MESAS 241 test 1

Archaeology

The study of past societies and humans based on their material culture

“Near Eastern” Archaeology

Traditionally the area bounded by Iran in the east, Egypt in the west, Arabian Peninsula in the south, and the Caucasus/Turkiye in the north.

Behistun Inscription

Trilingual cuneiform inscription in Akkadian, Elamite, and Old Persian. Ahura Mazda, Cyrus the Great, Persian dominance.

Artifact

An object that has been altered or created by human processes

Context

relative date, relation to surrounding architecture and other features, relation to other artifacts, site of origin, deposition, etc.

in situ

literally “in context” – if an artifact has not yet been moved from its findspot, it is in situ

Archaeological Survey

Assessing a site or landscape from the ground surface

Regional surveys

Aerial remote sensing, unsystematic survey (usually), place-name evidence, surface collection

Local/Site-specific surveys

Systematic survey (squares, transects), geophysical remote sensing, surface collection

Why Excavate

• Adds a measured temporal limit to activities uncovered – both for

analyzing a particular time AND for observing changes between

periods.

• Horizontal dimension is for working with one phase

• Vertical dimension is for working with temporal changes through

multiple phases

• Remember: excavation is a destructive scientific practice – it

cannot be repeated!

Strata

different levels created by occupation phases or events

Relative Dating

Stratigraphy + seriation and sequencing

• Dating things by understanding their chronological order

Absolute Dating

Identifying an absolute date for an archaeological artifact/feature/etc.

• Can be accomplished through scientific analyses and comparative material

Radiocarbon dating

Measuring the degradation of the C14 isotope in an organic sample

Dendrochronology

tree ring dating

southern mesopotamia

Based on the floodplain

• Marshland environment

• Coastline changes (used to be higher)

-Missing timber, stone, metals

Southern Mesopotamian resources

Fish, fowl, game, reeds, sediment, mud, agriculture is possible but the floods are unpredictable.

Marshland architecture-mud brick

Mud brick-

mudhif

Northern Mesopotamia

Steppeland and access to surrounding

mountains

• Less extreme climate than the south

• Resources include those that can be found in

mountains: rock, lumber, copper, tin, good

pastureland, etc.

• Rainfall agriculture is possible (mostly)

Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic

not just Mesopotamia-specific, but for the whole “Fertile Crescent” area.

The Natufians c. 12,500-9500 BCE

Settled in the Fertile Crescent

and eventually spread

• Predates agriculture – no domestication, but cultivation

• Oldest known bread-making; oldest known beer-brewing

• No woven fabrics, but spun thread

Cultivation

purposefully utilizing and growing “wild” plants

Domestication

genetically-altering plants (by ‘choosing’ for certain aspects) to provide more benefits for human harvesting/consumption

Wheat and Barley

domestication=choosing for non shattering, 8,000 bce in the levant

Animal domestication

choosing for more desirable features. Used things like Onagers and donkeys for transportation, caprids, cattle, pigs, and fowl for food.

Nomadism

way of life where people do not live continuously in the same place but move cyclically or periodically (NOT migration)

Sedentism

the practice of living in one place for a long period of time

semi-nomadism

practicing seasonal migration but having a “base camp” at which some crops are cultivated

Younger Dryas

abrupt period of cooling and drying in northern hemisphere c. 11,000-9500 BCE

• Sometimes linked to the Neolithic Revolution (adoption of agriculture), though this is debated

• Also possible it forced populations to become more mobile at end of Natufian period

PPNA+B dates

PPNA: c. 9500–8500 BCE

PPNB: c. 8500–6500 BCE

PPNA+B features

Main characteristic: “Neolithic Revolution”

• Increased use of cultivation and increased nomadism/semi-nomadism at beginning (PPNA)

• Still mostly relied upon hunting and foraging. However:

• PPNA = herd animal domestication

• PPNB = first agriculture (cereals)

• Small round and square houses

Göbekli Tepe - PPNA

• Evidence for communal labor

• Likely used by semi- nomadic groups

• World’s first “temple” –first true evidence of collective religion and ritual

Çatalhöyük – c. 7500-6000 BCE (PPNB)

• First evidence of large sedentary site

• Est. pop. 5,000-10,000

• Agriculture practiced with evidence for surplus

What does storage and surplus lead to?

population growth, craft specialization, settlement size and density, social hierarchy

Natufian and PPN Characteristics

Permanent houses and settlements

• Burials under house floors – special treatment of remains

Abu Hureyra

Natufian-PPNB site with most important evidence for plant and animal domestication in Mesopotamia b/c of continuous occupation. Abu Hureyra is located on Euphrates

chalcolithic

“Copper-stone” age

Ubaid Period c. 6200-4000 BCE

Wheel made ceramics, Early Ubaid starts in Southern Mesopotamia, Ubaid is the test site. Late Ubais spreads to all of mesopotamia and levant.

Ubaid Administrative technology

Specialized craft production + concern with producing more efficiently

• Long-distance procurement

• Increasing social stratification

Tokens, seals and sealings

Ubaid Tokens

Ubaid sealings

Samarra/Hassuna figurines

Ubaid Figurines

Wengrow’s Model

Tripartite house-division of labor into multiple sections=extended metaphor

1st temple architecture

Modelled after tripartite house plans: temple institution related to domestic structure

Uruk Period-4000-3100

First founded c. 4800 BCE

• Grew to huge size in Urukperiod (c.4000-3100)

• The “Urban Revolution”

old ideas about city formation

Old ideas: cities grew up around public institutions (temple economies) and spread out

• K.S. Wittfogel – believed that hierarchical power resulted from the need for large-scale irrigation projects

new ideas about city formation

cities intensified from pre-existing, disparate villages

• “Energized crowding”: social change arising as the byproduct of interactions among individuals

tell Brak

• First city in northern Mesopotamia

• c. 4200-3400 BCE

• Rainfall agriculture

• Along a main tributary of the Euphrates

river in the Khabur River Valley

• Near steppe and foothills

Eye temple of tell brak

“Temple Economy”

E-DINGIR – lit. “house of the god”

• Organized as a large household with the deity as its head

• Owned large tracts of land and employed thousands

• Palaces also existed, but still controlled less than temples did

• Central redistribution point in cities

bevel rimmed bowls

Warka Vase

Evidence for layered society

solid footed goblets

Wing-lugged jars

Early Dynastic Architecture

Plano-convex bricks!

• Tripartite structure starting to change, but all buildings are still

centered on an open courtyard

The standard of Ur

Stele of the Vultures

Eannatum of lagash triumphing over Forces from Umma

Statue of Manishtushu