https://urkesh.org / RECORD / eLibrary / 922a

eLibrary (Version 2)

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

General interest: alphabetical

Alphabetic bibliography of general interest

Giorgio Buccellati – 2002-2010
Stefania Ermidoro – 2011-2013
Laerke Recht – 2013-2017
Marco De Pietri – 2018-present

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     This page collects some books and articles generally dealing with archeology, anthropology, history, and philology of ancient Syro-Mesopotamian area.
     Titles are listed by author, with keywords indicating the category into which the title fits. Keywords are given to the right of the title, and brief comments are occasionally added after the titles.
     Some titles are included here to provide a general background to the history and archaeology of Syro-Mesopotamia, others are included because they are cited within the website. After each bibliographical entry, a brief summary is offered, presenting the core topic of the contribution. Wider abstracts are provided with a hyperlink, and occasionally more critical reviews are presented for some titles. In these abstracts, sized in paragraphs, some peculiar keywords or relevant passages are bolded to strees the topic of each section.
     Comments within square brackets [...] after the summary/abstract focus on topic related to Urkesh/Tell Mozan.
     When a review of a publication is available, it is indicated within curly brackets, with the link to the review itself.
     To the right of each entry you can find other references, such as keywords or even links to other sections of this website or other pages outside this website; here a list of the different types of references:
  • cited: link(s) to pages in this website where the publication is cited (numbers are used in the case of mutliple links);
  • quotes: link(s) to publications related to Urkes/Tell Mozan quoted in the entry (numbers are used in the case of mutliple links); the link(s) redirect(s) to the page in the Urkesh/eLIBRARY where the publication(s) is/are listed;
  • topics (active/inactive): links to sections in this website dealing with a specific topic (e.g. conservation, park, etc.);
  • links (general): links to pages outside the present website (e.g. Ur III, religion, the latter linking to 4Banks/Mes-Rel, UCLA, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, etc.).

  A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Agnew, Neville

2001 “Methodology, Conservation Criteria and Performance Evaluation for Archaeological Site Shelters,”
Conservation Management of Archaeological Sites 5, 7-18.
See full text
See abstract
     A classic and fundamental formulation of principles to be followed in the use of shelters to protect archaeological sites. Dealing exclusively with broad base shelters, it assumes that implementation takes place only after excavations have been completed, rather than concurrently, in which case it is important to articulate the conservation needs for an architect who come in, extrinsically, from the outside.
[gB – December 2005] 		  cited 1, 2
conservation
TCV

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Agnew, Neville and Janet Bridgland

2006 Of the Past, for the Future: Integrating Archaeology and Conservation.
Proceedings of the Conservation Theme at the 5th World Archaeological Congress, Washington, D.C., 22-26 June 2003.
Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute.
See full text
See abstract
     These proceedings deal with many topics about conservation, considered as “a core value for most archaeological societies. It is highlighted in their codes of ethics, statements of mission, and governance. In recognition of this, the World Archaeological Congress, with the Getty Conservation Institute and a consortium of other conservation organizations, brought together scholars working throughout the globe to discuss vital issues that affect archaeological heritage today”.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  cited 1, 2
conservation
TCV
site presentation
MPR

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Agnew, Neville and Martha Demas

2004 “Monitoring through Replication. Design and Evaluation of the Monitoring Reburial at the Laetoli Trackway Site,”
Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites, pp. 295-304.
See full text
See abstract
     This contribution aims to answer to a basic methodological question: “How is it possible to monitor the condition of a site or artefact after it has been reburied?” (p. 295).
[mDP – November 2019] 		  cited
conservation
TCV

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Akar, Murat and Demet Kara
2020 “The formation of collective, political and cultural memory in the Middle Bronze Age: foundation and termination rituals at Toprakhisar Höyük,”
Anatolian Studies 70, pp. 1-27.
See full text
Alternative online text [BIAA]
See abstract
     “Constructing and deconstructing public spaces in second-millennium BC Anatolia, the Near East and the Levant was not only a collaborative physical act but also involved deeply embodied ritual symbolism. This symbolism is materialised in the practice of conducting public foundation and termination rituals that unified individual memories in space and time, transforming the physical act into a collective memory: a process that contributed to the formation of political and cultural memory. The recent rescue excavations conducted by the Hatay Archaeological Museum at the hinterland site of Toprakhisar Höyük in Altınözü (in the foothills above the Amuq valley) add to the understanding of the practice of foundation and termination rituals during the Middle Bronze Age and how these moments may have contributed to the political and cultural memory of a rural community living away from the centre. The practice of foundation/termination rituals is archaeologically documented by caches of artefacts from votive contexts stratigraphically linked to the construction and termination of a Middle Bronze Age administrative structure” (Authors' abstract on p. 1).
[mDP – March 2020] 		  andirons

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Akar, Murat and Demet Kara

2022 “A lead figurine from Toprakhisar Höyük: magico-ritual objects in the Syro-Anatolian Middle Bronze Age,”
Anatolian Studies 72, pp. 1-20.
See full text
See abstract
     “This article examines supra-regional trends in magico-ritual objects through a mould-made lead figurine in the form of a foundation peg found in a disturbed Early Bronze IVB to Middle Bronze I transitional deposit at Toprakhisar Höyük (Altinözü, Hatay). The stylised object is interpreted as a bull standing atop a peg, pointing to the adoption of hybrid Syro-Anatolian and Mesopotamian technological, iconographic and apotropaic values. It is suggested the object is ritual paraphernalia, likely in relation to the cult of the Storm God, used in a foundation ritual. Together with this peculiar metal product, the presence of other magico-ritual objects that point to northern Mesopotamian connections at the small hinterland site of Toprakhisar Höyük, on the outskirts of the Amuq valley, is considered to be a possible material reflection of new groups in the region, including Hurrians and Amorites, which contributed to the unity and regionality of the cults and rituals of Syro-Anatolian communities of the Middle Bronze Age” (Authors' abstract on p. 1).
     [This paper deals with some topics related to Urkesh, namely the andirons and the foundation pegs of Tish-atal: the passages discussing these themes are reported verbatim in the "Abstract" of this entry, under the section "Excerpts".]
[mDP – July 2022] 		andirons
foundation pegs
quotes 1; 2; 3; 4 5; 6

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Akar, Murat, K. Aslıhan Yener, Müge Bulu, and Tara Ingman

2021 “A Fresh Perspective on the Middle Bronze Age at Tell Atchana, Alalakh: The 2007-2019 Seasons,”
in Sharon R. Steadman and Gregory McMahon (eds), The Archaeology of Anatolia, Volume IV. Recent Discoveries (2018-2020), Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 75-95 (Chapter 7).
See full text
     The authors describe in this chapter the main results of the excavations conducted at Alalakh/Tell Atchana from 2018 to 2020, specifically focusing on a specific timespan: “This chapter exclusively deals with, and provides an overview of, the recent archaeological fieldwork (2007–2019) that sheds light on the late Middle Bronze Age (MBA, hereafter) sequence, when the site reached a flourishing state under the hegemony of the Kingdom of Yamḫad as the capital city of the kingdom later called Mukiš. This is defined as a period of prosperity, urban expansion, and establishment of cross-cultural contacts generally accepted to end ca. 1650 BC, according to the Middle Chronology, with the early Hittite campaigns in the region” [p. 75].
     [Urkesh is openly mentioned on p. 88, speaking about the monumental structure of the ābi, compared to other monumental structures in other Syrian cities.]
[mDP – January 2022] 		  ābi

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Akrawi, Aysar
2006 “NGO and Government Collaboration in Archaeological Site Management: The Case of Petra in Jordan,”
in Agnew & Bridgland 2006, pp. 29-34.
See full text
     The Petra National Trust is an NGO that supervises a large Archaeological Park (265 km2) and an even larger protected area (900 km2). The main difficulties that had to be overcome, in the formative period between 1968 and 2000, related to the interaction among different governmental bodies.
[gB – December 2005] 		  cited
park

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Amiet, Pierre
1966 “Il y a 5000 ans les Elamites inventaient l'écriture,”
Archéologia 12, 16-23.
See full text
     The first identification of clay tokens (to which Amiet refers with the Latin word calculi) as the forerunners of writing. This particular corpus was found in Susa (Amiet refers to the finds of Uruk as well), and Amiet develops, briefly but pointedly (pp. 20-22), the argument that the gathering of the tokens within clay balls, and the authentication of the whole obtained by rolling a seal on the outer surface (hence the Latin term bulla), served as the springboard for the invention of writing.
[gB – December 2005] 		  cited

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Anati, Emmanuel
1988 Origini dell'arte e della concettualità.
Di fronte e attraverso, vol. 218.
Milano: Jaca Book [pp. 200].
See full text [Google Books]
See abstract
     An in-depth presentation of the theory and methodology of the interpretation of rock art. Important for our interests is chapter 6, where he addresses the question of “order and logic”, and speaks explicitly of the need to develop a systematic analysis of “grammar and syntax”.
[gB – December 2005] 		  cited

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Aruz, Joan, Kim Benzel and Jean M. Evans

2008 Beyond Babylon.
Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C.
New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art;
New Haven: Yale University Press.
See full text
See abstract
     This volume displays many different objects coming from the Aegean, Egypt, and the Near East (the Levant, Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia), trying to underline the contacts and the trades between these countries in the Middle Bronze Age and in the Late Bronze Age, having a peculiar focus on the so-called 'international period'.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  contacts
art
style

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Assante, Julia

2009 “Inside and Out: The Extra-Dimensional Aspects of the Mesopotamian Body, With Egyptian Parallels,”
in M. Dietrich, R. Schmitt and A. Mertens (eds.), Religion and Körperlichkeit. Mitteilungen aus Anthropologie und Religionsgeschichte 20. Münster. 1-17.
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Asher-Greve, Julia

1997 “The Essential Body: Mesopotamian Conceptions of the Gendered Body,”
Gender and History 9, 432-461.
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Asher-Greve, Julia and Deborah Sweeney
2006 “On Nakedness, Nudity and Gender in Egyptian and Mesopotamian Art, in S. Schroer (ed.), Images and Gender: Contributions to the Hermeneutics of Reading Ancient Art,”
OBO 220.
Freiburg, Göttingen: Academic Press, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Asher-Greve, Julia and Joan Goodnick Westenholz
2013 Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources
OBO 259,
Freibourg, Göttingen: Academic Press, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
See full text
See abstract
     The present publication is divided into five chapters about gender of divinities, describing many characteristics of this topic under a proper archaeological and iconographical analysis.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  writing 1
writing 2
tokens

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Badre, Laila

1980 “Les figurines anthropomorphes en terre cuite à l'Age du Bronze en Syrie”
Bibliothèque archéologique et historique85
Paris: Geuthner
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Bahrani, Zainab

1996 “The Hellenization of Ishtar”
The Oxford Journal of Art 19, 3-16.
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Bahrani, Zainab

2001 “Women of Babylon”
Gender and representation in Mesopotamia
London and New York: Routledge
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Bailey, Douglass

2013 “Figurines, corporeality and the origins of gender,”
in D. Bolger (ed.), Companion to Gender Prehistory
Oxford: John Wiley and Sons Inc, 244-264
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Baker, Taha

1971 “The Epic of Gilgamesh”
Ministry of Media, Directorate of general culture, Baghdad
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Baltacioğlu, Hatçe

2003 “Alaca Höyük sfenksli kapı aşçilar kabartması [Depictions of cooks on the Sphinx Gate at Alaca Höyük],”
Archivum Anatolicum/Anadolu Arşivleri 6, pp. 59-131.
See full text
Altenative text [Academia.edu]
See abstract
     This paper investigates the depiction of cooks on the walls of the Sphinx Gate at Alaca Höyük.
     [The paper directly involves Urkesh since the Author presents as a comparison for the depictions of cooks at Alaca Höyük also a sealing unearthed at Tell Mozan: more in detail, on p. 81, the Author mentions a seal impression of the female cook (named Tuli) of queen Uqnitum, i.e. seal h3, displayed on p. 128, Fig. 26 of this paper (source for this image: Buccellati, Kelly-Buccellati 1998, p. 209, Fig. V.a). Moreover, on p. 80, the Author also mentions a specific type of traditional wooden churn which is described in Buccellati, Kelly-Buccellati 1998, for which see illustration in Buccellati, Kelly-Buccellati 1998, p. 209, Fig. V.b (reported in the present paper as Fig. 25).]
[mDP – June 2022] 		  seal h3 (Tuli)
quotes 1; 2; 3; 4

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Barrelet, Marie Thérèse

1968 “Figurines et reliefs en terre cuite de la Mésopotamie antique”
Librairie Orientaliste P. Geuthner, Paris
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Bataray, Nurettin

2022 “MÖ 2. BINYILDA DOGU AKDENIZ ILE EGE ARASINDAKI KÜLTÜREL ILISKILER: NUZI SERAMIGI ÜZERINE DEGERLENDIRMELER [CULTURAL RELATIONS BETWEEN EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN AND AEGEAN IN THE SECOND MILLENNIUM BC: CONSIDERATIONS ON NUZI WARE],”
AMİSOS/AMISOS 7/13, pp. 324-339.
See full text
DOI
     “The Nuzi Ware found in Eastern Mediterranean and Upper Mesopotamia during the Late Bronze Age display similarities with the Kamares Ware of the Aegean world in terms of decoration. Symbolic motifs such as papyrus plants and double-axe observed on the examples found in the western distribution of Nuzi Ware were also frequently used in Aegean cultures. Not only the decoration but also the use of light painting on a dark background technique style is similar. Although both wares spread in different periods and geographies, their possible connection brought about the discussion of the interaction between these cultures. It allows us to understand the effects of maritime connection activities in the Mediterranean in the 2nd millennium B.C. on cultures. This study argues that the Aegean influences on Nuzi Ware emerged as a result of the interaction between two regions” (Author's abstract).
[Tell Mozan is openly quoted on pp. 326-327.]
[mDP – May 2024] 		  Nuzi
quotes 1; 2; 3; 4; 5

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Beckman, Gary

2003 “Gilgamesh in Ḫatti,”
in G.M. Beckman, R.H. Beal and G. McMahon (eds.), Hittite Studies in Honor of Harry A. Hoffner Jr. on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday,
Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, pp. 37-58.
See full text
See abstract
     In this paper, G. Beckman discusses the circulation and the knowledge of Gilgamesh's saga within the Hittite Empire: for sure, on a literary perspective, it is well known that some tablets found in the Hittite capital recorded two Akkadian versions of his tales (CTH 341), later translated also in Hittite and Hurrian.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  Gilgamesh

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Belting, Hans

1994 “Likeness and Presence”
University of Chicago Press, Chicago
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Ben-Shlomo, David
2010 Philistine Iconography: A Wealth of Style and Symbolism
OBO 241,
Freibourg, Göttingen: Academic Press, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
See full text
See abstract
     The volume consists of five chapters about Philistines, informing about iconography, history, artefacts, and symbolisms of this culture.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  style
iconography
human figurines
animal figurines

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Berger, John

1972 “Ways of Seeing”
Penguin Books, London
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Biggs, Robert

2002 “The Babylonian sexual potency texts,”
in S. Parpola and R.M. Whiting (eds.), Sex and Gender in the Ancient Near East, Actes de la XLVIIe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (Helsinki, 2-6 July 2001)
Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 7l-78
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Blocher, Felix

1987 “Untersuchungen zum Motiv der nackten Frau in den altbabylonischen Zeit”
Münchener Vorderasiatische Studien, 4
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Braun-Holzinger, Eva Andrea
2013 Frühe Götterdarstellungen in Mesopotamien. Ihre Beziehungen im Spiegel der Archäologie und der Literatur des Alten Testaments und seiner Umwelt.
OBO 261,
Freibourg, Göttingen: Academic Press, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
See full text
See abstract
     The scholar presents a study on the first attested representations of gods in Mesopotamia, discussing about cultic statues and symbols, gods' attributes and representation, mythology, and glyptics.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  iconography
glyptics: Tupkish
glyptics: Uqnitum
glyptics: courtiers
glyptics: Tar’am-Agade

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Breckenridge, James Douglas

1971 “Likeness, A Conceptual History of Portraiture”
Evanstone: Northwestern University Press
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Buccellati, Federico Alessandro

2019 “Houses of Nippur: An Architectural Study using EnCAB,”
in Valentini, Stefano and Guarducci, Guido (eds), Between Syria and the Highlands. Studies in Honor of Giorgio Buccellati & Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati, SANEM 3, Arbor Sapientiae Editore, Roma, pp. 85-91.
See full text
     “The article presents an examination of the cost of construction, in terms of working hours and manpower, of three contemporary 2nd millennium private houses from areas TA and TB at Nippur, calculated using energetic algorithms from the EnCAB digital publication” (Author's abstract on p. 85).
[mDP – December 2022] 		  Nippur
quotes 1; 2

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Buccellati, Giorgio
NOTE



1963a “I testi economici della III dinastia di Ur.
Review to: Tom B. Jones and John W. Snyder, Sumerian Economic Texts from the Third Ur Dynasty, A Catalogue and Discussion of Documents from Various Collections, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1961, pp. 421,”
Bibbia e Oriente 5/3, pp. 117-118.
See full text
     A review of a publication presenting economic texts dated to the Ur III dynasty (ca. 2000 BC), related to transactions of goods between different places and administrations. The reviewer underlines the wealth of the published documentation and the importance of the discussion of many technical names and titles involving public administration and craft production. The reviewer only stresses the lackness of a full publication of the original cuneiform transcriptions, since the author only provides the transliteration of the texts.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  history
economy
Ur III

1963b “La storia della Siria antica.
Review to: F. Michelini Tocci, La Siria nell'età di Mari, Studi semitici 3, Roma: Centro di studi semitici, 1960, pp. 112,”
Review to: Mario Liverani, Storia di Ugarit nell'età degli archivi politici, Studi semitici 6, Roma: Centro di studi semitici, 1962, pp. 116,”
Bibbia e Oriente 5/3, pp. 118-119.
See full text
     A review of two publications displaying the history of ancient Syria, so important for the events involving the Bible and the history of Israel. The fist volume (by Michelini Tocci) mainly focuses on the period of Mari (first half of 18th cent. BC), but adding information about other coeval entities (e.g. Yamkhad, Karkemish, Elakhut, Ugarit, Qatna, and Byblos). The second reviewed volume (by Liverani) mostly deals with the history of Ugarit/Ras Shamra, focusing on its rich archival documentation (ca. beginning 14th-end 13th cent. BC), preserving international political documents (treaties and letters) and local administrative sources (transactions, legal acts, and economical texts).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  history
Ugarit

1966a The Amorites of the Ur III Period.
Ricerche, I
Naples: Istituto Orientale di Napoli [pp. XVIII, 380, Plates I-XIV].
Part 1: See full text
Part 2: See full text
See abstract
     The volume is divided into two parts, dealing with linguistic affiliation of the Amorites and their history, respectively.
[mDP – November 2019]
  cited

1966b “Review to: Herbert Bardwell Huffmon, Amorite Personal Names in the Mari Texts: A Structural and Lexical Study, Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press, 1965, pp. XVI + 304,”
JAOS 86/2, pp. 230-233.
See full text
     A review of a volume (divided in seven chapters) devoted to the analysis of the Amorite names from the archives of Mari: the investigation is really noteworthy, since the author provides a strict grammatical analysis of around 303 lexical elements componing ancient Amorite personal names.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  onomastics
Mari


1967 Cities and Nations of Ancient Syria. An Essay on Political Institutions with Special Reference to the Israelite Kingdoms, Studi semitici 26, Roma: Istituto di studi del Vicino oriente, Università di Roma
See full text (Preface and Introduction, only)
     This study about ancient Syrian political entities streams directly from “a doctoral dissertation submitted in October 1958 to the Facoltà di Lettere of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan. The title of the dissertation was: Studi sull'ordinamento politico dei regni d'Israele e di Giuda. The dissertation was accepted and publication was recommended. Part of it was published in 1959 in the magazine Bibbia e Oriente under the title: Da Saul a David. The rest is embodied in this book which, however, is different in scope from the original dissertation. During the years spent in Chicago (especially in the summers of 1961 and 1963) I have been able to include a larger amount of material and to elaborate afresh the presentation. A comparison between the tide of 1958 and the present title will show the shift in emphasis which has occurred in the meantime” (from Author's Preface on p. 7).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  history
Syria


1969 “Review to: Giorgio R. Castellino, Mitologia sumerico-accadica, Torino: Società Editrice Internazionale, 1967, pp. 214,”
JAOS 89, pp. 165-166.
See full text
     A review of a volume collecting Sumerian and Akkadian mythology, described by the reviewer as such: “Planned as a survey of Sumerian and Akkadian myths for the Italian public, the present book may be divided into three parts, of different character and value” (p. 165). The first part offers an introduction about mythology in ancient Sumer and Akkad; the second section displays “the most important Sumerian and Akkadian myths, with a description of the plot and with an added interpretative section for the most important myths” (p. 165). The last portion of the book provides the reader with seven Sumerian myths translated for the first time in Italian, followed by a critical apparatus.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  mythology:
Sumerian-Akkadian


1972a “Tre saggi sulla sapienza mesopotamica,”
Oriens Antiquus 11, pp. 1-36.
See full text
     The authors reports here the texts of three conferences delivered at Rome in 1971, all related to wisdom documentation in Akkadian literature; the final text is entitled “Gilgamesh in chiave sapienziale: l'umiltà dell'anti-eroe” [“Gilgamesh Under a Wisdom Perspective: the Humility of an Anti-Hero” (English translation by mDP).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  mythology:
Gilgamesh<


1972b “Review to: Mirjo Salvini, Nairi e Ir(u)aṭri. Contributo alla storia della Formazione del regno di Urarṭu, Incunabula Graeca 16, Roma: Edizioni dell'Ateneo, 1967, pp. 111,”
JAOS 92/2 (April-June 1972), pp. 297-298.
See full text [from JSTOR]
JSTOR stable URL
     A review of a volume related to the development of the kingdom of Urartu, stressing the distinction between the two entities of Nairi and I/Ur(u)aṭri (13th-9th cent. BC), underlining the contacts between these powers and Assyria, and eventually turning the attention to the ethnic problem of affiliation of Urartu with the former Hurrian people.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  history
Urartu


1973 “Methodological Concerns and the Progress of Ancient Near Eastern Studies”
Orientalia, NOVA SERIES 42, pp. 9-20.
See full text
Alternative online version [JSTOR]
See abstract
     G. Buccellati describes in this paper (presenting a volume in honour of I.J. Gelb) the 'ferment' that involved Near Eastern archaeology (and mostly, archaeology in Syria) at the time this contribution has been published: new investigations, both on the field and in museums' storerooms, led to a much more updated interpretation of the data.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  methodology
grammar


1974 “Foreword”
UCLA, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology - Annual Report of the Chancellor and Fellows of the Institute 1974, pp. 1-5.
See full text
     G. Buccellati retraces in this contribution the paths towards the fundation (in 1973-1974) of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the UCLA, stressing the purposes of such an institution: “ The scope of its research interests reaches as far as there is something to recover from the soil which is meaningful for the undesrstanding of our cultural past” (p. 1).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  UCLA, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology


1977a “cApiru and Munnabtūtu — The Stateless of the First Cosmopolitan Age,”
Journal of Near Eastern Studies 36/2, 145-147.
See full text
See abstract
     The historical analysis proposed by M.B. Rowton [see, as for the present topic, JNES 35/1 (1976), pp. 13-20 (JSTOR)], namely the so-defined 'structural approach' (i.e. the attempt to understand historical events as an organic process), is discussed in this paper focused on the problem of the capiru and their definition as 'fugitives': since another Akkadian term, munnabtūtu, means almost the same, the author addresses the question of how we could better define the first lemma.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  ethnicity
(Buccellati 2010)


1977b “Terqa Preliminary Reports, No. 2: A Cuneiform Tablet of the Early Second Millennium B.C.,”
Monographic Journals of the Near East. Syro-Mesopotamian Studies 1/4 (August 1977), pp. 1-8.
See full text
     “The single epigraphic find of the second season came from the surface, not far from one of the regular excavation units. It is a small administrative document of the same type as those from Mari dated to the period of the šakkunakku's. Its importance lies in the inherent implications of (1) close links with Mari at that period, (2) well established archival procedures at Terqa earlier than known heretofore, and (3) possibly a special linguistic affiliation for Terqa in the early periods” (Author's abstract on p. 1).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Terqa


1977c “The «Urban Revolution» in a Socio-Political Perspective,”
Mesopotamia 12, pp. 19-39.
See full text
     The author clearly states the topic of this contribution at its very beginning: “The evidence for the first «cities» in Mesopotamia is relatively rich and well-differentiated: in addition to the archaeological record, which shows a clear pattern of physical growth from smaller to larger settlements, we have the first known written documents which begin, precisely, in the wake of the «urban revolution»” (Author's abstract on p. 19).
     G. Buccellati leads the reader through an analysis of the socio-political (and economical) key-reasons that resulted in the so-called 'urban revolution'.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  urban revolution


1979 Terqa Preliminary Reports No. 10. The Fourth Season: Introduction and the Stratigraphic Record (edited by Giorgio Buccellati),
Bibliotheca Mesopotamica 10, Malibu: Undena Publications.
See full text
     “During the fourth season of excavations at Terqa, a major clarification was obtained of the city defensive system. [...] - A second major result was the discovery of a private archive of cuneiform tablets, belonging to a man by the name of Puzurum, of which the stratigraphic context is described here. [...] - Two new periods are now also documented. For the first millennium B. C. we have some interesting burials and possible traces of a 'nomadic' or 'Aramean' temporary settlement at the site. From Parthian times we have two isolated artifacts, without connections with any structural remains. Finally, we have found for the first time evidence of modest dwellings, from the medieval or early modern period” (Author's abstract, adapted by mDP).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Terqa

1981a “Principles of Stylistic Analysis,”
in Y.L. Arbeitman and A.R. Bomhard, Bono homini Donum: Essays in Historical Linguistics in Memory of J. Alexander Kerns.
Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, Vol. 4, pp. 807-836.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V.
See full text
See abstract
     This paper deals with a theoretical insight into the main principles of stylistic analysis of ancient texts, namely those written Akkadian. The starting point of the discussion moves from a precise statement on the definition of the term 'style'.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  cited


1981b “The Perception of Function and the Prehistory of the State in Syro-Mesopotamia,”
in Brian D. Dillon and Matthew A. Boxt (eds.), Archaeology Without Limits. Papers in Honor of Clement W. Meighan,
Lancaster: Labyrinthos, pp. 481-492.
See full text
See abstract
     In this paper, G. Buccellati re-defines some peculiar aspects about the so-called 'Neolithic revolution' and the 'urban revolution', recognizing how the latter and the state formation are “two Janus-like faces of a single phaenomenon [...] in any discussion of early Syro-Mesopotamian history [...] an area where anthropologists and humanists, historians, and archaeologists, are more likely to find a common ground” (p. 481).
[mDP – November 2019]
  cited


1981c “The origin of Writing and the Beginning of History,”
in Giorgio Buccellati and Charles Speroni (eds.), The Shape of the Past.
Studies in Honor of Franklin D. Murphy
Los Angeles: UCLA, Institute of Archaeology and Office of the Chancellor, pp. 3-13.
See full text
     The author retraces in this paper the development of writing from its origin streaming to the consequent beginning of history, eventually facing the topic of the 'cybernetic revolution'. Here a sketch of the content: 'Energy as the measure of Effectiveness'; ' Intellectual Presuppositions'; 'Technnical Antecedents'; 'The New Extrasomatic Extension'; 'The New Categorization System'.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  writing


1981d “Stratigraphic Sections,”
in Brian D. Dillon (ed.), The Student's Guide to Archaeological Illustrating
Archaeological Research Tools 1,
Los Angeles: UCLA, Institute of Archaeology, pp. 51-64.
See full text
     A short but very useful manual about the definition of 'section' in archaeology (defining different types of sections), describing to beginners or students the basic concepts related to stratigraphy and section recording and drawing.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  methodology
principles: stratigraphy

1982 “The Descent of Inanna as a Ritual Journey to Kutha,”
Syro-Mesopotamian Studies 4/3, 7-18.
See full text
See abstract
     In this paper, the author “suggest[s] a cultic setting for the story” of the Sumerian Descent of Inanna.
[mDP – November 2019]
 religion


1983a “Allocution de représentant des participants,”
in Ministère de la Culture. Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées (ed.), Symposium international: histoire de Deir ez-Zor et ses antiquités : Deir ez-Zor, 2-6 oct. 1983
Damas: Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées, pp. 21-23.
See full text
     Introductory speech addressed by G. Buccellati, as representative of the participants at the conference held at Deir ez-Zor in 1983, about the situation of archaeological research in the country.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Syrian archaeology


1983b “Computer Aided Research in Near Eastern Studies: An Introduction,”
Monographic Journal of the Near East. CARNES 1/1 (September 1983), pp. 1-2.
See full text
     “The primary purpose of this new journal is the dissemination of tools for the use of electronic data processing in the various disciplines which deal with the Near East. It is natural, of course, that many of the results obtained in this area would also be of interest for other areas of the humanities and the social sciences” (p. 1).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  methodology


1984a “Introduction,”
in Olivier Rouault, Terqa Final Reports No. 1. L'Archive de Puzurum
Bibliotheca Mesopotamica 16,
Malibu: Undena Publications, pp. vii-xviii.
See full text
     Terqa's final report regarding the archive of Puzurum. The introduction displays, after a paragraph of acknowledgments, the presentation of the final repot itself, offering stratigraphic considerations related to Puzurum's 'archive' and texts from other areas, concluding with historical considerations.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Terqa


1984b “Review to: John Boardman et al. (eds), The Cambridge Ancient History, 2nd ed., New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. xx + 1059”
The American Historical Review 89/4 (October 1984), pp. 1054-1055.
See full text
JSTOR stable URL
     A critic review of one of the volume of the Cambridge Ancient History, devoted to the presentation of the prehistory of the Balkans and the Middle East and Aegean World (10th-8th cent. BC). The author stresses some more general criticisms, going beyond the volume itself: “Finally, I wish to note that the criticisms advanced here are as much a commentary on the discipline as on the book itself. It is somewhat like the converse of the mirror on the wall in Snow White's story. The Cambridge Ancient History reflects only what is at hand, it does not of its own generate new domains of thought, it does not point, beyond the reflection of current standards, to a more promising line of research” (p. 1055).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  history
CAH 3/1


1986a “Analyzing Assyrian Palace Reliefs.
Review to: Leo Bersani and Ulysse Dutoit, The Forms of Violence: Narrative in Assyrian Art and Modern Culture.
New York: Schocken Books, 1985, pp. 136”
Los Angeles Times 3rd March 1986, ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times (1881-1990), p. F4.
See full text
     A review of a book telling about the concept of violence in antiquities and in modern times, stressing how “The most gratifying task of the humanist is to recapture the experience of the past, re-embedding it in our own experience”.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Assyrian reliefs


1986b “Computer Projects”
Backdirt 1 (Spring 1986), p. 3.
See full text
     A short contribution reflecting on the development of computers used in archaeological field, stressing how new technologies can provide scholars with up-to-date systems of recording and analysis.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  methodology


1986-1987 “On the Distribution of Epigraphic Finds at Terqa”
Les annales archéologiques arabes syriennes: revue d'archéologie et d'histoire [Damascus: Ministère de la Culture, Direction Générale des Antiqués et des Musées] 36-37 (1986-1987), pp. 102-106.
See full text
     The topic of this contribution is immediately stated at the beginning: “One of the interesting aspects of the epigraphic finds at Terqa is the distribution which they exhibit throughout the site. This phenomenon deserves special attention, particularly when our finds are compared to those of the great archives of other ancient Syrian capitals” (p. 102).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Terqa
epigraphy


1988a “Ancient Syria. Introduction”
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 270 (May), 1-2.
See full text
Alternative online version (JSTOR)
See abstract
     In this brief paper, Giorgio Buccellati offers an introduction to archaeology in Syria, stressing the importance of some emerging discoveries, such as the excavations of the ancient cities of Ebla, Mari and Ugarit, and further discussing their connections to the Mesopotamian world.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  Syrian archaeology


1988b “The Kingdom and Period of Khana”
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 270 (May), 43-61.
See full text
Alternative online version (JSTOR)
See abstract
     The present paper, included into the proceedings of a conference held at Chicago (by ASOR) in November 1985, presents some notes about the Syrian kingdom of Khana.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  Syrian archaeology
Khana


1988c “Gilgamesh and Enkidu: The First Encounter (The Old Babylonian Pennsylvania Tablet)”
[Preliminary draft, November 1988].
See full text
     A draft paper devoted to the literary analysis of the famous episode of the first encounter between Gilgamesh and Enkidu; the author investigates the background, the structure, the message (both linear and non-linear), and the poetry, lying behind the episode itself. After references, the author eventually provides an autograph copy (by A. Westenholz), the transcription and the translation of the Old Babylonian Pennsylvania tablet (B7771, cf. text) discussed in the contribution.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Gilgamesh


1990a “Cybernetica Mesopotamica,”
MAARAV 5-6 (Spring 1990), pp. 23-32.
See full text
     A paper discussing on the importance of a digital and technological approach in archaeological and historical studies. Starting back from 1968, Giorgio Buccellati traces the paths of the diffusion and spread in the use of computer in Mesopotamian studies, stressing the benefits and the advantages that this technology led both in recording data and in disseminating knowledge between scholars.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  computer aid
Cybernetica Mesopotamica


1990b “The Ebla Electronic Corpus: Graphemic Analysis,”
Les annales archéologiques arabes syriennes: revue d'archéologie et d'histoire [Damascus: Ministère de la Culture, Direction Générale des Antiqués et des Musées] 40 (1990) [Numéro spécial sur les Actes du Colloque international de l'histoire et l'archéologie de Mohafazat d'Idlib (Idlib 25-28 septembre 1989)], pp. 1-26.
See full text
     “This paper is the second in a series of 'Studies in Ebla Graphemics,' of which the first has appeared in Studi Eblaiti 5 (1982) 39-74 (also in Russian translation in Drevnia Ebla, Moscow 1985, 114-132). The paper reproduces the substance of the text as delivered at the meeting in Idlib, and deals primarily with matters of data structure and file format [...]. A differentiated study of outputs like these allows to reach significant conclusions about cooccurrence, covariation, non-occurrence of given phenomena, with a speed and accuracy that remains practically impossible without the computer. And it is precisely on such observations of facts that we can base a distributional type of analysis which is the safest means of attributing meaning to the data” (pp. 1, 8).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Ebla


1990c “Experiments in Salt Production at Tell Qraya,”
Syrian archaeology Bulletin 1990, pp. 9-10.
See full text
     A short report about excavations conducted at Qraya, a small Uruk period site north of Terqa, describing “some experimental work undertaken in 1989 to test certain aspects of a theory pertaining both the nature of the ancient occupation at the site and the function of the stratigraphic assemblage of which the bevelled rim bowls are a part, [suggesting] that Qraya was a commercial station for salt procurement” (quotation from pp. 9-10, adapted by M. De Pietri).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Qraya
salt production
bevelled-rim bowls


1990d “From Khana to Laqê: the End of Syro-Mesopotamia,”
in Önca Tunca (ed.), De la Babylonie à la Syrie, en passant par Mari : Mélanges offerts à Monsieur J.-R. Kupper à l'occasion de son 70e anniversaire, Liège: Université de Liège, pp. 230-253.
See full text
     This paper discusses on the term and the historical entity defined as 'Syro-Mesopotamia', investigating topics related to etimology, archaeology, history, geography, and philology. The present contribution has to be considered as a part of a wider project, as explained by the author: “It is with much admiration that I am offering these reflections to a scholar [J.-R. Kupper] who came to serve on different occasions as a standard of reference for my own studies, [...] during my work on the Amorites or, later, [...] during my work at Terqa. The larger research, of which this article is a part, builds broadly on his own pioneering work. Some of the points raised here were first presented during a paper I read at the University of Arizona in 1986. In its present form, this is the last in a series of six articles currently in press or in preparation which deal with the history and geography of ancient Khana. The sequence of articles is as follows:
  1. “Salt at the Dawn of History: The Case of the Bevelled Rim Bowls” [...];
  2. “'River Bank', 'High Country', and 'Pasture Land': The Growth of Nomadism on the Middle Euphrates and the Khabur” [...];
  3. “The Rural Landscape of the ancient Zor: The Terqa Evidence” [...];
  4. “The Kingdom and Period of Khana” [...];
  5. “The People of Terqa and Their Names” [in preparation];
  6. “From Khana to Laqê: The End of Syro-Mesopotamia” (published here).
     The current version of this article is rather programmatic in nature. I plan to eventually integrate it, as well as the other articles of the series, into a full-size monograph and at that time I will include a fuller documentation and argumentation than is possible here. I will also include there proper cartographic and photographic illustrations of the geographical phenomena described” (p. 230, note *).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Khana
Laqe


1990e “'River Bank', 'High Country', and 'Pasture Land': the Growth of Nomadism on the Middle Euphrates and the Khabur,”
in Seyyare Eichler, Markus Wäfler and David Warburton (eds.), Tall al-Ḥamīdīya 2. Symposion 'Recent Excavations in the Upper Khabur Region', Berne, December 9-11, 1986, Göttingen: Vander & Ruprecht, pp. 87-117.
See full text
     This contribution deals with the concept and actual definition of the term 'nomadism' analyzed within a specific area (the Middle Euphrates and the Khabur), investigating how nomadic people played a specific and peculiar role in urban development and growth in social complexity in that geographical zone: “The goal of my presentation is to reflect on some of the presuppositions which may help us focus more sharply on the data we are excavating. If there is something of a general research design that we all broadly share as we wield our tools on the rich mounds of the Khabur plains it is the expectation that we are dealing with major and distinctive political and ethnic configurations. [...] In my paper I would like to look at the question of the socio-ethnic configuration of the populations of the Middle Euphrates and the Khabur from the point of view of the ancient geographical perception of the landscape as documented in the texts” (p. 88).
     [A specific mention of Urkesh is on p. 112: “What is presumed to be the major third millennium Hurrian center, the capital of Tiš-atal and the seat of the main Hurrian god Kumarbi, i.e. the city of Urkiš, is also in all probability to be found in the Khabur plains, although no conclusive evidence has as yet been discovered to link it with certainty to any specific site in the Khabur plains”.]
[mDP – January 2020] 		  nomadism
Urkesh: location


1990f “Review to: Wayne T. Pitard, Ancient Damascus: A Historical Study of the Syrian City-State from Earliest Times until its Fall to the Assyrians in 732 B.C.E., Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1987, pp. viii + 230,”
The American Historical Review 95/1 (February 1990), p. 141.
See full text
DOI
     A review of a book about ancient Damascus: “Following a straightforward chronological thread, Wayne T. Pitard reviews the evidence pertaining to the city of Damascus and its immediate region until the time when Damascus became a province of the Assyrian empire. As a city-state, Damascus was a political entity as well as a settlement, and it is exclusively the political aspect of the city's history that can today be the object of scholarly investigation, because Damascus as a settlement (for pre-Hellenistic times) is either buried or obliterated, at any rate inaccessible” (p. 141). In the end, the reviewer expresses this evaluation: “A historian will look at the book as a factual resource tool in which data are sorted chronologically in a manner that is commendably reliable and exhaustive. The 'historical study' heralded in the subtitle, on the other hand, remains part of the agenda” (p. 141).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Damascus
Syrian history


1990g “The Rural Landscape of the Ancient Zor : The Terqa Evidence,”
in Bernard Geyer (ed.), Techniques et pratiques hydro-agricoles traditionnelles en domaine irrigué : approche pluridisciplinaire des modes de culture avant la motorisation en Syrie : actes du Colloque de Damas, 27 juin-1er juillet 1987, Bibliothèque archéologique et historique [Institut français d'archéologie du Proche-Orient] 136, Paris: Librarie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, vol. 1, pp. 154-169.
See full text
     The author analyzes in this contribution the actual geographical, rural landscape of ancient Syria, according to Terqa documentation: “The present paper deals with the rural landscape of the ancient zor [a term used to define the riverbank bush or a narrow farming strip] on the basis primarily of the texts from Terqa. I will look at the physical landscape, referring in particular to the perception which the inhabitants had (and express in their texts) of the physical dimension of their zor environment” (p. 157). On pp. 168-169, the discussion following the author's lecture is fully reported.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  zor
Terqa


1990h “Salt at the Dawn of History: the Case of the Bevelled-Rim Bowls,”
in Paolo Matthiae, Maurits Nanning van Loon and Harvey Weiss (eds.), Resurrecting the Past : a Joint Tribute to Adnan Bounni, Uitgaven van het Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul 67, Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul, pp. 17-41.
See full text
     In this paper, the author investigates the salt production at Qraya, attested and argued on the basis of the founding of many bevelled-rim bowls [for a brief information about this project, see supra Buccellati 1990d].
[mDP – January 2020] 		  salt
bevelled-rim bowls


1991 “A Note on the muškēnum as a 'Homesteader',”
MAARAV 7, pp. 91-100.
See full text
     “Within the purview of this notel I will argue for a particular meaning of the term muškēnum from the point of view not of lexical, but rather of broader historical considerations. I will do this by reconstructing a certain distributional array pertaining to Old Babylonian land tenure, with particular reference to data from Terqa. In this array, the term muškēnum is not opposed directly to awīlum or, for that matter, to any other term denoting a social class; rather, it is associated with a set of terms which together refer to an institutional phenomenon juxtaposed to a corresponding, contrasting phenomenon, for which a correlative set of terms obtains” (pp. 91-92).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  muškēnum


1992a “The Ebla Electronic Corpus: Onomastic Analysis,”
Elaitica 3, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, pp. 107-128.
See full text
     “This article is in the nature of an interim report on a project of onomastic analysis of the Ebla personal names, which is in turn part of a larger project called Cybernetica Mesopotamica. The purpose of this paper is to outline the conceptual and technical aspects of the onomastic data base; while a fuller assessment of the system will be possible only upon its publication in a complete version, this interim report will focus on the methodological presuppositions” (p. 105).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  onomastics
Ebla
Cybernetica Mesopotamica


1992b “Ebla and the Amorites,”
in Gordon, Cyrus H. (ed.) and Rendsburg, Gary A. (associate ed.), Eblaitica: Essays on the Ebla Archives and Eblaite Language. Volume 3, Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, pp. 83-104.
See full text
     In this paper, the author investigates the historical relationships between Ebla and the Amorites.
[mDP – October 2022] 		  Amorites
Ebla


1993a “Gli Amorrei e l'“addomesticamento” della steppa,”
in Olivier Rouault and Maria Grazia Masetti-Rouault (eds.), L'Eufrate e il tempo. Le civiltà del medio Eufrate e della Gezira siriana, Milano: Electa, pp. 67-69.
See full text
     This contribution discusses the peculiar features of the Amorites as nomadic people (at the very beginning), able to 'domesticate' the steppe; the author further explores different theories about the 'dimorphic' nature of Amorites' tribes, their language affiliation, their relations with Syrian cities, and their final settling in stable cities The second part of the paper investigates the ethnic identity of the Amorites, defined as specific through their language and their common origins.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Amorites


1993b “Through a Tablet Darkly. A Reconstruction of Old Akkadian Monuments Described in Old Babylonian Copies,”
in Mark E. Cohen, Daniel C. Snell, David B. Weisberg (eds.), The Tablet and the Scroll. Near Eastern Studies in Honor of William H. Hallo, Bethesda (Maryland): CDL Press, pp. 58-71.
See full text
     In this paper, the author attempts a possible 'virtual' reconstruction of some important Akkadian monuments (actually lost), mostly basing such a reconstruction on descriptions of these monuments attested in Old Babylonian documents.
[mDP – June 2022] 		  Akkadian monuments


1995a “Eblaite and Amorite Names,”
in Ernst Eichler, Gerold Hilty, Heinrich Loffler, Hugo Steger and Ladislav Zgusta (eds.), Namenforschung/Name Studies/Les noms propres. Ein internationales Handbuch zur Onomastik/An International Handbook of Onomastics/Manuel international d'onomastique, Berlin-New York: Walther de Gruyter, vol. 1, pp. 856-860.
See full text
     A wide discussion about Eblaite and Amorite names, displaying personal names (analyzed through name composition-schemes and for what concerns semiotics and name-giving), divine names, and geographical names. A first paragraph is devoted to the definition of the different Semitic language groups, pointing out three remarks against a too simplistic dirrentiation into three groups (Old Akkadian, Amorite, and Eblaite).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  onomastics
Ebla
Amorites


1995b “Ethics and Piety in·the Ancient Near East,”
in Jack Sasson (ed.), Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, New York: Scribner, vol. 3, pp. 1685-1696.
See full text
     “Irreversibly, the unfolding ofhuman history has led to an ever-growing expansion of our collective consciousness. The accretion of experience has never reached a ceiling beyond which further expansion either would be impossible or could occur only at the expense of other experience previously acquired. Like a diamond able to grow outwardly in size and inwardly in clarity, cumulated human experience leads to an evergreater depth of perception. Here lies the worth of culture, which serves as the mechanism for the transmission of personal experience at the social level, and here lies the beauty of history, which helps tell how it all happened” (p. 1685).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  ethics
piety


1996a “The Role of Socio-Political Factors in the Emergence of 'Public' and 'Private' Domains in Early Mesopotamia,”
in Michael Hudson and Baruch A. Levine (eds.), Privatization in the Ancient Near East and Classical World, Volume I in a Series by The International Scholars Conference on Ancient Near Eastern Economics. A Colloquium held at New York University, November 17-18, 1994, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology: Harvard University, pp. 129-151.
See full text
     Throughout the analysis of mythological and historical documentation from Mesopotamia, the author reflects on the topic of the differentiation of spaces and realms as 'public' and 'private', emerging during the so-called 'urban revolution', comparing the urban society with the pre-urban villages scattered in the Syro-Mesopotamian area. This differentiation was supported by five factors: 1) political control; 2) manufacturing technology; 3) writing system(s); 4) differentiation of social ranks; 5) detachment of the concept of 'law' from 'custom'.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  public
private

1996b A Structural Grammar of Babylonian,
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
See text (cover, table of content and introduction)
Companion website
     A structural analysis of Babylonian language.
[mDP – October 2022] 		 philology
Akk-lg.

1997 “Akkadian and Amorite Phonology,”
in A.S. Kaye (ed.), Phonologies of Asia and Africa (Including the Caucasus), Volume 1, Winona Lake (Indiana): Eisenbrauns, pp. 3-38.
See full text
See abstract
     Giorgio Buccellati offers in this paper an overview on Akkadian and Amorite phonological system.
[mDP – November 2019] 		 language, Akkadian
Amorites

1998 “Review to: Aviram, J. and Shanks, H. (eds.) [1996], Archaeology's Publication Problems, Washington D.C., Biblical Archaeology Society,”,
Near Eastern Archaeology, 61/2 (June), pp. 118-120.
See full text
See full text (JSTOR)
See abstract
     In this book review, the author discusses some major topics about archaeology and addresses several questions on how to perceive and define basic problems in this field. The author proposes to publish firstly not depositional inferences but emplacement data (see on this topic the approach of the GRAMMAR).
[mDP – November 2019] 		 CAR (emplacement & deposition), GRAMMAR


2000 “On Poetry and Friendship: Linear and Tensional Elements in the Old Babylonian Episode of Gilgamesh and Enkidu,”
in Paola Negri Scafa and Paolo Gentili (eds.), DONUM NATALICIUM. Studi presentati a Claudio Saporetti in occasione del suo 60. Compleanno, Roma: Borgia Editore, pp. 63-76.
See full text
See abstract
     “I have stressed that the devices described above are not to be seen in isolation: in and of themselves, they are fragmented views of a single organic whole, which is all the more successful the more the parts are, precisely, integrated with each other. Ultimately, it is for our sensitivity as readers to recreate their unity in our perception of the work. This is what has been called so aptly the 'secret kinship' of the parts within the whole of a living poetic text (Jakobson)” (author's Summary on p. 76, adapted by mDP).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  poetry
Gilgamesh

2003-2004 “Review to: Geyer, B. (ed.) [2001], , Conquête de la steppe et appropriation des terres sur les marges arides du Croissant fertile , Lyon: Maison de l'Orient Méditerranéen – Jean Pouilloux (= Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient méditerranéen, 36),”,
Archiv für Orientforschung, 50, pp. 455-457.
See full text
See full text (JSTOR)
See abstract
     As for the content of the reviewed publication: “The result of an important interdisciplinary effort, this volume gathers the contributions of a number of scholars with a variety of interests.
     The more obvious subdivision is that between ancient and modern data - four chapters being concerned with the former, and six with the latter. They all share equally an interest for archaeology and geography, and to a more limited extent for the ethnography.
[mDP – November 2019] 		cf. Buccellati 1999

2004 “Present at Creation,”
Backdirt Spring/Summer 2004, pp. 3-4.
See full text
     A paper telling the history of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology (UCLA), recalling some of the most important goals of this Institution, and presenting a balance of the main results. Under a methodological point of view, the author makes many references to his paper “An Archaeologist on Mars”.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  UCLA,
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology


2006 “On (e)-tic and -emic,”
Backdirt Winter 2006, pp. 12-13.
See full text
     The authors reflects in this paper about the distinction between the concepts of -emic and ethic under a linguistic and archaeological perspective: “In my view, the basic underlying concept is the distinction between an open and a closed system, where -etic refers to the first, and -emic to the second” (p. 12). The last concept is then well-explained with a concrete example, i.e. the perception and formal definition of colours in the archaeological recording process and in the common life, too (mentioning the example of the spotlights).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  -ethic
-emic


2007 “Non-linear archaeology,”
Backdirt 2007, pp. 37-39.
See full text
     G. Buccellati presents in this contribution some thoughts about the logic of the archaeological discipline, underlining the importance of establishing a proper 'grammar': “Frequent though it is in common parlance, the term 'non-linear' generally exhibits a vague frame of reference (it has a precise meaning in some technical contexts such as mathematics or physics). Perhaps by virtue of its novelty and of the inadequate definition generally given of it, the very term 'non-linear' is evoked with almost a sense of awe (I retain here the hyphenated spelling to emphasize the contrast with 'linear'). An explanation of its import may help to put both term and concept in sharper focus” (p. 37).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  linearity vs.
non-linearity
grammar

2008 “The Origin of the Tribe and the 'Industrial' Agropastoralism in Syro-Mesopotamia,”
in Hans Barnard and Willeke Wendrich (eds.), The Archaeology of Mobility. Old World and New World Nomadism, The Archaology of Mobility 4, Los Angeles: Costen Institute of Archaeology (UCLA), pp. 141-159.
See full text
     The topic of this paper focuses on the origin of the tribe, under an archaeological and historical perspective, crossing this theme with the development of agropastoralism in Syro-Mesopotamia, by the 19th BC, mostly stressing the features related to the Amorites: “By the 19th century BCE, most of Syro-Mesopotamia had come under the political control of dynasties whose rulers, as well as many of their subjects, had common onomastics and presumably a common ethnic origin. The people behind this movement are known to us as 'Amorites,' an English gentilic derived from the Hebrew version of the original name Amurrum” (p. 37).
[mDP – January 2020]
  nomadism
agropastoralism
Amorites

2010 “The Question of Digital Thought,”
in Tatiana M. Nikolaeva (ed.), Studies in Linguistics and Semiotics. A Festschrift for Vyacheslav V. Ivanov, Moscow: Languages Slavic Cultures, pp. 46-55.
See full text
     Digital thought represents the core of this contribution: after a first step when writing was invented, human beings experimented the birth of “extra-somatic embodiment of intellectual constructs”, i.e. 'things', intended as “an object independent of the mental processes that had produced them” (p. 46). The second fundamental step was represented by the introduction of the printing press, providing a wider public with a larger 'publication' of information and thoughts. The third step is represented by the introduction of computers and the diffusion of a 'digital thought', characterized by wider aspects of discontinuity and fluidity, leading to a fragmentation and integration, influenced by features of non-linearity [for which see supra, Buccellati 2007], strictly connected to a specific 'grammar').
[mDP – January 2020]
  digital thought

2011 “Digital Edition and Graphemic Analysis of the Ebla Texts,”
in Lucio Milano (ed.), Archivi Reali di Ebla, (ARED), Edizione digitale 1, Cybernetica Mesopotamica, CD 4, Malibu: Undena Publications.
See full text
     “The commitment to digitize the texts of the Ebla archive was made very early, during the first meeting, in 1977, of the International Committee for the Publication of the Texts of Ebla, just two years after the discovery of the archive. That was my specific task within the Committee, and the goal was to provide the colleagues with a computerized data base that could be used as an in-house resource. This was in line with a similar research project I had undertaken in 1968 with regard to Old Babylonian letters, and in working on both projects it became clear that graphemic analysis was an indispensable component of this research. On the one hand, it was necessary to develop coding and tagging procedures that would allow for a more coherent definition of the data than was possible with the standard transliteration system (the numerals being a case in point). On the other, it became immediately clear how desirable it was to exploit fully the unsuspected potential of the system as a way to develop a more clearly articulated approach to graphemics analysis as such”.
[mDP – January 2020]
  digital edition
Ebla Royal Archives (Tablets)
Cybernetica Mesopotamica

2012a “Towards a Linguistic Model for Archaeology,”
Revue d'assiriologie et d'archéologie orientale 106, pp. 37-43.
See full text
See abstract
     Archaeological theory (described in the first section of this paper) is here understood on the basis of a philosophical and linguistical approach, after many studies on this topic and the definition of a 'contextual archaeology' by I. Hodder [see e.g. Hodder and Hutson, and the perspective of cognitive sciences (C. Renfrew); see e.g. Renfrew.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  grammar
broken tradition
hermeneutics
digital thought

2012b “Aten in Amurru?,”
in G.B. Lanfranchi et al. (eds.), Leggo! Studies Presented to Frederick Mario Fales on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 96-98.
See full text
See abstract
     The paper is devoted to a re-analysis of EA (= El-Amarna [letter]) 164, written by Aziru, king of Amurru, to the high Egyptian official Tutu at Akhetaten, during the Amarna period (ca. 1353-1336 BC). The focus of the contribution deals with the re-interpretation of the mention of an Egyptian deity, whose name is written in Akkadian as DINGIRA, previously interpreted as a reference to the god Amun (in 1915, by Otto Schroeder).
[mDP – November 2019] 		  history
philology

2014a “The threefold 'invention' of time: transcendental, transcendent, trans-temporal,”
Euresis 7, pp. 69-85.
See full text
See abstract
     “It was in the Upper Paleolithic, or late stone age (50000-10000 B.C.), that an articulate confrontation with time first became a reality. The general cultural context was that of art and language: they both show how humans could begin to relate to their own brain functions as reified items, through which perception acquired an existence of its own. But the most specific evidence of this wholly new mental process, and the one that is most directly linked to our topic, is found in documents from the same general period that offer explicit notations of time sequences on bone and stone.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  trascendentality

2014b “Nella storia, la compagnia del destino all'uomo,”
in Emanuela Belloni and Alberto Savonarola (eds), Le periferie dell'umano, Milano: BUR, pp. 63-85.
See full text
     This dialogic contribution, represented by a discussion between Giorgio Buccellati and Ignacio Carbajosa, arises many questions, advancing some answers, about the destiny of human beings, a relevant topic in archaeology, since many religious practices, burial customs, and mythological texts are strictly related to the same enquiry about personal human destiny.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  human destiny

2015 “The Transcendental Revolution,”
in Hans Amstutz, Andreas Dorn, Matthias Müller, Miriam Ronsdorf, Samj Uljas (eds.), Fuzzy Boundaries. Festschrift für Antonio Loprieno, vol. 1, Hamburg: Widmaier, pp. 47-54.
See full text
     “Kant’s critical concern was aimed at separating clearly the categorial dimension of human reason from the perceptual dimension. A basic assumption that underlies his entire philosophical system (and, for that matter, all of philosophy) is that perception and pure reason coexist in human beings, and have to be clearly separated in order to give pure reason its due. In this perspective, the beginning of pure reason coincides with the beginning of humankind, and a critical approach lays bare what has always been there: a transcendental dimension whereby the apriori operates, as it were, on perception. But what if there was a time when cognition rested only on perception, with no logical overlay at all? It is precisely in this light that we may look at the immensely long pre-linguistic stage of the genus homo. Against this background, the emergence of language and categorial thought, after some two million years of purely perceptual cognition, can indeed be considered a full scale revolution” (p. 47).
[mDP – January 2020]
  trascendentality Kant CAR (Kant)

2020 “'Awīliš īwē'. L'uomo mesopotamico come figlio della città”
in Michele Cammarosano, Elena Devecchi, Maurizio Viano (eds) 2020, talugaeš witteš. Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Stefano de Martino on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, Kasion. Publikationen zur ostmediterranen Antike/Publications on Eastern Mediterranean Antiquity 2, Münster: Zaphon, pp. 37-49 [ISBN 978-3-96327-110-6 (Book) / ISBN 978-3-96327-111-3 (E-Book)].
See full text
     “Awīliš īwē. It is one of the most beautiful sentences in Mesopotamian literature: Enkidu 'transformed himself into the nature of man.' But more properly we should translate: 'into the nature of a civilized being' - because to be truly man (awīlum) means to be 'a son of a city.' As for Enkidu in the Gilgamesh poem, 'naturalize' therefore means, 'civilize,' and not 'humanize,' a not insignificant difference. In this short essay I wish to explore this difference in more detail [...].” (p. 37, English translation by mDP.)
     [This paper deals with the topic of human nature and the concept/process of civilization as it is described in ancient Mesopotamian literature.]
[mDP – May 2023] 		  Gilgamesh
Mes-Rel

2021 “The Cosmos before Cosmology: Foreshadowing of Order in Prehistory,”
in Ignacio Carbajosa, Nicoletta Scotti Muth (eds), Israel and the Cosmological Empires of the Ancient Orient. Symbols of Order in Eric Voegelin's Order and History, Vol. 1, Paderborn: Brill, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, pp. 129-154 [ISBN 978-3-7705-6487-3 (Paperback)].
See full text
     “The cosmological view of reality developed within a mindset that was conditioned by the origin and early development of logical thought and of language: the earliest form we have is the one that was shaped 'historiogenetically,' by the literate civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. The paper will highlight its extremely old prehistory, which can be characterized as pre-logical and pre-linguistic, lasting some two million years, and its culmination in the earliest stages of logic and language, some sixty thousand years ago. I will aim to show how in this period the germs developed that made eventually possible the reflection of the early 'symbolists' who, as Voegelin writes, 'were clearly not satisfied with merely relating [the facts]; they wanted to link them, through an act of mythopoiesis, with the emergence of order in the cosmos.' My thesis is that these early 'symbolists' had not only 'historical materials' at their disposal, but also an embryonic sense of order that had been developed by their prehistoric confrères” (Author's abstract on p. 129).
[mDP – August 2022] 		  cosmology
prehistory
language
symbolism

2022 “Transformative Transitions: Learning from a Distant Past,”
DirittoPolitecnico.it 1/2022, pp. 127-139.
See full text
     In this paper (supplemented with an editorial by Danila Iacovelli and a commentary paper by Paolo Paolini), the author deals with the concept of "digital discourse" and the new oppurtunities that digitality provides us to better understand and study ancient history. The contribution discusses the historical importance of the birth of language and logical thought, which “marks a radical change in the relationship to nature” (p. 128), and the later "invention" of writing, which is seen as a mean by which “actions and abstract concepts can also be so coded and referenced to” (p. 129). Digitality (and the related digital thought) enables us to further extend our capabilities in knowing and communicating, since it allows to link a fragment of information to a coherent whole by active ("searching") and passive means ("hyperlinks"). In the third section of this paper, the author explains the difference between an "electronic discourse" (e-discourse, which “refers to a human discourse applied to data that are available in electronic format”, p. 134) and a "digital discourse" (d-discourse, which is “a discourse that is in itself structured digitally”, p. 134). In the last section, the author presents his "multi-planar model/argument", which represents “our ability to perceive the whole through an immensely greater univers of fragments” (p. 139), a new approach and methodology which can be applied to websites as a “new 'form' of humanism [which] will truly trans-form our way knowing reality, our epistemology” (p. 139).
     [This paper is the result of a conference held on November 16, 2021 at the "Politecnico di Milano" (Italy); the recording of this event can be found at the following link, divided into two parts: Part 1 and Part 2.]
[mDP – August 2022] 		  digital discourse

forthc. “Umanesimo digitale. I frammenti in-discorso con il tutto,”
UCSC.
See full text (restricted access: PW requested)
English translation by M. De Pietri (restricted access: PW requested)
[mDP – December 2022] 		  digital discourse>

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Buccellati, Giorgio and Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati

1967 “Archaeological Survey of the Palmyrene and the Jebel Bishri,”
Archaeology 20/4 (October), pp. 305-306.
See full text
Alternative online version (JSTOR)
See abstract
     A brief reports on the UCLA survey of the desertic areas Palmyrene and the Jebel Bishri (North Syria), conducted in August 1966, aiming to find out archaeological attestations of Bronze Age period.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  community archaeology
Syrian archaeology


1977a New Archaeological Harvests from Syria,
Pasadena: Ambassador College.
See full text
     The paper reports the most important archaeological investigations undertaken in the area of Terqa/Tell Ashara between 1966 and 1976 by the American team of the UCLA.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Syrian archaeology
Terqa


1977b “Syro-Mesopotamian Studies: A Preface,”
in Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati (ed.), Syro-Mesopotamian Studies 1/1 (May 1977), Malibu: Undena Publications, pp. 1-2.
See full text
     “It is the purpose of this new journal to contribute toward focusing the attention of fellow scholars on such an emerging historiographic horizon, the one which is expressed by the adjective used in the title - Syro-Mesopotamian. The finds at Tell Mardikh, ancient Ebla, are clearly the single most spectacular pointer in such a direction; but they are not the only ones, nor can they adequately be understood if seen in a vacuum. The overriding importance at Ebla of the cuneiform tradition in general, and of Sumerian in particular, are already a clear evidence of the strong and fundamental ties with Southern Mesopotamia” (p. 1).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Syrian archaeology


1977c Terqa Preliminary Reports, No. 1: General Introduction and the Stratigraphic Record of the First Two Seasons,
Syro-Mesopotamian Studies 1/3 (August 1977), Malibu: Undena Publications.
See full text
Alternative online version (Undena Publications)
See abstract
     “New excavations at ancient Terqa (modern cAshāra, in Syria) were carried out by American teams in 1975 and 1976, and are planned to continue for several years. Beginning a new type of modular preliminary reports, this fascicle concentrates on the substantive and methodological premises of the excavations and on the stratigraphic record of the two seasons of 1975 and 1976” (Authors' abstract on p. 73, adapted by mDP).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Terqa


1982 “Terqa 7,”
Archaeology at UCLA 2/9 (July 1982), pp. 1-4.
See full text
     The paper reports the excavations at Terqa/Tell Ashara of the UCLA teams, summarizing the major results related to the Temple of Ninkarrak and to the so-called 'Area F', where two large buildings have been uncovered. The stratigraphic sequence of the latter is then displayed, together with a final paragraph explaining the valuable support offered by the introductions of computers for stratigraphic work in the field.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Terqa


1985 “Terqa and the Kingdom of Khana”
in Harvey Weiss (ed.), Ebla to Damascus. Art and Archaeology of Ancient Syria.
An Exhibition from the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums, Syrian Arab Republic
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution traveling Exhibition Service, pp. 217-222.
See full text
JSTOR stable URL
     This contribution explores the history of the kingdom of Khana, having Terqa as its capital: textual evidences, archaeological artefacts, and historical events are here told in a fairly chronological and typological order.
[mDP – January 2020] 		  history
Khana
Terqa


1986a “The Glory of Ancient Syria. Ebla to Damascus, Part I,”
Terra. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County 24/4 (March-April 1986), pp. 6-14.
See full text
     The present and the following entries refer to a magazine contribution published in two issues, all devoted to the presentation to the wider public of the most important archaeological discoveries made in Syria, displaying the history of the pivotal archaeological sites. This first issue focuses on earlier sites such as Ebla, Mari, Urkesh, Terqa, and Qraya [a reference is also presented to the exhibit “Ebla to Damascus: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Syria” hosted at the Natural History Museum, from March 15 to June 1, 1986].
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Syrian archaeology


1986b “The Glory of Ancient Syria. Ebla to Damascus, Part II,”
Terra. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County 24/5 (May-June 1986), pp. 22-29.
See full text
     See previous entry for a wider summary; this second section is mostly focused on Ugarit, Aleppo, and Palmira, with a particulary emphasis on the key-role of these centers within the framework of both the Bronze and the Iron Age, stressing the 'international' artistic style typical of this area, presenting an interesting insight about the Arameans [a reference is also presented to the eibition “Ebla to Damascus: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Syria” hosted at the Natural History Museum from March 15 to June 1, 1986].
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Syrian archaeology


1988 “Introduction,”
QMR 1: Soundings 1977-79 and 1984-85, pp. 3-7.
See full text
     A report of the most important results from the excavations at the ancient city of Qraya is here presented: after a fist paragraph about the history of the excavations, a second paragraph sketches the significance of this site in the landscape of ancient Northern Syria. A third paragraph presents the publication program of all the results achieved by the UCLA mission. The paper is ended by the aknowledgments to the major sponsors and official supporters of the mission. The importance of the excavations on this site is briefly stressed in the very last sentences: “Started and carried out under salvage project conditions, the work at Qraya is now yielding evidence of considerable significance for the understanding of the earliest period of human civilization in Syria and the Near East. We trust that our continued cooperative work at the site will yield ever more abundant fruits in the future” (p. 7).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Syrian archaeology
Qraya


2017 “Community Archaeology 1984: At the Interface between Practice and Theory,”
Backdirt December 2017, 34-38.
See full text
See abstract
     One of the most important topics for the Urkesh team, also under a theoretical perspective, is indeed that of the role played by archaeologists working in a land affected by war and political instability (as Syria). The site of Tell Mozan = Urkesh offers the chance to reflect on themes such as the moral commitment of an archaeologists dealing with local communities in trouble.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  Gilgamesh
iconography

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Buccellati, Giorgio and Stephen Reimer

1990 “Tell Ziyada,”
Syrian archaeology Bulletin, pp. 7-9.
See full text
DOI
     “The third season of excavations at Tell Ziyada, a small site on the banks of the Khabur in the Salvage Project area south of Hassaka, Syria, took place in May-June 1990” (p. 7), conducted by an UCLA team, under the general direction of Giorgio Buccellati and the field direction of Daniela Buia Quinn (during the first two seasons) and Stephen Reimer (1990).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Tell Ziyada

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Buccellati, Giorgio, Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati and Mario Liverani

1983 “The Scribes of Terqa,”
Archaeology at UCLA 2/14 (November 1983).
See full text 		  Terqa
scribes

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Budin, Stephanie Lynn
2014 “Fertility and Gender in the Ancient Near East,”
in Mark Masterson, Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz, James Robson (eds), Sex in Antiquity. Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World,
London: Routledge, pp. 30-49 (chapter 2).
See full text
Alternative online version (publisher website)
     “Human females and males make very different contributions to the process of reproduction. Females conceive and incubate the embryo/fetus within their bodies for nine months, with concomitant inconveniences and health risks such as pica, high blood pressure, hemorrhoids, and potential death during pregnancy (especially in cases of incompatible, positive/negative blood types) or parturition. Should the infant be born healthy, the female might make an additional multi-year physical investment in breast-feeding” [publisher's online abstract (from p. 30).]
[mDP – August 2023] 		  fertility
gender
quotes 1; 2

2015 “Fertility and gender in the Ancient Near East,”
in M. Masterson, N.S. Rabinowitz, and J. Robson (eds.), Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World
Routledge: London and New York, 30-49.
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

2016 “Female sexuality in Mesopotamia,”
in S.L. Budin and J.M. Turfa (eds.), Women in Antiquity: Real Women across the Ancient World
Routledge: London and New York, 9-24
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH
2018 “Gender in the Tale of Aqhat, ”
in S. Svärd and A. Garcia-Ventura (eds.), Studying gender in the ancient Near East
Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University, Eisenbrauns, 51-72.
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Canby, Jeanny Vorys

1965 “Early Bronze Age ‘Trinket’ Molds ”
Iraq 27, 42-61
Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University, Eisenbrauns, 51-72.
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Carandini, Andrea
2000 Storie dalla terra. Manuale di scavo archeologico,
Torino: Giulio Einaudi Editore [3rd edition; 1st edition = 1991].
See full text
See abstract
     This book, mostly for Italian readers, is considered as an introductive manual to archaeological stratigraphy and practices for beginners. After a forward and an introduction, the author presents a second (more focused) introduction on stratigraphy and excavation technique.
[mDP – November 2019]
  principles: stratigraphy

2017 La forza del contesto,
Bari: Laterza.
See full text (publisher's page)
See abstract
     After a preface, the author presents some reflections about some topic concerning the archaeological work and the deontology of an archaeologist both as a specialist and as a human being, likewise.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  archaeological methodology

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Carr, Nicholas
2008 “Is Google Making us Stupid? What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains,”.
The Atlantic, July-August 2008.
See full text
     An insightful Review to the processes whereby the Internet is changing our cognitive habits, with an emphasis on the negative aspects such as the decrease of concentration and reflection. It develops an interesting parallel with the theory of “scientific management” as developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor.
[gB – December 2005] 		  cited

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Charpin, Dominique, Dietz Otto Edzard and Marten Stol
2004 Mesopotamien.
Die altbabylonische Zeit.
OBO 160/4,
Freibourg, Göttingen: Academic Press, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
[herausgegeben von Pascal Attinger, Walther Sallaberger and Markus Wäfler].
See full text
See abstract
     This miscellaneous volume presents the history of Mesopotamia during the Old-Babylonian period.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  history
trades

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Carter, Robert A and Graham, Philip

2010 “Beyond the Ubaid: Transformation and Integration in the Late Prehistoric Societies of the Middle East ”
Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 63
Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Corti, Carlo and Franca Pecchioli-Daddi
2012 “The Power in Heaven: Remarks on the So-Called Kumarbi Cycle,”
in G. Wilhelm (ed.), Organization, Representation, and Symbols of Power in the Ancient Near East,
Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2012, pp. 611-618.
See abstract
     In this paper the authors discuss about the so-called “Kumarbi Cycle”, a great mythological cycle made up of various works: the “Theogony (or) Kingship in Heaven” or “Song of [Kumarbi]”, the “Kingship of LAMMA”, “Song of Silver”, “Ḫedammu”, “Song of Ullikummi”, “Song of the Sea” and “Ea and the Beast”.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  mythology: Kumarbi

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Creekmore, Andrew Theodore (III)
2008 Kazane Höyük and Urban Life Histories in Third Millennium Upper Mesopotamia
PhD Dissertation (Field of Anthropology), Northwestern University, Evanston (Illinois); June 2008.
See full text
See abstract
     “This dissertation addresses the problem of the development of cities in Upper Mesopotamia in the third millennium B.C.E. I investigate these cities through their settlement patterns and urban plans. I argue that these cities were not planned or organic, but exhibited degrees of planning. I treat my reconstruction of the developmental pathways of these cities as urban life histories. This approach examines how socio-political and economic processes are expressed in the social production and construction of urban space.
     At the core of this dissertation is a case study of the 100 hectare city of Kazane Höyük, located in southeastern Turkey, which was the capital of a regional polity. My study of regional settlement patterns identifies the shape of Kazane's polity, its growth and decline, and its relation to other nearby polities. I study the organization of space within Kazane through magnetometry analysis of several large areas. I study the use of space through excavations and analysis of artifacts and ecofacts. The results reveal a roughly 2 hectare area in the outer city that is characterized by elite and institutional architecture, including houses, storage facilities, and temple-related contexts, adjacent to a main street. My analysis of storage capacity indicates that this part of the city engaged in specialized administration and distribution of cereals and other products. Faunal remains show that this area also participated in a highly specialized system of animal management.
     Finally, I compare Kazane's urban plan and life history with that of several other third millennium cities in Upper Mesopotamia. I find that their plans are most in keeping with the theoretical perspective that these polities were heterogeneous societies in which even the most powerful ruling families were rarely able to control all socio-political or economic aspects of the polity. Instead, different factions in society concentrated on the specific socio-economic goals that best suited their needs. These strategies, and the tension between them, are expressed in the urban plan and the life history of the city” (Author's abstract on pp. 3-4).
     [Urkesh/Tell Mozan is specifically mentioned on pp. 33, 47-48, 96, 238, 239-240, 314, 315-316, 330, 339-342, 344, 360, 365, 430 (Fig. 5.7), and 515 (Fig. 7.2) [bolded pages are also reported as excerpts in the Abstract, since they involve paragraphs entirely devoted to Tell Mozan.]
[mDP – September 2022] 		  urbanization: Mes-Pol
royal palace
quotes 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6

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d'Agostino, Anacleto
2016 L'Alto Tigri nelle età del Bronzo Antico e Medio.
Siti, sequenze e ceramiche rosso-brune tra fine III e inizio II mill. a.C.
(con un'appendice di R. Salvini e G. Verdani),
Studia Asiana 11,
Firenze: Firenze University Press.
ToC
     “The Upper Tigris region represents an important area within the mountainous system of southeastern Anatolia and its relevance is related to its geographical position that plays a role in connecting the Mesopotamian lowlands to both northern and eastern Anatolian areas. Archaeological researches carried out during the last thirty years along the upper course of the Tigris river have provided new important evidence for the definition of a local cultural horizon and a large corpus of data that may be used to clarify chronological divisions and synchronism within the region itself and beyond. The aim of this book is to investigate the results of the recent archaeological activities concerning the final part of the Early and the Middle Bronze Age. Starting from a detailed analysis of the published data, central issues concerning settlements, stratigraphy, architecture, pottery, regional links, and chronology have been treated” (Author's summary on p. 657).
[mDP – March 2020] 		  ceramics

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Darwin, Charles R.

1958 The autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882. With the original omissions restored. Edited and with appendix and notes by his grand-daughter Nora Barlow.
London and Glasgow: Collins Clear-Type Press.
The original was first published posthumously in 1887 with several omissions.
See full text
See abstract
     This book has been fully scanned and digitalized by J. van Wyhe in 2004, providing also the images of the original manuscript, reproduced with permission of the Barlow family, the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin (for this version, see the aforementioned hyperlink).
[mDP – November 2019] 		  cited

1872 The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.
London: John Murray [6th edition].
See full text
See abstract
     The aim of the author of this masterpiece of natural science and anthropology is clearly stated at the beginning of his preface: “I will here attempt to give a brief, but I fear imperfect, sketch of the progress of opinion on the Origin of Species” (p. v).
[mDP – November 2019] 		  cited

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Davies, Toby; Fry, Hannah; Wilson, Alan; Palmisano, Alessio; Altaweel, Mark; Radner, Karen
2013 “Application of an entropy maximizing and dynamics model for understanding settlement structure: the Khabur Triangle in the Middle Bronze and Iron Ages,”
Journal of Archaeological Science, 43, pp. 1-14.
See full text
Alternative online version (publisher website)
     “We present a spatial interaction entropy maximizing and structural dynamics model of settlements from the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) and Iron Ages (IA) in the Khabur Triangle (KT) region within Syria. The model addresses factors that make locations attractive for trade and settlement, affecting settlement growth and change. We explore why some sites become relatively major settlements, while others diminish in the periods discussed. We assess how political and geographic constraints affect regional settlement transformations, while also accounting for uncertainty in the archaeological data. Model outputs indicate how the MBA settlement pattern contrasts from the IA for the same region when different factors affecting settlement size importance, facility of movement, and exogenous site interactions are studied. The results suggest the importance of political and historical factors in these periods and also demonstrate the value of a quantitative model in explaining emergent settlement size distributions across landscapes affected by different socio-environmental causal elements.” [Authors' abstract.]
     [Tell Mozan is explicitly mentioned on pp. 3-4 (with Table 2), where the size of the tell is indicated as “ca. 34 ha”; more precisely, the High Mound is 30 ha, while the whole site is about 130 ha) and on p. 12, about the connections between Urkesh and other ancient sites.]
[mDP – August 2023] 		  Khabur triangle
quotes 1

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degli Abbati, Valeria
2019 Composizione e numero dei contingenti militari nell'Età del Bronzo. Mesopotamia, Siria e Anatolia.
PhD dissertation, University of Rome "Sapienza"
Tutor: Prof. Dr. Maria Giovanna Biga
Co-tutor: Prof. Dr. Rita Francia
See full text
     This PhD dissertation investigates many aspects of warfare in the Ancient Near East, exploring also its historical and political implications in the development of early urban society in this area. A specific focus is on the structure of military systems (and specifically the organization of the army) in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia between the Proto-dynastic period and the Late Bronze Age.
     [An interesting discussion about the political organization at Urkeš/Tell Mozan can be found at p. 40, where the Author discusses the respective roles of the endan ('king') and that of the ugula ('superintendent/governor') at Urkeš, after the marriage between Tar'am-Agade (daughter of Naram-Sin) and the endan of Urkeš. Basing her thesis on the fact the term ugula has to be translated as 'governor', the Author excludes the existence of a local and autonomous endan at Urkeš in the same period when an ugula is attested. Nevertheless, the attestation of a 'governor' (ugula, if the term really carries this meaning) at Urkeš, does not necessarily exclude the possible contemporary existence of a proper 'king' (endan) in the same city: in fact, it is possible that this 'governor' has not been established by the Akkadian king (Naram-Sin) but instead by the endan of Urkeš himself.]
[mDP – June 2022] 		  warfare
endan
ugula
quotes 1; 2; 3; 4

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Di Salvo, Santina
2018 Adaptive Materials Research for Architecture.
Advanced Materials Research 1149, Zurich: Scientific.Net, 2018.
See full text
See abstract
     This volume is a miscellanea of chapters about many different topics related to the analysis “of properties, biomimetic materials, smart technologies and results of scientific research in the field of adaptive architecture, exploring strategies in past and current architectural practice” (see Preface).
[mDP – November 2019] 		  conservation
TCV
park

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Dolce, Rita
2022 “Real Human Bodies, Images of Bodies and the Time Factor in the Early Cultures of Mesopotamia and Syria”
in Battini, Laura (ed.), Image and Identity in the Ancient Near East. Papers in Memoriam Pierre Amiet, Oxford: Archaeopress 2022, pp. 27–37.
See full text
     “The theme of the memorial volume, the chosen approach and above all the issues it raises invite us to venture along new paths within a highly specific field: the inexorable changes inflicted on human bodies by the passage of biological time and the impact of this phenomenon on the social and cultural system of Mesopotamia” (p. 27).
     [Urkesh is openly mentioned at p. 32, along with pictures (fig. 9) displaying sealings from Urkesh, after Kelly Buccellati 2016, figs 4.5 (seal q2), 4.7, (seal q4), and 4.8 (seal h2).]
[mDP – May 2023] 		 human body
glyptics
seals: q2, q4, h2
quotes 1; 2

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Emre, Kutlu

1971 “Anatolian Lead Figurines and their Stone Molds ”
Türk Tarih Kurumu 14
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Erskine, Neil D.A.
2020 Folds, fields, and fauna: A Deleuzo-Guattarian approach to the socialising power of religious experiences in Ancient Near Eastern landscapes
PhD dissertation
University of Glasgow, School of Umanities, College of Arts
May 2020
See full text
Alternative online version
     “Archaeological approaches to socialisation are underdeveloped. As interpretative models are most often borrowed from other disciplines, rather than developed with a material-focus at their centre, archaeologists are left without effective object-centred frameworks with which to examine how individuals interacted with and learnt about their world. This thesis addresses these issues with a new approach, drawing upon Giles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, who offer many analytical tools that can directly connect highly theoretical interpretations of ancient societies to archaeological data. By stressing how humans understand the world through their accumulated previous experiences, Deleuze and Guattari direct the archaeologist to consider how identifiable human interactions with objects and places informed their subsequent experiences, and therefore their developing perceptions of their surroundings. This approach is tested against three case studies, in the 3rd Millennium Jazira, 2nd Millennium Anatolia, and 1st Millennium Southern Levant, that stress the intersection of landscapes and religious practice, both of which are frequently highlighted as powerful agents of socialisation. The varying forms and resolutions available for these case studies allow for a comprehensive exploration of a Deleuzo-Guattarian framework’s effectiveness in reconstructing and understanding ancient experiences of the world, and new interpretations of how ancient individuals both shaped and were shaped by their experiences of religiously-loaded landscapes” (Author's abstract at p. 2).
     [Tell Mozan is openly mentioned at pp. 227, 228-230 (with Fig. 49 and Table 6), 227, 231-232 (with Table 7).]
[mDP – September 2023] 		 ābi
glyptics
equids
quotes 1; 2, 3; 4; 5; 6 7; 8; 9; 10

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Esteban Monti, Luciano
2017 A Systematic Approach to the Hurrian Pantheon: The Onomastic Evidence.
PhD Thesis in “Scienze dell'Antichità”,
Università degli Studi di Udine (Italy),
Tutors: Prof. Frederick Mario Fales, Prof. Daniele Morandi Bonacossi.
See full text
     “We have limited our scope of the study to the analysis of the Hurrian personal names from the third and the first part of the second millennium. This decision was taken upon the criterion regarding the real limitations that the available sources present, and mostly because of the connection, long perceived, between Hurrian anthroponyms and the theophorous element that constituted them. However, in the course of this investigation, we have realised two important things: 1) that one single person could not handle the Hurrian onomastic corpus from the entire ANE, and even less in one single work, and 2), most importantly, the phases that the Hurrian pantheon went through, at least until the moment that we have information about it. Thus, our aim is to analyse the Hurrian personal names from the mentioned period and to discern the internal changes that the pantheon experienced between the third and first half of the second millennium, which ended up reflected in the onomastic material” [from Author's introduction on p. 2].
     [Urkesh/Tell Mozan is specifically mentioned on pp. 86 (fn. 4), 93, and 161149-153.]
[mDP – October 2022] 		 Hurrian onomastics
glyptics
quotes 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25; 26; Akk.-Lg.

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Falb, Christian
2009 Untersuchungen an Keramikwaren des dritten Jahrtausends v. Chr. aus Nordsyrien
Altertumskunde des Vorderen Orients 12,
Münster: Ugarit.
See full text
Alternative online version [Academia.edu]
See abstract
     The publication is entirely devoted to the analysis of North-Syrian pottery of the third millennium BC.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  ceramics

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Felli, Candida

2015 “On naked women: a case study,”
in P. Ciafardoni and D. Giannessi (eds.), From the treasures of Syria. Essays on art and archaeology in honour of Stefania Mazzoni Leiden: Nederlands Instituut Voor Het Nabije Oosten, 217-239
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Franklin, Kristine L. and Nancy McGirr (eds.)

1995 Out of the Dump.
Writings and Photographs by Children from Guatemala.
Translated from the Spanish by Kristine L. Franklin.
New York: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Books.
See full text [Archive.org Library]
See abstract
     This photographic book (collecting, and connecting, both poems and pictures) developed from a project started in 1991 by Nancy McGirr in Guatemala City, when she started photographing children living and working there to support their own families.
     See also the website Fotokids.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  cited  1, 2

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Gerth, Hand H. and Charles Wright Mills
1958 From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology.
Translated and with an Introduction.
New York: Oxford University Press – A Galaxy Book.
[First edition: 1946]
See full text
See abstract
     The purpose of the editors is to offer a proper and faithful English translation of some of the most important M. Weber's essays, basing this translation to the theories of A.F. Tytler (in his Principles of Translation).
[mDP – November 2019] 		  cited 1, 2

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Gladwell, Malcolm
2005 Blink. The Power of Thinking without Thinking.
New York: Little, Brown and Company.
   An insightful popularization of elements of psychology that are especially helpful for us in two regards. First, the role of perception in anticipating and even defining judgment (see, e.g., pp. 160-167, where he speaks of sensation transfer with regard to commercial products and advertising). Second, the interrelationship between instinct and an organized system of thought (see, e.g., his discussions about the "structure of spontaneity" on pp. 111-117; about the experts' ability to articulate instinct, pp. 176-186; or about the classification of system of facial expressions, pp. 204-208).
[gB – December 2005] 		  cited

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Goldhausen, Marco and Andrea Ricci
2005 “Political Centralization in the Syrian Jezira during the 3rd Millennium:
A Case Study in Settlement Hierarchy,”
Altorientalische Forschungen 32/1, pp. 132-157.
See full text
Alternative version [de Gruyter]
     “By the mid-3rd Millennium B.C. a massive urban development came into prominence in the dry farming belt of Northern Mesopotamia. While irrigation is the only practical agricultural strategy in the arid south, large areas of Northern Mesopotamia receive enough rainfall to facilitate an extremely productive dry farming regime. Whereas the high agricultural productivity enabled by artificial water supply with channel networks has been considered a decisive variable in the development of complexity in the south, it appears that the northern dry farming plains also had the potential to produce an agricultural surplus extensive enough to support endogenous urban development.” (p. 132).
[Urkesh/Tell Mozan in openly mentioned on pp. 133, 137; 141; 143; 146-148.]
[mDP – December 2022] 		  quotes 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10

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Goody, Jack
1986 The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
See abstract
     The aim of this book is clearly stated by the author in his preface: “This book attempts to spell out some of the general differences between the social organization of societies without and with writing and the process of transition from one to the other” (Preface, p. xi).
[mDP – November 2019] 		  writing 1
writing 2

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Grafton, Anthony
1997 The Footnote. A Curious History.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
See full text
     A thorough historical analysis of the development of the footnote in scholarly discourse, from early intimations to the full-fledged use.
[gB – December 2005] 		  cited

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Haarmann, Harald
2007 Foundations of Culture.
Knowledge-Construction, Belief Systems and Worldview in Their Dynamic Interplay.
Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  cited

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Hamilton, Edith and Huntington Cairns (eds.)
1961 The Collected Dialogues of Plato, Including the Letters.
Bollingen Series 71.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
See full text [Archive.org Library]
See abstract
     This book collects the English translation of all Plato's works.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  cited

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Harris, Edward Cecil
1989 Principles of Archaeological Stratigraphy,
London-San Diego-New York-Boston-Sidney-Tokyo-Toronto: Academic Press, Harcourt Brace & Company, Publishers [2nd edition; 1st edition = 1979].
See full text
See abstract
     Indeed, the most important (at least for historical reasons) and well-known manual on the main principles of archaeological stratigraphy.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  principles: stratigraphy; GRM; Critique; CAR

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Heffron, Yağmur

2017 “Anatolian Lead Figurines: A Stock-taking”
Ugarit-Verlag
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Helms, Tobias and Alexander, Tamm

2018 “The organization of craft production in 3rd millennium BCE north Mesopotamian city state, ”
In M. Bentz, T. Helms T (eds.),Craft production systems in a cross-cultural perspective
Bonn: Rudolf Habelt, 7-52
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Hoffner, Harry A

1967 “Second millennium antecedents to the Hebrew ’Ô ”
Journal of Biblical Literature 86(4), 385-401
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH


1968 “Hittite tarpiš and Hebrew terāphîm ”
Journal of Near Eastern Studies 27/1, 61-68
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH
1987 “Paskuwatti's Ritual Against Sexual Impotence (CTH 406)”
Aula Orientalis 5: 271-287
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Holland, Thomas A.
2006 Archaeology of the Bronze Age, Hellenistic, and Roman Remains at an Ancient Town on the Euphrates River,
Excavations at Tell es-Sweyhat, Syria, Volume 2, Part 1: Text = Oriental Institute Publications 125,
Chicago: The Oriental Institute Press.
See full text
Link to other parts of the volume (figures and plates, pockets) on the Oriental Institute's website
See abstract
     The volume presents a useful catalogue for the study of ceramics and figurines from ancient Syrian cities. Urkesh/Tell Mozan is specifically mentioned on p. 229, section 'Type SF.1d. Birds and Animals', dealing with horse figurines with male genitals; in this section, the following publications about Tell Mozan are quoted: Hauser 1998: 64, fn. 3; Kelly-Buccellati 1990: 54, M1.207: “A small horse with male genitals and faint incised lines on its mane” (wrong reference source: the correct reference is Buccellati, Kelly-Buccellati 1988 = Mozan 1: 54). Also the site of Terqa is mentioned on pp. 111, 120, 132, 160, 248, and table 2b.
[mDP – December 2021] 		  Mozan: figurines
Terqa

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Ivanov, Vyacheslav V.
2006 “Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian and Indo-European,”
in Ivanov, Vyacheslav V. and Vine, Brent (eds), UCLA Indo European Studies Volume 1,
e-version: online, July 1999.
See full text
     This paper discusses about possible etymology for some Hurrian words. Among them, the author also considers the Hurrian word endan (well attested at Urkesh), translating the term as "king" (pp. 2-11 [PDF numbering]).
[mDP – October 2022] 		  Hurrian language
endan

quotes 1; 2; 3; 4; 5

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Jabbour, Ali

2020 The Evolution of Defensive Elements in the Syrian Cities and Kingdoms during the Bronze Age. “Syrian Jazirah, Euphrates region, Northern Levant, Between the Early and Middle Bronze Age”
Unpublished PhD Dissertation (defended in February 2020),
Faculty of Literature and Philosophy “Arts and Humanities”,
Department of Ancient Sciences “Near Eastern Archaeology”,
“Sapienza” University of Rome,
Tutor: Prof. Dr. Davide Nadali.
See full text
     The thesis presents a study about the changes that happened on the defensive elements during the Early and Middle Bronze Age in the Euphrates region, Syrian Jazirah the Upper and Lower Northern Levant.
     [...] The archaeological studies that monitor the changes on the defensive elements during the Bronze Age in the Euphrates region, Syrian Jazirah, the Upper and Lower Northern Levant are very few. Therefore, this thesis can be considered as the first step towards further studies in the future, which shows the differences that have occurred in the military architecture during varied periods in the Northern Levant [from Author's Preface on p. 1].
     [In this PhD dissertation, among other Syrian ancient sites, also Urkesh/Tell Mozan is included in the analisys of Mesopotamian and Syrian fortifications and defensive systems of the Early and Middle Bronze Age.]
[mDP – May 2022] 		 fortifications
quotes 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8

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Jones, Siân
1997 The Archaeology of Ethnicity.
Constructing Identities in the Past and Present.
London and New York: Routledge.
See full text
See abstract
     With this book, the author tries to reassess the way in which the past is reconstructed and interpreted on an archaeological background, defining the concept of 'ethnicity' within an archaeological framework.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  ethnicity

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Kalayci, Tuna
2013 Agricultural Production and Stability of Settlement Systems in Upper Mesopotamia
during the Early Bronze Age (Third Millennium BCE).
PhD Dissertation, University of Arkansas.
See full text
Alternative link
     “This study investigates the relationship between rainfall variation and rain-fed agricultural production in Upper Mesopotamia with a specific focus on Early Bronze Age urban settlements. In return, the variation in production is used to explore stability of urban settlement systems. The organization of the flow of agricultural goods is the key to sustaining the total settlement system.
     The vulnerability of a settlement system increases due to the increased demand for more output from agricultural lands. This demand is the key for the success of urbanization project. However, without estimating how many foodstuffs were available at the end of a production cycle, further discussions on the forces that shaped and sustained urban settlement systems will be lacking. While large scale fluctuations in the flow of agricultural products between settlements are not the only determinants of hierarchical structures, the total available agricultural yield for each urban settlement in a hierarchy must have influenced settlement relations.
     As for the methodology, first, Early Bronze Age precipitation levels are estimated by using modern day associations between the eastern Mediterranean coastal areas and the inner regions of Upper Mesopotamia. Next, these levels are integrated into a remote-sensing based biological growth model. Also, a CORONA satellite imagery based archaeological survey is conducted in order to map the Early Bronze Age settlement system in its entirety as well as the ancient markers of agricultural intensification. Finally, ancient agricultural production landscapes are modeled in a GIS.
     The study takes a critical position towards the traditionally held assumption that large urban settlements (cities) in Upper Mesopotamia were in a state of constant demand for food. The results from this study also suggest that when variations in ancient precipitation levels are translated into the variations in production levels, the impact of climatic aridification on ancient settlement systems becomes less visible in the archaeological record.” (Author's abstract).
     [The thesis mentions Urkesh/Tell Mozan several times, describing his settlement pattern in the Early Bronze Age and comparing it with those of other sites in Upper Mesopotamia.]
[mDP – January 2022] 		  setting

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Kelly-Buccellati, Marilyn
1977 “Towards a Quantitative Analysis of Mesopotamian Sphragistics,”
Mesopotamia XII, pp. 41-52.
See full text
See abstract
     In this paper, the author reflects about the correct use of statistical analysis in the study of Mesopotamian sphragistics.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  statistics
glyptics: Tupkish
glyptics: Uqnitum
glyptics: courtiers
glyptics: Tar’am-Agade; TGL

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Kepinski-Lecomte, Christine
2010 “Turkmenistan and Northern Mesopotamia during the Bronze Period,”
in Kozhin, Pavel Mikhaĭlovich, Mikhail Fedorovich Kosarev, and Nadezhda A. Dubova (eds) 2010,
On the Track of Uncovering a Civilization. A Volume in Honor of the 80th-Anniversary of Victor Sarianidi,
Transactions of the Margiana Archeological Expedition = Fs. Sarianidi
Sankt-Petersburg: ALETHEIA, pp. 128-135.
See full text
     “[...] I have been interested in all the recent discoveries, particularly those from the site of Gonur Depe. [...]. Parallels with eastern regions, notably with the Indus Valley and Elam, were deservedly developed long ago, while those with Upper Mesopotamia and more precisely with the big bend in the Euphrates have been studied much less. They might repay a major study, but in the meantime, I would like to present the case of some ritual practices, burial practices in particular” (Introduction, p. 129).
     [Urkesh/Tell Mozan is openly mentioned on p. 131, where the Author discesses about platforms or terraced walls, also mentioning a structure from Area B at Urkesh: “Apart from the composite figures, I have often quoted the case of the platforms or terraced rows that were built on many sites during the third millennium, from the Khabur area to southeast Anatolia and all along the Euphrates valley. The oldest levels were covered by a terraced massif of mud bricks as, for example, at the site of Altyn Depe [...]. In the Khabur area, there are several examples and one of the oldest is at Tell Mozan, where it could date back to the Ninevite 5 period and to the second quarter of the third millennium B.C. The excavators, Giorgio and Marilyn Buccellati, have connected it to the Hurrites (Buccellatti [sic], Kelly-Buccellatti [sic], 1988, p. 59; 1999, p. 12, 13, abb. 4, 14)”.]
[mDP – November 2022] 		  quotes 1, 2

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Klengel-Brandt, Evelyn and Cholidis, Nadja

2006 “Die Terrakotten von Babylon im Vorderasiatischen Museum von Berlin, Teil 1: Die anthropomorphen Figuren”
Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orientgesellschaft 115
Saarwellingen: Harrassowitz Verlag
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Kozhin, Pavel Mikhaĭlovich, Mikhail Fedorovich Kosarev, and Nadezhda A. Dubova (eds)
2010 On the Track of Uncovering a Civilization.
A Volume in Honor of the 80th-Anniversary of Victor Sarianidi,
Transactions of the Margiana Archeological Expedition,
Sankt-Petersburg: ALETHEIA,
ISBN: 978-5-91419-329-1.
See full text
     A Festschrift in honor of Viktor Sarianidi.
[mDP – November 2022] 		  archaeology
Margiana

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Laneri, Nicola (ed.)
2015 Defining the Sacred,
Oxford and Philadelphia: Oxbow Books.
See full text
See abstract
     This book is entirely devoted to the definition of the concepts and practices of 'sacred' in ancient times. The volume is divided into three parts: the first one is on 'sacred nature', the second one is about 'housing the god', while the third one regards 'the materialisation of religious beliefs and practices'.
[mDP – November 2019] 		 religion
cited

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Lebrun, René and Michel Mazoyer
2012 “Les constructions célestes,”
in P. Azara, J. Cerruesco, F. Frontisi-Ducroux, G. Luri (eds), Arquitectures celestials,
Documenta 21, Tarragona: Institut Català d'Arqueologia Clàassica, pp. 45-49.
See full text
     “Although an overall description of cities in the sky is lacking in Hittite texts, thanks to a considerable amount of data we can definitely say that the inhabitants of Anatolia believed in their existence. An analogy can be drawn with the Near and Middle Eastern civilizations, particularly those of the Biblical tradition. The celestial cities appear to have been built by the gods, who followed rites that were later used by man on earth” (Authors' abstract).
     [Tell Mozan is mentioned on p. 48] in the context of the Song of Ullikummi and the Myth of Silver, about the location of the ancient city of Kumm(iy)a, where Urkesh is defined as the seat of the god Kumarbi.]
[mDP – July 2024] 		mythology: Kumarbi
quotes 1; 2

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Leisegang, Hans
1951 Denkformen.
Berlin: de Gruyter (second edition; first edition published in 1949).
See full text [de Gruyter]
 		  cited
philosophy

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Liebowitz, Harold

1988 “Terra cotta figurines and module vehicles, The oriental institute excavations at Selenkahiya, Syria”
Bibliotheca Mesopotamica 22
Malibu: Undena publications
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Liverani, Mario
1968 “Review to: Buccellati, G. 1966, The Amorites of the Ur III Period, Pubblicazioni del Seminario di Semitistica. Ricerche I, Naples: Istituto Orientale di Napoli” [Part 1; Part 2; cf. supra],
Rivista degli Studi Orientali 43/1 (January), 119-122.
See full text
Alternative online version (JSTOR)
See abstract
     M. Liverani offer a review to G. Buccellati's work on the history and archaeology of the Amorites during Ur III period, defined by the reviewer as a key-point for any study on this topic. The author further discusses the problem of Amorites' designation and definition (both as an archaeological and a philological entity, mostly focusing of the equation of Amorites with MAR.TU people), in the light of earlier and more recent onomastic data, archaeological information, and historical interpretations about these ancient people.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  Amorites

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Luciani, Marta

2013 “On women made of clay. Enquiries on the meaning of an Ancient Near Eastern non-elite production, ”
in G J. Selz and K. Wagensonner (eds.), Orientalische Kunstgeschichte(n): Festschrift für Erika Bleibtreu
Wiener Offene Orientalistik 13
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Macaulay, David
1979 Motel of the Mysteries
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
See full text [Archive.org. On loan]
YouTube video
See abstract
     Every archaeologist knows: 'when you cannot find an explanation for an artefact, it is ritual!'. This very common (mis)understanding of archaeological materials sounds maybe like a joke: but it is not. During centuries of archaeology, the tendency to interpret many objects as used to perform rituals was indeed common and widespread. The problem is that in many cases, this (mis)interpretation if affected either by our carelessness in the analysis or by our actual ignorance of ancient customs at all, because we are dealing with a broken tradition.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  Buccellati, G. 2006
Critique
CAR
grammar
broken tradition

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MacDougal, Renata
2014 Remembrance and the Dead in Second Millennium BC Mesopotamia.
Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester (School of Archaology and Ancient History).
PhD.
Dr. Davis Edwards, Thesis Supervisor.
1st September 2014.
University of Leicester's Repository
See full text (91.3 MB)
See full text (light version)
Alternative online version [Academia.edu]
See abstract
     “This thesis uses Continuing Bonds Theory to reinterpret kispum, an ancient Mesopotamian family funerary practice, in a new way. Traditional scholarship has portrayed the purpose of the ritual as apotropaic, and that the family dead are feared as hostile ghosts. This study suggests that profound beliefs about life and death in Mesopotamia, and interactions between the family and deceased loved ones can be found in the material and textual evidence. A new perspective focusing on evidence from the second millennium BC in ancient Mesopotamia is used to investigate the kispum ritual using ideas from the archaeology of emotion and Death and Dying studies. Current understandings based on textual based studies and the varied traditions of archaeological investigation are introduced in Chapter 2. Then, using notions of continued bonds, new insights are explored to better understand the ongoing relationship between the living and the dead. In Chapters 3 through 6 textual sources and archaeological evidence are assessed against this background, and against each other, with attempts to correlate textual with archaeological details. In the context of ancient Mesopotamia, this thesis employs new approaches to mortuary archaeology to provide new insights suggesting ways that conventional methods may be enhanced. Finally, this study also brings us back to an archaeology of death which is interested in attitudes toward the dead” (Author's abstract, available on Academia.org, on author's personal profile).
[mDP – March 2020] 		  ābi

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Makowski, Maciej

2013 “Anthropomorphic figurines of the second millennium BC from Tell Arbid. Preliminary report,”
Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 22 (Research 2010), pp. 617-626.
See full text
ISSN 2083-537X (Online)
See abstract
Keywords: terracotta anthropomorphic figurines, Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, Khabur Ware period, Mitanni period, Syria, North Mesopotamia.
     “The collection of 2nd millennium BC anthropomorphic figurines from Tell Arbid, a site in the Khabur river basin in northern Mesopotamia, comprises just eight specimens, but it introduces some new types of representations that have not been attested so far in the region. A comparison with figurines of the 3rd millennium BC illustrates changes in the anthropomorphic minor arts of the time. Finally, some of the figurines seem to attest to the presence of motifs deriving from outside of Mesopotamia, from the Levant and Anatolia, in the iconography of the region” (Author's abstract).
[mDP – November 2019] 		  human figurines

2015b “Of Men and Equids: Piecing the Clay Images from Tell Arbid Back Together ”
EtudTrav 28, 121-140
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH
2016 “Tell Arbid I: Clay figurines”
Warsaw: Polish Center of Mediterranean Archaeology
Warsaw University Press
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Mansfeld, Günter
1970 “3. Scherben mit altkanaanäischer Schrift vom Kamid el-Loz,”
in D.O. Edzard, R. Hachmann, P. Maiberger, G. Mansfeld, Kamid el-Loz–Kumidi, Saarbrücker Beiträge für Altertumskunde, Band 7.
Bonn: Rudolf Habelt, pp.24-41.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  cited Kamid el-Loz

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Marchetti, nicolo

2009 “Divination at Ebla during the Old Syrian Period: The Archaeological Evidence, ”
in J. D. Schloen (ed.), Exploring the Longue Durée: Essays in Honor of Lawrence E. Stager
Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 279-296
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Matthiae, Paolo
2018 Dalla terra alla storia. Scoperte leggendarie di archeologia orientale
Torino: Giulio Einaudi Editore.
See full text (Editor's Page)
See abstract
     Paolo Matthiae retraces the paths towards some of the most important archaeological discoveries during the last century, from Egypt, through Syria to Mesopotamia.
[mDP – November 2019] 		 history
archaeology

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McCarthy, Andrew
2012 “The End of Empire: Akkadian and post-Akkadian glyptic in the Jezirah, the evidence from Tell Leilan in context,”
in Weiss, Harvey (ed.) 2012, Seven Generations since the Fall of Akkad,
Studia Chaburensia 3,
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp. 217-224.
See full text
Alternative online version
See abstract (with excerpts)
     “This paper will outline the glyptic evidence from Tell Leilan and demonstrate how it corresponds to general and specific trends within the Khabur region towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The evidence from Tell Leilan, along with contemporary sites in the region, clearly shows an indigenous northern Mesopotamian glyptic style in the mid-3rd millennium Leilan IIId/Early Jezirah 3 (EJZ 3) period, beginning at 2600 BC [...]. The development of this glyptic style accompanies the emergence of cities and a complex administrative system that shares some uniform characteristics as a region, indicative of a regionally interdependent economy developing from its roots in the late Ninevite 5/Leilan IIId period [...]. At the same time, there is evidence of glyptic importation and blending of styles that shows extensive and sophisticated linkages with other regions” (Author's introduction on p. 217).
     [Urkesh/Tell Mozan is specifically mentioned several times, mostly as a comparison for glyptic material (see excerpts in the Abstract)].
[mDP – August 2022] 		  glyptics
quotes 1, 2, 3, 4

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Meijer, Diederik J.W.
2019 “Giorgio Buccellati's Critique and Archaeological Explanation,”
in Stefano Valentini and Guido Guarducci (eds), Between Syria and the Highlands. Studies in Honor of Giorgio Buccellati and Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati, CAMNES: Studies on the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean, Volume 3,
Roma: Arbor Sapientiae, pp. 3-7.
See full text
     “This contribution takes Professor Giorgio Buccellati's recent book (2017) as a point of departure for discussionon several theoretical matters, and is meant as a token of my deep appreciation and admiration for this magnumopus of a great philologist turned great archaeologist. As they say, behind all great men there stands a greatwoman, and these lines double as a token of dear friendship and appreciation also for Marilyn” (author's abstract on p. 3).
[mDP – March 2020] 		  Critique
CAR

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Meyer, Jan-Waalke

2007 “The Anthropomorphic Terracotta Figurines from Tell Chuera and Halawa: Their Chronology and Their Meaning, ”
in P. Matthiae et al. (eds.), From Relative Chronology to Absolute Chronology: The Second Millennium BC in Syria-Palestine. Proceedings of the International colloquium, Rome, November 29th-December 1st 2001
Roma, Bardi Editore and Editore Commerciale, 349-363
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Michalowski, Piotr
1951 Tokenism.
A review article of Schmandt-Besserat 1992, Before Writing.
American Anthropologist 95 (1993), pp. 996-999.
See abstract
     A critical assessment of Schmandt-Besserat's work, it raises especially two major concerns, related to the concepts of repeatability and of developing of writing.
[gB – December 2005]
[Summary adapted by mDP – November 2019] 		cited

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Millek, Jesse Michael
2019 Exchange, Destruction, and a Transitioning Society: Interregional Exchange in the Southern Levant from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron I.
Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Philosophischen Fakultät der Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen.
PhD.
prof. Dr. Jens Kamlah, Thesis Supervisor.
5th May 2017.
Tübingen: Tübingen University Press.
See full text (TOC)
     “The goal of this volume is to examine one key aspect of the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron I in the Southern Levant, the development and changes in interregional exchange both over time and in the region as a whole. Interregional exchange is most easily seen in the appearance and disappearance of non-local material culture and materials. Twelve non-local types of material culture were collected into a database in order to track the development of interregional exchange over the course of the LBA to the Iron I. With this data, we can ask what effect if any did changes in interregional exchange have on the 'collapse' of the LBA societies in the Southern Levant. To help answer this question, I also explore briefly the theory of collapse, and the various proposed causes for the 'collapse' at the end of the LBA in the Eastern Mediterranean along with the theories for trade and exchange in anthropology and archaeology. Another key aspect of this work is the examination of the supposed wave of destruction which took the Southern Levant by storm asking to see if these events might have affected trade and contributed to the transitions during the end of the LBA into the Iron I. In all this work seeks to see what changes took place in interregional exchange, how might destruction have affected this, and was this the cause for the transition to the Iron I” (Author's summary on p. 19).
[mDP – March 2020] 		 Southern Levant

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Moorey, Peter Roger Stuart


1999 “Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: The Archaeological Evidence ”
Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

2001 “Ancient Near Eastern Terracottas in the Ashmolean Museum, 3. Mesopotamia and Iran, c.3000–350 B.C., II. Akkadian to Old Babylonian Periods in Babylonia (c. 2350–1650 B.C.) ”
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH
2003 “Idols of the People: Miniature Images of Clay in the Ancient Near East. ”
Schweich Lecture Series
Oxford: British Academy, Oxford University Press
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Moortgat, Anton

1962 “Tell Chuēra in Nordost-Syrien III. Vorlaufiger Bericht uber die dritte Grabungskampagne 1960 ”
Cologne and Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag
Oxford: British Academy, Oxford University Press
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Moortgat-Correns, Ursula

2001 “Der Tell Chuera im Ruckblick (1958-1985)”
Altorientalische Forschungen 28 (2), 353-388
Oxford: British Academy, Oxford University Press
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Mora, Clelia and Mauro Giorgieri
2016 “Alcuni passi del poema di Gilgamesh in due tavolette ittite inedite,”
Istituto Lombardo (Rend. Lettere) 150, pp. 171-208.
See full text
See abstract
     “In this paper we present two fragments of a cuneiform tablet that contain some passages of the Gilgamesh saga in the Hittite language. They give us the opportunity to delve into some aspects concerning the rediscovery, the interpretation and the fortune of this poem widely widespread throughout the Ancient Near East. The first part of the paper deals with these general issues, while the second one focuses on the philological examination of the new fragments and the interesting contribution they offer from the content viewpoint.” (Authors' abstract on p. 171).
[mDP – April 2020] 		  Gilgamesh
iconography

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Moser, Stephanie, Darren Glazier, James E. Phillips,
Lamya Nasser el Nemr, Mohammed Saleh Mousa,
Rascha Nasr Aiesh, Susan Richardson, Andrew Conner
and Michael Seymour
2002 “Transforming Archaeology through Practice:
Strategies for Collaborative Archaeology and the Community Archaeology Project at Quseir, Egypt,”
World Archaeology, Vol. 34, No. 2, Community Archaeology (Oct., 2002), pp. 220-248. Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
See full text
See abstract
     Strong advocacy is presented for a direct involvement of the stakeholders in the interpretive process of an archaeological site. The dialog with locals should be a true two-way street, that involves serious “consultation with indigenous and descendant communities” (p. 223), evolving into a “democratic sense of archaeological practice” (p. 224). A radical theoretical stance is defended that challenges “the false distinctions between scientific, mythic and historical domains of knowledge” (p. 224): in other words, local oral history and perceptions must be placed on the same level as the archaeological analysis proper.
[gB – December 2005] 		 cited 1, 2

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Nadali, Davide
2014 “Family Portraits. Some Considerations on the Iconographical Motif of the 'Woman with Child' in the art of the Third Millennium B.C.E.,”
in Marti Lionel (ed.), La famille dans le Proche-Orient ancient : réalités, symbolismes, et images, (RAI 55, Paris).
Winona Lake Indiana: Eisenbrauns, pp. 227-239.
See full text
Alternative online version [Academia.edu]
See abstract
     The author discusses in this paper some concepts related to the depiction of family scenes in third-millennium BC Near East, on different supports: statuettes (both in clay and metal), glyptic tradition, clay plaques, bas-reliefs and ivory panels.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  Uqnītum
Zamena

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Nadali, Davide and Andrea Polcaro (eds.)
2015 Archeologia della Mesopotamia antica
Manuali Universitari 166,
Roma: Carocci.
See full text (editor's webpage)
Index
See abstract
     This handbook devoted to the analysis of Mesopotamian archaeology is divided into five parts, dealing with history and geography, from the Chalcolithic to the Neo-Assyrian period.
[mDP – November 2019] 		 history

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Nakhai , Beth Alpert

2014 “Mother-and-Child Figurines in the Levant from the Late Bronze Age through the Persian Period, (1958-1985)”
in J. Spencer, R. Mullins, and A. Brody (eds.), Material Culture Matters: Essayes on the Archaeology of the Southern Levant in Honor of Seymour Gitin
Winona lake: Eisenbrauns, 165-198
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Nyarko-Mensah, Paul
2023 Proverbs 31:10-31 From a Ghanaian and (Akan) Womanist Perspectives - Inculturation and Liberation Hermeneutics Approach
PhD dissertation in Philosophy (Old Testament studies), Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Dirk J. Human
See full text
     “The Akan culture does not treat women the same way it treats its men; there are gender related roles among the Akan cultural practices. Matrilineal inheritance notwithstanding, the Akan woman always plays the second option to her male counterpart. This is obvious in the selection for inheritance which always goes for a male even for nephews, appointments to public office, which follows the same trend no matter her contribution to that society.
     The objectives of the study included the investigation of the context of the marginalization and dehumanizing cultural practices among the Akan of Ghana and to ascertain how the virtues of the industrious woman in Proverbs 31:10-31 and the cultural situation of the Akan woman can elucidate each other.
     Inculturation and Liberation hermeneutical methodology were used to study the poem. In this methodology every aspect of the explanation is carefully influenced by the perspectives of the receptor community (Akan of Ghana), their past experiences and cultural practices as a people. Proverbs 31:10-31 is well preserved with few variants which suggest that the poem could have been an adaptation from a male heroic poem. This is made manifest by the several masculine variants in a poem that is meant to eulogise a woman. The presence of Late Biblical Hebrew (LBH) vocabulary and Aramaisms suggest post-exilic Persian period influence on the text.
     It is most probable that the industrious woman in Proverbs 31:10-31 is a literary creation by a post-exilic poet, as an antithesis of the historic moral and social failures of the Hebrew womanhood during the 8th century B.C.E. for didactic purpose. This is aimed at the moral and social reengineering of the Hebrew society. It is most probable that Ezra might have had a hand in either the writing, redaction or the editing of the poem of Proverbs 31:10-31.
     With the help of contextual methodology (inculturation and Liberation Hermeneutics) the cultural condition of the Akan woman of Ghana is seen as silent champion instead of a slave and marginalized gender. The Akan woman is empowered for the good of the Akan society with the emulation of the virtues of the Industrious woman of Proverbs 31:10-31. Future studies could aim at the contribution of some Akan women who managed to shatter the glass ceiling of male dominance for the good of the Akan society, the role and identity of such women would help demystify the misconception about the role and place of women in the Akan society.” (Author's abstract, pp. 5-6).
     [Buccellati, G. and Kelly Buccellati 2002 is listed (mistakenly referred to as "Buccellati, G. and Kelly-Buccellati 1995") in the final bibliography (p. 212) and quoted on p. 61, with reference to “records to the effect that there were some males working as employees of [...] these women of royal status”.] [mDP – July 2024] 		  quotes1

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Oakes, Guy and Arthur J. Vidich
1999 Collaboration, Reputation, and Ethics in American Academic Life: Hans H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills.
Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
     An insightful study of the collaboration between two prominent scholars, whose uneven successes and reciprocal struggles are analyzed in detail, the book clarifies one aspect that is important for our website (and archaeological work in general), namely the aspect of collective authorship – or, as they describe it, “the distribution of knowledge and power in collaboration and its importance in the social production of authorship, academic reputation and intellectual authority” (p. 9, italics mine).
[gB – December 2005] 		 cited

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Oates, David, Joan Oates and Helen McDonald

1997 Excavations at Tell Brak.
Vol. 1: The Mitanni and Old Babylonian Periods.
McDonald Institute Monographs.
London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq.
See full text
See abstract
     The volume presents the results of the excavations at Tell Brak for what concerns the Mittanian and Old Babylonian periods.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  cited
2001 “Nimrud: An Assyrian Imperial City Revealed ”
London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq.
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Oppenheim, A. Leo
1958 “An Operational Device in Mesopotamian Bureaucracy,”
Journal of Near Eastern Studies 17, pp. 121-128.
See full text [JSTOR]
     Publication of a bulla from Nuzi (about 1400 B.C.) that contained 48 small objects called “stones” in the text inscribed on the bulla. The author reconstructs the administrative system that made use of these “tokens” (as the “stones” may be interpreted), whereby each object represented a specific animal. He also collects evidence from other texts where the same “stones” are shown to have been in regular use in Syro-Mesopotamia.
[gB – December 2005] 		  cited

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Oppenheim, A. Leo, Robert H. Brill, Dan Barag and Axel von Saldern
1970
Glass and Glassmaking in Ancient Mesopotamia.
Corning, New York: The Corning Museum of Glass.
An Edition of the Cuneiform Texts which Contain Instructions for Glassmakers with a Catalogue of Surviving Objects.
[gB – December 2005] 		  cited

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Otten, Heinrich
1950 Mythen vom Gotte Kumarbi: neue Fragmente
Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 3
Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.
[mDP – March 2021] 		  Kumarbi

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Otto, Adelheid
2013 “Königssiegel als Programm - Überlegungen zum Selbstverständnis altorientalischer Herrscher und zur Deutung der Tierkampfszene,”
Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie 103/1, pp. 45-68.
See full text
Alternative version (De Gruyter)
     “Seals were ideal media for the dissemination of pictorial ideas. The motifs on royal seals allow insights into the self-image of the ancient oriental rulers. For this purpose, all the 109 known seals of Mesopotamian and Syrian kings and their family members are collected and illustrated here for the first time. It turns out that almost all of the seals depicted either the ruler himself in his godly or warlike aspect, or scenes of animal battles. It is argued that the animal fighting scene served as a metaphor for the ruler's function as the guardian of law and order” (Author's abstract; English translation from German by mDP).
     [Some seals from Urkesh/Tell Mozan are discussed in this paper; they are all briefly listed on p. 53, nos 20-24, with pictures on p. 60.]
[mDP – October 2022] 		glyptics
glyptics: Tupkish
glyptics: Uqnitum
glyptics: Tar’am-Agade
quotes 1, 2

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Özyar, Aslı
2014 “Anatolia from 2000 to 550 BCE,”
in Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn (eds), The Cambridge World Prehistory, chapter 3.10, pp. 1545-1570.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Online ISBN: 9781139017831. Hardback ISBN: 9780521119931.
Book DOI.
Chapter DOI.
See full text
See abstract
     The paper, chapter 3.10 of the wider The Cambridge World Prehistory summarizes the history of Anatolia from 2000 to 550 BC, passing through the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1650 BC) [pp. 1545-1550], the Middle Bronze Age (1650-1200 BC) [pp. 1550-1560], and the Iron Age (c. 1200-550 BC) [pp. 1560-1565].
[mDP – March 2020] 		  Anatolian history

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Palumbo, Gaetano
2001 “Sheltering an Archaeological Structure in Petra. A Case-study of Criteria, Concepts, and Implementation,”
Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 5, pp. 35-44.
     “In 1993 an architectural competition for the construction of a shelter over a Byzantine church excavated in Petra between 1991 and 1992 was held by the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman, Jordan. While a prize was awarded, none of the concepts presented were translated into a construction project. A contract was instead awarded to architect Robert Shutler, who worked in close cooperation with Jordanian and international archaeologists and heritage managers, and a reversible space-frame shelter was built. This paper examines the issue of defining criteria for shelter construction, and stresses the need for cooperation among stakeholders and specialists as part of the conservation process from the decision to shelter to the implementation of the project” (Author's abstract on Academia.edu).
     Assessment of the checkered history of a broad base shelter project. The surprising outcome of a competition was that two first prizes were awarded, but no commission was given for implementation.
[gB – December 2005]
[mDP – April 2020] 		  cited
conservation
TCV


2006 “Privatization of State-owned Cultural Heritage: A Critique of Recent Trends in Europe,”
in Agnew & Bridgland 2006, pp. 35-39
See full text
Alternative online version [Academia.edu]
Alternative online version [Researchgate]
     The economic exploitation, for profit, of cultural heritage places is a myopic policy that has only in mind a short term economic advantage, but cannot be sustained in the long term.
[gB – December 2005] 		  cited
park

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Perini, Silvia and Cunliffe, Emma
2015 Towards a protection of the Syrian cultural heritage: A summary of the national and international responses Volume III (Sept 2014 - Sept 2015)
Newcastle: Newcastle University ePrints (in association with Heritage for Peace)
See full text
DOI
     “During this last year and since the publication of the report Towards a protection of the Syrian cultural heritage: A summary of the international responses. Volume II (March 2014 – September 2014) [...], and its preceding volume (“March 2014 Report”), many more crucial activities have been undertaken towards the protection of the Syrian heritage. There is thus a need to create an update of such activities. However, the majority of the organisations/groups listed in the September 2014 report are now working in collaboration within each other to develop new projects leading to a considerable increase in collaborative projects. Because of this major change from the previous years, the format of this report presents a new shape that reflects such changes: new activities are now listed under the broad classifications of “action type” instead of an alphabetic list of “organisations/groups”.” (from Authors' introduction, p. 197).
     [An insightful report about activities and outreach about conservation of Syrian heritage; Urkesh is openly mentioned at p. 13 (In the Eye of the Storm at Tell Mozan (May 2014 – ongoing)) and p. 46 (In the Eye of the Storm: Archaeology in the Midst of War in Syria (27 Feb 2015)).]
[mDP – July 2024] 		 heritage
MHE
preservation

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Peyronel , Luca

2014a “Temples and Figurines: The coroplastic from Area HH at Ebla (Syria) during the EB IVB period, ”
in P. Bieliński et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Congresson the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Volume 1, May 2012
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 613-632
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Pinnock , Francis

2014b “The Image of Power at Mari between East and West ”
Syria Suppl 2, 675-689.
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Popa, Elena Isabela
2016 Agency of Women in Mesopotamian Religion of the Second Millennium BC
PhD Dissertation (History), submitted in 2015,
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Gheorghe Vlad Nistor,
University of Zurich/University of Bucharest (Faculty of Theology).
See full text
Alternative version [ZORA]
     “The main research topic of this dissertation was to explore and analyze women's religious agency in Mesopotamian religion and how it influenced the status of women inside the society they lived in. Using a large variety of sources such as letters, laws, ritual and cultic texts, prophetic texts, magic and medical texts, incantations, prayers and hymns, I first tried to depict religious actions or gestures that women were able to perform. After identifying their actions, be them specific or common with those of men, be them individually or supervised, consciously enacted or under possession, I approached them using an interdisciplinary approach, combining specific concepts from the field of religious studies with those coming from women and gender studies areas, such as patriarchy and kyriarchy, all of them passing through the filter of agency.” (from Author's summary, p. 197).
     [Urkesh is openly mentioned at p. 7 (cf. also fn. 10), where the Author mentions Tarߴam-Agade, the daughter of Naram-Sin.]
[mDP – April 2023] 		 Mes-Rel
quotes 1

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Price, Max D.
2020 Evolution of a Taboo. Pigs and People in the Ancient Near East
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
See full text
Editor's Page
     “From their domestication to their taboo, pigs and their shifting roles in the ancient Near East are among the most complicated topics in archaeology. Rejecting monocausal explanations, this book adopts an evolutionary approach and draws upon zooarchaeology and ancient texts to unravel the cultural significance of swine from the Paleolithic to today. Five major themes emerge: the domestication of the pig from wild boar in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, the unique functions of pigs in agricultural economies before and after the development of complex societies, the raising of swine in cities, the changing ritual roles of pigs, and the formation and evolution of the pork taboo in Judaism and, later, Islam. The development of this taboo has inspired much academic debate.
     I argue that the well-known taboo described in Leviticus reflects the intention of the biblical writers to craft an image of a glorious pastoral ancestry for a heroic Israelite past, something they achieved in part by tying together existing food traditions. These included a taboo on pigs, which arose early in the Iron Age during conflicts between Israelites and Philistines and was revitalized by the biblical writers. The taboo persisted and mutated, gaining strength over the next two and a half millennia. In particular, the pig taboo became a point of contention in the ethnopolitical struggles between Jewish and Greco-Roman cultures in the Levant. Ultimately, it was this continued evolution within the context of ethnic and religious politics that gave the pig taboo the strength it has today” (Author's abstract).
[mDP – June 2022] 		  ābi
pigs & piglets
quotes 1, 2, 3

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Price, Max D. & Wolfhagen, Jesse

2024 “Wool they, won't they: Zooarchaeological perspectives on the political and subsistence economies of wool in northern Mesopotamia,”
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 74, pp. 1-16.
See full text
DOI
     “An important facet in the study of complex societies involves documenting how the extraction of resources to support political structures (the political economy) impacted the subsistence economy of everyday life. Caprine production was a central feature of ancient Mesopotamian subsistence, while ancient texts reveal that wool was centrally important to the region’s political economies. It has long been thought that a some point in the Chalcolithic or Bronze Age (c. 4500–1500 BC) caprine husbandry was reorganized at the regional level to support the wool industry that was so dear to state finance and elite wealth. Here, we us kill-off patterns and biometrics to test whether caprine husbandry patterns across northern Mesopotamia underwent a regionwide transformation. We synthesize existing data and use Bayesian modeling to estimate average sheep size, male–female ratio, and harvesting patterns targeting older sheep. We confirm previous assessments that document an increase in sheep size in the 4th millennium BC. We find no pattern in male–female ratios. Diachronic kill-off data from across the region show subtle and local shifts in the slaughter of older caprines. While ambiguities in the data persist, there is no evidence of a dramatic shift toward intensive wool production at the regional level” (Author's abstract).
[Tell Mozan is openly quoted on pp. 5-7.]
[mDP – May 2024] 		  quotes 1; 2

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Ramazzotti, Marco

2011 “Aesthetic and Cognitive Report on Ancient Near Eastern Clay Figurines, Based on Some Early Syrian and Old Syrian Records Discovered at Ebla - Tell Mardikh (Syria) ”
Scienze dell’antichità 17, 345-375.
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Recht, Laerke
2019 Human Sacrifice,
Cambridge Elements. Religion and Violence.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
See full text (Editor's Page)
Flyer
See abstract
     “Sacrifice is not simply an expression of religious beliefs. Its highly symbolic nature lends itself to various kinds of manipulation by those carrying it out, who may use the ritual in maintaining and negotiating power and identity in carefully staged 'performances'” (Author's abstract).
[mDP – November 2019] 		 sacrifice

2022 The Spirited Horse. Equid-Human Relations in the Bronze Age Near East,
Ancient Environments Series,
London, New York, Oxford, New Delhi, Sydney: Bloosbury Academic.
See cover and table of contents
Publisher webpage
     “Presenting a new perspective on human–animal relations in the ancient Near East, this volume considers how we should understand equids (horses, donkeys, onagers and various hybrids) as animals that are social actors. Recht brings together a wealth of new data, including Bronze Age Near Eastern material culture from a range of archaeological contexts with equid remains as well as iconography and texts. She looks in particular at finds of equids themselves from burials, sacred space and settlements alongside associated artefacts such as chariots and harnesses.
     This is the first time the agency of animals is recognized. The study is essential reading for prehistorians, archaeologists and those studying early animal domestication, showcasing how humans encounter and interact with other animals, and how those animals in turn interact with humans. Recht outlines the broader implications for human involvement with their environment, both today and in the past, and points to further study in a number of focused appendices” (publisher's description).
[mDP – October 2022] 		  animal figurines

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Renn, Jürgen, Wilhelm Osthues, Hermann Schlimme (Hrsg.)
2017 Wissensgeschichte der Architektur
Band I: Vom Neolithikum bis zum Alten Orient,
Max Planck Research Library for the History and Development of Knowledge Studies 3.
Edition Open Access.
See full text
Alternative online version
Publisher webpage (reading online, PDF, EPUB)
     “The history of building is based far into the modern age on practical knowledge traditions of craftsmen, builders and architects. [...]
     The knowledge underlying the great building achievements of the past and its development is the subject of the history of knowledge in architecture presented here [...]. The research, the main results of which are presented here, has concentrated on central aspects of the history of knowledge in architecture, in particular on planning knowledge, material knowledge, structural engineering knowledge and logistical knowledge. [...].
     The first volume (Studies 3) deals with these aspects for the Neolithic and the Ancient Near East. [...] The various epochs are covered by systematically structured overview articles on building knowledge. Additional research contributions focus on individual aspects of building knowledge and their background” (publisher's description; English translation from German by mDP).
[mDP – May 2022] 		 architecture
quotes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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Ristvet, Lauren and Harvey Weiss
2001 “The Ḫābūr Region in Old Babylonian Period”,
in W. Orthmann, P. Matthiae, M. al-Maqdissi (eds.), Archéologie et Histoire de la Syrie I. La Syrie de l'époque néolithique à l'âge du fer, Schriften zur vorderasiatischen Archäologie 1,1, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 257-272.
See full text
See abstract
     This paper deals with the reconstruction of two settlement hiatuses occurred in the Ḫābūr Region in Old Babylonian period, as testified by the results of the recent ten archaeological surveys and eight excavations undertaken in that region, leading to the discovery of new documentary sources.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  cited
history

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Roaf, Michael
1990 Cultural Atlas of the Ancient Near East.
Oxford: Facts on File.
     A well informed and readable account, with plenty of maps and illustrations.
[gB – December 2005] 		  archaeology
geography
history

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Rohn, Karin
2011 Beschriftete mesopotamische Siegel der Frühdynastischen und der Akkad-Zeit
OBO, Series Archaeologica 32,
Freibourg, Göttingen: Academic Press, Vandenhoeck Ruprecht.
See full text
See abstract
     This volume, offering an analysis of the inscribed seals of the Early-Dynastic and Akkadian periods is divided into 13 chapters, presenting different iconographic scenes: 1) general (chronological and typological) introduction to the topic; 2) animal hunting scenes; 3) banquette scenes; 4) struggles of gods scenes; 5) presentation, adoration and audience scenes; 6) various other scenes; 7) stamp seals; 8) legends; 9) the Sun-sign; 10) the use of sealings; 11) general conclusion; 12) summary; 13) appendix about bifacial seals, seals not included in the catalogue, the catalogue with bibliography, indices and concordances.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  glyptics: Tupkish
glyptics: Uqnitum
glyptics: courtiers
glyptics: Tar’am-Agade
TGL

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Roßberger, Elisa

2018 “Refiguring the Body. From Terracotta Figurines to Plaques in Early Second Millennium Mesopotamia, ”
in M. Luciani (ed.), Images in Context: Agency, Audiences and Perception. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 523–538
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Rossi, Marco
2003 “'Drill-holes – Lewis-holes' a Ebla: Evidenze e considerazioni,”
Contributi e materiali di archeologia orientale 9, pp. 223-268.
See full text
Alternative online link [Academia.edu]
     In contrast to standard interpretations, and using especially the rich evidence from Ebla, the author suggests that drill holes in large stone blocks served to anchor pegs and ropes used in dragging the stones and setting them in place within their respective masonry.
[gB – December 2005] 		  manufacturing

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Roux, Georges
1964 Ancient Iraq.
Penguin.
See full text
     A plain, but thorough, introduction to the historical development of ancient Syro-Mesopotamia. It has been kept updated in several successive editions.
[gB – December 2005] 		  history

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Sallaberger, Walther and Aage Westenholz
1999 Mesopotamien. Akkade-Zeit und Ur III-Zeit.
OBO 160/3,
Freibourg, Göttingen: Academic Press, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
[herausgegeben von Pascal Attinger and Markus Wäfler].
See full text
See abstract
     This double-author book offers an overview on the history of Mesopotamia during the Akkadian and Ur III periods.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  history

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Salvatori, Sandro
2010 “Thinking around grave 3245 in the 'Royal Graveyard' of Gonur (Murghab Delta, Turkmenistan),”
in Kozhin, Pavel Mikhaĭlovich, Mikhail Fedorovich Kosarev, and Nadezhda A. Dubova (eds) 2010,
On the Track of Uncovering a Civilization. A Volume in Honor of the 80th-Anniversary of Victor Sarianidi,
Transactions of the Margiana Archeological Expedition = Fs. Sarianidi
Sankt-Petersburg: ALETHEIA, pp. 244-257.
See full text
     “Excavations carried out by V.I. Sarianidi at North Gonur since 1992 provided the most impressive evidence of a complex proto-urban phenomenon. Sarianidi's involvement in Central Asia archaeology is well known to western scholars since its beginnings in the fifties of the last century. Among the many places where he worked are Northern Afghanistan, the Meana-Chaacha area and the Murghab delta (Turkmenistan). His work has disclosed the important role played by Southern Central Asia in the political, economic and ideological complexity of third and second millennium BC societies, states and chiefdoms, from the Mediterranean shores to the Indus Valley and the Persian/Arabian Gulf” (p. 244).
     [Urkesh/Tell Mozan is openly mentioned on p. 250, mistakenly spelled as "Tell Mazyan", speaking about 14C dating from samples coming from Urkesh.]
[mDP – November 2022] 		  quotes 1

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Sanders, Akiva
2014 Fingerprints and the Organization of the Ceramic Industry Over Time at Tell Leilan. Gender and the State in Northern Mesopotamia during the Earlyand Middle Bronze Age.
Thesis, University of Pensylvania, Department of Anthropology.
Thesis advisor: Dr. Lauren Ristvet.
See full text
Alternative version
     “The goal of my research is to elucidate the organization of ceramic production at Tell Leilan with respect to gender roles during from 3400 to 1700 BCE through a study of fingerprint impressions on pottery. I have developed and tested a technique for determining the proportion of men and women who formed and finished vessels in a certain ceramic assemblage using the distribution of epidermal ridge densities. There is a discrete change in the sex of potters at Leilan with the rise of urbanism and state formation at the site, but there is no alteration in this pattern that correlates with changes in the various regimes that had hegemony over the site over time during the Early and Middle Bronze Age. This result informs us about the effect of state authority on the public and private organization of crafts as well as the division of society along gender lines. Surprisingly, the change that occurs with the rise of the state at Tell Leilan does not occur at village sites in the Leilan Regional Survey. This result indicates that the changes in social fabric that occurred at urban sites with the establishment of state institutions did not occur to the same extent in hinterland settlements even though the state did control some of the ceramic production at these sites, at least during the Akkadian period. This methodology and research should allow for further evaluation of the highly theoretical literature on the relationship of gender to craft production in the ancient world” (Author's abstract on p. 2.)
     [Urkesh/Tell Mozan is openly mentioned on pp. 14, 21-23, and 37.]
[mDP – October 2022] 		  quotes 1, 2

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Sasson, Jack

1995 “Civilizations of the Ancient Near East”
volume 4
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Schmandt-Besserat, Denise
1977 “An Archaic Recording System and the Origin of Writing,”
Syro-Mesopotamian Studies 1/2, pp. 31-70 (pp. 1-32 of the individual monograph).
See full text
     The first monograph (published by Undena Publications under the sponsorship of IIMAS) that launched her series of studies on the tokens.
[gB – December 2005] 		 cited 1, 2
history
archaeology

1992 Before Writing.
Austin: University of Texas Press.
     The complete documentary publication of the tokens, with full documentary apparatus.
[gB – December 2005] 		 cited 1, 2, 3, 4
history
archaeology

2007 When Writing Met Art.
Austin: University of Texas Press.
     A slender volume, the latest in the series on the tokens and writing, it explores the impact of literacy on visual art, and, conversely, of artworks on writing. Even though it is stronger in the exegesis of individual pieces than on matters of theory, and even though it does not take sufficiently into consideration the critique of her earlier work (see in particular Lieberman and Michalowski), this essay is of interest for a consideration of those modes of thought that are co-terminous with the development of writing.
[gB – December 2005] 		 cited 1, 2
history
art
style

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Schroer, Silvia (ed.)
2006 Images and Gender. Contributions to the Hermeneutic of Reading Ancient Art.
OBO 220,
Freibourg, Göttingen: Academic Press, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
See full text
See abstract
     This miscellaneous volume collects contributions about the topic of the interpretation of Near Eastern visual art, mostly for what concerns the study of the gender.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  gender
glyptics: Tupkish
glyptics: Uqnitum
glyptics: courtiers
glyptics: Tar’am-Agade

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Scurlock, JoAnn

1988 “Magical Means of Dealing with Ghosts in Ancient Mesopotamia”
unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Chicago
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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van der Sluijs, Anthony Marinus and Peter James
2012 “'Silver': A Hurrian Phaethon,”
JANER, Vol. 12 (2012), pp. 237-251.
See full text
See abstract
     This paper is devoted to compare the figure of the classical mythological figure of Phaethon (from Ovid's Metamorphoses 1. 750-2. 400) with his possible precursor, i.e. the Hurrian deity 'Silver', mentioned in the Song of Silver .
[mDP – November 2019] 		  Kumarbi

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Stanley Price, Nicholas
1995 “Excavation and Conservation,”
in N. Stanley Price (ed.), Conservation on Archeological Excavations,
Rome: ICCROM, pp. 1-9.
See full text
See full volume
     A programmatic document for both “immovable” and movable items.
[gB – December 2005] 		  cited
conservation
TCV

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Starr, Richard F.S.
1939 Nuzi.
Report on the Excavations at Yorgan Tepa Near Kirkuk, Iraq conducted by Harvard University in Conjunction with the American Schools of Oriental Research and the University Museum of Philadelphia, 1927-1931.
Vol. I: Text. Volume II: Plates and Plans.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Vol. I (text): See full text
Vol II (plates and plans): See full text
See abstract
     These two volumes offer the publication of the excavation seasons 1927-1931 conducted at Nuzi by the joining mission of the Harvard University, the American Schools of Oriental Research and the University Museum of Philadelphia.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  cited

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Steymans, Hans Ulrich
2010 Gilgamesch: Ikonographie eines Helden,
OBO 245,
Freibourg: Vanderhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen.
See full text
See abstract
     This volume collects contributions (both in German and in English) from eleven scholars, all regarding the iconography and the widespread diffusion of the image of Gilgamesh in different areas.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  Gilgamesh
iconography

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Suter, Claudia E.
2008 “Who are the Women in Mesopotamian Art from ca. 2334-1763 BCE?,”
Kaskal 5, pp. 1-55.
See full text
     The paper investigates the role of women in ancient Mesopotamia analyzing different artistic and visual representations, mostly sculpture and glyptic (paragraph 1). The second paragraph discusses about the distinction between high priestesses and other women, while paragraph 3 presents statuettes of court women. Paragraph 4 offers a brief overview on court women on dedicatory reliefs, while paragraph 5 talks about the identification of human figures on seal images. Paragraph 6 is devoted to 'textually identified royal women', and paragraph 7 analyzes the figures of women in banquets. Paragraph 8 presents scenes where women are presented as libating, while paragraph 9 describes the figures of women before a deity (presentation scenes). Paragraphs 10-11 present figures of women before a superior woman or before a king, respectively. Paragraph 12 sketches the conclusions: “Royal women were represented in public in the form of statuettes set up in temples and they were depicted on public monuments, such as a stela. On seal images that circulated within state administration, they participate in state ceremonies or cult festivals alongside the king, are received in audience by a deified king, receive themselves subordinates in audience and direct women's cult festivals. Non-royal women [...] are received in audience by a royal superior, participate in women's cult festivals and pay homage togoddesses” (p. 26).
     Urkesh/Tell Mozan in mentioned on pp. 13-14 (about Tar’am-Agade and Uqnitum), and fig. 34 (= S 35 in the author's catalogue listed on pp. 27-42) displays a sealing of queen Uqnitum [seal q2] (after Buccellati and Kelly Buccellati 1996, fig. 4b).
[mDP – March 2020] 		  Uqnitum's seal q2

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Tarontsi, Saak
2023 “Hurrian Tree of Life as Historical-Originational Foundation for Meaningful Symbol of Urartian Sacred Tree”
ARURAT 2024, pp. 4-58.
See full text
     “The following article titled “Hurrian Tree of Life as Historical-Originational Foundation for Meaningful Symbol of Urartian Sacred Tree” is devoted to preliminary research efforts of finding the essential data concerning the overall role of sacred symbols in the continuity of ethniclinguistical traditions of ancient entities after the fall of their statehoods. As the initial effort of identifying the major indicators of civilizational continuity of ancient ethnicities in conditions of changing their statehood formations, the search for special objects with ritual-worshipping importance is initiated. From the numerous choices of special objects, the particular type of sacred object with specially attached symbolical meaningfulness is chosen – the sacred symbol of Tree of Life or Sacred Tree. At the beginning of the article the observation of the particular geographical region of Asia Minor is conducted, with the underlining of importance of Anatolian civilizations and statehoods for the ancient world’s civilizational evolutionary development. The proposition of division of Anatolian entities into “worlds” or “domains” is presented, and, based on the civilizational identities and linguistic principle, the modeling of Anatolian civilization is asserted by the base of division on two parts – West Anatolia as Hatti/Hittite and East Anatolia as Hurrian-Urartian domains, with the note that such division is established based on certain chronological periods of historical events’ happenings, and, in no way doesn’t intend to exclude previous or later civilizations of the region from their historical roles. [...]” (Author's abstract, p. 4-6).
     [Urkesh/Tell Mozan is mentioned on pp. 25 (“The very fact of this narrative-contextual combination is once again authenticated by a seal found in the Hurrian city of Urkesh (Tell-Mozan) [sic], on which there are episodic descriptions of a ritualistic nature, including the scene of the sacrifice of a bull, where its decapitated body is held upside down by the sacrificers. The representation of the tree of Life (Picture 18) is tree structure ending in upper part with a pomegranate; the fruit of life is placed on its top and the head of the sacrificed bull is under this tree”).] [mDP – July 2024] 		  quotes1

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Tufte, Edward Rolf
1983 The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.
Cheshire (Connecticut): Graphics Press.
See full text (2nd ed., 2001)
See abstract
     The work by Edward R. Tufte, especially as reflected in his classic book on Visual Display of Quantitative Information, develops a full theory about the visual organization of data in tabular format.
[gB – December 2005] 		  cited

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Tzvi, Abusch


2007 “Witchcraft Literature in Mesopotamia, ”
in G. Leick (ed.), Babylonian World
London and New York: Routledge, 373-385
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH
2011 “The Revision of Babylonian Anti-witchcraft Incantations: The Critical Analysis of Incantations in the Ceremonial Series Maqlû ”
in G. Bohak, Y. Harari, and Sh. Shaked (eds.), Continuity and Innovation in the Magical Tradition
Leiden and Boston: Brill, 11-41.
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Ucko, Peter J

1962 “The Interpretation of Prehistoric Anthropomorphic Figurines ”
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 92 (1), 38-54
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Van der Toorn, Karel

1988 “Etemmu”
in K. Van Der Toorn, B. Becking and P.W. Van Der Horst (eds.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
Leiden: Brill
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Van Loon, Maurits

2001 “Selenkahiye: Final Report on the University of Amsterdam and University of Amsterdam Excavations in the Tabqa Reservoir, Northern Syria, 1967-1975”
Leiden: ederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten.
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Van Loon, Maurits and Giorgio Buccellati
1969 “The 1968 Excavation at Korucutepe Near Elâziǧ,”
Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi 17/1, pp. 79-82.
See full text
Alternative online version (Academia.edu)
     “A team from the University of Chicago and the University of California, Los angeles, spent its first season in the Keban Dam area investigating the stratigraphy and pottery sequence at the medium-size mound in the Altınova plain, Korucu Tepe near Aşaǧı İçme. The north side of the mound consists of Early Bronze Age (third millennium B.C.) and earlier deposits” (p. 79).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Korucutepe


1970 “Şikago ve Kalifornia Üniversiteleri 1968 Korucutepe Kazısı Raporu/The University of Chicago-University of California Excavations at Korucutepe - 1968,”
METU Keban Project Publications 1/1, pp. 73-102 (Turkish: pp. 73-88 ; English: pp. 89-102); with a note of Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati on p. 87 (Turkish = English, p. 102).
See full text
     “The University of Chicago-University of California (Los Angeles) team working at Korucutepe from August 25 to November 26, 1968, concentrated mainly on obtaining a section through the successive deposits of the mound and establishing the pottery assemblage characteristic of each period represented. The preliminary results of the pottery study are here offered in some detail in the hope that they may be of use in dating ancient habitation remains uncovered elsewhere in the Keban Dam area” (p. 89).
[mDP – January 2020] 		  Korucutepe

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Veenhof, Klaas and Jesper Eidem
2008 Mesopotamia. The Old Assyrian Period.
OBO 160/5,
Freibourg, Göttingen: Academic Press, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
[herausgegeben von M. Wäfler].
See full text
See abstract
     This co-author volume displays the history and society of Mesopotamia during the Old Assyrian period.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  history

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Venkatesan, Mahalakhshmi I., Timothy W. Linickt, Hans E. Suess
and Giorgio Buccellati
1982 “Asphalt in carbon-14-dated archaeological samples from Terqa, Syria,”
Nature 295 (no. 5849), 517-519.
See full text
See abstract
     This paper defines the possible analysis of the role of asphalt in defining a precise radiocarbon (14C) dating.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  methodology

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Vico, Gianbattista
1744 Principj di scienza nuova d'intorno alla comune natura delle nazioni.
Napoli.
See full text
See abstract
     Known as Scienza nuova terza, this is the third and final edition of Vico's work (the first edition goes back to 1725). It marked a milestone not only for historiography, but also for archeological theory. It deals on the one hand with the philosophical issue of epistemology, establishing the fundamental unity of factuality and meaning; on the other, with the methodology through which we can critically evaluate the most distant past.
[gB – December 2005] 		  cited
history
philosophy

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Vidale et al, Massimo

2015 “De-constructing Terracotta Female Figurines: A Chalcolithic Case-study”
Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica- Natural Sciences in Archaeology 6, 7-18.
See full text
See abstract
      To be written
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Vila, Emmanuelle, Philippe Abrahami, Moussab Albesso, Agraw Amane,
Camille Bader, Rémi Berthon, Sofiane Bouzid, Daniel Bradley,
Catherine Breniquet, Jwana Chahoud, Thomas Cucchi, Hossein Davoudi,
Bea de Cupere, Gilles Escarguel, Oscar Estrada, Lionel Gourichon,
Daniel Helmer, Wei Huangfu, Joséphine Lesur, Marjan Mashkour,
Cécile Michel, Azadeh Mohaseb, Ludovic Orlando, François Pompanon,
Jacqueline Studer and Manon Vuillien
2021 “EVOSHEEP: the makeup of sheep breeds in the ancient Near East,”
Antiquity 95 (379), pp. 1-8 (= e2).
See full text
Other PDF version
     “The EVOSHEEP project combines archaeozoology, geometric morphometrics and genetics to study archaeological sheep assemblages dating from the sixth to the first millennia BC in eastern Africa, the Levant, the Anatolian South Caucasus, the Iranian Plateau and Mesopotamia. The project aims to understand changes in the physical appearance and phenotypic characteristics of sheep and how these related to the appearance of new breeds and the demand for secondary products to supply the textile industry” (Authors' abstract).
     [On p. 4 of this paper (fig. 3), the authors present the drawing of a seal (q2) from Urkesh/Tell Mozan portraying (bottom right) a ram with coated horns and woolly coat.]
[mDP – April 2022] 		 Uqnitum: seal q2
glyptics: Uqnitum
quotes 1

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Wäfler, Markus
2001 Tall al-Ḥamīdīya 3.
Zur historischen Geographie von Idamaraṣ zur Zeit der Archive von Mari(2) und Šubat-enlil/Šeḫnā.
OBO, Series Archaeologica 21,
Freibourg, Göttingen: Academic Press, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
[mit Beiträgen von J. Brignoni und H. Paul].
See full text
See abstract
     In this publication, the author tries to reconstruct a historical geography of the land of Idamaraṣ, basing on documentation of the period of the archives of Mari and Šubat-enlil.
[mDP – November 2019] 		  history
geography

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Watson, W.G.E.
2010 “La lengua y la historia de los hurritas y de los urarteos: segunda bibliografia complementaria [Language and History of the Hurrians and Urartians Second Complementary Bibliography],”
Aula Orientalis 28 [ISSN: 0212-5730], pp. 93-119.
See full text
     “To supplement the two previous bibliographical bulletins, the first with the title 'The language and history of the Hurrians and Urartians', published in AuOr 22 (2004) 267-301 and the second 'The language and history of the Hurrians and Urartians: Supplementary bibliography', published in AuOr 25 (2007) 293-310, a classified list of additions is given here, followed by corrections” (Author's abstract on p. 93).
[mDP – March 2020] 		  Hurrians

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Weiss, Harley, Francesca deLillis, Dominique deMoulins, Jesper Eidem, Thomas Guilderson,
Ulla Kasten, Torben Larsen, Lucia Mori, Lauren Ristvet, Elena Rova and Wilma Wetterstrom
2002 “Revising the contours of history at Tell Leilan,”
Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes 45-46, pp. 59-74.
See full text
Other PDF version
     “Northern Mesopotamia's low grain yield costs and high land transport costs were fundamental forces behind early state growth in the fifth-fourth millennia BC [...]. That development, as well as the southern Mesopotamian Uruk colonization in northern Mesopotamia, was terminated by the 5.2 ka BP abrupt climate change that persisted for two centuries [...]. In its wake, northern Mesopotamia underwent the Ninevite 5 experience: four hundred years of reduced settlement size,limited political consolidation, and abridged contact with southern Mesopotamia [...]. In the Leilan IIId period, ca. 2600-2400 BC, at the end of the Ninevite 5 period, Leilan suddenly grew from village to city size, 90 hectares, and its politico-economic organization was transformed into a state apparatus [...]. The reasons for this secondary state development are still unclear, but seems to have occurred synchronously across northern Mesopotamia and induced, briefly, the emulation of southern Mesopotamian administrative iconography [...]” (Authors' abstract).
[mDP – March 2022] 		  TGL
royal palace
quotes 1, 2

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Wolf, Maryanne
2007 Proust and the Squid.
The Story and Science of the Reading Brain.
New York: Harper.
See full text (English)
See full text (Italian)
See abstract
     Primarily a biological and cognitive analysis of the process of reading (the title refers to the synergy between novelists and neuroscientists), the book deals at some length with the impact that the introduction of writing had on that process (pp. 24-50).
[gB – January 2009] 		  cited 1, 2
history
biology
neurology

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Wolkstein, Diane and Kramer, Samuel Noah

1983 “ Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer ”
New York: Harper and Row
See full text
See abstract
      To be written.
[yM – March 2026] 		  cited TFH

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Zettler, Richard L.
2003 "Reconstructing the World of Ancient Mesopotamia: Divided Beginnings and Holistic History",
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 46/1 (Excavating the Relations between Archaeology and History in the Study of Pre-Modern Asia [Part 2]), pp. 3-45.
See full text
Alternative online version [JSTOR]
     “Since its inception in the nineteenth century, ancient Mesopotamian studies has recognized a division of labor between archaeologists and philologists/historians that has often skewed histories of the 'land between the rivers.' Recent efforts, inspired in part by the Sumerologist Thorkild Jacobsen, offer hope for more holistic histories. Three case studies - on the Inanna temple at Nippur under the Third Dynasty of Ur, abrupt climate change in the late third millennium and its social impact as reconstructed from environmental proxy data and textual sources, and the Sumerian Agriculture Group's collaborative research on subsistence - typify efforts to integrate material culture and texts” (Author's abstract on p. 3).
     Urkesh/Tell Mozan is explicitly mentioned on p. 26, where the author takes this site as an example of continuity in occupation in the last third millennium BC: "For example, though the archaeological data have not been fully published, Tell Mozan, ancient Urkesh (Buccellati and Kelly-Buccellati 1996: 1), near Amuda to the east of Tell Leilan, continued to be occupied and was part of the Hurrian 'kingdom of Urkesh and Nawar' [...]. Southern references to Urkesh may record distributions in connection with a state visit of its ruler to the south in Amar-Suen year 3 [...]."
[mDP – August 2022] 		  quotes 1

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Zimansky, Paul E.
1993 A review article of Schmandt-Besserat 1992, Before Writing,
Journal of Field Archaeology 20/4 (Winter 1993), pp. 513-517.
See full text
Alternative online version [JSTOR]
     A serious critique, based on the statistical discrepancy between totals of attested tokens and economic importance of the correlative items, e.g., the token for “sheep” occurs only eight times.
[gB – December 2005] 		  cited

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NOTE
As for Giorgio Buccellati's publications, see in detail his personal webpage at this link.