The Ur III-Old Babylonian transition: An archaeological perspective

Iraq ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 79-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth C. Stone
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Ur Iii ◽  
Early Dynastic ◽  
Old Babylonian ◽  
City States ◽  
A Site ◽  
Archaeological Perspective

Mesopotamian history tends to be phrased in terms of stages: Early Dynastic city-states replaced by imperial Akkad, bureaucratic Ur III replaced by the more individualistic Isin-Larsa and Old Babylonian periods thanks to the influence of the Amorites, etc. Lost in this process is a sense of the longue durée of Mesopotamian civilization, the basic and largely unchanging aspects of its society, economy and politics. In this paper I will explore one of these transitions, that between Ur III and Isin-Larsa/Old Babylonian times, by examining the nexus between the cuneiform and archaeological records.My aim is to explore the circumstances that resulted in the unearthing of the textual record upon which our understanding of the Ur III and Old Babylonian periods is based. Where did these tablets come from and what were the circumstances that both led to their preservation and allowed them to be recovered so that we could read them? To answer these questions, it will be necessary to look at the interconnections between the survey data, excavated data and the written record.The broad sweep of settlement and abandonment provided by the survey data collected and analysed by Adams and his students and colleagues (Adams 1965, 1972, 1981, Adams and Nissen 1972, Gibson 1972, Wright 1981) has a direct impact on our understanding of the archaeological contexts of the cuneiform texts. Sites are subject to forces of erosion so that periods of abandonment — even if temporary relative to Mesopotamia's four-thousand-year history — still selectively remove parts of the archaeological record. Since all texts derive from archaeological contexts they are by no means immune. Indeed unbaked clay tablets are some of the most fragile of the artifacts recovered from Mesopotamian sites, only surviving to the present when buried rapidly at the outset and remaining so until uncovered by the spade of the archaeologist or, more often unfortunately, the looter. Then there is also the issue of accessibility. In most instances both archaeologists and looters dig from the top of a site down, and generally not that far down. Thus most of our data, both archaeological and textual, derive from those levels closest to the exposed surfaces of archaeological sites.

AN APPRAISAL OF REGIONAL SURVEYS IN THE BASIN OF MEXICO, 1960–1975

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey R. Parsons
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Future Study ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Subsequent Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Basin Of Mexico ◽  
Modern Development ◽  
Site Survey

AbstractIn this paper I focus on the regional surveys undertaken in 1960–1975—their development, implementation, key accomplishments, and major shortcomings. I also point to how resulting survey data and surface collections have provided the foundations for subsequent research on a variety of specific problems, sites, and locales, and how complementary historical and ethnographical studies have contributed to interpretations of pre-Columbian settlement patterns. I consider how off-site survey can, and should, complement the more extensive regional surveys that have been carried out in the past. While lamenting the archaeological record lost to modern development, in a more positive vein I suggest lines of productive future investigation that might still be undertaken to extend the significance of past results, evaluate a series of questions and hypotheses defined by the surveys, and help conserve archaeological sites and collections for future study.

scholarly journals The excavation of three archaeological sites on Moreton Island: First Ridge and the Little Sandhills

1984 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 51-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Robins
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Disturbed Condition ◽  
Site Type ◽  
Basic Characteristics ◽  
A Site ◽  
Southeast Queensland

The three sites reported herein were excavated in 1980 as part of more detailed examination of sites found during an archaeological survey of Moreton Island in 1979 (Robins 1983, also this volume). Two of them are at First Ridge on the northeastern side and the other is located in the Little Sandhills in the southwestern coast. They were excavated for three reasons. First, as they were originally identified as small piles of shell, a site type not previously recorded in coastal southeast Queensland, I wished to demonstrate that small scale excavation should, in certain circumstances, be incorporated into site surveys undertaken to identify and describe the basic characteristics of the archaeological record. Third, I wanted to illustrate the fact that sites which are often rated low in archaeological significance due to their small size, lack of stratigraphy, disturbed condition, etc., may often be of considerable value.

Loom weights in Archaic South Italy and Sicily: Fice case studies

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 123-155
Author(s):  
Hedvig Landenius Enegren
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Experimental Archaeology ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Site Specificity ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
South Italy ◽  
Local Traditions ◽  
Tool Technology

Textiles are perishables in the archaeological record unless specific environmental conditions are met. Fortunately, the textile tools used in their manufacture can provide a wealth of information and via experimental archaeology make visible to an extent what has been lost. The article presents and discusses the results obtained in a research project focused on textile tool technologies and identities in the context of settler and indigenous peoples, at select archaeological sites in South Italy and Sicily in the Archaic and Early Classical periods, with an emphasis on loom weights. Despite a common functional tool technology, the examined loom weights reveal an intriguing inter-site specificity, which, it is argued, is the result of hybrid expressions embedded in local traditions. Experimental archaeology testing is applied in the interpretation of the functional qualities of this common artefact.

scholarly journals Predicting wildfire impacts on the prehistoric archaeological record of the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, USA

Fire Ecology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan M. Friggens ◽  
Rachel A. Loehman ◽  
Connie I. Constan ◽  
Rebekah R. Kneifel
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Jemez Mountains ◽  
Archaeological Materials

Abstract Background Wildfires of uncharacteristic severity, a consequence of climate changes and accumulated fuels, can cause amplified or novel impacts to archaeological resources. The archaeological record includes physical features associated with human activity; these exist within ecological landscapes and provide a unique long-term perspective on human–environment interactions. The potential for fire-caused damage to archaeological materials is of major concern because these resources are irreplaceable and non-renewable, have social or religious significance for living peoples, and are protected by an extensive body of legislation. Although previous studies have modeled ecological burn severity as a function of environmental setting and climate, the fidelity of these variables as predictors of archaeological fire effects has not been evaluated. This study, focused on prehistoric archaeological sites in a fire-prone and archaeologically rich landscape in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico, USA, identified the environmental and climate variables that best predict observed fire severity and fire effects to archaeological features and artifacts. Results Machine learning models (Random Forest) indicate that topography and variables related to pre-fire weather and fuel condition are important predictors of fire effects and severity at archaeological sites. Fire effects were more likely to be present when fire-season weather was warmer and drier than average and within sites located in sloped, treed settings. Topographic predictors were highly important for distinguishing unburned, moderate, and high site burn severity as classified in post-fire archaeological assessments. High-severity impacts were more likely at archaeological sites with southern orientation or on warmer, steeper, slopes with less accumulated surface moisture, likely associated with lower fuel moistures and high potential for spreading fire. Conclusions Models for predicting where and when fires may negatively affect the archaeological record can be used to prioritize fuel treatments, inform fire management plans, and guide post-fire rehabilitation efforts, thus aiding in cultural resource preservation.

Flake Dispersal Experiments: Noncultural Transformation of the Archaeological Record

1983 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 553-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Bowers ◽  
Robson Bonnichsen ◽  
David M. Hoch
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Time Lapse ◽  
Primary Factor ◽  
Frost Heave ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Alaska Range ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Present Test

Time lapse studies of frost action effects on arctic and subarctic surficial archaeological sites have been conducted from 1973 to the present. Test plots of experimentally produced flakes were constructed in 1973 in the Tangle Lakes Region of the Central Alaska Range and subsequently remapped and photographed in 1974, 1976, and 1980. Similar test plots were laid out in the arctic foothills province of the Brooks Range. Observations made during the study period include: (1) flake displacements of as much as 20 cm/yr; (2) average minimum movement is 4 cm/yr; and (3) upslope movements were observed, suggesting that slope is not the primary factor in flake displacements. Frost heave, needle ice and, possibly, wind appear to be the dominant forces responsible for dispersals. It is argued that these and other natural processes can restructure the archaeological record into patterns that easily can be mistaken for those produced by human activity.

Analogism at Chavín de Huántar

2019 ◽  
pp. 79-98
Author(s):  
Nicco La Mattina
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Core Beliefs ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
The Core ◽  
Chavin De Huantar ◽  
Chavín De Huántar ◽  
A Site ◽  
Material Record

Approaches to understanding the core beliefs and worldviews of ancient peoples are not superficially facilitated by the archaeological record. Sometimes, pre-Columbian people are described by analogy to presumably similar contemporary people; that is, a theoretical framework applicable to certain modern peoples is applied a priori in the investigation of a site. This chapter argues that at Chavín de Huántar, interpretations centred around animism and shamanism employ these concepts a priori as ways of understanding the material record. Many of the references to shamanism make specific analogies to Amazonian practices and import these ideas to Chavín de Huántar. Furthermore, the chapter authors argue that, if the iconographic and material record at Chavín de Huánta are carefully evaluated, interpretations centred around animism and shamanism will not follow. The authors demonstrate that the analogist ontology formulated by Descola finds a firmer grounding in the iconographic and material record when these are considered together.

Mortuary practices, problems, and analysis

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Harding
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Community Group ◽  
Archaeological Investigation ◽  
Final Disposal ◽  
The Dead ◽  
A Site

Archaeological investigation is sometimes likened to opening a window on to the past. The problem is that, except in cases of unexpected and sudden disaster, for example where a shipwreck has been preserved untouched or a town was engulfed by volcanic ash, the archaeologist never examines a site as it was in its living heyday, only as it was after it had been abandoned, leaving only what survives of what its occupants chose to leave behind. Burials likewise represent only what communities chose to deposit for whatever reason, modified by taphonomic factors that determine the state of surviving evidence. Other ephemeral forms of disposal, and any elaborate or protracted rituals that preceded the final act of deposition that did not involve substantive structures, will pass unremarked in the archaeological record. It has been suggested in Chapter 1 that human remains may have been buried either in a dedicated cemetery where the dead were segregated or confined, perhaps in the equivalent of consecrated ground, or integrated within the environs of settlements, whether as complete or near-complete bodies or as fragmented parts or individual bones. A third option, of course, and one which would certainly contribute to the difficulty of tracing a regular burial rite archaeologically, would be segregated burial on an individual basis rather than in a community group, however small or selective. The concept of a cemetery assumes a degree of social cohesion in Iron Age practice which may not have been universal. An obvious question must be why should there have been these alternatives, and what might have governed the decision as to which alternative should be adopted? Ethnographic analogies suggest that the spirits of the dead could have been regarded as malevolent, more especially during the interim phase between death and completion of decomposition. So it might make sense to consign the dead directly to a dedicated cemetery that was detached from the settlement, or to confine them initially within a secure location, such as a hillfort, for excarnation or interim burial, before final disposal.

The Early Dynastic Near East

2020 ◽  
pp. 531-611
Author(s):  
Vitali Bartash
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Long Range ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Near East ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
Early Dynastic ◽  
The Creation ◽  
City States ◽  
The Way

The Middle East in the Early Dynastic period (ca. 2900–2300 BC) was characterized by the competition of local city states for hegemony. Combined with long-range military and diplomatic relationships, this led to the creation of the first, if short-lived, larger polities in Mesopotamia and Syria, which paved the way for the emergence of the Akkad state. Cuneiform archives of temples and palaces document a gradual concentration of land, power, and wealth in the hands of an elite that included the royal family and the members of the palace and temple administration, resulting in increasing social stratification and deepening inequality in the context of surplus economy, unprecedented urbanization, and endemic war.

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