Northern Ubaid) to the proto–urban settlements that emerged in Upper Mesopotamia in the course of the 4th millennium BC. Tell Feres is a 4 ha site, and the mound rises 7m above the surrounding plain. It is located ten kilometres north of Brak, in the middle of the Khabur basin. A trench on the northern slope of the site has been progressively widened, reaching about 600m2 in 2008. Ten levels have been defined so far on the basis of architectural remains, providing a comprehensive Late Chalcolithic sequence for periods from the LC1 to the LC5. The most promising discoveries include a well–planned LC4 dwelling compound (Level 2), comprising a tripartite house, three courtyards and a series of secondary rooms, and a LC1 communal building (Level 9) which is 6m wide, possibly 12m long, and whose roof rested on two rows of wooden posts.
Finally a Furnace: The First Iron Smelting Furnace in the Near East, Excavations at Tell Hammeh 2009.
Dr Xander Veldhuijzen (University College London, UK)
The Eastern Mediterranean is widely credited with the 'innovation' of the metal iron. It is beyond doubt that the arrival of iron has had a profound influence on many aspects of ancient societies. This ranges from the quality and nature of tools, weapons, and building materials that became possible, through the nature and scale of agriculture it allowed, to environmental impact on many levels. However, early finds (pre 500 BC) of actual smelting and smithing are extremely scarce in the entire region. As a result, both historical and technological reconstructions of the invention and development of early iron, and thus its role in society, are largely informed by iron artefacts in the archaeological record rather than actual production remains.
In 1996, during the first excavation season at Tell Hammeh, located in the Wadi Zerqa in Jordan, remains of actual iron production were found, the only such evidence from the region even today. In 1997 and 2000, large quantities of iron smelting remains were discovered. Starting no later than 930 CalBC, the Hammeh smelting takes place just when iron surpasses bronze as the predominant utilitarian metal in the Near East. Uniqueness and dating of these finds inspired comprehensive archaeometallurgical research, providing unprecedented insight into the technology of very early iron.
With the analytical results in hand, a new metallurgically oriented excavation season took place in May and June 2009. This paper presents the astonishing finds of the 2009 season. Besides testing technological assumptions based on the laboratory results and applying a range of geophysical survey techniques we finally discovered what had been sorely missed so far: the remains of the oldest known iron smelting furnace(s) in the Near East. These structures provide answers to several important technological questions, and allow for a first reconstruction of what the smelting at Hammeh actually may have looked like.
Addi Akaweh – A New Centre of the Ethio–Sabaean Period in the Northern Horn of Africa
Dr Pawel Wolf (German Archaeological Institute, Germany)
A site indicative of South Arabian contact to the Ethiopian highlands was recently discovered in the area of Addi Akaweh in Tigray. Its Almaqah temple was excavated 2008/09 under the auspices of a joint Ethiopian–German cooperation project. The temple clearly resembles South Arabian prototypes and represents the southernmost architectural evidence of Sabaean influence discovered in Ethiopia. According to C14 dates, the single roomed temple with staircase, portico, and a tripartite sanctuary with baityl cult place was erected during the 8th – 6th cent. BCE within a large temenos extra muros. It has several building stages and rests on earlier building remains. Cult and votive objects of outstanding quality were found still in situ. The temple furniture comprises a completely preserved libation altar, incense burners, and a seated female statue similar to the statue known from Addi Galamo. Their Ethio–Sabaic votive inscriptions, palaeographically dated to the same period, mention for the first time the ancient name of Yeha and refer to a hitherto unknown king. At the same time, they reflect an African notion by mentioning the king's mother in his affiliation. Pottery and votive objects like miniature vessels and female figurines illuminate local liturgical practices. An archaeometric analysis of the pottery yielded information on its provenance. Although there are clearly non–local specimens of so–called 'torpedo–shaped' Type 4100 vessels known mainly from South Arabia, obviously none of these vessels was imported from the other side of the Red Sea. An archaeological survey revealed further sites of the period. These findings show that the area of Addi Akaweh must have been another major centre of that period besides the Yeha – Hawlti/Melazo region in Tigray and the Matara–Kaskase region in Eritrea.
Revisiting the Issue of Late Bronze II Drab Ware with Potmarks
Prof. Dr. Remzi Yağcı (Tinaztepe Campus, Buca, Izmir, Turkey)
The incised potmarks on the shoulder, base or body of the mass-produced monochrome drab wares that were common both at the centre (i.e. Boğazköy, Maşat Höyük, Kuşaklı, Alacahöyük) and later in the peripheries (i.e. in Kilisetepe, Soli, Yumuktepe, Tarsus and Kinet Höyük) during the Late Bronze II period (15th and 13th centuries) in Anatolia have been recently interpreted in a number of ways. These potmarks have been considered first, a sign of a professional potter or potter's workshop; secondly, an indicator of a wide-spread industry in which local products conformed to some standards, and thirdly a marker of a controlled enterprise in the Hittite Empire together with the textual data that provides evidence for other markers on different commodity types. The potmarks are also seen in relation to the Luwian hieroglyphs that denote cities or the king representing a centralized administration and economy. Recent excavations at Soli Höyük and the context in which the wares with potmarks have been unearthed seem to broaden the assumptions about the function of this type of ware. This paper aims at revisiting the issue of drab ware with potmarks.
Lapanu – let (it) glow! Recent archaeometrical analysis of Hattian and Hittite metalwork
Dr Thomas Zimmermann (Bilkent University, Turkey)
The so–called "sun discs" or ceremonial standards from the cemetery of Alaca Höyük count amongst the most prominent heritage testifying to the existence of a flourishing and highly innovative metal industry in later 3rd millennium BC Central Anatolia. However, after a first wave of intensive research launched in the 1930s and 40s to reveal the splendid cultural heritage of the "Hatti heartland", archaeological and archaeometrical projects focusing on Early and Middle Bronze Age activities in Central Anatolia seem to have continued at a much reduced pace. A new multidisciplinary joint analysis project, involving Bilkent University Department of Archaeology, Ankara University Department of Protohistory and Near Eastern Archaeology, the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara and the Sarayköy Nuclear Research and Training Centre (SANAEM) targets questions concerning the use of raw materials and alloying procedures applied by both early urban and rural communities of the Central Anatolian plateau in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. The paper will present and discuss most recent results (2008–2009 season) from spectographic analyses carried out on various Pre–Hittite and Hittite metal artefacts from Central Anatolian museum collections. Special attention will be paid to "exotic" alloying techniques observed in late Early Bronze Age items from various "Hattian" cemeteries, considering their wider technological and geographical implications. Moreover, some surprising analysis results concerning selected Hittite metal objects will be discussed vis–a–vis the textual evidence available for metal processing and consumption in the Hittite world.