NEAA

This is a discussion-oriented seminar that introduces students to the evidence, issues, and debates concerning ancient trade and exchange, with a focus on the economic institutions of the ancient Near East and especially those of the Bronze and Iron Age Levant and Eastern Mediterranean.

Archaeology is the study of the material evidence of past human activity. In the first half of this course we will discuss the history of archaeology as a discipline and the methods used by archaeologists to obtain evidence about past human activity via excavations, surface surveys, and remote-sensing technologies. We will also discuss the methods used to date, classify, and analyze various kinds of evidence after it has been obtained. In the second half of the course we will discuss the various paradigms of social theory that have shaped archaeological interpretations and narratives concerning the past.

This class is an in-depth study of central Anatolia's most important archaeological site during the early first millennium BCE: Gordion, the capital city of the kingdom of Phrygia. In addition to learning the archaeology of this site in great detail, we will also use it as a foundation to explore neighboring excavations in the region, including the Iron Age levels of Hattusha, Kaman-Kalehöyük, Kınık Höyük, and others.

At archaeological sites following the invention of pottery roughly 10,000 BCE, ceramics are the single most frequent and ubiquitous class of artefact that archaeologists uncover. This class, which will be conducted in the Oriental Institute Museum as a combination of lectures, discussions, and hands-on interactions with ancient and modern ceramics, surveys the methods and interpretive techniques that archaeologists use when studying this important category of material culture. Specific topics include manufacturing techniques, craft specialization, typology and chronology, production and exchange, scientific analyses, stylistic and functional analysis, and socio-political organization.

This sequence provides a thorough survey in lecture format of the art and archaeology of ancient Egypt from the late Pre-dynastic era through the Roman period.

This course provides undergraduate and graduate students with an introduction to the use of animal bones in archaeological research. Students will gain hands-on experience analyzing faunal remains from an archaeological site in the Near East. The class will address theoretical and methodological issues involved in the use of animal bones as a source of information about prehistoric societies. The course consists of lectures, laboratory sessions, and original research projects using collections of animal bone from archaeological excavations in southeast Turkey. Topics covered include: 1) identifying, ageing and sexing animal bones; 2) zooarchaeological sampling, measurement, quantification, and problems of taphonomy; 3) analysis of animal bone data; 4) reconstructing prehistoric hunting and pastoral economies, especially: animal domestication, hunting strategies, herding systems, seasonality, and pastoral production in complex societies.

This course provides an introduction to the background and development of the first urbanized civilizations in the Near East in the period from 9000 to 2200 BC. In the first half of the course we will examine the archaeological evidence for the "Neolithic Revolution" - the first domestication of plants and animals and the earliest Neolithic village communities in the "fertile crescent" - the Levant, Anatolia, Mesopotamia and western Iran. The second half of the course will focus on the "Urban Revolution" - the economic and social transformations which took place during the development from, village based communities to the emergence of the urbanized civilizations of the Sumerians and neighboring groups in Mesopotamia during the fourth and third millennia BC.

This seminar explores the city-state system that arose in the eastern Mediterranean at the beginning of the Iron Age, ca. 1200 B.C.E. Most commonly referred to as “Syro-Hittite,” these kingdoms thrived for roughly 500 years until their piecemeal destruction at the hands of the Assyrian Empire. We will examine models for how this city-state system arose following the collapse of the Late Bronze Age political economy, how statehood and social identity were enacted during the centuries of their greatest cultural expressions, and how and why their political structure and cultural patterns came to an end. Our sources will be contemporary inscriptions and the archaeological record of the region. Other topics will include religious practices, military history, and interregional connections with the Assyrian Empire, the Aegean, and Israel/Judah.

This course will survey the archaeological record of ancient Anatolia (modern Turkey) from the start of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (ca. 9500 BCE) to the end of the Iron Age (ca. 550 BCE). The material will cover a selection of significant archaeological sites designed to illustrate the diversity of cultures in Anatolia and to demonstrate broader regional patterns and themes. The presentation of sites will be accompanied by readings and discussions on the interpretation of archaeological data.

This course is intended as a survey of the regions of the Islamic world from Arabia to North Africa, from Central Asia to the Gulf. The aim will be a comparative stratigraphy for the archaeological periods of the last millennium. A primary focus will be the consideration of the historical archaeology of the Islamic lands, the interaction of history and archaeology, and the study of patterns of cultural interaction over this region, which may also amplify understanding of ancient archaeological periods in the Near East.