Search results for "Mesopotamia"
showing 10 items of 26 documents
Settlement Dynamics on the Banks of the Upper Tigris, Iraq: The Mosul Dam Reservoir Survey (1980)
2020
The paper describes a dataset of archaeological sites and villages now partially covered by the water of the Mosul Dam Reservoir. For the first time the dataset offers digitized information on c.150 archaeological sites detected during a survey carried out by the Iraqi State Organization for Antiquities and Heritage in the 1980s. Knowledge of the map of these sites will have a substantial impact on interpretation of Tigridian settlement dynamics. Funding statement: This research has received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Conclusions: Late Chalcolithic Northern Mesopotamia. Setting the Agenda in the Debate on the Rise of Urbanization in the Ancient Near East
2022
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Drowned Landscapes: The Rediscovered Archaeological Heritage of the Mosul Dam Reservoir
2023
Like natural catastrophes or armed conflicts, resource extraction projects herald the alteration or destruction of natural and cultural landscapes alike. Dam construction is a major threat to cultural heritage in Western Asian archaeology. One event may result in obliterating hundreds of sites, most of which never reappear or do so only sporadically following cyclical water fluctuation. Destruction of sites remains ongoing, necessitating constant assessment of damage and the establishment of strategies of documentation and maintenance. This paper proposes a new paradigm for future safeguarding and, more widely, a new tool for managing contiguous terrestrial and lacustrine cultural zones. It…
Climate change and the collapse of the Akkadian empire: Evidence from the deep sea
2000
The Akkadian empire ruled Mesopotamia from the headwaters of the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers to the Persian Gulf during the late third millennium B.C. Archeological evidence has shown that this highly developed civilization collapsed abruptly near 4170 ± 150 calendar yr B.P., perhaps related to a shift to more arid conditions. Detailed paleoclimate records to test this assertion from Mesopotamia are rare, but changes in regional aridity are preserved in adjacent ocean basins. We document Holocene changes in regional aridity using mineralogic and geochemical analyses of a marine sediment core from the Gulf of Oman, which is directly downwind of Mesopotamian dust source areas and archeological si…
Rev. of. M. J. Geller, Melothesia in Babylonia: Medicine, Magic, and Astrology in the Ancient Near East
2015
The First Contact between the West and China: Sinology´s Origin
2019
In this study the first contact between Western and Asia culture, specifically with China, is reviewed. It begins with a reference to the Roman Empire mentioning the most relevant reference works for a more in-depth study. Next, it focuses on the diaspora of Nestorian Christianity towards the East and specifically its location in Chinese territory, considering also the main reference works and following a historical and lineal story. Then, the trips of Benjamín de Tudela, although they did not go beyond Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf, served to verify the existence of Jewish communities in the Far East. In that frame of reference, the context of the Silk Road would explain its dedication …
Early Bronze Age painted wares from Tell el-'Abd, Syria: A compositional and technological study
2018
Abstract The ‘Euphrates Monochrome Painted Ware’ (henceforth EMPW) is a ceramic style attested in the Middle Euphrates region in northern Syria at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age, ca. 2900–2700 BCE. This style is not an isolated phenomenon; rather, it must be understood in the context of a general, albeit short-lived, re-introduction of painted ceramics into local assemblages of Greater Mesopotamia. In the present study, we investigate the technology and provenance of the painted pottery from Tell el-'Abd (North Syria) and its relation to contemporary ceramics retrieved at this site. We apply a combination of macroscopic observations, ceramic petrography, and micro X-ray diffraction (…
Leggere il rituale con Rappaport. La cerimonia mesopotamica del mīs pî da una prospettiva ecologica
2021
Medicina babilonese e antropologia medica. Sull’efficacia delle terapie per il ripristino del desiderio sessuale maschile in Mesopotamia
2021
Research on the medical systems of ancient Mesopotamia has progressed considerably in recent years and has been enriched by theoretical contributions from the social sciences. This paper aims to show how theories and methodologies of Medical Anthropology can be useful to understand the internal logic of nīš libbi therapies, which aim to regain the male sexual desire. The article explores Mesopotamian classificatory systems related to the body and pathologies, as well as the relationship between male and female agencies in the therapeutic itinerary. Other issues are investigated: recipients of treatment; symptomatology and ideology of binding; interrelationship between incantations and presc…
“In quel giorno, in quella notte, in quell’anno”. Cosmogonie e cosmologie sumeriche e assiro-babilonesi
2020
The paper attempts to reconstruct the cosmogonic and cosmological doctrines of the Mesopotamian peoples over their three millennia of history. It focuses on both Sumerian and Akkadian sources that describe the origin, formation, and organization of the universe according to Mesopotamian religious thought.