The Urkesh Global Record Series

The series: an overview

Giorgio Buccellati – October 2024

Overview

The Urkesh Global Record Series includes a number of websites articulated in five major sections, as indicated graphically in the logo to the right:

the section on methodology has a broad application beyond any given site;
three thematic sections give the interpretive framework for the site as a whole and for the major categories of finds, and
the units constitute the documentary building blocks of the Urkesh data system as a whole.

There is currently a total of 66 websites or digital books in the series, of which 20 are in an advanced state of elaboration. They are listed in the section giving all the websites in the series.

The UGR system

The system’s websites are tightly interrelated with each other, and it is in this sense that they constitute properly a system, and not just a collection of data.

The order in which they are presented in the logo shown above reflects the logic of how the websites can be read – as different from the sequence with which they are written (see in the UGR website).

“Reading” the system implies that there is a wholeness which undergirds the pieces, and the sequence evidenced by the numbers indicates how this wholeness is structured. Re-educating ourselves to the need of “reading” websites is a major methodological aim of our project, and the UGR cluster is a prime example of how this happens. It is an effective implementation of the interplanarity concept

The Cybernetica Mesopotamica system

The UGR system is part of a larger project, named Cybernetica Mesopotamica, which deals with other aspects of Mesopotamian civilization.
Two websites within this system are particularly revlevant for the UGR.

The first is the one entitled Digital Discourse: it develops at length the theoretical basis for an in depth systemic understanding of how websites should be used as conveyors of a special interplanar strucuring of arguments – of which the UGR is a prime example.

The second is the Critique of Archaeological Reason website, which gives an extensive bibliographical coverage of the theory behind the system.

Methodology

     The development of the methodology followed step by step the implementation of the system.
     In one sense it preceded the implementation as set in motion by all the other websites, since method determined not only their structure and organization, but also, and especially, their approach to the data – it was, we may say, the underlying philosophy.
     On the other hand, it followed, in the measure in which it became more clearly articulated as the implementation suggested revisions and changes.
     The UGR website (which you are reading at the moment) defines the broad outline of the system, while the Grammar and the Manual websites narrow down the specifics of the coding used especially in the Units websites.

Thematic websites

Three types of thematic websites (for a total of 12) introduce the reader to the overall results of the excavations.

Mozan general
Typologically defined areas
Movable items and structural elements divided by topics

1. Site overall

     The site as a whole is what confronts us before any excavation takes place, and it remains the critical focal point of interest throughout the excavations.
     The Mozan sitewide digital book serves as the overall point of reference for this holistic understanding of the archaeological site: while urkesh.org, as the hub website of the system, serves as a broad introduction to the project, the Mozan Sitewide digital book gives the full technical framework within which the details are to be seen.
     Other digital books in this section deal with specific aspects of the work that impact the very physiognomy of the "tell" and straddle across all excavation units. The first ones to be completed are the one on the conservation of the built environment, and the electronic Library website.

2. Areas

     The built environment of the ancient city comes to light gradually, as the excavations progress, and we can distinguish two types of structural complexes.
     The first includes complex structures, consisting of either a single building, such as the Tupiksh Palace in area A, or more buildings, as with the sacral area adjacent to the Palace which includes the abi.
     The second includes open spaces defined by the structures and access routes, such as the Temple Plaza facing the Terrace edge (image to the right).

3. Topical: Movable Finds

Classes of movable and stationary finds are organizaed topically into distinct websites that serve a double purpose.

They provide a full treatment of the categ-orization system used in describing the items in any given class.
They give a synthetic presentation of the entire corpus analyzed, with a variety of tabulations and statistical overviews.

The Ceramics corpus (shown on the right) is the first of these topical digital books, and serves as a model for the others, each having special sets of programs for the analysis of the data.
Several more are in preparation relating to glyptics, choroplastic, metal objects and burial analysis.

Excavation Units

     Excavation units (currently 16 in numbre) are the building blocks of the documentation system: they contain the primary information and all other digital books refer to them.
     While in a reading mode they come last, in a writing mode they are first.
     Each unit book presents both the analytical data base and the synthetic interpretation of all the finds and all observations made. Each unit is a self-contained entity, even though it does not, in principle, have any typological identity: it is in fact defined only by volumetric and topographical criteria.
     In a separate page one will find a complete list of all the excavation units for which a website has been completed or is in the works, and also for those to be done in the future.